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 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 Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Relaunching Your Church

by Josh Reich

church

As churches across America (and the world) begin to regather and move towards a hybrid model, pastors & teams try to figure out what that looks like. The difficulty for churches is that this crisis sped up the trends that were already unfolding in faith and church culture.

In many ways, this reminds me a lot of what it was like to plant a church. You don’t know how many people will come back, who will come back, or even what it will look like when they show up. The nervousness a church planter feels as he leads his team to set up and tear down, pass out invite cards, and spread the word, describes a lot of what pastors are feeling right now. What makes this even more complicated, though, is how weary pastors are right now.

Before we get to the ideas and questions, pastors, please care for your soul. Take the time to refill your own heart so that you can lead with your whole self. Take some time to mourn the losses that you have experienced personally and as a leader in this season. Don’t just rush into things, but make sure you take time to breathe.

So, as you regather and move into a new normal, here are some ideas and questions to be asking:

1. Who are we trying to reach? This is church 101, but it is easy to forget. Many churches say they are trying to reach everyone, which is true, but we reach a particular person along the way. Some churches proclaim loudly who they are trying to reach, and others are more subtle about it. That is a leadership perspective, but the point is, your team needs to know who you are best suited to reach as a church.

This becomes even more important as church changes into this hybrid world of digital and physical, and resources are stretched, and staff roles are reallocated.

In a post-covid world, who you are trying to reach?

Here are a few reasons this matters:

As you communicate as a church through email, stories, social media, video content, etc. Your target determines what is in those communication pieces. If it is young families, you will highlight kids and student content. If it is empty-nesters, that will change.
Your target can also determine which platforms you spend more time on and focus on. Different age groups use different platforms for content and connecting.
It will determine your teaching calendar and video content and how you deliver that content.
Your target, their political leanings, and worldview (what matters to them in covid and a post-covid world) could have an impact on when you reopen and what that looks like.

Questions to ask as your church regathers.

2. Clarify your engagement and formation pathways. This idea came from the book Intentional Churches: How Implementing an Operating System Clarifies Vision, Improves Decision-Making, and Stimulates Growth; in it, the authors make the point that a church’s engagement pathway is different from its formation or discipleship pathway.

Yes, these pathways are deeply connected, but in this new world, we must clarify these.

Your engagement and discipleship pathways are not the same.

Think for a moment; what do you do as a church that engages people? Where people engage with your church? You can list those things out. While some of those things form people, many of them are simply about engaging with them. That’s okay. Clarify that as a team.

In many churches, we have taken all of these paths and made them one thing. In a digital or hybrid world, I think it has revealed for some churches that it either doesn’t work or is very confusing.

3. How do you truly form people? Spiritual formation & discipleship have always been important, but it is becoming more important in this new world. As one pastor recently pointed out, one of the big shifts in the future is from attendance and buildings to engagement and formation. One thing that covid has shown us is that many churches have not formed their people well.

To form your people, you must clarify what a follower of Jesus is being formed in the way of Jesus looks like and then move towards that. Rich Villodas’s new book The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus is a great picture of what that might look like for churches moving forward.

Ideas to work through as a church staff as your church regathers.

4. What things do you need to start or stop doing? This is a transition point in our world and a great opportunity to ask, based on where we are and where we are headed, to ask what you need to start doing or stop doing.

Everything you did as a church pre-covid doesn’t need to continue. A disruption like we have experienced is a great opportunity to ask what is next, what is working, what is not working, what is not clear for your church, and then move forward.

In the end, this moment is a great opportunity to dream as a leader, to ask God what is next, and to forge a new or renewed path as a church.

Posted on Wednesday, October 7, 2020

One Tweak that Took my Preaching to a New Level

by Josh Reich

One of my favorite parts of being a pastor is opening up God’s word and preach. To see how God changes people, how He moves them along in their spiritual journeys, and when people have that aha moment of clarity from a sermon.

It is incredible.

Over the years, I have always tried to improve my preaching, but my preaching has gone to a new level in the last year.

And I believe a big part of that is because of the teaching process we have at Pantano.

I didn’t create this, but have greatly benefited and thought I’d share what we do.

The preaching process at our church.

Like most churches, we plan our teaching calendar out a year in advance. So in August of 2019, we laid out our 2020 calendar of series, topics, speakers, etc. Heading into 2021, because of what 2020 has taught us, we will only plan the first 6 months, so it gives us a shorter runway of topics.

Once the series is laid out, each series is assigned a creator. This creator lays out the passages, the main idea, and the next steps. While these will often get changed by the team, it is a launching off point. The goal is to hand the creative team and the teaching team a roughly half done series.

This all happens 10 – 12 weeks before a series is taught. So the creative team can begin working on stories, videos, and other elements.

The importance of planning your preaching.

At this point, the teachers have what they are doing, and so does the rest of the team.

13 days before a sermon is taught, the notes are handed to the teacher’s teaching team for them to be reviewed. This team is made of men and women, all ages and personalities. This team is looking for inconsitencies, places where the teacher didn’t go deep enough or far enough or went too deep into the weeds. This team helps to make sure the sermon makes sense, has a good flow, enough personal stories in it, and makes sure that we speak to each person in our church, to the best of our ability.

This team has saved me many times.

Once the teacher has feedback and this team has about a week to give it, they go back to work, going through the comments on a google doc.

How my preaching went to a new level.

Then, on the Thursday before teaching, we do a live run-through for our teaching and creative team.

No matter who you are, everyone does it live.

At first, this can feel really awkward because you roll into the room and go. But as we have seen in covid, many of us ended up doing this anyway.

For a communicator, this is one of the best things you can do for your preaching.

Why?

You get the feel of a joke; you get the feel of a story. You can work on your eye contact in the room and as it relates to a camera. The team can give feedback on how things feel, how vulnerable you are if you need more information in a section, or how clear your main idea and the next steps are.

Then, the week after, we give feedback to the speaker for how Sunday went.

The importance of feedback in your preaching.

Is this a lot? Yes. Has this been worth it? Yes.

Posted on Friday, November 16, 2018

Links for Leaders 11/16/18

by Joshua Reich

It’s the weekend…finally.

And since it’s the weekend, it’s the perfect time to catch up on some reading. Below, you’ll find some articles I came across this week that I found helpful as a leader and parent and hope you do as well.

Recently, God has been teaching me a lot about grieving losses in life and leadership. All of us have experienced loss and come up against the limits in life, whether in a relationship, a dream, finances, health, but how we deal with them and move forward determines so much for us. Many of us get stuck. Recently, I came across a great quote that helped me understand this even more and what it takes to move forward.

Before diving into those, in case you missed them this week. Here are the top 3 posts on my blog this week that I hope you find helpful:

Now, here’s what I found helpful:

Christmas is almost here, and I hope you are preparing for it as a church. Tony Morgan’s company has helped a lot of churches, and they have two posts you should read: 3 strategies to leverage Christmas for reaching new people and three next step ideas for annual Christmas attendees. Don’t miss the opportunity of Christmas!

We’ve adopted twice, and adoption is beautiful, challenging, amazing and tragic all at once. Many times, you feel like you are fighting for the heart of your adopted child (or any child for that matter). This post from parent cue was so encouraging to me, and if you’re a parent (adoptive or not), I think it will encourage you.

I get asked a lot about the books I read and how I find good books. One way is to see what other leaders I respect are learning. Brian Dodd is always posting great books, and he lays out 19 books leaders should read ing 2019. I’ve read a few of these but look forward to diving into a few others on this list.

If you’re a pastor or been in church for any length of time, you know the drill at church, so it is easy to forget what it feels like to be a guest. The emotions a guest has the fears, the thoughts. This post from Rich Birch was so helpful to me, and a great reminder of what people feel when they walk into your church on a Sunday morning.

The holidays are almost here (I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is next week!), so it is important to decide as a family, individual, couple, what pace you will keep over the next month so that you aren’t too tired. Here are 10 great tips from parent cue.

Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2018

How to Talk About Money in Your Church

by Joshua Reich

Many church leaders struggle with talking about money in their church or loathe the offering time. However, this fear can be alleviated by making a shift in their perspective about money. The topic of money is not about money per se. The Kingdom of God and helping people to live as disciples of Christ is the true aim of money. In the words of Peter Greer, “Money is a vehicle, not the ultimate objective.”

The reality for pastors is that money is important. It is needed when it comes to ministry and money is one of the biggest struggles and stresses of the people who sit in your church.

Many pastors this time of year (or after the new year) will talk on money in a sermon. Here are 5 things to keep in mind for the next time you preach on money:

5 things to keep in mind when you preach on money.

1. People genuinely are interested in what the Bible has to say on money. People come to your church to hear what the Bible has to say. They drove there, probably looked at your website, they drove past a sign that said church, so they are expecting for you to open the Bible and read it. I think people want to know what God thinks about a whole host of things, money included.

Why?

Because very few people have strong financial knowledge. There are so many takes on it, ideas on what you should do, how to get out of debt, where you should invest that it becomes overwhelming and then people stick their head in the sand. Telling them what the Bible has to say is incredibly helpful and refreshing to them because it says more than “you should give to the church.”

People genuinely are interested in what the Bible has to say on money.

As well, most couples are fighting over money. Most people are laying in bed at night stressing over money. Talking about it hits them where they live and answers some of their most burning questions.

2. Get your financial house in order. Many pastors don’t talk about money because many pastors aren’t generous and don’t give. Generosity doesn’t come easy for me but preaching on what the Bible has to say about money has convicted my heart to grow in it. If a pastor doesn’t preach on money, generosity or stewardship of finances, it is usually because he isn’t doing well in those areas personally and that will affect the life of a church. Generous churches are led by generous leaders.

Generous churches are led by generous leaders.

Be honest with your struggles if you have them. Talk about what you have learned and how God is continuing to grow you. People will resonate with that. Every time I talk about money I’ll hear people say over and over, “Thanks for being open about what is hard for you.”

3. Make sure you don’t make promises God doesn’t make. Especially with passages like Malachi 3, it is easy to make promises God doesn’t make when it comes to money. Is God faithful? Yes. Does God bless people financially when they give? Yes. Are there lots of rich people who don’t give? Yes. Are God’s blessings to us always financial reimbursement? No. This is the one area that a lot of damage has been done in terms of preaching on money.

4. Stewardship is more than money. While most pastors preach on money to get more people to give money, that isn’t the goal. The goal is to help people follow Jesus when it comes to stewardship and that includes money, but also includes how they use their time, house, car, retirement and steward their whole life.

Stewardship is more than money.

Make sure that when you talk about stewardship, you help people understand that God’s heart is for more than their bank account, but also their calendar, relationships, and heart.

5. Give clear and helpful next steps. You should have clear next step every week that you preach but with money, it is incredibly important. Whether that is doing a 90 day giving challenge, a financial class like FPU or something else. Don’t just leave people hanging on this. Especially because as I said on point 1, people want to know how to handle money.

5 things to do the next time you preach on money.

Posted on Monday, May 21, 2018

The #1 Reason People Leave Your Church (And Love Your Church)

by Joshua Reich

People leave churches for all kinds of reasons.

They might move, their kids get older, their schedules change, the church moves to locations.

They also leave for theological reasons. Maybe a new pastor has a different bent on an important theological point. They may have changed the version of the Bible they preach from (not kidding on that one).

The preaching may have changed and it no longer feels as deep as it used to or now it’s too deep and isn’t focused on application like it used to be.

Some of the reasons are good and normal, some make pastors scratch their heads and wonder what happened.

What I’ve learned (and I don’t have a study on this), but I think the number one reason people leave your church is…

Your strategy.

Another way to put it: how you do church.

The #1 reason people leave your church.

Think about it.

Almost every church holds up Acts 2 as the model they are going after.

Almost every church and Christian would agree that we are to live out the great commission (making disciples) and the great commandment (loving God and others).

But how?

That’s strategy. That’s how you do church (for lack of a better word).

Your strategy is how you as a church uniquely live these things out.

Do you have small groups, classes, missional communities, men’s ministry, women’s ministry, a combination of these? That’s strategy, but they all get at how you disciple and connect people to each other.

What about kids and students? When do they meet? Do they serve? Attend the service? Are they off on their own? What role do they play in community groups?

All strategy.

How about preaching and music? Do you go line by line through a book of the Bible, jump around, preach topically? What kind of music or liturgy do you use? How often do you do communion?

All strategy.

Make no mistake pastor or church leader, when someone walks up to you on a Sunday morning and says, “We’re leaving”, if you press long enough, it will be the strategy, almost every time.

Now, this isn’t bad at all.

In fact, when this happens this should tell you that your strategy and culture are real and clear.

As well, this is also why people come to your church.

The #1 reason people come to your church.

They often don’t know it, but your strategy is not only why they stay, but also why they come.

Why?

Because your strategy comes through everywhere. Your strategy on being simple, programmatic, attractional, missional or all 4, attracts them and others.

Posted on Monday, February 19, 2018

How to Focus

by Joshua Reich

If you’re anything like me, you need to focus. There are times when you need to hunker down and get things done. Yet, your mind wanders. You daydream or think about what will happen later today or tomorrow. It could be a conversation, a meeting or a vacation you can’t wait to start.

Your lack of focus might come from no desire to do what you are doing, how hard something is or because you didn’t sleep well last night.

Many times the reason I am not able to focus well is because of the whirlwind around.

Focus comes from having “white space.” This is the place where you are able to shut down social media or email and think. To narrow down what matters the most right now.

I’ve heard John Maxwell say that leaders could stop doing 80% of what they’re doing and no one would notice. That feels high, but there is some merit to it.

Each day you must be able to say, “If I accomplish nothing else today, here’s what must get done.” That focus helps you to stay on track.

When you find your brain wandering, stand up, walk around, get some fresh air and then return to something.

Focus for Your Church or Organization

Focus doesn’t just matter for you personally, but it has enormous implications for your team and your church.

Many teams lack focus. They are stuck in a whirlwind of activity, simply doing the thing right in front of them. In a church, this is easy to do because worship services come around with such regularity (every seven days), so there is a deadline to that whirlwind.

For our team, just like in our family, we talk through what is most important for the next 2-6 months as a team. What are we all going to be working on and moving towards?

Why Focus Matters

Without focus, anything and everything is important.

This is where many churches and people get off track in their lives and ministries.

Focus says, this matters more than that.

That is hard to say, because it determines ahead of time what you will think about, work on, spend money on and give manpower to.

Whether you sit down and write this out or say it, you do this exercise each day.

The ones who accomplish things and see greater effectiveness are the ones who decide this instead of falling into it.

The days that I flop into bed with a feeling of “what did I really accomplish today” are the days I wasn’t focused and allowed my day to get away from me.

Amazingly, as you read through the gospels you see the incredible focus that Jesus had. He was fully present wherever he went. Whether he was teaching, healing, resting, praying or spending time with his disciples, he was focused on what he was doing. When you think about what he did, you also get a sense of the things he didn’t do. He made the choices we have to make each and everyday: what will get our time, energy and attention.

Posted on Monday, November 13, 2017

How to Stay Passionate as a Leader

by Joshua Reich

Starting something is easy. Getting married is easier than staying married. Starting a new company or church is often easier than maintaining one or turning one around.

Yes, it takes a lot of work and effort to get something off the ground, but the dreaming phase, the launching phase, is often incredibly fun and exhilarating.

Why?

Passion.

Passion can take you incredibly far in life.

We don’t follow people who aren’t passionate, and often passion is what will keep you going when the road gets long and hard as a leader. Your passion to see a dream come true, a marriage survive, a child succeed. Our passion can carry us.

But no matter how passionate, energetic, or optimistic we are,

passion also drains and runs low.

There are times when we are simply showing up, going through the motions and trying to survive.

The passion that got it off the ground is hard to maintain.

Sadly, when this happens, many people quit. They give up. They throw in the towel, or they keep going through the motions, which kills them and sucks the life out of them.

Why stay?

One author said, “You will be most tempted to quit moments before the critical breakthrough.”

You will be most tempted to quit moments before the critical breakthrough. -@cnieuwhof

How do you raise your passion when it gets dry? Here are some ways:

Have you lost your passion?

1. Ask God. Our passion and calling come from God. He has wired us with it. When it is waning and not burning hot, ask God for the desire and original passion He gave you.

2. Go back to where you started. Place is important in our lives. For many of us, the dreams we have or the things we started began at a place. I can take you to the seat in an auditorium where God called me to plant a church when I was 21. I can take you to the banks of a lake where I knew at 18 I was supposed to be a pastor.

Many people have sat in conferences or gone on mission trips that have changed their lives and perspectives.

Go back to those places. Sometimes the return to a place ignites a passion in us.

3. Look for small wins and celebrations. Too often the reason our passion is waning is because it isn’t as big or as great as we imagined. It also goes slower than we expected. Most successful people have walked a long winding road to their success.

Look for the small ways you’ve moved ahead. Celebrate the little things that have happened.

4. Get around passionate people. You and I both know passionate, optimistic people. When your passion is waning, get around them. Ask them what they’re dreaming about. This is a great opportunity to stretch yourself and get out of your comfort zone.

5. Be honest. This might feel like a downer when talking about passion, but a lack of passion might be the end of your time somewhere. All things come to an end, and that is okay. The reality is that it is possible that when our passion wanes in a job, it is a sign of the end, and that is okay. God will often speak through passion or lack thereof.

This is why it is crucial to have a team or friends who can help you and talk with you about your passion level, where it went, why it is down and how to raise it back up.

If you’re a leader, this matters. Not only for your sanity but for those around you.

If you’re a pastor, your church will feed off your passion, whatever level it is.

Posted on Monday, May 9, 2016

How to Recover from Preaching

by Joshua Reich

If I got to rank what I love about my job, preaching would be in the top two. I love the prep, working through a passage, a series, thinking through how to best present an idea, and praying about those who will be there, that God would work in their lives and draw them to Himself through my meager attempts at presenting His Word.

There is a downside to this love. It is what happens after preaching. The recovery.

I remember when Katie and I met with a doctor to talk about how to handle the adrenaline that goes with preaching, the emotional, relational and spiritual drain that it can be. (I’ve heard of pastors who sleep for days after preaching because their bodies can’t handle the adrenaline.) The doctor asked, “Is it like teaching a class?” It’s different for one reason – eternities hang in the balance. I heard one pastor describe preaching as “reaching into the road to hell and pulling people back.” (I realize there are some possible theological problems with that, but you get the point.)

The crash a pastor experiences the day after preaching can be brutal. Your whole body aches, your eyes hurt, you feel as low as you have felt all week. For me, I am often so stiff that I can’t bend down to pick something up off the floor after preaching.

So what do you do?

5 ways to recover from preaching.

Manage stress. Keep the day before and after preaching as stress free as possible. Don’t have meetings; stay focused on preaching and recovering.
Recharge. I do something that recharges me. Hiking, running, playing with my kids, reading a book, drinking coffee with Katie. Read something that recharges you or takes your mind off church. This can be a novel or a spiritual book that challenges your own heart and soul as a human.
Encouragement. Have some people who call/text to encourage you afterward. Have elders or friends check in with you to ask how they can pray for you, encourage you and let you know that they are lifting you and your family up in prayer.
Eating. Most pastors are notoriously poor eaters. What you eat before and after preaching is incredibly important. What you eat will make it easier or harder to preach, to sleep, to recover. Make sure you also drink enough water to stay hydrated.
Move forward. As quickly as possible, move on to next week. Regardless of how your weekend went, good or bad, the next weekend is coming very quickly. So move on. Don’t dwell on what happened (especially if it was bad). Celebrate what God did, learn from what you did poorly, but move on.

5 things to do this Monday if you are a pastor.