Posted on Wednesday, September 13, 2023

How to Handle Tension at Church

by Josh Reich

Photo by Tim Goedhart on Unsplash

You will have a season of tension or crisis at some point in your leadership or church life.

This might happen because of something you do, a decision, or a change you lead. It might happen because of what is happening outside the church in the culture, politics, or within the local school system. The tension may come from a staff transition or sin within the leadership that affects everyone. The tension may come from disagreements between the staff and leadership over a decision. Everyone is taking sides, sending texts and emails and posting on social media about which side they are taking up.

You walk through the corridors of your church, and you can feel it. Everyone can.

You stand on stage and feel the daggers coming at you, and you struggle to preach to your people and to lead them lovingly.

What do you do in those seasons? How do you lead, keep your integrity, and hold the unity of your church?

How to lead through a season of tension at your church.

Protect your heart (and that of your spouse and kids). As losses pile up in leadership, it is hard to protect your heart. It is easy to see people as the enemy instead of the devil. But the people around you, especially those upset with you or “taking the other side,” are not the enemy. They might make you into the enemy, but don’t let that creep into your heart.

This becomes even harder to do with your spouse and kids. They will feel for you and want to protect you; people might be talking to them to get to you, or they may hear what is being said about you. This places them in particularly difficult crosshairs.

You must know how you talk about the tension and the people involved. It will be easy to unload on your spouse and kids to share things you shouldn’t share with them, especially if you feel alone. Be aware of what you share. Yes, you need someone to share this with, walk with you, and point out your sins and blindspots, but you also need to be aware of how you speak of others.

Years ago, in a counseling class I took in seminary, the professor made this comment that has always stuck with me: When a relationship is out of control in someone’s life (boss, spouse, child, parent, etc.), or something else is out of their control that is a big part of their life (job, finances, health), they will take their anger, stress and anxiety out on the next closest authority figure and that tends to be the church and the pastor.

What is difficult to remember is that the anger and tension directed at you as the leader often has very little to do with you as the leader.

Whenever someone leaves a ministry I’m a part of, I try to meet with them to hear about their experience, what I can learn, etc. At that meeting, more than half tended to be about something else in their life that had nothing to do with me or the church. That doesn’t mean they aren’t upset, but this comment has proven to be true in my life for over 15 years.

What if your church is filled with tension?

Prepare yourself and those around you for losses. While I would love everyone to love every change I ever made as a pastor, that just isn’t possible. Change is different. Change means loss. Change means that what you used to be no longer exists.

When changes are made, when decisions are made, losses happen. When you cut a program or ministry and let a staff member go (for whatever reason), people will be upset and leave. People will direct their anger at you. That is part of being a leader, so you must be prepared.

What is hard about leading is the relational loss that happens. The people you thought would be excited for the change were those who used to be there but weren’t. The people who got tired from transition fatigue (which is real) went to another church. These losses will stack up for you and those around you. Your staff and elders will feel it. I remember an elder saying to me once, “I’m just not sure I can do another transition.” Not because he didn’t believe in the change or what we were doing, but simply on a human level.

Your spouse and kids will feel these losses in acute ways. They will wonder why that person is no longer there, why their friends don’t attend church anymore, or why they won’t talk to them because of a change you, their parents, made. And that will be hard for your child to understand and for you to navigate. So prepare yourself.

Keep your integrity. You will be tempted to treat people the way they are treating you. Remember, they are acting out of hurt and anger. It is okay to be angry, but don’t sin.

Keep your integrity. Don’t fall into sin.

This means you must figure out how to handle your hurt and emotions. You will need someone to talk with who can listen, be supportive, point out blind spots, etc.

Just because someone lies to or about you doesn’t mean you should return the favor, just because you are treated horribly by people doesn’t give you a reason to do that.

Just because someone lies about you or to you, doesn’t mean you should return the favor.

Yes, people will lie to you and about you. People will act immaturely. The people who will treat you the worst will surprise you. So be prepared for that.

Walk through the lobby with your head held high. As a leader, making decisions people don’t like creates tension in your church; people are watching how you will respond and what you will do and say. You will feel their stares and see people whispering to each other in the corner while stealing glances at you.

You will want to walk over and talk to them; you will feel embarrassment, hurt, and frustration as you walk through your church. This is all natural. But walk through your church and hold your head high. They are not your enemies but the people you are called to lead and shepherd. You must stay true to what God has called you to, even if everyone doesn’t understand or go with you.

How to pastor a church in tension.

Say what needs to be said publicly and nothing more. You will be tempted to preach a sermon series on what is happening, to pulpit shame people, but don’t. This is hard, especially if you are justice-minded and like to win. For one, the sermon isn’t for that; the sermon is for good news and hope. Two, the people you want to preach at or to aren’t listening, damaging your church and your integrity.

You don’t need to speak to everything publicly; you don’t need to refute every rumor or lie. You need to speak to some things, but for most things, you need to let go. It will fizzle out. Eventually, the people who are upset will leave, and you will be able to move forward to what is next.

5 ways to lead through difficult seasons at your church.

Seasons of difficulty and tension are unavoidable in leadership. They will happen. There can be times when you grow as a leader and take your church to new places. But, they can also be seasons that take many leaders off course or out of the leadership game if you aren’t careful.

Navigate them wisely so that you can lead not only in the season of tension but in the one that comes after (which will hopefully be a season of health and unity).

Posted on Tuesday, September 5, 2023

7 Common Hiring Mistakes Churches Make

by Josh Reich

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

Hiring is more art than science. That’s what one mentor told me years ago.

Is it?

It depends on who you ask.

At some point, you will walk through a hiring process as you look for a new employee or volunteer (if you work at a church or non-profit). Many pastors have no idea what they are doing regarding hiring.

And make no mistake, a bad hire can cost you, personally and as a church.

How much?

Some estimates range from 30% of the person’s salary to one that says it can cost $240,000. After one bad hire, I went back and calculated as best as possible and found that it cost (just my estimate) over $200,000. That was simply a financial look.

Once you throw in the time and emotional energy that you, the employee, or anyone who helped train them or dealt with them in the meetings that led to them leaving and then throw in the loss of momentum at your church and the loss of trust people have in you, and the loss of people leaving your church.

The cost is enormous.

And while there is no foolproof plan when it comes to hiring, there are some things pastors and churches can do to raise the likelihood of success.

Here are 7 hiring mistakes churches and pastors make:

7 common hiring mistakes churches make

Talk themselves into a hire. This isn’t just a church issue but one across the board in hiring.

But churches are notorious for talking themselves into hire for many of the reasons listed below. While there is a leadership mantra of “Hire slowly, fire quickly.” Churches tend to “hire quickly and fire slowly.” Is one right or wrong? No. Is one more “Christlike?” No.

Almost every frustration I’ve ever had with an employee was something I saw in the interview process and chose to overlook. Now, that doesn’t mean you are looking for a perfect hire or that your team won’t frustrate you (or that you won’t frustrate your team). But it does mean that you need to pay attention to those things.

Just like you can’t get everything you want in a job, you will also only get some of what you want in a hire. So, you must be clear about what you need versus what you want.

Assume culture and theological fit. It is easy to assume agreement on church culture and theological fit. Churches hear a candidate talk about a certain church or stream and think, “They fit us.” Or, if the candidate is a fan of ____ podcast, they must fit our church.

But not always.

The other aspect comes into play when you think about the layers of theology. If you are a charismatic church, how open does a candidate need to be to the gifts of the spirit to fit you? If you are a cautious but open church, how much is too much for you theologically in this area?

You cannot assume fit and match simply because you want to.

This means that you need to articulate your church culture clearly, what you do and don’t do, what it takes to be successful at your church, and what your goal as a church is. You must also know your closed-handed and open-handed theological stances to find someone who fits you.

Be clear about your church culture and what it looks like to fit in your culture.

Context mismatch. Every church is in a specific context and culture, and that context and culture determines the kind of staff you are looking for. Not everyone fits in a suburban, rural, or urban context. If your church is in one of those, you need to know who would fit best with you.

The same goes for the region of the country. Even if someone is a good fit in Texas, will they still be a good fit in Seattle and vice versa. There are many differences between Arizona and New England.

When we started a recent hiring process, I talked to someone who has been a part of hiring for 30+ years in New England, and he told me, “The most successful people here have lived in New England, have a family connection to New England or is from the pacific northwest or Minneapolis.” He said, “Almost everyone else struggles to fit here and understand the culture.”

The same was true in Arizona. Many church planters from the southeast struggled to understand and reach the culture.

Now, this isn’t a hard and fast rule, but churches often overlook the context in which they live. This is because they live in the water and don’t see it. It is just normal to them.

Just because someone is effective in one context doesn’t mean they will be effective in yours.

Ask questions about your context. Does the person understand what it means to live and work in your context? Do they understand the history and what determines the culture of your people?

Hire quickly because you’re desperate. This isn’t just something churches do but are guilty of. Each time I have made this mistake, I have paid dearly for it.

A few things might happen: you suddenly lose a leader, your ministry grows, and you need someone to jump in. No leader is better than the wrong leader.

But just because you need someone doesn’t mean you should hire just anyone.

Just because you need someone doesn’t mean you should hire just anyone.

Take time, check their references, and ask questions about their character and abilities. Listen to any checks in your gut or pushback those on the interview team give. Everyone sounds amazing in their interviews and on their questionnaires, but are they being truthful about their experiences and abilities?

One practice a mentor told me that has proved helpful is when you are narrowing in on a candidate for a job, have a meeting all about why you wouldn’t hire that person. Take the other side.

It is easy to talk yourself into hiring someone, but taking a step back to ensure you get all the information is helpful.

Write a job description for someone instead of what you need or want. Too often, churches write a job description to fit someone instead of doing the work to determine what they need or want.

What will often happen is you have a volunteer who is there and doing a great job. So, you offer them the job. But what makes someone a great volunteer might make them a mediocre staff member.

What churches do, though, is they want someone who is a visionary leader, a great counselor, a great teacher, and a great manager with some administrative gifts. That person does not exist. You can get one or two of those things, so you must decide. This can be hard to discern, but you need to decide upfront what you are looking for to find it.

Hire for the season you’re in instead of the one you’re going into. What season are you in as a church? What season are you going into? Do you need a builder, a maintainer, or someone to turn the ship around in an area or ministry? The answer to these questions determines what kind of person you hire.

And make no mistake, one size does not fit all.

Many churches now find themselves in a place where it takes a lot of energy to do ministry, more than in 2019, and many of the people in ministry don’t have that kind of energy. So what do you do? This is where it is important to know where you are in the life cycle of your church.

Make a hire based on feeling instead of data. This is a very common one for churches because we make it spiritual. We hear someone say, “God called me here.” Or “This feels right to me.” While those are important, you need to test that out.

The best thing you can do is determine at the beginning what kind of data would make someone effective in this role: how much experience in leading teams, teaching, worship leading, making graphics, etc. do they need to have? In 12 – 24 months, what will make this person successful or unsuccessful? Then, find data to support candidates and ask questions about these things. If there is one thing I wish churches would change in their hiring processes, this would be it. This one switch has made all the difference for me.

Lastly, throughout the process, keep pulling up what you say you want and ask, “Is this the person?” The person you are interviewing might be the best candidate out of everyone you interview, but that doesn’t mean they are who you want.

7 hiring mistakes churches and pastors make.

Will this guarantee you find the right person? No.

But doing these things will increase the chances that you will find the person you need for the next season of ministry.

Posted on Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Four Challenges to Leading Change

by Josh Reich

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Changing anything is a challenge.

Whether in your personal life, finances, marriage, work, or church. The reason isn’t that people hate change, even though that is what everyone thinks. On the contrary, as Ronald Heifetz says, “What people resist is not change per se, but loss. When change involves real or potential loss, people hold on to what they have and resist the change.”

What people resist is not change per se, but loss. When change involves real or potential loss, people hold on to what they have and resist the change. -Ronald Heifetz

But when you lead change in a church, the challenges you are facing are obvious and not so obvious.

The first challenge is authority and influence. You can only accomplish something with authority and influence. When they begin to make changes, many pastors think they have authority and influence but may not have what they need.

This is important because you will need authority and influence to change anything. If you are new to your role or church, you must determine who has the most authority and influence. For my first two years at CCC, I only made changes by getting crucial people on board first because they had the relational equity I needed. According to the org chart, I have the authority to do things but need more influence to see them through.

How do you know who has authority and influence? Listen to whose name comes up often. Who do people seek out for advice and input? When you bring up ideas, does anyone say, “I wonder what _______ thinks?” As you sit in meetings, see who sways the room and who people wait to hear from. The person with the most authority and influence in a church is rarely the person with the title but who has built the relational capital over the years. This person can make or break change.

Do you have the authority and the influence to make the changes you want to make?

The second challenge is tradition and how things have been done. Countless leaders can tell stories of new ideas that died on the vine of “That’s not how we do things around here.” Or, “We’ve never done it that way here.”

This doesn’t mean you don’t try something or do something, but you need to know what has been done and what hasn’t been done in the past. It is particularly important to know what has been attempted and has failed in the past at a church. Those have important lessons for you as you lead.

When you seek to change traditions or how things have been, you must do some groundwork to understand why something began and how effective that thing is, and also understand the sweat equity people have in a ministry or program.

To understand tradition, you need to look at who is involved, who has a passion for that ministry, and how much budget it receives. When you ask questions about a ministry or a way of doing something, listen to how people respond. When you ask why things began or have changed over the years, listen to any indication of people trying to change or take away a ministry or way of doing things.

Does this mean you should always keep something that falls into this category? No. But it does require care and influence, which will take time.

The third challenge is cultural. If you are new to the city your church is in, this is one of the hardest challenges. You don’t know what you don’t know about culture. I grew up in Pennsylvania, similar to New England but also different. Each state in New England has its flavor and way of doing things, which impacts how the church is done. The same is true in other parts of the country. And while some places are more transient, which lends itself to less tradition, there is still a culture there.

There is also church culture that you have to navigate. That culture has been built from Day 1 (even before) of your church. Was your church started as a plant or a split? What families built the church? How much power do they have? How has the conflict been handled over the years? How many transitions have there been in your church? Has your church experienced growth or decline in recent years? These things fit into the culture and “how things are done around here.”

Culture is simply what people do without being told. Culture can be shaped and changed, but that is a very intentional process that is a different blog post.

Culture is simply what people do without being told.

For now, you must become a student of your culture. Over the last two years, I sought out staff members and leaders who have left our church to find out what happened and looked for commonalities (which there are). That’s culture. Watch how things get handled, how decisions are made, and how things happen. That’s culture.

Make no mistake; culture can work for or against you, so you must know how it plays out.

The fourth challenge is memory. This one is the least obvious because it is so personal.

Every person in your church has memories of your church, for good or bad. They can tell you stories of the church at its peak, when the building was full, when this program or that began, and the excitement of it.

Many pastors find themselves working against the memories of the past. Those memories are real but only sometimes accurate. While you will hear stories of how full the building was for that program, you will hear from someone else about how that program burned them out or made a different part of the church challenging. Memories and stories are personality and people-specific. They are also never as great or bad as people remember them. So, ask for stories, listen for commonalities, and talk to as many people as possible inside and outside the church to get as many details as possible.

These stories will help you as you lead change because they help you understand your church’s story and your people’s experiences.

When you arrive as a new pastor, you will feel the pressure of living up to people’s memories. This is hard, especially after COVID-19, because the reality is that those memories won’t easily be replicated.

The memories people carry from your church’s past are incredibly powerful and shape how they experience your current church.

Is leading change difficult? Yes.

Is leading change impossible? No.

It will require a certain kind of leadership.

To begin, lay out what will change and won’t change. This can begin just in your mind. Share it with trusted leaders, get feedback and help.

A simple first step is laying out your top 3 priorities as you move forward. These are things that are ripe for change. Not everything is ripe for change.

How do you know?

Here’s a simple question: If you don’t change anything about ____, will it matter in two years?

If you don’t change anything about ____, will it matter in two years?

Not everything is worth changing now or maybe ever. This question will help you know where to begin, what to work on, and what to fight for.

Posted on Monday, June 5, 2023

Ripe for Change

by Josh Reich

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

When I started at CCC, I read as many books on transitions and leading change as possible. One of the things they talked about is how new leaders will want to make changes, maybe even a lot of changes, but you need to know when to make those changes.

One of the key tasks for any leader, especially a brand-new leader, is figuring out what to change and when to make that change.

Leaders make changes. Leaders see things before others and the things that need to change or shift to get somewhere. The issue isn’t seeing what needs to change but knowing when to make that change.

So how do you know when to make a change? When something is “ripe for change.”

In one of my favorite leadership books, Leadership on the Line, Ronald Heifetz says:

What determines when or whether an issue becomes ripe? How does it take on a generalized urgency shared by not just one but many factions within the community? Although there are many factors, we have identified four key questions; What other concerns occupy the people who need to be engaged? How deeply are people affected by the problem? How much do people need to learn? And what are the senior authority figures saying about the issue?

What other concerns occupy the people who need to be engaged? Leaders, like all people, have blinders and only see certain things. It is important to get different perspectives on changes because the thing you want to change or think is the next thing may not be the biggest thing your people are thinking about or seeing.

You can cut your legs off if you make the wrong change.

When I came, I listened to what people were talking about and what they said about hopes for the future. I also interviewed and surveyed over 50 people in our church, so I could get an idea of what the people of our church were thinking about and seeing.

That doesn’t mean they are right, but what you see as a leader also doesn’t make you right.

For a new pastor, this could be about starting a new ministry, remodeling the building, updating the parking lot, or changing the music style.

I asked each church I interviewed, “If all of your prayers for this church got answered, what would this church look like?” This question is a great way to understand what the people in a church are seeing and thinking about.

How deeply are people affected by the problem? One thing pastors and leaders do too often is change things or die on hills that aren’t that big of a deal.

One thing pastors and leaders do too often is change things or die on hills that aren’t that big of a deal.

We do that because we are passionate about it, think it’s a great idea, or saw something at a conference that we “just have to do.” I’ve reviewed changes I made in Tucson, or things I thought were a big deal, and shook my head. Most things in the church are not worth dying on. So choose wisely the things that you change.

The best thing to change is the pain points most people see or feel.

One question that I have used since moving to New England is to ask, “If I don’t do anything about this, will it matter in two years?”

One question to ask about making changes: If I don’t do anything about this, will it matter in two years?

This question has slowed me down to ask if it matters. Some things need to be changed immediately; if you don’t do something, it might be fatal to your church. By asking this question, it also helps put me in the future of what matters.

How much do people need to learn? Pastors and leaders are notorious for making a change without educating anyone on the change or the reason for the change. And then, we get angry with our people for “not being on board.”

Pastors, remember that whatever change you are making or considering, you have been thinking about, researching, and getting excited about for months or years. Your people will also need time to fully embrace what you are doing.

So educate them. Share the resources you’ve used, the books you’ve read, or the podcasts you’ve listened to. Expose your people to the changes in your heart and mind that led to the change.

What do people need to know for you to make changes at your church?

And what are the senior authority figures saying about the issue? The people in your church with formal and informal authority, what do they say? Are they on board? Do they see what you see?

Leaders who skip this part will do so at their peril.

When you make a change, especially as a new leader, people with complaints won’t come to you. They will go to those with authority and influence, the ones who have been at the church longer than you have. You need to have them on board so they can help answer questions and run interference for you in a change.

4 questions to ask as you lead change.

Posted on Monday, May 15, 2023

What I Didn’t Know About Being a Lead Pastor

by Josh Reich

Photo by Memento Media on Unsplash

I recently talked with some newer pastors who want to be lead pastors but aren’t yet. They asked, “What do you know now as a lead pastor that you didn’t know in your 20s?”

I have had a unique opportunity over the last few years.

What I didn’t know about being a lead pastor.

I planted a church in 2008 when I was 28 years old, and then, in 2019, I became the teaching pastor at a church for two years (where I wasn’t the lead pastor but sat on the exec team) and then became a lead pastor again in 2021.

You only know what goes into a seat once you sit there. Just like, if you aren’t a teacher, doctor, or electrician, it is hard to know what it is like to sit in those seats. We might think we know, but we only have ideas about it.

Before I became lead pastor, I underestimated all the things the lead pastors I worked for had to deal with, all the shots they took, and this is a big one, all the protection they gave to me and my ideas.

If you aren’t the lead pastor, it is easy to underestimate what your lead pastor does.

You think about stewardship differently. Money doesn’t factor into things as much when you aren’t a lead pastor. You aren’t responsible for the budget, payroll, or the building.

As a lead pastor, I know how much a meeting costs the church. Meaning, take how much you pay each person per hour who attends a meeting, and that’s how much a meeting costs. This idea has changed my thoughts about meetings, who is there, and how hours get spent at a church.

Before being a lead pastor, that wasn’t on my radar.

The other thing that changed related to money was the weight I felt for making sure we could pay people, knowing that families relied on the paycheck from the church. I never even thought about this when I wasn’t the lead pastor. I didn’t worry if our church could make payroll, but I have spent many nights worrying about that as a lead pastor.

6 things I didn’t know about being a lead pastor until I became one.

Decision making. Decisions are obvious when you aren’t the lead pastor. Decisions are obvious for everyone who isn’t the boss. Decisions are obvious if you attend a church. But decisions are obvious because you only see what you want to see or what you can see.

The reason decisions are obvious is that you only see what you want to see or what you can see.

When you are the lead pastor, you know more about the moving pieces of the whole church, the ministry season, the budget, etc., than anyone else on staff. You see more. This changes how you think about decisions and what to do.

You still need to get it right; you see decisions differently. When I wasn’t the lead pastor, I failed to see the dominos on the other side of a decision. I only saw the decision.

Expectations. You need to find out the expectations people have. Take your expectations and multiply that by how many people there are in your church, and now you know how many expectations are on a lead pastor (and their family).

Yes, people in the church have expectations for staff members too. But it is multiplied for a lead pastor, a weighty thing that is easy to miss if you aren’t the lead pastor.

When I wasn’t a lead pastor, I could see my lead pastors’ weaknesses and the areas I thought they needed to grow. I know my staff is well acquainted with my weaknesses. What I often needed to see, though, was the strengths that they brought to the table. The sad reality is we expect pastors to be great at everything. Don’t believe me; look at a job listing for a lead pastor. Now, search teams want a lead pastor with a Master’s or Ph.D., 10+ years experience in leading staff, and a great preacher, counselor, manager, and Bible scholar. The reality is no one is good at all of those things, but the expectations still exist.

Yes, there are expectations for every staff role in a church, but I’ve seen that they are different for a lead pastor. Throw in a lead pastor’s age and expect someone in their 30s to be more mature than they are and for someone in their 50s or 60s to try to stay hip!

The expectations on pastors are overwhelming and hard to manage.

Responsibility. There is a responsibility that a lead pastor carries that no one else has. The lead pastor is responsible for their role, leading the staff, preaching, teaching, etc. But they will stand before God for how they led and what happened in their church.

Focus. When you aren’t the lead pastor, you want the lead pastor to care about your ministry or passion as much as you do. But then, so does everyone else on staff and in the church.

I underestimated how easy it is for a church to get off focus and lose sight of its mission and what it should be about.

It is hard for a lead pastor to keep their focus because they have competing voices on their team and in the church, the latest book or conference idea, and the things they’d like to try, all while still leading in the mission and vision the church has.

Your lead pastor provides protection and freedom for you that you might not be aware of.

Protection and freedom. I have seen this more clearly as a lead and teaching pastor. A lead pastor will take shots for their team, protect them when complaints come in, and when elders (or an elder’s spouse) have questions about a staff member or a ministry, the lead pastor runs interference for that person or ministry. Some things land on a lead pastor’s desk about staff members that many staff members never hear of.

Their family. I never understood a pastor’s family experiences until I became a lead pastor. Yes, all pastor’s wives and kids experience life in the fishbowl and expectations from members, but it is different for a lead pastor’s family. Part of this plays out differently depending on church tradition, but every lead pastor’s family experiences things no one else does. I once had a worship pastor whose wife told me, “I don’t see myself as a pastor’s wife; my husband plays music.” That could never happen for a lead pastor. If the lead pastor’s wife isn’t at church, people notice. If the kids aren’t, people see.

6 lessons I learned as a lead pastor.

No lead pastor is perfect. None of them claim to be. But they do carry things that no one else in the church has. Their families experience things no one else in the church experiences.

So, give them some grace as they lead. You’ll want the same grace from others if you happen to become a lead pastor one day.

Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2023

When Everything Falls Apart at Church

by Josh Reich

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

If you’re a pastor, married to one, or in church leadership, you have probably experienced a Sunday morning where everything that could go wrong went wrong.

It might be technical difficulties, angry church members, a sick child (or being sick yourself), a volunteer canceling at the last minute, or maybe you woke up and didn’t feel like leading and preaching that day.

I’ve been in church ministry since I was 18, and these Sundays happen more often than I wish.

Recently, I had one of these Sundays. I slept horribly on Saturday night; I woke up not feeling great, my sermon seemed off and disconnected, and the mood in the church just felt hard.

This will happen. Chances are good; it might happen this weekend to you.

As pastors and ministry families, we aren’t helpless in these moments. But it takes some preparation and wisdom to navigate these moments.

As I looked back, here are six things to remember and do:

What to do when Sunday morning goes off the rails.

Prepare on Saturday night. We do very little on Saturday nights. We try our best to have a quiet night at home, watch something funny, try to relax, and get a good night’s sleep.

How your Sunday morning goes as a pastor starts with how your Saturday night goes.

Very few people will feel what you feel. This is good and bad. It is good because even if you feel off, your church might not. It can be frustrating because we’d like people to relate to us on this level, but that’s a different post.

Over the years, I’ve learned that just because I feel something at church doesn’t mean everyone feels something. Just because I feel off with a sermon or something feels out of sync, that might be just me. Now, there will be Sundays where what you feel, everyone feels. So be aware of the feeling, but also don’t overthink what you feel.

It will happen at some point. While this won’t be a regular occurrence (hopefully!), it will happen at some point.

Pastor, here’s how to handle a difficult Sunday morning.

This means you must plan how to handle it mentally, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. How will you calm your mind and body to do what you need to do? How will you refocus?

This is why your prep and run-through are so important. I’m a big believer in doing a sermon run-through and think more pastors should do it. Whenever I have a stressful or difficult Sunday morning, I am thankful for the prep I’ve done and that I’ve already run through my sermon. This takes a massive weight off my shoulders regarding feeling prepared for what is ahead.

The power of prayer. One thing our elders do with whoever is preaching is pray over them before the service. This moment on a Sunday morning is incredibly powerful to me. To come together, share where I am, and have trusted leaders pray with and for me.

Take a deep breath and go. Ministry and leadership are hard. This is all over the New Testament, but whenever it gets hard, we are surprised. We must know the difficulty ahead of us, pray, be prepared, take a deep breath, and go.

6 ways to prepare for a Sunday morning as a pastor.

Posted on Monday, February 13, 2023

4 Ways to Build a Strong, Healthy Elder Team

by Josh Reich

Photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash

One of the most critical but often overlooked parts of being a lead pastor is interacting with and relating to your elder team. If you get this right, you will find smooth sailing and incredible momentum that is felt throughout the church. If you get this wrong, it can lead to many difficulties, frustration, and heartache on the part of the lead pastor, the elder team, and, ultimately, the church.

Over different seasons, I have gotten this right and gotten it wrong.

Recently, I was reading CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest, and the authors have a whole section on the interactions between the CEO and the board of a company. They are:

Choosing radical transparency
Building a strong relationship with the board chair
Reaching out to individual directors (elders)
Exposing the board to management

Let’s take them one at a time and apply them to churches:

4 important lessons for lead pastors and their elder team.

Choosing radical transparency. It is amazing to hear how much or little pastors tell their elder teams. I get that it can be hard, and often as a lead pastor, you are dealing with your old wounds and scars as you step into trusting this group.

But one thing you should always strive to do is tell your elder team what is going on. Don’t hide things from them. If something happens in your church or you think something is going to happen, make sure they know before it happens or as quickly as possible.

There have been times I’ve told my elder team something might happen, and then it didn’t happen. But that openness has brought about a lot of trust and confidence. And many times, my current elder team has said, “Thanks for keeping us in the loop.” That trust goes a long way.

Building a strong relationship with the board chair. This person is the lead pastor in some churches, but I don’t think that’s wise.

Our church calls this person the elder facilitator to clarify what this person does, which I like more than the board chair. But whatever you call this person, it may be the person with the longest tenure or most influence on your board, whoever they are, build a relationship with them. They can be an incredible help to you in terms of advice, moving things forward, and getting a sense of what each person needs or where the church is, especially if you are new.

4 things pastors and elder teams must do to work well together.

Reaching out to individual directors (elders). While the elder team works as a team, it is crucial to understand each person who serves on that team. Get to know their personalities, how they think and process things, their histories, theologies, and passions for ministry.

One of the things I do is meet with each elder individually throughout the year. I get feedback from them on how I’m doing, how the team is doing, and what they see and hear in the church.

If things get off track, they can be a pastor’s greatest asset and the first line of defense. But you have to invest in them relationally.

Exposing the board to management. This one is important but often tricky in a church setting. It is really important to clarify your governance and who answers to whom. In our setting, I, as the lead pastor, answer to our elder team, but everyone on staff answers to me. While the elder team is ultimately responsible for our church, they don’t oversee the staff. So the staff doesn’t have two bosses. In some church settings, this can get confusing. Clarifying this first is crucial to a healthy church team.

Once this is clear, you must figure out how to connect your staff and elder team. Unfortunately, many churches keep them apart, which can lead to disaster.

One of the ways we do this is through reports that staff write or give to the elder team; we also connect one elder with each staff member to meet once a month to connect, pray together and have that elder attend one team meeting for that ministry each year. The elders then report to the whole elder team about how things are going in that area and what the elders should know and celebrate.

The relationship between a lead pastor and elder team often makes or breaks a church.

Many lead pastors, unfortunately, are suspicious of their boards or see them as getting in the way. Working well with your board will relieve so many headaches and heartaches and make your church stronger and healthier.

4 ways to work well with your elder team.

Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2023

Gospel Centered Preaching

by Josh Reich

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

There’s been a resurgence in the last decade around the gospel.

This is a good thing.

This has helped churches have a more robust view of the gospel. We see the gospel as more than just how one is made right with God, how one is changed, and how one goes to heaven. We are seeing the gospel for Christians and how the power of the gospel changes us into who God has called us to be.

This is positive.

It has also created a new thing to complain about and judge others.

Now, preachers are gospel-centered preachers. If you want to sell a book, throw the word gospel into it. Parenting, preaching, church planting, maybe even writing a book called the gospel.

People on Twitter complain about writers and preachers who aren’t gospel-centered. Maybe, if you are a pastor, someone told you, “I’m leaving your church because you aren’t gospel-centered enough.”

When I’ve heard this, it often means, “You don’t preach the gospel the way I think the gospel should be preached.” In other words, “I think the gospel has specific components and need to be said in a certain order (i.e., the Romans road), and if you don’t say them in that order, you haven’t preached the gospel.” Or, sometimes, they want to hear the name of Jesus several times.

When I entered ministry twenty years ago, the debate was around deep and shallow preaching. People say, “I’m leaving your church because you aren’t deep enough.” The gospel-centered discussion is this generation’s deep preaching complaint in some ways.

So, if you are a pastor and get someone who comes up to you after a sermon or sends an email telling you that you aren’t gospel-centered, even though someone started following Jesus in that same sermon, what do you do?

Ask them what it means to be gospel-centered. While there are some agreed-upon components, each person has a different definition of what it means to be gospel-centered. As I said, this is about being Christ-focused or centered; for others, it is about giving a clear presentation of the gospel to follow Jesus; for some, it is about saying the name of Jesus. For others, it is about finding Jesus on every page of Scripture. For others, compare what you say to their favorite gospel-centered preacher and see if you use the exact words as Tim Keller or John Piper.

One of the best ways to learn from them and help them understand your perspective is to ask them what they think is gospel-centered. Sadly, most people who make this complaint cannot articulate it. For them, it comes down to a feeling or a sense they get from your preaching. It is essential to understand what you are talking about when you say “gospel-centered.”

At that point, you can have a conversation when terms are defined.

Lovingly tell them the gospel from your perspective. As you move forward, explain the gospel from your perspective to them. All over the New Testament, there is evidence of Peter and Paul communicating the gospel differently, depending on their audience. This is important for a pastor to keep in mind.

It is also essential to understand if someone is preaching at a conference or a church when they talk about the gospel. This is important. Many messages people point to for gospel focus happen at a conference with many pastors or Christians in a room. This differs from a week-in, week-out worship service at your local church.

The goal of preaching, from my perspective, is not a theological class. This is the goal of some conferences and can become the measuring stick for people in your church. So, it is vital to be clear when someone asks what your purpose of preaching is. Start here if you don’t have a clear answer as a pastor or a church.

Understand the fears and desires that come from someone in this conversation. When people bring up gospel-centeredness, it comes from fear and a desire to not water down Scripture.

The longer I’m in ministry, the more I see that when someone brings any complaint or question to me about anything, it is often from fear or concern. That’s a good thing.

In the end, gospel-centered preaching should always push people to a decision. It should show someone, whether they are a follower of Jesus or not, who they are apart from Jesus, their default sinful nature, and how their only hope for life, freedom, and peace is found in the power of the gospel. It should also show us God’s ultimate hope for the redemption of all things. It should show the defeat of evil and the enemy. The gospel is robust, not small.

Know that you emphasize a part of the gospel. The reality for every Christian and preacher is that we all emphasize a part of the gospel. For some, the focus is on the cross. For others, the focus is on the resurrection. For some, it is about law and obedience. Each preacher and Christian has a part of the gospel they emphasize over another part. This comes from your story, personality, church background, and other factors.

It is essential to know this and be aware of the blind spots it can create.

Recently, I spoke with someone about this topic and asked him: What is the church’s mission?

What is the mission of the church?

This is an essential question in all of this. It is easy to get into a mud-slinging debate about the gospel with someone and even think someone is beneath you as you look at them and their preaching.

The church’s mission, what you think the church exists for, determines much of what you do in a worship service, groups, and preaching.

It also determines how you communicate the gospel you preach each week. Throughout the book of Acts, Peter and Paul and the apostles contextualized the gospel based on the city and setting they were in. Same gospel, just different aspects of it depending on where they were. This is essential work as a pastor but can be easily misunderstood.

And, without realizing it, you can have different opinions on the church’s mission and what you are trying to accomplish in your Sunday morning gatherings.

Don’t stop preaching the way God has called you to preach. Be clear, passionate, and focused, and be the pastor God has called you to be.

How preaching connects to the mission of the church.

Posted on Wednesday, November 2, 2022

The Seasons of Leadership & Church

by Josh Reich

Photo by Skull Kat on Unsplash

Recently, I gave a sermon on the seasons of life and family at my church. As I thought about it, there is a lot of application to it for pastors and churches.

When you think about the year’s seasons, there are joys and challenges in each season. There are things we love about each year’s season and things we dislike about each season.

Here’s a way to think about each season:

Winter is the season of hibernation and resting, holding steady. It is also the season of sadness, sickness, and loneliness. There are seasons in life and family of sorrow, illness, and loneliness. Seasons of resting and clearing the calendar to sit by the fire. Winter is also the season of preparation because you aren’t doing other activities.

In the church world, this can be the times of vacations and breaks throughout the year, the season when you are evaluating ministries and thinking through budgets and plans. It is also the time when your staff is resting and on vacation.

While it can feel like nothing is happening in winter, many things are happening in winter.

Spring is the season of new beginnings and opportunities, the season of hope. Life is blooming. This season can feel like a shotgun went off. Like it is all of a sudden busy. Everything is happening at once. This season can start with a new job, opportunity, or school year. I remember a farmer telling me once that to have a great fall; you have to jump on the opportunity in spring and work harder than you think.

In the church world, this can be the beginning of a new series, ministry season, program, or the start of a church. The beginning is fun and chaotic; you feel like you are building the plane as you are flying.

Summer is the season of growth, enjoyment, and fun. Summer is the season of life when you begin to see the payoff for some of what you did in life. In the summer, you also need to be pruning your life to live effectively and at a sustainable pace. In farming, you are weeding, protecting what matters to you. Summer can also be the time you are tempted to sit back, but if you do, that’s when you can lose your crop.

In the church world, summer is when you are fixing what you are doing and tweaking this or that to make improvements on something. You are having meetings to keep everyone on the same page, staying unified, and moving in the same direction as a church and staff.

Fall is the harvest season. We reap all that we have sown in the fall. Fall is when you see the results of what you did and either celebrate or lament. Fall is also the season of change; the leaves change, and the weather gets colder. Fall is also the time that you prepare for winter. You winterize your house and pipes. The same is true in life and relationships. You need to prepare for winter.

One way to think of the fall season in churches is to see it through the lens of the harvest, big days. Days like Easter Sunday or a baptism Sunday. When you sit back and see the hard work of walking with people, those days are also the beginning of journeys for those people, and you start cycles of discipleship with people.

Which season is your church in right now? And how does that change how you lead and work as a church?

Now, something more personal as a leader: I think each pastor and leader has a season they are best. Do you know which season of the life of your church you are best suited for? What about the others on your team?

It isn’t enough to know which season your church is in; you also need to know where your leadership muscles are the strongest.

Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2022

Classes, Groups & Spiritual Growth

by Josh Reich

Photo by Andrew Seaman on Unsplash

One thing every church wrestles with is how to help people grow and mature in their faith. Every church and every follower of Jesus has different ideas about how this should happen. Some of that is based on personality, learning style, and what worked best for us.

Every pastor has sat in a meeting where someone says, “We should do a class on that.”

Now, are classes wrong? No.

Should every church have classes in addition to groups? Maybe.

How do people grow spiritually?

Here are some questions you should walk through to figure that out for your church. Right now, our team is working through these:

What is missing from our groups or church right now that classes will provide? Groups don’t do everything, so things are missing with just being in a group. But we need to identify what those things are.

What is the goal of classes? What will they do that nothing else can do (including sermons, personal bible reading, study, groups, etc.)? Are classes the only way to accomplish these goals as a church? Churches are good at doing things we’ve done in the past, or other churches do without asking why we’re doing them.

Classes serve an essential purpose within the life of our churches, but too often, we aren’t sure what they are supposed to accomplish, and when that happens, they miss the mark.

How do classes help someone grow in their faith to maturity? Classes make people more intelligent and give them more bible knowledge but don’t always make them mature followers of Jesus. We need to be clear on what classes do for spiritual growth and not oversell them in our minds, which is easy.

7 questions every pastor and church must answer.

Who is asking for classes? Are they mature followers of Jesus who should be leading? Are new believers trying to take their first steps of faith? The person asking helps us to see what is missing and what classes should or shouldn’t be on. And just because someone thinks they need a class doesn’t mean they need a class. I have paid people to help me with nutrition and workout plans, and often they don’t give me what I want or think I need because I usually don’t know what I need but what I want, and those things aren’t always the same.

How does the New Testament instruct us on discipling people? Did they use classes, one-on-one, groups, mentoring, or a combination?

Many of us do not fully understand how people grew in the New Testament and how that should shape the life of our churches today.

What is the rhythm of classes? Are we doing them as a one-off to meet a specific need, or will they become a regular rhythm in our church? This is important to identify before you begin something because it makes it easier to stop or pivot without hurting the feelings of those who are excited about classes.

The last question that I think you need to work through is possibly the most important, and hopefully, as a church, you already have an answer for it.

Here it is:

One question every church must answer.

What do you believe a healthy, mature follower of Jesus does and is? This question should shape every ministry you do, every program you create, and every outreach you attempt should be aimed towards this, along with all your sermons and resources.

Too many churches do not have a clear answer to this, which shows their ministries’ confusion and what they are shooting for.

The most important question for every church to answer.

Now, for my soapbox.

Most of the people, not all, who ask for classes in a church are church people who want more knowledge when the reality is, those people are ready to lead and disciple others, but they’d rather stay comfortable and take in more bible stuff. Hands down, the best growth anyone can have as a follower of Jesus is disciplining someone, not sitting in a class. More spiritual growth will happen from having conversations with someone who is not yet a follower of Jesus than any class will ever give a person, but a class is more accessible.

7 questions to help your church grow spiritually.