Posted on Monday, June 28, 2021

How to Interview a Church

by Josh Reich

Over the last several months, I have been interviewing with churches as we sought our next step. I learned a lot about interviewing and the questions to ask in the process. It can be hard to ask questions. First of all, by the time you ask questions in the interview you are tired. You have answered theological and leadership questions, shared your story and what God is doing in your life and that can be emotionally draining.

So, you need to make sure you plan your questions. Don’t show up and throw out a random question or two. And don’t ask 0 questions, that is a sign you aren’t interested in the job. If you feel like you didn’t get to ask all your questions, set up a separate time for you to interview them. I spent hours asking questions of the team at Community Covenant Church in the process before making a decision.

Remember, you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.

Remember, you are interviewing a church as much as they are interviewing you.

Below are my favorite questions that I asked each church. This was separate from my theological and philosophical questions and separate from finding the heart of a church.

Some of my favorite interview questions.

1. If money wasn’t an issue and the Holy Spirit answered every prayer you have for your church, what does this church look like in 5 years? I love this question because it causes the team to sit back and dream. I heard so many great answers to this question over my months of interviewing. But what you are listening for, especially if you are interviewing for a lead pastor role, is where this group of people would like their church to go. Because as the leader, they are hoping you will take them there.

Each time I listened to this answer I asked myself, do I want to go there? Do I want to be a part of that church in the future? I didn’t hear anything heretical from any church I talked to, but I did hear answers that made me think, “that sounds nice, but I don’t want to go there.” This is an incredibly clarifying question.

2. What is one thing you hope I do or change? What is one thing you hope I don’t do or change? These two go together. As a leader you will bring about change. You are supposed to. But you need to be careful about what changes you bring. As a new leader, you have a great opportunity to bring fresh eyes to a ministry, to see things in a different way. You also have a period of time (a honeymoon it’s often called) to bring about new ideas.

But you need to do them carefully.

Hearing what people hoped I would change or do was really helpful. The second question helped me to see what is off-limits, what matters to a church.

A new pastor must figure out what people do and do not want to be changed in their church.

3. What makes an employee successful at this church? I think you need to ask this question of a lot of different people during the interview process. Here’s why: I took a job once and in the interview process I got one answer from the leadership team of the church and I got a different answer from the admins in the church. Here’s why that matters: You need to know how people will evaluate you, but you also need to know how things actually get done. Sometimes they line up and sometimes they don’t.

4. Describe someone that would not fit the culture of your church. Again, you are trying to ask open-ended questions that paint a picture. If you ask, “Tell me about your culture” you will often hear what you want to hear or what they think they should say as a church. This question will cause the team to think back to employees who didn’t make it, people who upset the DNA and “the way things are done here.”

5. Describe how a difficult leadership situation was handled. You want to find out how conflict is handled in the church. Every church has conflicts. You will have conflicts at some point with a coworker, another elder, or a family in the church. How is that handled? How is sin handled? The way past situations were handled will give you a clue as to how future situations will be handled until you are able to influence the culture. It will also tell you how they handle sin and extend grace, and what compassion in a church looks like.

6. What is your ideal pastoral family? The reason I like to phrase it this way is it causes them to tell a story. If you ask, “What are your expectations for my wife and kids?” they might try to answer it in the way you want. Yes, they still might do that. But this way, you allow them to think about what is their ideal pastoral family?

7. Why do new people come back to your church? This question helps you to see a few things: do they have new people that come to their church? Do they get information from those guests? Do they track it and utilize it? This question also helps you to see what the community around the church might think of the church.

Three final tips:

Three tips for interviewing a church.

Define the words they use. Churches are very good at throwing out buzzwords like relevant, collaborative, humble, generous, etc. So when they do, ask them to define those words. For example, when a church says it is generous, ask who experiences that generosity. Is it the staff? The community around them? The church itself?
Find the influencer. This is not really a question you can ask but something you must discover at any church you are interviewing: Who is the biggest influencer in the church? I made the mistake once in an interview process of assuming I knew the answer to this and it bit me once I took the job. The biggest influencer is not always the person who sits at the top, has been there the longest, or has the most visible power. But every organization, church, and team resembles someone. Figuring out who that person is will be crucial to your success in a new role.
Get financial and attendance data. I realize that coming out of covid this can be hard and not 100% accurate, but it is important. It tells a story, that’s what data does. I interviewed with one church that described themselves as growing and healthy but then they hit covid. However, as I dug into their data it showed they grew a lot in 2016 – 2018, plateaued and started to decline in 2019 and then hit covid. When I asked what happened in 2019, they pushed back and said that was an aberration. Maybe. But it is important to hear what the church thinks its data says, what story they think it tells.

7 questions and 3 tips for your next interview with a church.

Final thought: Know what answers you are looking for when you interview a church. They know what answers they want to hear from you. What will be a deal-breaker for you? What will cause a red flag to wave? My favorite answer, and one thing that stood out when I interviewed the team at Community Covenant, came when I asked them what would make me successful in 3 years. One of their elders said, “That your family would be glad you moved here.” When I asked that question of every other church, no one mentioned my family. That isn’t a deal breaker, but it was a big thing for me in this move. You need to know what those things are for you.

Posted on Monday, June 21, 2021

How to Lead When You Aren’t in Charge

by Josh Reich

Leadership is hard. That isn’t news.

It is hard to lead people. It is hard to lead followers. It is hard to lead those under you or those who work next to you on the organizational chart (you know, the ones you can’t make do something.)

It is tough to lead those over you, to lead up.

Yet, to get anywhere in leadership, you must learn to lead up.

Why?

The person above you probably controls your budget, your salary, your benefits, and if what you want to do gets done. They can decide what you will work on, what your team will get to do, how large your team is and how much budget your team gets. The list goes on and on.

The person above you potentially controls a lot.

To accomplish what you want to accomplish at work and in your life, you need to lead them well.

So how do you lead up? Here are 3 ways to lead up and accomplish what God has called you to without losing your leadership.

Because don’t mistake this: if you don’t lead up well, you will have a hard time fulfilling your potential and reaching your goals.

If you don’t lead up well, you will have a hard time fulfilling your potential and reaching your goals.

1. Affirm and back their vision. Right now, if you aren’t the leader at the top of the organizational chart, you are a follower. If you can’t follow well, you can’t lead well. What if you don’t support their vision? Unless it isn’t biblical, you chose to be there. It would be best if you were submissive to that. As long as it isn’t heretical, just different from what you would do, follow well. Having sat in both the first chair and the second chair of churches, it is easy to think you know what is best or how you would do it better when you aren’t the leader. The reality is, you only see what you see. So while it might seem right from your vantage point, remember, it is just that—your vantage point. You don’t know how your ideas would affect everyone. You don’t know the entire history of things or what has been tried before. You also don’t know what other leaders are working on.

2. Be patient. Your timing is not God’s timing. I knew when I was 21 that I would one day plant a church. I didn’t know where or when, but I knew. It was when I was 29 in a state I had never set foot in before. Those 8 years were hard, sometimes painful, but they were formative. Be in the moment. Seek to learn what you can. If you aren’t in charge, relish that. Prepare for when you are. Watch. Listen. Ask questions. Seek out mentors that will help you in the future. Read books. Be ready for when God says, “Go.” The time that you are “waiting” is not wasted time but a time of preparation.

3. Risk when the time is right. If you are being a good follower, showing character and integrity, and being patient, you will know when to risk and what to risk. You will know when to push back on ideas and when to keep your mouth shut. You will also know when you should leave or stay in your role. Your boss may not be all that you want them to be, but they also may be helping you in ways you don’t know. So support them. Ask them for more leadership opportunities, give ideas, and share your dreams. But you also need to know if you should stay, as seasons in life and ministry change.

This is a timing and heart issue. I’ve watched countless guys say “Go,” and it was terrible timing for them, their families, and the church they left. Can God overcome anything and call anyone at any time? Yes. God is also wise and doesn’t always call us to the stupidest thing we could do. If you think, “Is this stupid? That must be God’s will for my life.” That is a terrible way to discern that. But lots of people equate crazy risk with stupid. Don’t put your family in a bind. Don’t put the church you are leaving in a bind. Remember, the way you leave a church is how they will remember you. They will forget everything else you did.

The way you leave one ministry is how you will start the next ministry.

One last caveat. Not everyone is supposed to lead the team or organization. Too many people get promoted one level past their level of competency, which is heartbreaking to watch and brutal for that person to walk through. However, many of us need to learn that lesson the hard way. Be wise in that step. Pay attention to what those who love you and trust you say to you about your gifts. Don’t just listen to your “fans.”

Posted on Monday, June 14, 2021

Finding the Heart of a Church

by Josh Reich

When you interview at a church, you are putting your best foot forward. You look your best, sound your best, tell all your best stories and talk about your strengths as a person and a leader. The church is doing the same thing. They are talking about their potential, what God has done, what they hope God will do, and how amazing and friendly their church is.

And this is normal.

But the reality isn’t always that way. You and the church aren’t as amazing as you sound or appear. The stories you and they tell aren’t lies; you are all just glossing over some things.

One of the things I learned over the last season as I interviewed for Pastor roles in churches around the country is how to find the heart of a church. Before you take a job and move your family (possibly across the country) it is important that you make sure your desires and the desires of the church line up. Do you have the same passions? This is different from the theology and philosophy of ministry. This is getting at that sneaky thing called fit.

So, how do you determine fit? How do you make sure that you see through the feeling you get on a call to really make sure that your heart and the heart of the church line up?

Finding the right ministry fit for you.

Here are a few things that helped me:

1. Pay attention to the questions they ask. The questions a church asks will tell you so much. It will tell you what they think is important, what kind of pastor they are looking for and what kind of church they are. If a church asks a lot of questions about your family or marriage, they tell you about some of their expectations for you and your family. Or maybe they are talking about a wound they have because their last pastor had an issue in that area (more on that later). If they ask many theology questions that are big issues to them but aren’t to you, that is communicating something important. Pay attention to it.

The questions a search team asks you, tells you about the church.

2. Ask about their dreams and desires as a church. One of the most important questions I think you can ask a prospective church is, “If money wasn’t a barrier and the Holy Spirit answers every one of your prayers for your church, what does it look like in 5 years?” Here’s why this question is so important: This question tells you where they are hoping their church goes, what the promised land is for their church, and as the possible next lead pastor they are hoping you will take them there. I remember talking to several churches and asking this question and thinking, “That’s a great answer, but I don’t want to go there.”

How to interview a church that is interviewing you.

3. Determine which values are real and which ones are aspirational (and try to determine if the aspirational ones are real or just ones they think they should have.) Every church has values. Some values are real and some are ones they hope are real (aspirational), and some are ones they think they should have because they are a church. Every church values discipleship and evangelism. But not every church practices those things. Ask questions around definitions. Ask for examples. When they use buzzwords like authenticity, community, family, relevant, ask what those words mean to them and how they get played out. Every church would say generosity is important but is that generosity directed at the staff, the church, the world around the church? Who feels that generosity? This doesn’t mean you take a church off your list because of values (although it might), but values will help you see the church’s culture and how they operate.

How to determine real and aspirational values in a church.

4. Pay attention to how they communicate. In an interview, how you communicate to a church tells the church something about you. Are you punctual? Do you get back to them in a good amount of time? The same is true for a church. I talked with one church and then didn’t hear from them for 4 weeks. When they finally got back to me about another interview, I pulled back. The lack of communication told me something about the church and how it operated. Remember, in an interview churches are putting their best foot forward, so if something feels off in an interview, there’s a good chance there is something off.

5. Listen to how they talk about their previous pastor. The way a church talks about their previous pastor is also how they might one day talk about you because you will be a previous pastor one day. But in how they talk about their previous pastor, they tell you what happened, what they are looking for, and if they have grieved the loss of that pastor and are ready to move forward. Many churches are not yet ready for a new pastor, which often leads to being an unintentional interim pastor.

5 ways to determine if a church job is a fit for you.

Too often, potential pastors simply look at theology and philosophy of ministry. While those are very, very important, the heart of a church is how those play out, and lining up with a potential church in that way is just as important for a pastor and their family.

Posted on Monday, June 7, 2021

Building Your Leadership Muscles

by Josh Reich

I remember a few years ago getting a call from a fellow church planter, and he said, “This is the first time in the history of our church that we are behind in budget; what do I do? How do I talk about giving without sounding desperate?”

If you’re a leader, you’ve had times when you felt unprepared for the moment of leadership required.

There are different leadership muscles.

There is a muscle that starts things, manages things, closes things down. There is a muscle to make a change, create a legacy, honor the past, and see the future. There is a muscle that leads through a crisis.

And something I’ve seen over this past year: there is a certain leadership muscle to lead while a church is growing and momentum is everywhere; and a different leadership muscle when it is not growing and there is no momentum.

Often, when they hit a new season or a new challenge, I think leaders can shrink from it. They can try to pull from the playbook that worked before instead of learning how to navigate a new season, a new challenge, or a new world.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you grow your leadership muscles for new challenges:

Three ways to grow your leadership muscles for the challenges ahead.

Stay humble and listen. The older we get as leaders, the easier it is to think we know it all. We’ve done things, grown things, accomplished great things, so we’ve got this. And while some of that may be true, we need to stay humble and listen. In humility we can hear others, we can hear God, but we can also hear the rumblings in our own hearts. I often think in transitions and difficulties, leaders know what to do but are afraid to do it. Staying humble and listening can help a leader have the fortitude to move forward.
Learn from anyone. Often as pastors we tend to learn only from other pastors. But as we navigate new seasons we can and should learn from anyone. This is part of humility. If we aren’t humble we can start to think we have done it all before. This might cause us to dismiss a younger staff member and their ideas. Or, we might think that the person who is questioning things “isn’t bought in” when the reality is they may see something we don’t.
Experiment. If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that we can and should experiment. Our teams and people are more ready for it than we give them credit. As we move in and out of challenges and seasons, as leaders we should get really good at saying, “We’re going to try this…” and see how it goes.

As we develop new muscles as leaders, we also develop new muscles for our churches and teams. This is incredibly important because we need resilient teams and churches that can thrive in many environments and challenges.

Build your leadership muscles.

Posted on Monday, May 10, 2021

The Tensions Leaders Feel

by Josh Reich

Leaders and pastors live with a tension that everyone experiences in life, but is different on an organizational level.

It is the tension of the in-between. Pastors lead and live in the now of the church, but also with what could be: their vision for the future and where things are going, or where they’d like them to be.

A leader has one foot in the future and one foot in the present, which creates enormous tension.

As a leader, you walk into a room and see what is, but also what it could be. This is positive and exciting but it can also be deflating at different times.

A leader often knows what is coming, the changes that are going to be made, the momentum that can be had because of those steps, but often has to wait. It might be waiting on a new hire, waiting for things to settle down at a church or for the summer season to end so you can get started.

As a leader, right now you are stuck with this tension. And it won’t go away. It will simply shift to something new. Six months from now you will be waiting on something different to happen.

If you aren’t careful as a pastor, this tension can rob you of the joy of leading. It can also make you miss what is happening in your church right now.

If you aren’t careful as a pastor, the tension of leadership can rob you of the joy of pastoring.

Here are 5 ways to survive this tension & thrive in it:

1. Enjoy where you are. This is hard for leaders because we are wired to keep moving. But, you are in a certain season, embrace it. Your church is a certain size, enjoy it. There are things a small church can do that a larger church can’t and vice versa. This is the battle of contentment for leaders and if we lose it, it will rob us of our joy.

How to enjoy where your church is.

2. Make sure things are in place for what is next. Many pastors, by nature, are not strong planners. They often fly by their seat, spend a lot of time focused on people and find themselves behind the curve on something. This is why it is so important to make time to work on your church, not just in it. If you are growing, do you have enough groups for people? Are you prepared to add classes for kids? What about parking spaces?

3. Start looking past what is next. At some point, you need to start preparing for what comes after what is next. Meaning, you just grew your church plant to 100 people and are on your way to 200, you need to begin thinking about what your church will be like at 400. Why? There’s a good chance you will do something at 200 to keep you from growing to 400. The same is true as people are coming back to church and you are regathering people after covid. Are you doing anything right now that can slow down momentum? Too often we simply do things and we don’t pull back to ask if they will help us or hinder us from what is next.

4. Listen to the fears that people have. As you are making plans and getting key leaders on board for what is next, you will run into someone who is not excited about what is next and may even hold you back. This person is not the enemy, although you will think they are. They may be crucial to slowing you down (which might be good), they might be God’s way of helping you grow as a leader, or you might be God’s way of helping them grow through their fears. Each person and situation is different, but don’t disregard someone who is not as excited as you are about what is next. You should always be more excited than everyone else, you’re the leader. For me, I’ve had to learn to pay attention to the hesitancy or questions of others as they have helped me when I overlooked something or was moving too quickly.

5. Plan for what is next. All growth means change. If your church gets larger, changes are coming. You will need to hand things off to people. Leaders who worked well in a church of 100 won’t be the leaders you need at 400 and beyond. Your schedule will be busier, which will make sermon prep, meeting with people and strategizing harder because you will need to plan better. Everything is different at each stage of your church. Many leaders blindly walk into the next season, get busier and burn out because they haven’t planned for what is next. So make sure that you are regularly pulling back to look at your top priorities as a leader and your schedule to ask, “Is this sustainable? Am I doing the right things? What do I need to pass off to others? Who do I need to develop?”

5 ways to handle tension as a leader.

Posted on Monday, April 26, 2021

Four Things that Really Matter in Leadership

by Josh Reich

Lots of things matter in leadership. A leader must do many things: there are tasks they must complete and characteristics or traits they must have.

If you look at effective leaders you will often find similarities between them, regardless of age or experience.

Here are 4 things that really matter in leadership but are often overlooked.

4 things that really matter in leadership, but are often overlooked.

1. Body language. We all know that feeling: the feeling that we are talking to someone, trying to connect with them, and they aren’t listening. Maybe they are scrolling on their phone, thinking about something else, or just waiting for us to stop talking so they can jump in.

How does that feel?

It’s deflating. It makes us feel uncared for. It tells us there are people or things that are more important than us.

Leaders do this all the time in meetings. I know it is a constant battle for me. What makes a leader successful is they often know something before the rest of the group. They know (or think they know) what someone might say, what the group will decide, what the right decision is, or what the way forward is. Thus, it is easy for a leader to tune out or rush things in a meeting because of this intuitiveness.

This can happen by cutting the conversation short, looking bored, picking up your phone, or any number of ways. But your body language and your movements communicate, and they communicate loudly.

This has become an even bigger deal in the last year with more and more meetings moving onto Zoom. Your face is bigger and more obvious now than ever before.

There is nothing worse than sitting in a meeting and thinking, “That person doesn’t want to be here. They are just waiting for this thing to end.”

This means as a leader, wherever you are, be there. If you need to be in fewer meetings so you are more present in the ones you are in, do so. If you need to schedule more breaks in your day to recharge yourself, do so. Turn your phone over and turn off your notifications so that you can give your attention to the people in front of you.

Your body language not only sets the tone of the meeting and communicates to your team how you feel, but it also tells your team what is expected of them and what they can and can’t do.

Why your body language matters in leadership.

2. Clarity. Patrick Lencioni says, “A leader is to create clarity, communicate clarity, and then over-communicate clarity.”

A leader is to create clarity, communicate clarity, and then over-communicate clarity.” -Patrick Lencioni

Clarity, clarity, clarity.

Is this overkill? No.

Leaders often think, “If it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.” Or, “I always talk about why we do what we do.”

The reality is, though, you don’t. And people forget.

A pastor or leader must continually say, “We are doing ____ because ______.”

A pastor or leader must continually say, “We are doing ____ because ______.

If you aren’t a leader it is incredibly deflating if you don’t know why you are doing something. Suppose you don’t see any value or movement on something. You start to wonder, what is the point?

Not only does clarity matter, you must also communicate the correct things. There is no faster way to lose credibility than to say things that aren’t true or are disingenuous. Clarity must be communicated about where a church or organization is, not where you think it is or where you’d like it to be. Data doesn’t tell the whole story but it does tell part of the story. If your church isn’t growing, face it, and be clear about why and how to move forward. If something isn’t working, be honest about it. If it is working, celebrate that and make it better.

Data doesn’t tell the whole story, but it does tell part of the story.

Make no mistake; you are already communicating clarity about something. You celebrate something on your team. You track one thing but not another. You celebrate certain people for certain things and overlook other people for other things.

That’s clarity.

Regularly a leader must ask, “Are we tracking, celebrating, and going after the right things?” It is easy to focus on short-term things instead of the long game. That doesn’t make those things wrong, but you have to evaluate if you are clear about the right thing periodically.

Clarity is a gift a leader must continually give to the team.

3. Lasting. If you’ve been a pastor or ministry leader any length of time, you know someone who is no longer in the leadership game. Maybe they burned out; maybe they slept with someone they weren’t married to; maybe they made poor decisions financially; or they got discouraged and threw in the towel.

Now, there are times we should step out of being a leader. Maybe it is a season where you take a break or do something else. I know many ministry leaders in the last year who got tired and transitioned into other fields. That isn’t what I’m talking about here.

I’m talking about the small ways we sabotage ourselves and the leadership, taking us out of the game, things that end our run before it should end.

Pastor, it is your job to watch your soul; guard your marriage; eat well; sleep well; and get enough exercise. It is your job to make sure you are filling yourself so that you can fill others.

How we do this and what it involves will often depend on our life stage, needs, and personality. I’m a creature of habit so I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch. Part of that is tracking my macros, but also, if I don’t have to think about those things I’m saving mental energy for other things.

One thing leaders need to think more about is the rhythm of their weeks. When are they the freshest or the most tired? When do they run out of steam each day, and when should they finish work? Knowing this will help you figure out which meetings or tasks don’t take as much mental energy as others. Do those in the times when you are the most tired.

Make sure that what matters most gets on your calendar first. Schedule in breaks and make sure you look ahead to see what is coming up to make sure you don’t stack busy weeks and months on top of each other.

4. Passion. If one thing has become clear over this past year, it is that it takes a lot of energy and stamina to be excited. Yes, there hasn’t been a lot to be excited about. The last year with covid, the election and a whole list of other things have made it difficult to be passionate about leading anything. Many of the things we used to do have been taken away and we aren’t certain what the future will hold.

But leader don’t forget: you set the tone for your team and church when it comes to passion and excitement.

As a leader, you set the tone for your team and church when it comes to passion and excitement.

Maybe you need to change the goals you had as a team or start something new. Maybe you need to learn from someone else who is blazing a new trail, or watch a leadership talk that will fire you up. But you must remind yourself why you do what you do.

One of my favorite things at our church is to stand out in the courtyard and watch people get baptized. To see the tears, the hugs from families, to watch parents baptize their kids, and to hear people talk about their stories. It inspires me every time and reminds me, “This is why I do what I do, to see lives changed by the gospel.”

Whatever that is for you, please find it and remind yourself, often.

You must keep your passion high. Yes, it’s hard to do. Leading is tiring. Covid has exhausted us all. But we need you to stay in the game. Your church needs your passion and vision.

Pastor, we need you to stay in the game. Your church needs your passion and vision.

Never forget: if you are a leader right now, God has wired you to lead at this moment, in this time. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, you’ve got this.

If you are a pastor or leader right now, God has wired you to lead at this moment, in this time.

Posted on Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Keeping Your Team on the Same Page

by Josh Reich

Have you ever had this experience: You look at things your team or staff is doing, you look at programs at your church and wonder, why are they doing that? Why are we doing that?

Most leaders will shrug and let it go because they trust their team, and they assume there is a good reason they are doing that. There is a good reason we are doing that. And, let’s be honest, as leaders, we have so many other things to do.

But at this moment, the leader actually pushes one of their main tasks to the side.

The task that very few leaders like and keep your team, keeping your church or organization aligned.

Leaders like creativity, strategizing, and brainstorming to develop ideas, but the actual alignment management isn’t enjoyable. In fact, it can be exhausting. And, as leaders, we often think, “If it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.”

Leaders too often think, “If it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.”

No matter how long a team is together, one of the most difficult and important tasks of the leader is to keep everyone on the same page.

It is easy as a leader to think, “We all know what the mission is, so we’re good.” Or, many leaders think, if it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.

Many leaders think, if it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.

Like a car, one of the most important things for a church or team is alignment.

On any team, alignment is crucial.

If your vision, word for the year, or goal involves more than you, alignment is crucial.

But like a car, you must pay attention to it because alignment isn’t natural.

It takes attention and care.

Andy Stanley said, “Visions thrive in an environment of unity. They die in an environment of disunity.”

Visions thrive in an environment of unity. They die in an environment of disunity. -Andy Stanley

I remember talking to a couple once whose marriage hit hard times, and they were talking about getting divorced, and I asked them why. They looked at me and said, “We no longer have the same goals, the same dream.” They started with it, but slowly, they stopped working together, and their lives went in different directions.

Alignment takes care and attention.

And like a car, we often overlook the warning signs of alignment at work, home, and in life.

But, for a vision, goal, word for the year to come to fruition, staying aligned is crucial.

How do you know if the alignment is off course? Here are a few ways:

People start having competing wins.
People start fighting for stage time or platform time for “their thing.”
Leaders can’t articulate the overall “why” for the church or the “why” is different.

So, what do you do as a leader or team to keep alignment?

Ensure everyone can articulate why you are doing something, who you are trying to reach with it, or the goal for a ministry or event.
Once that is clear, continually communicate it and keep it in front of people.
Listen for anything that sounds like something different than #1, and gently move your team back to the focus.

Yes, this is hard. Yes, this never ends.

But that is the job of a leader. Otherwise, you won’t get to the place you set out to get to.

Posted on Tuesday, January 19, 2021

The Best Advice I’ve Gotten in the Last 5 Years

by Josh Reich

Sometimes, someone will say something to us that will stop us in our tracks.

I had a moment like that five years ago.

Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given.

I was at The Leaders Journey, a formative 3-year journey for Katie and me. But over lunch one day, I was talking with one of the leaders about that. He’s an older pastor and counselor who said something that stopped me in my tracks.

He looked at me and said, “Josh, in your 20’s and 30’s, you have the energy to outrun your story and scars, but in your 40’s and 50’s, you don’t.”

At the time, I didn’t think I truly understood how important this truth is or how often I would think about it and refer back to it in my own thinking and conversations with others.

As I entered my 40s, I saw this to be true. But I have also seen it not only in my story but the story of others.

In your 20’s and 30’s, you have the energy to outrun your story and scars, but in your 40’s and 50’s, you don’t. -Jim Cofield

There are a few reasons for that.

In our 40’s, we often wake up one day and look at our lives and think, “I thought I’d be somewhere different by now.” Maybe you thought you’d be married or have kids by now or that those things would be different than they are. Maybe you thought you’d finish school, start a business by now or be further along financially than you are.

Another reason is in our 20’s and 30’s, we are building things. There is a lot of time left when things don’t work as expected. If you lose a job in your 20s or fail at work or school, it feels easier to brush it off and move on. In our 40’s and 50’s, life feels shorter. The days feel shorter. More responsibilities are placed on us, and it is harder for us to think about those dreams.

Third, we dream a lot in our 20’s and 30’s. I talk to very few people over 40 still dreaming and hoping for the future. Many of us fall into this rut of thinking nothing in our lives can change or move forward. Many of us think this is how it is and this is how it will always be.

And lastly, in our 20’s and 30’s, we have the energy to work and work. We have the energy to pretend things aren’t there, and we fill our days and weeks with many things to keep us busy. We don’t think about our stories and scars. Later in life, our energy goes down, and slowly, we can’t outrun our story anymore. We come face to face with what has happened to us and what we have done.

The reality is, your story can be changed and redeemed at any point, but the longer we live with our story without changing it, the easier it feels not to change or to lose hope and think it can never change.

It makes sense. The older we get, the more of life we experience.

The older I get, the more acquainted with unmet expectations I become.

The more I see the door to disappointment and cynicism.

One of my favorite quotes about this idea is from Lysa TerKeurst: “Sometimes, to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like.”

Sometimes, to get your life back, you must face the death of what you thought your life would look like. -Lysa TerKeurst

Unless you wrestle with your story, you will always chase those things that fill the broken places. Part of being able to dream is allowing God to heal those places.

I heard Gordon MacDonald, a pastor in his 80’s, say recently: “At some point in your life, to be a happy old person, you must decide what kind of older person you want to become and then move towards that.” Otherwise, you end up miserable because old age catches you by surprise.

At some point in your life, to be a happy old person, you must decide what kind of older person you want to become and then move towards that. -Gordon MacDonald

Posted on Thursday, August 27, 2020

5 Thoughts from Moderating a Conversation on Race

by Josh Reich

This week, my church hosted a deeper dive into the topic of racism. I was so proud of my church. To engage in such a difficult, and deeply felt topic, and to do it with grace. From those on stage to the chat hosts, our whole team handled everything with such grace and courage. I know we took some hits for it and that we have received some nasty emails, but the overall response was one of incredible thankfulness.

The deeper dives are one of my favorite experiments we’ve tried in this covid world. The conversation last night was incredibly helpful, courageous, gracious, and uncomfortable. As a dad of a black son, I’ve learned a lot over the years as I try to prepare Judah to be a black man in America, which is different than being a white man in America because whether we want to admit it, white privilege is real.

I have a long way to go in that understanding and education, but I’m trying. I thought I would take a moment and share a few reflections, what I learned in moderating the conversation and how we can engage together:

5 thoughts from moderating a conversation on race.

1. Decide this conversation is worth engaging in. I am proud of my church for deciding to have this conversation. This isn’t the only time we’ve talked about this at my church or even the last time. But I am thankful that we have it. I know that we lost some people because of it,, but I also know that we gained and impacted some people. And no, that isn’t a reason to do it, but it is a reality of leadership.

I think many of us, either because of ignorance, fear (which we’ll talk about), or simply because other things are happening in front of us, we don’t engage in this conversation. We don’t learn; we don’t listen, we don’t step into it. As leaders, we must. We can’t sit on the sideline and do nothing or say nothing.

But this is a conversation; it takes two people and conversations happen both ways. When it comes to race, we must engage together, listening, and learning. Asking questions, being willing to stumble over words, asking what seems like a dumb question, extending grace when someone says something they shouldn’t, or struggles to see if from your perspective.

Too often, we assume we know what the other person thinks. There were several things that Pastor Grady said last night and thought, “I’ve never heard that before.” Or, “I never thought about it from that angle.”

Too often, and I’ll speak just for me, I can think I know all that there is to know. Or I can assume that because I read one book or a blog post, that I know what everyone experiences. I can easily assume that because I experienced something or haven’t experienced something, that everyone has my worldview.

2. Talking about racism is uncomfortable. The reality is, this is an uncomfortable conversation. It is uncomfortable because many of us don’t know what to say; we don’t know where to start; we struggle to understand our own story and the story of others. We struggle to see their perspective and understand what it is like to be ____ in America.

I am consistently humbled by the grace extended to me by my African American friends and pastors in Tucson. They graciously keep coming to the table to talk, to listen, to press in.

So, as a white person, it is difficult and uncomfortable. But I remember hearing a black pastor say, “If you think it’s uncomfortable talking about racism, imagine experiencing it.”

I have grown to discover that I have very little idea of the pain that African Americans feel and carry because of racism. Talking about racism, what lies in my heart is hard to do because it means I must confront sin in me and in the systems that live in our culture.

And yes, systemic racism and white privilege exist. They are not made up or imagined things, but part of the conversation we must have and things we must confront.

3. It really is possible to have a conversation about racism. This deeper dive happened because almost 10 years ago, two pastors: a white and a black one, decided to have a conversation and build a friendship. They talked about their differences and learned they had more in common, but they also learned together.

Humility.

That is one of the keys to any learning and conversation, but especially one on race.

Humility to face the things you’ve done and face the things people have done in the past.

Yes, there is a good chance you will ask a question that you will feel dumb when you ask it. You might say something offensive or hurt someone’s feelings, but apologize to them quickly and make it right. Repent and ask for help. That is humility.

Humility is the key to a conversation on race.

The friendship between Glen and Grady is a great reminder for people my age and younger: we stand on the shoulders of the men and women who have come before us, the leaders who have blazed the trails we walk on. If you walk in a smooth path, someone cleared that for you. If you encounter a path that is not clear, clear that path for the next generation.

If you walk in a smooth path, someone cleared that for you. If you encounter a path that is not clear, clear that path for the next generation.

4. There are a lot of scared people in our country. Every day on social media, there are stories upon stories of the fears that our African American brothers and sisters carry. Fears of walking out the door, being pulled over, shot in the back. Those fears are real, and they cannot be brushed aside.

There is a fear of how fast things are changing and honestly, the changes that I think bring about fear in many white people is the loss of the world they’ve known. The majority culture is being confronted and that isn’t a bad thing. We must learn what is in our history, what has been done and “what we have always known.”

When my kids play with other kids, I watch the eyes of the other dad’s. They are on Judah, not my other boys. I don’t think they do that on purpose, but they are watching him play with their kids, especially if they have a daughter. What makes them afraid of him? My soft-spoken black son. Someone, somewhere, taught them to be afraid. I heard it growing up and that is the places of our stories and histories we need to repent of and face.

Don’t let fear keep you from confronting racism or talking about racism.

5. Educate yourself. Change starts with you, with one person.

One thing I was reminded of last night is that people really do want to learn and engage. Yes, there are people on all sides of an issue that have no desire to listen, no desire to learn, and just want to shut it down. But most people aren’t like that. At our deeper dive, people asked questions, raised issues, but I imagine they leaned in and listened. I’ve heard from so many people who have said thanks, thank you for pressing in on this and pushing us. Right now, my wife is taking our kids through a book about things I never learned in history and it is uncomfortable but we need to know those things.

If you go to our deeper dive page, there is a list of resources to help you move forward in this conversation.

I loved what Grady said, change in our culture will come from the church, not the government. We cannot sit on the sidelines. I want to be a part of that, and I’m trying to learn how to do that.

Change in our culture will come from the church, not the government.

Posted on Monday, August 24, 2020

Three Things to do Right Now to Strengthen Your Church

by Josh Reich

Leading right now isn’t easy as leaders everywhere are trying to figure out what is coming next.

But if we aren’t careful, we will waste a crucial opportunity and moment right in front of us.

Yes, we need to pivot and make decisions to keep moving forward today, but this is a great opportunity to take a look under your church’s hood so that you come out of Covid stronger than when you went into this pandemic.

How do you do that?

By working on your church, not just in your church.

This pandemic is when you should work on your church, not just in your church.

At my church, we have talked about three simple ideas. Three simple words to do this:

Simplify. Back when churches began pivoting to online, I saw Warren Bird say on twitter, “Insight: church leaders have a window of “permission” to make changes they’ve wanted to make for years. Example: Looking for an excuse to re-organize a ministry? Plan it now, and then roll it out when we’re able to meet again.” Right now, you have scaled back your ministries. You are doing less in your student ministry, kids ministry, small groups, classes, etc.

Here are some questions to ask with your team:

The things we cut out, do we need them? Did they actually add the value that we thought they did?
Does what we do, does it produce the kind of disciples and leaders we want to produce?
Do we have the staff to do the things we used to do?

Questions to ask to help your church simplify.

When your church regathers, it should not go back to business as usual and do what it used to do.

Rebuild. Many of your staff and ministries might be exhausted, run-down, not at full capacity. You may need to hire some people or develop new leaders for the future.

Here are some questions to ask:

Are our tanks empty or full?
How are we doing spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and relationally? What can we do to improve those?
What ministries need to be rebuilt?
What ministries and processes need to be retooled or added to for the future?

Questions to ask to help your church rebuild after Covid.

Digitize. The digital church has been growing across America and the world for several years, but this crisis has sped it up. The digital church isn’t going away, so you must figure out what part it will play in your ministry as a church. These questions have enormous implications and are not simply philosophical but also theological.

Here are a few questions to work through with your team:

What part will the digital church play for us?
Is the digital church a front door to Sunday morning?
Are we physical locations with a digital church, or are we a digital church with physical locations?
Do we provide a digital option for every physical option? If not, what do we need to provide a digital option for?
What staff do we need to provide more digital options?

Questions to ask your church staff about the future of the digital church.

This is a crucial moment for churches, not just in terms of changing what we do, but in coming out of this healthier and stronger than when it started back in March.

Don’t waste the opportunity in front of you!

3 things every church should do right now to come out of covid stronger and healthier.