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.

Posted on Monday, September 12, 2022

What Changes to Make as a Leader (And When to Make Them)

by Josh Reich

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

One of the things leaders do is make changes. It is in our DNA. Leadership is about influencing those around you to a better, preferred future. That future is different from the past or the present.

What trips leaders up is knowing what to change and when to change it.

This is crucial to understand if you are a new leader or new to your church or organization.

When I arrived at Community Covenant Church, I learned much about the church. While I knew things about the church (I thought I knew a lot when I came), you don’t know what you don’t know. And you need to make sure the data you have is accurate, which can be a challenge in a church. But that’s a different post!

How to know what to change in your church and when to change it as a pastor.

As I was meeting with leaders and people in the church, getting to know them, asking questions, and simply observing things, I started a list of things to change. This list grew through my meetings as people shared ideas. What is great about being a new leader is all the ideas that people share with you. These are often ones that haven’t happened in the past, thoughts they’ve been holding on to until the new leader comes, or things ripe with potential you need to know about.

Here is the problem: There are too many good (and excellent) ideas for you to get to right away.

You can’t change everything and go after everything all at once even if you want to!

You can’t change everything and go after everything all at once. Even if you want to!

How do you prioritize as a leader, what to change and when to change it?

This depends on the situation, the age of the church, what the previous leader was like and their style of change, how ready the church is for change, and how dire the situation is.

The need for change is high if you go into a church that is about to run out of people or money. The desire for change might not be, but the need is.

You might be in a situation where the desire for change is strong, but the need isn’t, or the resources for change aren’t there.

You must consider these things as you set your strategic plan as a leader.

When I moved to New England, I had a simple question I asked myself and our team as we thought about what to do and what not to do. This question has been a guide for us.

Ready?

Will it matter if I/we don’t change this in two years?

The question I ask myself about change in our church: Will it matter if I/we don’t change this in two years?

If I don’t change this in two years, will it matter?

Look at everything in your church: kids and student ministries, worship services, online ministry, groups and discipleship, theology, mission, and strategy. This question can help to clarify what to focus on.

There are a lot of things you could do, a lot of things you could focus on, but if you don’t do anything with them, in two years, it won’t matter. At least not compared to other things.

Just because it needs to be changed doesn’t mean now is the moment to make that change.

Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2022

3 Questions to Lead Your Church into the Future

by Josh Reich

Photo by Edward Cisneros on Unsplash

Covid gave the church some opportunities.

Yes, I know that statement might seem odd because it has sped things up and made a lot of things about being a pastor more difficult. But, leading your church into the future has many potential opportunities if you look for them.

What are they?

While there are some universal ones, some are just for your church.

How to not miss the opportunities waiting for your church.

First, you have to decide to embrace it. Many pastors are trying to get back to what it was, getting people back into the room, etc.

You can’t go back. And while some things about the past are nice, there are some things you’d like to leave in the past.

Where is your church? Once you know, you can lead her into the future.

Second, you need to know exactly where your church is. Many pastors don’t know who is a part of their church, who is still engaged, or what things are or are not working.

Too many pastors make decisions based on feelings. It feels full, and that service felt good. But, you can’t lead simply on what feels full or good.

I would encourage you to pull your team together. Whether that is staff, volunteers, elders, or a combination of these. Ask them some simple questions about every ministry (kids, students, groups, worship, outreach, etc.):

3 questions every church needs to be asking right now.

Why did we start this? Everything your church does begins with a need (or it should). Someone saw a need and started something to meet that need.

Do you know why you do everything that you do as a church? This is the time for every ministry and program to be clear on why it exists and why it is taking staffing and resources. Gone are the days when churches could do all things.

Does it still meet that need? Once you know what needs you are trying to reach or what caused you to start doing something as a church, you can ask the following question: Does it still meet that need? Is that still a need we are called to meet? The reality is that just because it is a need or a good idea doesn’t mean your church needs to complete it or do it. Also, just because you used to meet that need doesn’t mean you must keep meeting that need. Maybe you no longer have the vision or passion or lack a leader or skill set to do it well.

One of my favorite questions is, What problem created the meeting that resulted in this answer? Every ministry or program or way of doing church started with a problem. That problem resulted in getting some people in a room to solve it. What came out of that meeting is the way your church does church.

Every leader must regularly ask, “Is that still a problem for us to solve? If so, what is the best way to solve it?”

You see, it might not be your problem to solve; it may not be a problem anymore. The things you started 10-20 years ago may no longer be issues or things your church is passionate about.

3 questions every pastor needs to be asking right now.

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2022

Where is Your Church? Really?

by Josh Reich

Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

Do you know where your church is?

Most pastors think they do, and most church members and elders believe they do, but do you?

Do you know where your church is? Especially after covid?

After going through these last several years of people coming and going, people decided to stay or leave based on how you handled masks, vaccines, opening and closing, people moving because of jobs, or simply deciding that it is nicer to watch church in their pj’s. Do you know where your church is?

Really?

Taking a new job at a church towards the end of covid and the church gathering had some disadvantages, but it gave me some advantages. It helped me see more clearly where the church is and ask some questions because “I wasn’t in it” as much as others.

But even if you haven’t changed churches or jobs, you can still step back to see where your church is.

This matters because you as a pastor might think your church is one spot on the map, your elder team or staff believes it is somewhere else, and then throw in the people who volunteer and attend your church. If you don’t know where you are on the map, you won’t be able to lead people to the next place in the journey.

When I arrived at Community Covenant, I found documents of 4 different sets of mission statements or values in the last decade. When I asked people why we existed, I got the answer based on when they started attending and what they heard repeated the most. Consequently, we weren’t on the same page.

This happens in churches, even if the pastor doesn’t leave. Churches slowly lose their way, lose focus on their mission, go to a conference and hear a new idea they have to implement immediately and gradually; the direction they had isn’t laser-focused anymore.

In his excellent book, Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times, John Eldredge tells us what to do now: “The first thing you should do when you are lost is stop! This is critical – stop moving and get your bearings. Even if it takes some time.”

The first thing you should do when you are lost is stop! This is critical – stop moving and get your bearings. Even if it takes some time. -John Eldredge

Many of us, as pastors and leaders and churches, are lost. We are lost in the fog of covid, unclear on who is still a part of our church, and unclear on what church looks like in this post-pandemic world.

And we need to stop.

We must pull everyone together, figure out who is with us and where we are on the map, and then set a destination together.

When I arrived in New England, I interviewed almost 40 people in our church. People who had been a part of our church for decades and some who came in the last year. I asked them the same eight questions and those answers were invaluable to me. They helped me figure out where we were, so we could determine where we were going.

Once you know where you are, it makes it easier to know where you’re going.

Here they are:

What is going well at Community Covenant Church?
What is not going well at CCC?
What is one thing about CCC you hope doesn’t change?
What is one thing about CCC you hope does change?
What burning questions would you like to ask me?
If money weren’t an issue, what would be your next full-time hire(s) and why?
If you were in my shoes, what would you focus on first?
How can I pray for you?

Here’s the fantastic thing, 90% of the answers were the same.

Whether you are new to your church or not, you can ask these questions or questions like them to find out where you are. You might tweak them to find out what you learned in covid, what did covid reveal about your church, and what has God put on your heart in the last 2-3 years that you need to pay attention to.

But as I’ve said before, this is a season where pastors need to think like church planters as they move forward. Church planters are pioneers; they are starters, forging new ways of doing church and risking, and more and more pastors need to have this mindset.

How you need to be thinking as a pastor right now.