Posted on Thursday, January 11, 2024

How to Hire the Right Church Staff

by Josh Reich

Photo by Ryan Riggins on Unsplash

Every leader and pastor knows that to reach the goals you have in your heart for your church and to fulfill the mission that God has called you to, you must find the right team. Nothing is more important than the people you put around you. Whether they are elders, volunteers, or church staff. This has never been more important, but with COVID, this has never been more difficult.

All leaders know that nagging feeling. It keeps them up at night and gives them indigestion. It creates anxiety, stress, and even anger. What is it from? Having the wrong person in a leadership role. Sometimes, it might be a mismatch of skill; it may be that the person isn’t capable of leading a ministry or team at the size it is. This happens when someone struggles to lead at the new size of a church, as leading in a church of 100 is different than leading in a church of 500. The mismatch can also be a character issue you didn’t see before or recently developed.

But how do you know? What do you do with the feeling that someone shouldn’t be in their leadership role?

Jim Collins in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t said, “Two key questions can help. First, if it were a hiring decision (rather than a “should this person get off the bus?” decision), would you hire the person again? Second, if the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?”

Over the years, these questions have helped me evaluate the leaders that I have and where we are as an organization.

2 questions to ask yourself before hiring that person or placing someone in a leadership role at your church.

This doesn’t mean that if you answer, no you wouldn’t hire this person again, that doesn’t mean you let them go. Especailly if the issue is around competence as opposed to culture fit or character. Compentence is the area that you need to spend time on to level people up if they can be.

What do I mean by that? Not everyone wants to grow as a leader. People are often content to stay where they are and not grow or develop. That isn’t a character flaw or even wrong, but it might mean they can’t continue growing with your church or culture.

But how do you know ahead of time? All of us have led people who shouldn’t be leading, weren’t bought in, or weren’t capable of leading in the role they are in.

In his helpful book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown said, “If the answer isn’t a definite yes, then it should be a no.”

If the answer isn’t a definite yes, then it should be a no. -Greg McKeown

While McKeown was applying that to opportunities, I think it is incredibly applicable to hiring someone, raising a volunteer leader, or putting someone into a new leadership role.

If you have a gut feeling they shouldn’t be there, wait. If a trusted leader tells you to wait, listen up.

If someone seems over-anxious to lead something, wait. If someone seems to be hiding something or something doesn’t add up about them, wait.

There is no harm in waiting.

I know. I hear you, church planter and pastor. You need someone. Who is doing it if you don’t put someone into place?

Possibly you. Possibly no one. You may need to wait on a ministry or miss a vision opportunity because you don’t have the people you need.

There have been times in churches I have been a part of where we have missed opportunities or we’ve not grown or we haven’t done a ministry because we didn’t have a leader. This is hard and sometimes people leave because of it, and you lose momentum or people.

Those are never easy, but they are all easier than removing the wrong person.

2 things to remember before you put someone into a leadership role at your church.

Posted on Monday, November 27, 2023

How Covid Changed Church Staff Cultures

by Josh Reich

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

The further we get from March 2020, the more we see how COVID has changed our world.

It changed our world in some significant ways. The same happened within the church. We’ve seen how COVID changed giving patterns, attendance, and serving patterns for people; the list goes on and on.

Just as it changed workplace cultures and patterns, the same has happened for church staff. We are just beginning to see what has changed, and pastors and boards need to start paying attention before we get too far down the road. While it may have brought about some welcome changes, it made some bad ones.

Here are 5 ways I think COVID changed church staff cultures that we need to pay attention to:

5 ways COVID changed church staff cultures

Everyone is exhausted. A lot has been written about the exhaustion and weariness everyone feels. Not just pastors but everyone in our churches is weary.

And believe me, it is real. I feel it, too.

As you lead your team, you must understand this because it is not going away. As you lead your volunteers, this is your new reality.

People have less time, less energy, and less desire to do the things they did in 2019. Churches must account for this and think through this.

As a pastor or team lead, you must continually check on your team. How are they physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and mentally? You must keep a pulse on your team, and the dashboards running your team, to ensure you have the energy you need to make it to the end.

We stopped looking forward. During COVID-19, it was about what is next. The next day, the next week. And that makes sense because things were changing daily and weekly. Could we open this week? What did we need to know to open this week? What were the current guidelines for gathering, etc.? What were people’s comfort levels about those guidelines?

What happened because of that, though, is we stopped looking forward. We stopped asking questions about the next year, 3 – 5 years, and beyond. Ten-year visions were thrown out; sermon planning was thrown out because we changed our sermon schedules every month.

But now, as a leader, you must pull back and ask where you are going in the next 3 – 5 years. What dreams has God placed on your heart?

As a leader, you must pull back and ask where you are going in the next 3 – 5 years.

Many pastors and church teams don’t have the energy to look forward and dream. That’s why raising your leadership capacity is so important to lead to what is next.

You must take time to ask, what is our next big goal? Our next big dream that God has given to us?

The churches, pastors, and teams who can start to dream again will catalyze their church for the future.

The churches, pastors, and teams who can start to dream again will catalyze their church for the future.

No one knows who is responsible anymore. During 2020 – 2021, everyone’s jobs changed. Suddenly, you were doing things you weren’t hired to do because things changed and new things had to get done. Or, churches were trying to figure out how to fill 40 hours a week for people who no longer needed to do what they were doing.

Then, as churches started to regather, old responsibilities were added back on; some roles stayed the same, and others completely changed. It created situations where people need clarification on who is doing what or what the win for their role is anymore. They are wearing multiple hats, and some of those hats aren’t what they were hired for.

Hence the exhaustion that everyone is feeling.

But as a leader, you must bring clarity to your organization.

Who is doing what? Who is responsible for what? What are your top 3 priorities right now as a church?

There was less oversight. As more and more churches embraced working from home or a hybrid office model, there was less and less oversight. I talk to many lead pastors who are now frustrated with the lack of work their teams are producing and aren’t sure what to do about it.

It is a combination of exhaustion and the reality of being thrust into a remote work environment you didn’t plan for. Most pastors struggle to embrace it and figure out how to thrive.

Your team might need more oversight. If they do, they need to be trained, or else you have the wrong team. The best staff don’t need oversight but coaching and guardrails so they can thrive in them.

The best church staff doesn’t need oversight but coaching and guardrails so they can thrive in them.

As a pastor, I know what you’re thinking: “I don’t have the energy to train and coach people. I’m exhausted.” You must deal with your exhaustion so you can step up your game.

In this post-COVID world, we must focus more on results and what is being accomplished than the old way of working at church, where we focused on how many hours people were in the office.

Do you have clear objectives for yourself? For your team? What do you hope to accomplish in the next 3 – 12 months? Does everyone have clear results to accomplish week in and week out? Don’t just assume they know because there is a good chance they don’t.

In this post-covid world, we must focus more on results and what is being accomplished, as opposed to the old way of working at church where we focused on the number of hours people were in the office.

What we tolerated and allowed during COVID-19. Whatever level of work you allowed and tolerated on your staff during 2020-2021, that is now what your team thinks you tolerate and allow in 2023 and beyond.

Whatever level of work you allowed and tolerated on your staff during 2020-2021, that is now what your team thinks you tolerate and allow today.

If it was okay to hand things in late, not get things done, and blow off assignments, that happened because of the changing world we live in. Many employees and pastors now think that is normal, and it will require you to have some hard conversations and deal with some things in your work culture.

The reality of the last few years is that work standards changed across industries. But in the church world, we have this idea that being nice is the same as being Christlike. So, we don’t have hard conversations or talk about work being done below the acceptable level (or not at all) because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. Holding someone accountable is being Christlike. Tolerating poor work, or no work, is not okay.

For churches, people give every week, so our standard of work must be high. Not perfection. Not killing ourselves, but it must be worth the investment people make in the church and the kingdom of God.

5 areas of your church staff culture you need to pay attention to.

Covid changed our world and our churches. We must pull back to ask how and if we like what it did. If not, it is time to do the work to make course corrections.

And yes, this will take work.

I talk to many leaders who are exhausted (and I feel it), but the job of leaders is to get in there and lead. Do what you need to do, what God has called you and your church to do. There is too much at stake for you to coast through leadership.

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 Wednesday, July 5, 2023

5 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Job & Taking a New One

by Josh Reich

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Many of us will struggle at some point whether or not to take a job, move our kids to a new school, or move across the city or the country (like my family did).

How do you know? How do you know if it’s time to leave your job? To take a new one? How do you know if now is the moment to step out and start that ministry, church, or company you’ve always dreamed about?

I think there are many questions to ask yourself, but here are five that I think you can’t miss if you want to make a great decision in this area:

5 questions to ask yourself before you take a new job.

Do you feel called to somewhere or only called away from where you are? We often think of calling as where God is calling us, the new land, the new opportunity. And I think we focus on that because it is more exciting. But before you put a for sale sign up in front of your house and tell your boss that you are leaving, you need to be honest if this is more about running from somewhere or going somewhere.

Yes, God may be calling you into a new season, job, or opportunity. But are you finished where you are? Have you done all that God called you to in that place? I know you might be done, but is God done with you there?

I know you might be done, but is God done with you there?

We need to be careful that we aren’t running from something we don’t like or something hard to get to the new, shiny opportunity.

And these are questions only you can answer.

Do you want to live there? Now, we can mistake the answer to this question and miss what God has for us because we want to live somewhere. And yes, God will call us to places that aren’t the fun, top 10 places to live. And that’s okay.

But I do think God puts a place in us, a place that we can connect with. The reality is every region in America is different. As Colin Woodard points out in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, America was settled by different nations, and those nations still impact us today. You can’t overlook that when you look at moving. I often tell people you have to want to live in a place during the most challenging time of year (whether winter in New England or summer in Arizona).

Does the church need your gifts? This is important for you to discern when interviewing a church. One of the ways to ask this is, “If God answers all of your prayers, what does this church look like in 5 years?” This question is crucial because it explains their hopes and dreams for their church, and they hope you will take them there.

At one church, they told me they wanted someone to continue the legacy of the pastor retiring. The church was growing, and God was doing many great things there. The problem is, I wouldn’t say I like to maintain things; I want to build and create. Some leaders love to maintain something and hate building things. You need to know how you are gifted, what brings you life, and if that matches with a church.

5 questions to ask yourself before you quit your job.

Is this the right next step? Just because an opportunity is in front of you doesn’t mean you need to take it. Is this the right moment for your family or your career? As Emily Freeman asks, “Is this the next right thing?”

What will you prioritize: your kids’ school and sports, money, location, church fit? While you want to hit the jackpot on a new job or opportunity, you must sacrifice something. You probably won’t get everything you want.

What will decide for you?

Some of that depends on your life season, your kids’ activities, how close you are to retirement, or if all your kids are out of the house or still in school.

What should be on your list of priorities is really up to you, but I’ve talked to too many leaders who did not think through this question, and they took a job that they regretted right away.

5 questions to ask yourself before you quit your job and take a new one.

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 Thursday, May 25, 2023

How to Maximize Your Summer Vacation

by Josh Reich

Photo by li hao on Unsplash

Over the years, I have heard more people talk about needing a vacation from their vacation. Or they don’t take all of their vacation days.

They end up tired; they don’t enjoy their jobs, and their families don’t have any fun memories to look back on.

And for what?

In reality, you and I are created to live life in rhythm. We are designed to work hard and play hard. To stress our bodies and then to unwind and let them destress.

The summer for our family is a favorite season. A time to play, make memories, go on trips and explore.

We’ve had to learn this as Katie and I didn’t take many vacations growing up. The reality is that it doesn’t have to be expensive to be worthwhile, but it will take some thought. As you get ready for summer, here are some ideas to help you make sure that you are maximizing your summer:

6 ways to maximize your summer.

Take all your vacation days. If your company gives you three weeks, take all 3. Don’t leave any left over at the end of the year. You work hard, and your family runs fast throughout the year from activity to activity. One of the biggest wastes is vacation time left over. The average American leaves 6.5 vacation days unused each year. These are free days off; take them.

Parents set the tone. When I am frustrated, tense, or anxious, the whole family feels this way. How do you react to your wife and kids? It bleeds into everyone. You set the tone. Know that you set the tone for everyone else when you are in the car, at the rest stops, or on vacation. This may not be the case in your family, but I have learned how powerful my presence and emotions are in our family and watched them over the years.

Prepare mentally and emotionally for time off. Being off from work is hard. It is a different rhythm, a different routine. You don’t wake up, make phone calls, check your email, or sit in meetings. If you have young kids, they don’t usually entertain themselves. As a dad, you aren’t used to this. So, mentally and emotionally, prepare for it. You probably work too many hours like most of us, which means emotionally you are fried by the time you get to vacation. Spend the week before mentally and emotionally unpacking and preparing for vacation.

Turn off your email, phone, social media, etc. Vacation means you are not working. I know this is hard to believe, but your company will run without you. When we go on vacation, I turn off my phone, email, social media, etc. Trust me on this, if you want a sure-fire way to build into your family, win enormous points with your spouse and kids, turn off your phone, email and social media.

Plan Ahead. Do some research wherever you go, even if you are doing a staycation. The internet makes planning a cheap vacation and finding inexpensive fun things to do, incredibly easy. Look for places and things around you that you have never been to and go there.

Make memories. This goes with planning. Find fun places to eat out or places to get unique desserts. Stay up late, and do silly things you wouldn’t normally do. Do whatever you can to make memories. Our kids still talk about things we did 5-10 years ago on vacation.

6 ways to make memories on summer vacation.

Posted on Monday, May 22, 2023

How to Stay Passionate as a Pastor

by Josh Reich

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

It is easy to get started; to start a new job or ministry, jump into a new idea or opportunity. But, somewhere along the way, reality sets in, and you begin to find your passion waning.

It might be because you’re bored, it got hard, didn’t go how you expected it to, or somewhere in between.

But every leader has found themselves running out of steam.

What drains your passion? This could be tasks, situations, or people. It might be things that are part of your job, or you have found yourself doing.

We all have tasks we don’t love and people in our lives that can drain us of energy and passion. The reality is you may have to keep doing those things or working with those people. This isn’t about getting out of things or not doing things, although that might be something to explore. This is simply being aware of what drains or takes a lot of energy for you to do and figuring out the best time to do those things.

Too many pastors do their least enjoyable tasks during peak performance hours, which Carey Nieuwhof calls “your green zone.”

Yes, ministry and leadership can be draining, but we are often our worst enemies when it comes to our schedules and working against ourselves.

Can you do a ministry you aren’t passionate about? At some point, you have to ask yourself if you are passionate about your work.

This doesn’t mean you should quit. Many people are leaving or thinking about quitting ministry right now. Some pastors are working in roles they aren’t gifted or wired to be in, working in churches they don’t believe in, or living in places they don’t love.

Does that mean you should quit? Maybe. Maybe not.

You need to ask if you are passionate about your work. If you aren’t, why aren’t you?

Are you passionate about the church you work at?

Life is too short to do a job or work at a church you aren’t passionate about. Now, you have to know why you aren’t. You might have an unrealistic expectation for a job or a church; the job or church might not be where it will eventually be.

You can work at a church or do a job you don’t love, but you need to understand why you feel the way you do. Maybe you need to tweak some things about your role, or you might need to learn some contentment in your position or the church you are a part of.

But this can be a sticking point for you. I remember being told by someone that you could stay in a role that didn’t bring you life for about 18 months, and then it would eat you alive. I’m not sure where he came up with that number, but for my life and watching others, there seems to be a lot of truth.

What keeps your passion high? Your job as a leader and pastor is to keep your passion high. No one else can do it for you. No one else will do it for you.

It is your job as a leader and pastor to keep your passion high. No one else can do it for you. No one else will do it for you.

What does that mean for you? What keeps your passion for what you do white hot?

This can be very personality and temperament specific, so you need to learn these things about yourself.

Just as important as knowing who and what can drain your passion and energy, you must know who and what gives you more energy and passion for what you do.

At the end of the day, pastors, remember this:

You must figure out how to keep yourself encouraged, your hope high, and your passion white-hot.

You will get tired, your vision will get fuzzy, and you might want to quit. All of that is normal. But you must keep yourself close to Jesus.

You must tend to your soul.

Pastor, you must tend to your soul.

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 Monday, May 1, 2023

When You Want to be Somewhere Else (Should You Move?)

by Josh Reich

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I had a season in Tucson when I was discontented with my life and where I was. I was frustrated at my lack of progress; I started to dislike where I lived, and a friend looked at me and said, “What if you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be? What if where you are right now, with how your life is, this is where God wants you?” I looked at him and said, “If that’s the case, then I don’t like God now.” But life and where we end up is a battle of contentment.

I was talking to a friend recently who lived in a small town and wanted to be at a larger company in a larger city. Where things are happening, and life is exciting.

Yet, nothing came up for him.

Part of this is personality-driven, but there is also something in the water of our culture. We like new, shiny, and big things.

Regularly I talk to people about the same topic: Wishing they were somewhere else.

Not necessarily physically (although sometimes that’s it), but wanting to be somewhere else.

You can move somewhere and change your life, but that’s a different blog.

How to know if you should move or stay where you are.

The reality is many of us need to learn contentment where we are, patience as we wait on God, and be where God has us.

For 5 years, Katie and I tried to leave Tucson. We felt our hearts were somewhere else, that God had something else for us, but nothing happened. Some of that was God moving us and loosening our grip on things.

In those 5 years, God showed us things we needed to learn as a couple. God showed me things I needed to learn and deal with.

Recently, someone at my church asked me if I’m happy in New England.

We love New England.

But then I told them something that made me happy. As I’ve reflected on our time in Tucson, I am starting to see more and more why we walked through the things we did, the experiences we had in the churches we were a part of, and how all those seasons have prepared us for this one. I can see why God said, “Not yet,” when we were ready. I can see why that situation with an elder or staff member happened.

Not everything, but it has shown me that my friend was right. What if we were exactly where God wanted us so we would be prepared for what came next?

Should you move or stay where you are?

Posted on Monday, April 24, 2023

Are You Wiling to Make the Sacrifices Success Demands?

by Josh Reich

Photo by Garrhet Sampson on Unsplash

One of the hardest things in life and leadership is feeling ready for success and effectiveness but having it elude you.

You might look around at other leaders, pastors, or churches and wonder, “Why do they seem to have the effectiveness and health, and I don’t?” The same thing can happen in relationships when it seems like others have an easier time than you do.

There are things you can and can’t control regarding effectiveness in life and leadership.

One of the things you can’t control is God’s timing for your life. I remember reading a quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones years ago where he said, “The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready.” Sometimes in life and leadership, you aren’t ready for the dreams that you have. There may be some lessons you need to learn; there may be some lessons others need to learn before they can come and help you take your next step.

The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready. -Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

The other thing I’ve realized the longer I’m in leadership is that looking back, I didn’t want the things I dreamed about. Every pastor, at some point, dreams of speaking on a big stage, writing books, and having a large platform, but deep down, many aren’t willing to make the sacrifices it takes to get there. You need to work long hours to be successful and effective at anything. Your life needs to revolve around something; the most successful are making sacrifices that others aren’t. There is a reason that few megachurch-lead pastors make it to the end of ministry with a marriage and family intact. And a lot of that has to do with the sacrifice and pressure others must make for someone to be successful.

Do you want the dreams in your head?

A few years ago, I started to ask successful people, what things have you given up to get where you are? What sacrifices have you or your family made for your success? This question can be eye-opening when you hear the answers.

I’ve talked to several “successful” pastors who have marriages that aren’t fulfilling or ones who rarely speak to their kids. I’ve talked to countless leaders who are incredibly lonely and have enormous platforms.

One of the things it showed me was what I wanted out of life. I heard some answers and thought, “I don’t want to give that up.” When you realize that, you can see that you don’t want what that person has because you aren’t willing to do what that person did.

That’s okay.

Some of this is the season of life, and some is simply your life calling.

So, before you start to envy the life someone has, look at the sacrifices they had to make to get there and then ask, “Do I want to make those sacrifices?” If you don’t, that’s okay; it just means you have a different life.