Posted on Monday, April 18, 2016

In Recruiting, Don’t Say No for Someone

by Joshua Reich

One thing I have noticed in the lives of pastors and those who are on church staff is a fear when it comes to volunteers and delegation. I understand where it comes from and appreciate it (because I used to feel the same way), but there is also a lot of danger in it and a robbing of our churches.

It goes something like this. A leader in a church has a need, a role that needs to be filled. They have someone in mind who could fill it and do it very well, but they don’t ask them. It might be because they think the person is too busy, that they will say no or that they won’t want to do it. (Most leaders normally feel this way because we assume that if we don’t like to do something every person on the planet also dislikes doing those things.)

How do you get high capacity, talented people to serve at your church?

What happens then is the leader says no for the person without giving them a chance to say yes or no. Would that person say no? I have no idea and neither do you.

I hear from many pastors, though, who feel guilty for asking people to give their time in building the kingdom. I understand this sentiment as people are incredibly busy. But I think this also says something about our theology. If all Christians are given spiritual gifts and will one day make an account to God for how they stewarded those gifts, it is our job as leaders to help them develop those gifts and use them (Ephesians 4). When we don’t challenge people, make the big ask of them to step up, we are robbing them of becoming all that God wants them to become, and we are keeping them from using all the gifts and talents that God gave to them.

So what do you do? “Don’t ever say no for someone.”

Don’t say no for someone.

So I started letting people tell me no instead of doing it for them. What it has done is require me to trust God more when it comes to leaders and the holes that our church has, and it has forced me to make some big asks of people and cast vision to people. But God has also had people step up in ways that I didn’t expect them to do because, “I didn’t say no for them.”

So, pick up the phone, ask that person for coffee and cast a huge vision to them and let them decide. You never what might happen.

Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2016

What Makes Leadership so Hard?

by Joshua Reich

The other day I asked a friend why he thought leadership and being a leader is so hard. He looked at me and said, “That’s why only a few people aspire to it and only a few people ever do it.”

To cast a vision. To stand against a tide. To say that you are moving forward to a place that no one has ever been and you don’t know how you will get there, but you know you are going. That is hard.

To challenge people to become all that they can be. To withstand the criticism that comes with leadership and the misunderstanding that comes with being confident and purposeful. That is hard.

Romans 12:8 says if you have the gift of leadership you should lead with all diligence. Diligence means, “A zealous and careful nature in one’s work, a decisive work ethic, budgeting one’s time, to guard against laziness, putting forth full concentration in one’s work.”

That is leadership. That is what makes it hard. Leadership challenges. Leadership and vision divide because they say, “This is where we are going and this is what the win is, and consequently, that over there is not where we are going and that is not the win.”

Posted on Friday, April 8, 2016

8 Ideas That Challenged me as a Leader This Week

by Joshua Reich

Here are 8 posts I came across this week that challenged my thinking or helped me as a leader, husband and father this week. I hope they help you too:

How to Know if ‘Kids Sports’ has Become an Idol? by Jim Elliff
10 Confessions of a Millennial to Older Leaders by Zach Yentzer
6 Reasons Church Offerings are Struggling by Thom Rainer
Creating a Path to Healthy Church Growth by Tony Morgan
6 Habits of the Best Conversationalists by Stephanie Vozza
3 Morning Habits to Boost Brain Power by Charles Stone
5 Key Differences between Church Shoppes & the Unchurched by Carey Nieuwhof
The 7 Keys to Public Speaking by Nick Morgan

Posted on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

The Benefit of a Church Crisis

by Joshua Reich

That title may startle some, the benefit of a church crisis. Nobody likes a crisis. No one likes bad news or being disappointed or being uncomfortable. We like when things work, when things are easy, when things go our way.

Yet if you are a leader, at some point you will walk through a crisis with your church.

It could be financial, you may struggle with where you are meeting, it might be relational with another leader or someone in your church. It might involve your sin or the sin of another leader. It might be that you have someone on your staff who does something stupid, and you have to pick up the pieces of that situation.

4 responses to a church crisis.

In that moment you have some options as a leader:

1. You can run. Many pastors when they hit a crisis run from it. While no one likes conflict, relational conflict in a church can be especially painful. We put off conversations we should have, we avoid people we need to run into. Or, many pastors leave when a crisis hits. I heard one pastor say that an average church has a crisis every 18 months, and the average stay for a pastor at a church is 18 – 24 months.

Do you run from or towards a crisis?

A crisis is where leaders have the opportunity to shine. It is the moment they are needed the most.

2. You can pretend it isn’t happening. Many people in their personal relationships act like a crisis isn’t happening. Couples pretend they aren’t hurt by the other or that they aren’t angry. Many pastors, when a crisis hits, pretend nothing is going on. Instead of looking at hard numbers (i.e., our attendance is dropping, less people are serving, less people are joining small groups, giving is going down, we aren’t seeing people come to faith), they simply keep doing business as usual.

Another sign of this is making it everyone else’s fault. The culture is hard, people aren’t dedicated anymore, no one is listening. So the blame game continues to get passed.

The reality is: numbers are your friend. Numbers may be painful and reveal some truths you don’t want to look at or want to pretend aren’t real. But numbers are your friend.

3. You can outlast the crisis. Hopefully you are picking up a theme in this post.

Leaders shine in a crisis. Leaders don’t shine when things are going well because they aren’t needed as much. They are needed, but a crisis is when it shouts for leadership.

Leaders outlast the crisis. Does this mean that people who leave aren’t leaders? I would say yes.

No one said leadership is easy; simply look through history. It is filled with people who rose to the occasion in spite of great difficulties.

A crisis is when a leader shines.

4. You can learn from it. Never waste a crisis.

Never waste a crisis.

As soon as possible, begin learning from the crisis:

Could we have seen this coming?
Did we do something to make this happen?
Did we overlook something?
Is there a system that is broken?
Did we miss something when we hired someone?
Did we extend ourselves too far financially?

Make no mistake, a crisis is when leaders shine. A church crisis in many ways is a wake up call to a church. It is God’s grace to a church. It causes a church and its leaders to see what is most important.

It can also cause leaders to take a step of faith they should have taken but maybe were too afraid to take. Many times in my leadership a crisis has pushed me and our church out of our comfort zone. That is hard and painful, but it’s also good.

Don’t waste a church crisis.

Posted on Monday, March 28, 2016

Monday Mind Dump…

by Joshua Reich

What a weekend.
I realize every pastor is supposed to say that after Easter, but it felt that way in our new space.
One of my favorite things this weekend was watching people who have never done the stations of the cross go through it for the first time and seeing their reaction.
So cool.
It was awesome hearing the stories of change during baptism.
I love that those who got baptized yesterday became Christians at our church in the last 10 weeks!
It was awesome kicking off our series in the book of Romans.
I’ve been thinking about preaching through Romans for the last several years but never felt like it was the right time.
With where our church is, now is the right time to walk through this book of the Bible.
If you missed yesterday, you can watch or listen to it here.
It was cool yesterday to see so many people come from GTX, the crossfit box that Katie and I go to.
I started reading The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and her story is incredible.
I think it is easy for Christians to think about conversion in very sanitary ways, but meeting Jesus (when we are truly changed) wrecks us.
It’s been challenging me as I get ready to preach on the end of Romans 1 and God’s heart towards sexuality and homosexuality.
Those verse are bigger than homosexuality.
I also started reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin just to get a change of pace.
I try to read novels throughout the year just to give my brain a break and thought I’d try reading something historical for a change.
Katie and I watched Spotlight on Saturday night.
It was incredible and heartbreaking.
The abuse of power is gut wrenching.
I’m really excited for our first membership class to happen on April 16th.
We tried membership before at Revolution and I’m not sure we knew what we were doing, so we took it away until we could figure out how to make it more than signing a piece of paper.
I think it has been a missing piece at our church.
We’re assessing a new church planter to join Acts 29 this week in AZ.
Love that our network is growing in our state.
I also get to train some leaders in Phoenix this week on leadership and marriage.
Always love talking about those topics and the chance to help other leaders.
Well, time to get back at it…

Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2016

You Become What You Think About the Most

by Joshua Reich

I came across this in How the Best Leaders Lead by Brian Tracy

You become what you think about most of the time.

Most of the time, leaders think about the qualities of leadership and how to apply them daily.

Leaders have a clear vision of where they are going, and they convey this vision to everyone around them.

Leaders have the courage to take risks, to move forward, to face danger with no guarantee of success.

Leaders have integrity. They deal honestly and straightforwardly with each person. They tell the truth, and they always keep their word.

Leaders are humble. They get results by using the strengths and knowledge of those around them. They know how to listen, and they know how to learn.

Leaders have foresight. They continually look ahead and anticipate what might happen. They make provisions to guard against possible reversals and put themselves into a position to take advantage of possible opportunities.

Leaders focus on what’s important. They concentrate their time and resources, and the time and resources of the company, on the activities that will make the most difference.

Leaders cooperate well with others. They are liked and respected by everyone around them. They go out of their way to get along well with the key people upon which the company depends. They truly believe that people are their most valuable asset.

The best companies (churches) have the best leaders. The second-best companies (churches) have the second-best leaders. The third-best companies (churches), in these times of turbulence, are unfortunately on their way out of business.

The most important contribution you can make to your company (church) is to be a leader, accept responsibility for results, and dare to go forward.

Posted on Monday, March 21, 2016

Leaders Disappoint Someone

by Joshua Reich

“Exercising leadership might be best understood as disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.” -Ronald Hiefetz

I had a mentor tell me when I first started out in leadership, “Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.”

Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.

There’s a part of me that likes this idea. It means I’m moving something forward, creating change or pushing against the status quo.

The other side of me hates it because I want people to like me. I don’t want to disappoint people. I want them to love what I’m doing, be a part of it and think, “I never want to leave the church Josh is leading.”

The reality is, leaders do disappoint people, and if you aren’t disappointing people, you aren’t really leading.

Why?

Disappointment can look like frustration, bristling at changes that are made, challenging people to step up and lead, take ownership or challenging someone in a counseling session to deal with their junk.

All of those things disappoint people because it pushes on something in those people.

I’m calling disappointment; when you as a leader make someone uncomfortable, lead a church where they don’t think it should go, make a change that they wouldn’t make.

Now, to be clear: disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

Disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

It is the reality of what you are doing.

Disappointment also comes in another form and from another place: past hurts.

When you hear things like, “You’re moving too fast, you’re changing too much, you’re building your kingdom and not God’s”, two things might be happening. One, they might be true and you need to listen to them. Two, someone is looking at you through the lens of a past hurt and past disappointment; you are reminding them of a leader they once followed or a church they were once a part of.

Where does that leave you as a leader?

Leaders do a few different things with this:

1. They run from it. Many leaders have enormous wounds from their past that shape their present and future, and the idea of disappointing anyone keeps them from leading. Many leaders want everyone to love them, which keeps them from making bold decisions, praying big prayers or making any changes. The slightest hint of conflict or an unwillingness to move into a new future from anyone in their church, and they are done as a leader. Many pastors fear the Monday morning emails that come in, so they look towards the status quo and simply surviving.

If you’re afraid of upsetting people, you won’t be able to lead.

2. They revel in it. Some leaders genuinely enjoy making people mad or disappointing them. In a sick way, it is a badge of honor. “I made this change and we lost __ blank people, but I’m being bold.” Maybe you’re bold, but you might be brash and kind of a jerk. How you talk about people’s reactions to change reveals a lot about you as a pastor. If you enjoy people leaving over changes, that can reveal some broken things in you.

3. They learn from it. Leaders are learners, bottom line. It is not just about reading books and blogs (thanks for reading this one) and listening to podcasts. Do you learn from the reactions to your leadership? Do you learn from how you make people feel when you walk into a room or how you speak to them? Any time you disappoint someone, you should find out why. What can you learn from that?

4. It makes them stronger, better leaders. If you allow disappointing people, turning people’s anger into learning as a leader, you will become a stronger, better leader. This creates resilience to keep leading. The strongest leaders I’ve met are the ones who have lived and led through some pretty big storms.

Strong leaders handle storms correctly.

Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2016

How to Plan an Effective Easter Service

by Joshua Reich

Every year around this time I get questions from other pastors or people in our church about why we don’t do a normal Easter service on Easter Sunday. The thinking goes, “Churches will have people who only come once or twice a year, so you need to hit them with the Easter message. Don’t miss this opportunity.”

Do you have the right goal for your Easter sermon?

And while I understand this thinking, I think it is shortsighted, which leads me to my answer:

Don’t miss the opportunity of Easter.

We do an Easter message every week. At Revolution we end all our services by taking communion. The goal of every sermon is to get to the resurrection. Notice I didn’t say cross, but that’s a different post. Each and every week we do the same thing: “We are broken and can’t fix ourselves. Our only hope is found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.” Easter is just one out of 52 times we do this each year.
Create a reason to come back next week. I have two goals on Easter: helping people take the step of following Jesus for those who are ready, and getting everyone else to come back the week after Easter. Therefore, you have to create a reason for them to come back. Pastors do not put enough effort into this and just hope people will come back. This is why I love to start a series on Easter. In years past we’ve started a series on the Gospel of John and looked at how change works from Galatians. Last year we kicked off a relationship series on Easter. Give them a reason to come back. Never end a series on Easter; that communicates, too bad you missed all the cool stuff!
If they only come on Easter, give it a twist so they don’t get bored. Unchurched people are smarter than we often give them credit for. They come on Easter, think they know the story, what you will say and how it will end. Because of this, they tune it out and wait until it ends so they can go back to their life. What if you hit them with an unexpected twist, hit a felt need they weren’t expecting you to talk about? The resurrection is our hope in all things in life; start with the brokenness it is the hope for. Too often Easter messages are geared towards Christians. I understand the tension because they are the ones who complain if they don’t like your Easter message. Everyone simply doesn’t come back.

3 things that should happen on Easter at your church.

Posted on Monday, March 7, 2016

Monday Morning Mind Dump…

by Joshua Reich

Sunday was our 8th week at our new location.
God has done so much in that time.
We’ve had 4 people take the step of following Jesus.
We’ve had 56 first time guests and 27 of them have returned for a 2nd and a 3rd time!
The response to our Future Family series has been incredible.
If you missed any of the weeks or want to watch them again, you can do so here.
If you weren’t there yesterday, you can watch & listen to it here.
I got to spend some time last week with the other area leads from Acts 29 West.
Love praying and planning with those guys to plant more churches in the western United States.
It’s also amazing to hear what God is doing around the world.
I’ve been spending some time working on our upcoming series Romans.
Feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of spending the rest of the year in Romans, but really excited about it at the same time.
There is so much in there.
It’s easy to see how people spend years preaching through Romans.
If you follow me, you know I’m pretty into crossfit and right now is the crossfit open.
These workouts are hard every year, but this is a new level of crazy.
I’m doing 16.2 today and it looks brutal.
Read a great leadership book last week, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading; highly, highly recommend it.
So much great insight for leaders and the difficulties of leading, but how those difficulties often come from the leader.
We’re hosting a dinner party this week which should be fun.
We’re part of a group that does a monthly dinner party with all the food from one country.
This month, at our house, is Irish night for St. Patricks day.
Always a good time.
Blessed to have friends that love food and are great cooks!

Posted on Monday, March 7, 2016

How to Grow as a Leader as Your Church Grows

by Joshua Reich

There has been a lot written about church growth barriers, what they are, how to break them and get past them. The reality, though, is a church will only grow as much as the leader grows.

Every church experiences barriers at different points, but they are usually around the same size: 60, 100, 200, 400, 800, etc. While barriers can happen at other times, these are usually the ones discussed.

I was talking to someone the other day about how things change at different times in a church, and it got me thinking about the barriers and what changes at each one.

5 questions every leader needs to ask each year.

1. What new temptations do you face? As a church grows, leaders face new temptations. There are new ways to cut corners, new perks that creep up, and it is easy to start believing your own press. It is also easy as a leader of a growing church to start to think you are too big for some things, and while your job changes you are still a leader, and leaders are to serve.

When you start a church and there are just a few people on your launch team, you face unique temptations. While some temptations follow a leader through the life cycle of a church, some temptations are unique to sizes of a church.

Every time your church grows, ask: What new temptations do I face?

2. What things must you stop doing? Peter Drucker asks, “What can you stop doing that nobody would notice?” John Maxwell thinks a leader could stop doing 80% of what they are doing, and nobody would notice. While that might seem high, there are a number of things you should stop doing. It might be because you aren’t as good at those things, but usually the things you do keep you from doing what only you can do. As a church grows and as you grow, the things that only you can do, the things that you are wired to do, might change. This is why it is important to consistently ask this question.

Leaders must ask themselves on a regular basis what they need to stop doing.

3. What things must you start doing? A helpful grid to think through is, what things must I do or else this thing falls apart? Another way to think about this is, are there things I am not doing right now that I need to start? Or, are there things I need to give more time to than I currently give to those things?

4. What is keeping you and your church from going to the next level? A leader lives in two worlds: the world of the present and the vision of the future. This is a tension of leadership, but it is one you should invite because you are the leader. A leader must continue to ask, “What do I need to do to keep my church healthy and growing? What can I learn or grow in to take my church to the next level?” That next level is not always a size issue. It might be growing in personal productivity, preaching or care. It might be getting better at reading culture or developing leaders. There is always a next level to go to.

For me, each year I think through one aspect of my job that I need to grow in. I ask for input from those closest to me, and then I look for resources and people doing that well and learn from them.

What is one thing this year you need to grow in?

5. What am I afraid of now? I heard Matt Keller say this on a podcast recently and felt very convicted by it.

Many leaders make most of their decisions out of fear.

If you think about it, you make a lot of decisions as a leader out of fear; fear of people, finances, success, failure, your team, what you look like to others. While every pastor has fears throughout his ministry career, there are specific ones at each size. What are they? They will be unique to you as a leader, but you must identify them. You must be on the lookout for them.

5 questions every leader should wrestle with today.