Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

In talking with lots of people in my church and watching the endless scroll on social media, the anxiety levels around this election seem to be at record highs.

There are many talking heads and candidates who say that if this or that person gets elected, this is the end—the end of our country as we know it—the end of our democracy.

Many pastors I talked to this past year agonized over what they would preach leading up to the election cycle. More than one pastor said he wished he was on a sabbatical this fall to skip the election and return for Christmas!

As I prayed and thought through it, I kept hearing, “The end.” And I wondered, what did Jesus say about the end? What did He say at the end?

Immediately, my thoughts turned to what is known as “The Upper Room Discourse” in John 13 – 17. It was the night of Jesus’ betrayal, the last night He spent with His disciples, 24 hours before His death. What did He say to them? What was the mood in the room that night? Knowing that Jesus knew what lay ahead, He chose His words carefully and purposefully.

As I dug into it, I was struck by all that Jesus said and the things He shared with them. It is startling as you read, especially when Jesus washes the disciple’s feet, knowing what will happen that night.

In John 13, at the very beginning, we see the one thing that followers of Jesus need to do this election season.

1 thing every follower of Jesus should do this election cycle.
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This isn’t the only thing they need to do, but it is one thing we should always do.

What is it?

Serve.

Serving is all over Scripture, deeply connected to another theme Jesus calls us to: surrender. To live in the kingdom of God, we must surrender our lives to King Jesus, but the picture of the kingdom of God is seen through the servant hearts of Jesus’ followers.

Which Jesus shows us in John 13.

But what is surrender?

John Mark Comer says, “Surrender is the foundation of the spiritual life.” And “discipleship is a lifelong process of deepening surrender to Jesus.”

Surrender is the foundation of the spiritual life. -John Mark Comer
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When Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, he surrenders his status as the leader and rabbi to serve them. In the first century, the lowest servant or slave would wash guests’ feet. The head of the family or the Rabbi didn’t wash feet; that was for someone else. In many ways, Jesus does the thing that is seemingly beneath him.

Not only that, but he washes Judas’s feet—the one who, later that night, will betray Jesus.

In doing this, Jesus is showing us what real power looks like and what power is in the kingdom of God compared to the kingdoms of this world.

In the kingdoms of this world, power is about money, charisma, votes, looks, and star power.

In the kingdom of God, power is seen in serving.

John Ortberg said, “Jesus did not come as a servant in spite of the fact that he is God; he came precisely because of the fact that he is God.”

Jesus did not come as a servant in spite of the fact that he is God; he came precisely because of the fact that he is God. -John Ortberg
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What does it look like to serve those around you?

One is to decide that you will be a servant to everyone. This is Jesus’s call. He tells his disciples, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.” In this room are people with different political opinions, Judas, who will betray Jesus, and people who are difficult to love and often say the wrong thing at the wrong time. 

Each morning, we must consciously decide to serve those around us.

What might this look like?

This might mean biting our tongue when words come to mind.

It might mean going the extra mile at work when you aren’t asked to. 

Stop keeping score with your spouse or child at home. 

As you scroll through social media, keep your opinion to yourself. 

On that subject, I’d encourage you to spend less time reading about the election, as that will help your heart in this season. 

Ask God if you are struggling to find people or ways to serve. I know He’d love to answer that prayer!

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Each year I post a list of my favorite books, the ones I would call the best books of the year. To see my list of favorite books from past years, click on the numbers: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. I loved looking back through the books I read this year as it helps me to see where I’ve grown, what God has taken me, my family and our church through. If you’re curious about the books I read this year, you can check this out.

Need a book to read in 2019? Here are 10 you should read.
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Before getting to my list, let me share with you three novels I read. The reason I start with novels is that they are fun and all of us (especially leaders) need more fun and imagination in our lives. I always try to have a novel going to take my mind off work and relax.

My three favorite novels in 2018 were:

• The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva
• The Terminal List by Jack Carr
• The President is Missing by Bill Clinton & James Patterson

3 novels you should read over Christmas break.
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Now, here are my 10 favorite books:

10. Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington

I found this book to be incredibly helpful to me. If you’ve followed my writing, you will see several studies I’ve posted about in the section on well-being, but I enjoyed the chapter on wisdom and wonder. I am drawn more and more to what will bring about a life worth living, not just accomplishing a whole bunch of stuff that will be forgotten and not matter. This book also helped me think through a better bedtime routine and why sleep matters so much.

9. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

I loved this book. This book completely changed how I set up my days and when I do what I do and when I skip things. So helpful if you want to get the most out of your days.

8. I’d Like You More If You Were More like Me: Getting Real about Getting Close by John Ortberg

If you’re like me, intimacy in relationships and letting people get close can be difficult. For me, this comes out of my story, but for each of us, this is a roadblock not only in marriage and family but also in friendships and at work. It keeps us from feeling fulfilled, accomplishing what we’d like to and ultimately, miserable. This book helped me to see how best to move forward and let people get close.

7. Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof

If you’re a leader, you should read this book.

The chapter on cynicism was worth the whole book for me. I found myself nodding over and over about this crucial battle that I fight on a daily basis. It also opened me up to other heart battles I may not be aware of, which I think is an essential thing for each of us to be mindful of as we lead.

6. Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People by Vanessa Van Edwards

If you are an introvert who is a speaker and a leader, you need to read this book.

In it, she unpacks how to connect with people from a stage, at a party, in a meeting, and over coffee. Her chapter on engagement was incredible and being able to see the best way to “captivate” people is something we could all grow in or take our leadership to the next level.

5. Survival Guide for the Soul: How to Flourish Spiritually in a World that Pressures Us to Achieve by Ken Shigematsu

This book was so convicting and helpful to me. The best way to describe this book is that it was a breath of fresh air for me when I read it.

4.  Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense by Paul Tripp

I read this book for a sermon series I did on how God is with us in life’s darkest and most painful moments. This book is part theology, part memoir and I think one of the most helpful books on pain, hurt and suffering.

3. The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel

Leadership, power, pride, and humility. If you are a leader, you know the interplay of these things in your heart and life and this book helps to unpack what strength and weakness in leadership look like and what God calls us to. The Way of the Dragon… was an incredibly convicting book.

2. Boundaries for Your Soul: How to Turn Your Overwhelming Thoughts and Feelings into Your Greatest Allies by Kimberly Miller and Allison Cook

This book easily could have been #1. If you are an 8, 3 or 1 on the Enneagram, I can’t recommend this book enough. It covered family systems and how we navigate those, but what I found most helpful was how it talked about “getting curious about your emotions.” When you feel anger, hurt, sadness, joy; get curious about them. Why are you feeling those things? Where did it come from in your story and life? What is it trying to tell you?

1. The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture by Scott Belsky

This book is about how to finish something you start. How to finish a church, business, etc. Why? Most things that start don’t’ finish because the person who started it fizzles out. They lack the systems they need, the endurance and strength to get through the messy middle. The first section on endurance was the first book that I felt like nailed what it is like to be a church planter better than any other book. I’ve seen some people call this the business book of the year, so it’s worth the effort as it’s long.

The post My 10 Favorite Books of 2018 appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

It’s that time of year again, time to share my top lists of the year. If you are a regular on this blog, you know that I love to read. You can read my recent reviews of books here.

Each year, I post a list of my favorite books of the year. To see my list of favorite books from past year, simply click on the numbers: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. To me, I love this list because it shows what has influenced me in the past year, where I’m growing and what God is teaching me. If you are a leader, you should be a reader, there is no way around that.

To make this list, it does not have to be published in 2014, I only needed to read it in 2014. As always, this list was hard to narrow down, but here are the top 14 books of 2014:

14. What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done | Matthew Perman

What sets this book apart from others on productivity: Its emphasis on understanding how the gospel impacts productivity, How the gospel frees us to be productive, and it also brings together some of the best ideas from other books on productivity to show a better system that combines the strengths of different systems.

13. Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know | Meg Meeker

To me, this is such an empowering book for fathers. We often feel unsure, at a loss of how to relate to our daughters, how to treat them differently than a son, or how to feel like we are moving forward in a relationship with them. This book is about what a daughter needs from a father that a mother cannot give. This book gave me such a clear understanding of how to interact with our daughter, how to build a relationship with her and prepare her for the life ahead of her. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to Dad’s of daughters.

12. Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds | Carmine Gallo

Giving a presentation that truly moves people takes hard work. Let’s face it, many pastors are lazy. They become a pastor because it seems easier, they read a lot and most people don’t have a high expectation for a sermon to be great (sadly). They are simply hoping for short. Preaching is hard work. If you aren’t willing to put in the hard work, don’t preach. At the end of the day, someone pays a price for a sermon, the pastor or the church. This is the best preaching book of the year.

11 The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker | Brad Lomenick

One of the things I’ve been chewing on from this book all year has been, “To get to the top and to be successful at the top requires two different skill sets.” Such a helpful book for younger leaders.

10. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration | Ed Catmull

This book was so good and eye opening, it took me 3 posts to share all that I learned from it. You can read those posts here, here and here.

9. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less | Greg McKeown

Two things stood out to me in this book that have shaped a lot of my life: If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will and If it is not a definite yes, then it is no.

8. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God | Timothy Keller

I debated between this book and Keller’s book on suffering for this list. Both were helpful and meaningful in different ways, but his book on prayer opened my eyes on how to pray to God as Father and how to meditate on Scripture in deeper ways. If prayer is a struggle for you, this book is well worth working through.

7. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers | Ben Horowitz

Even though this is not a church planting book, it is by far, the best church planting book of the year. So many insights from this small business guru that is relevant for churches and church plants.

6. Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church | Scot McKnight

This book challenged me in some ways I didn’t expect. How to read the Bible through the lens of Jesus was one and how to see how God worked through all of history instead of jumping from Genesis 3 to Matthew 1 when we read the Bible. The other was, seeing Jesus as King when I think about him. This may seem obvious depending on your church background, but I appreciate the emphasis that McKnight places on Jesus as King. My church background seems to focus on Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, which He is and leave the King part until the end of the world. Yet, Jesus is King, now and forever.

5. Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You | John Ortberg

If you love what Dallas Willard has to say but have a hard time understanding what he says, this is a great book. I found myself challenged, encouraged and challenged some more. It is a mix of how to care for your soul, how to rest and ultimately, how to connect with God at a deeper level.

4. Hacking Leadership: The 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and the Secrets to Closing Them Quickly | Mike Myatt

This was the most relevant and helpful business leadership book that pastors should read this year. Myatt covers the gaps that exist in any business (church) and how to overcome them. This is a leadership book that I will re-read in years to come. I found it that helpful.

3. People-Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Approval-Motivated Leadership | Charles Stone

This book is unlike any other I’ve read. First, it hits a topic that every pastor or leader (and probably most humans) struggle with: people pleasing. This is an enormous deal for pastors and churches. Second, it combines stories and real life examples with a ton of helpful research on how our brains work and what drives leaders to care what others think. Third, it ends with some incredibly helpful insights to fight people pleasing in your leadership.

2. Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm | Mark Sayers

The point of the book of the book is to show how leadership has changed, how culture has changed and what leadership looks like moving forward. I am thankful as Sayers points out, we are moving away from deconstruction in our leadership and culture and moving towards rebuilding. I’m hopeful Christians get this idea as many leaders seem to be behind the times and keep talking about deconstructing.

1. The Relational Soul: Moving from False Self to Deep Connection | Richard Blass & James Cofield

I’ve read maybe 3-4 life altering books. This was one of them. The authors walk through why we fail at relationships so often and show how that begins the before we are even born, but then our inability to deal with what our lives have been like and how to move forward. Many people cannot work well with others, can’t engage in their family or marriage, struggle to make work connections and all because of something in their past that has not been deal with. This isn’t to say that it is easy, only that, to live in true freedom and be our “true self” as the authors put it, we must deal with those things.

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It seems almost every week there is another leader written about in blogs who has failed somehow. Whether that is abuse of power, finances, sleeping with someone they aren’t married to or jumping off the deep end theologically.

Every time I read about it, my heart breaks. For the people who are affected, for the name of Christ that is tarnished, for the families that are broken because of it, for the lost of mission and momentum at the church and for the leader and his wife.

My heart also breaks because I know I could easily be that leader if I’m not careful.

So much happens when a leader fails.

Each time this happens, I inevitably read too many blogs about the situation. Not out of morbid curiosity, but to find out where it went wrong. Almost every time two things happen. While there are other things that each one has in common, almost every leadership failure has two things in common:

1. The leader is not in a small group or missional community.
2. All the rules don’t apply to the leader.

While these aren’t always the case, leaders can be in a small group and fail. Each time I read about another leader failing, these seem to be true on some level.

Here’s why this matters.

When you are in a small group or MC, you are with “normal people.” Too many pastors insulate themselves with elders and staff. I’ve had pastors tell me, “My elder team is my small group.” Um, no. Your elders are the team that shepherd, lead and protect the church together, but they aren’t your small group. In fact, that’s a recipe for disaster. Who is around your wife? Who is around your kids? What non-Christians are you spending time with?

Slowly, the leader begins to think they don’t need the sheep anymore. They have more important things to do. Now, I’m not saying a leader needs to burn himself out making himself available to everyone. As a church grows, the leader must delegate tasks and people to other leaders. This is good and healthy. But, a church is never too big for a pastor to talk with people.

I remember when I worked at Willow Creek and watching Bill Hybels and John Ortberg stand down by the stage after preaching and talk for as long as people would stand in line. I remember watching it once to see how long Hybels would do it and I timed him standing for over an hour one day.

The second one creeps up on a leader, sometimes without notice. The rules begin to not apply to them. 

Now, the higher you move in a church or organization, the more perks come with it. A lead pastor has a bigger book budget, goes to more conferences, has more vacation days, etc. I’m not talking about more perks.

I’m talking about a lead pastor requiring his staff to work in the office but he gets to work from home “because sermon prep is a solo activity.” If you get a perk like working from home, it should be available to others. If there is a policy about social media or something else, it is applies to employees, it applies to you as the leader.

The moment a leader is above the rules is the moment a leader is in danger. The moment a leader is cut off from community with people who are not leaders, is the moment a leader is in danger.

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• Why Pastor’s Should Take a Summer Preaching Break
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• The Pain of Breaking the 200 Barrier
• When Pastoring is Hard (And 3 Ways to Survive)
• 10 Books Every Christian Leader Should Read
• So, You Want to Plant a Church

The post How a Leader Fails appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

Ever wonder why you sin? What if there was a specific time that you were most likely to give in to temptation? What if you could see negative emotions, thoughts from your past, addictions you thought you were free from coming a mile away?

You can.

In his book Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You, John Ortberg shares this:

Psychologist Roy Baumeister has coined the term “ego depletion” to describe a level of fatigue that goes beyond mere physical tiredness. People living in this depleted condition report more tiredness and negative emotions, but those are not the only effects. Depleted people who watch a sad movie become extra sad. When facing temptations like eating chocolate chip cookies, they are more likely to give in. When faced with challenges like an especially difficult assignment at work, they are more likely to fail or turn in lower quality work. The brain area that’s crucial for self-control (the Anterior Cingulate Cortex) actually experiences a slowdown.

The reality is, you and I sin at specific times. Those times are most likely going to be when we are tired, worn down, exhausted. For a pastor, that is most likely on a Sunday night or on a Monday. We are tired at other times, but follow me.

When are you most tired? What time during the day do you feel the weakest in terms of your will to fight sin and temptation?

Let me apply this to pastors and help you understand why this as. I’ve learned while pastors are good at helping others fight sin in their lives, we tend to lack self-awareness.

On Sunday night you have preached hard, led worship hard, sat with people, hugged them, cried with them, counseled them, prayed with them. You have gone to battle for them and with them. You have had hard meetings with people who told you they are leaving the church, that you don’t live up to their standards of things, that you don’t preach the gospel, use too much Bible, are too deep, not deep enough and your head feels like it is spinning because you can’t please them all.

If you aren’t a pastor, you have a day of the week that simply runs you down. You come home exhausted, barely able to stand, let alone think and certainly not up for fighting sin and temptation.

This is the moment we must be aware of.

Often, the reason we fall into sin is because we don’t see it as a battle, or, once we feel tempted we feel like we have already lost the fight with sin so we simply give in to it.

Don’t.

When you see that moment coming, go to sleep, hand your smartphone or table to a spouse, pick up a banana, turn off the TV. Fight the sin you are facing by removing the temptation in your moment of weakness.

The post When You are Most Likely to Sin appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

It’s the week after Easter. As a pastor, you are tired. Mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally and relationally.

There’s a good chance that you have been preaching almost every week since January 1st. The summer isn’t here yet, so you know it will be a little bit longer before you get a week off of preaching.

The problem is this: you have very little left to give mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, but most of all, spiritually. 

In light of this reality, let me give you 5 ideas to finish the ministry year strong.

1. Take care of your soul. Pastors spend so much time helping others that we often fail to help ourselves and care for ourselves. Read something soul stirring, something that challenges you and has nothing to do with leadership or your upcoming sermons. Read something just for you. Over the Easter weekend, I read John Ortberg’s new book Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You. Sometimes I read something from John Piper or  Charles Spurgeon. One of my favorite’s for this is Mondays with My Old Pastor: Sometimes All We Need Is a Reminder from Someone Who Has Walked Before Us.
2. Take your day off. This can be hard to do after Easter. There are people to follow up with, new believers to disciple, people who need to get connected on a serving team or in community. There is a lot to do. You also have volunteers who are tired and sometimes, because you are so tired (and your spouse is tired) you are both on edge and not being at home helps to keep the peace and is easier on things. Don’t fall for that trap. Deal with the issues that come up at home, deal with the heart issues of delegating things. Know that you have all the time you need to accomplish all you want to accomplish. Notice I didn’t say, “all you need to accomplish.” You have time for your day off and accomplishing everything else, you just need to plan better.
3. Plan your vacation well. You should be taking some time off this summer and when you do, don’t make the mistake of just showing up for vacation and hoping you relax. You need to plan it. How much relaxing are you going to do? I would challenge you to not take phone calls, look at emails, twitter, instagram or facebook. When we go on vacation I hand my phone to Katie, she changes all my passwords for email and social media and then we leave. It is great. I am able to engage with my family fully. Also, what are you going to read on vacation? I’ve said before that pastors need to read more fiction to let their brains take a break. Last year I read all of Daniel Silva’s books and this year I’m working through a series by Vince Flynn.
4. Be prepared for your vacation. I usually try to take a retreat overnight before vacation. For this reason, I find that the first 2-3 days of vacation and my summer preaching break I am on edge, I have a hard time letting go of ministry, what has happened and engaging with my family. I try to get away for a night, spend time in silence, reading my bible, journaling through the past year, confessing sin, listening to the Holy Spirit about my heart. This is a time that is not sermon or vision focused, it is about my heart. By doing this, I am able to let go of many things that have weighed me down so I can engage with my family and truly rest in the summer.
5. Spend time with friends or doing something you enjoy. Because of how busy the spring is for ministry, activities, and dealing with sickness, you have probably not spent a lot of time with friends or done the activities you enjoy. Maybe it has been too cold to get outside where you live and you feel it. Take some time for this. Call up those friends and make dinner plans. Set time aside for a hike, gardening, a bike ride or whatever you love that you haven’t been doing.

One of the reasons many people burn out is we don’t think through or work hard at rest and recharging. I think it takes more work to rest than it does to do anything else. We have to focus on it, engage it and let go of other things for it to happen. Rest, recharging, will not just happen. We will not just stumble into it. If you are a pastor, the fall that is coming up is too important for you to limp into it because you failed to make the most of your summer. Don’t make that mistake.

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