Tag Archives: pastor

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The Tension of Leadership

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leadership

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. Leaders lead and live in the now of the organization, 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.

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This is hard.

A leader 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.

Here are 5 ways to survive this tension:

    1. Enjoy where you are. This is hard for leaders because we are wired to keep moving, but you are in a certain season. Your church is a certain size, enjoy it. I’ve enjoyed all the sizes of Revolution for different reasons and sometimes have looked back on how easy something was when we were smaller. But I didn’t enjoy it like I could.
    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 and 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.
    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, you might be God’s way of helping them grow through their fears, or they may be divisive and need to move on. 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.
    5. Plan for what is next. All growth means change. If your church gets larger, changes are coming. You will hand things off to people, leaders that worked well in a church of 100 won’t be the leaders you need at 200. 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.
5 ways to handle tension as a leader.

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How to Put Your Sin to Death

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sin

We all struggle with something.

We all commit some sin or have some emotion we wished that we didn’t have.

Throughout Scripture (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:5) we are told to crucify our sin, to put it to death.

But what does that look like?

Right before vs. 24, Paul has two lists: a list of sins (vs. 19 – 21) and a list called the fruit of the Spirit (vs. 22 – 23).

In vs. 19 – 21 there are sexual immorality (which is all sex outside of the bounds of marriage between a man and a woman), impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.

What is interesting about this list is that Paul seems to put them all on the same level and says, “living in these will keep you from God” (see the end of vs. 21). While I’ve seen “Christians” holding signs that say “Gay people go to hell.” I’ve never seen one hold a sign that says, “Jealous people go to hell.” (But that’s a different post)

What Paul says though, is these are not occasional sins. In vs. 16 – 17, he describes these as overwhelming, all-encompassing desires that you cannot control the longing of. They are your identity. This is where it becomes broken for us, “I’m a gay man. I can’t control my anger. I’m a fighter. I have to win at all costs.”

For each person, vs. 19 – 21 is where the battle happens.

But how do you put them to death?

This is where the fruit of the Spirit comes in in vs. 22 – 23 of Galatians 5.

I love that Paul calls them fruit. It gives this picture of a farmer, of gradual growth, that is done by a farmer, not the fruit. The fruit doesn’t make itself grow, God does. Fruit does grow. Not always at the rate we would expect or think it should, but it grows.

The question for a follower of Jesus then, do you see growth in your life in the areas of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Do you see how God is working on your heart in those areas?

If the answer is no, I would say the Holy Spirit is not living in you because a follower of Jesus should be growing in all these areas at some point. We never stop, we never reach the pinnacle.

Now, as we take the fruit of the Spirit and put our sin to death from vs. 19 – 21.

This becomes a daily thing.

Crucifixion in vs. 24 carries this idea that it will be a death. It will be painful, hard, difficult. Freedom always involves a war.

Freedom always involves a war.

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One of the best ways to walk this road is through confession. Our family practices confession at the end of the day. We each confess to each other areas where we sinned or hurt someone. We’ve told our kids, whatever they say in this moment they will get grace. This is a way we teach them to confess their sins, but also what grace means. This can be dicey as a parent.

One thing I’ve learned about God’s grace is that, many times, the reason we don’t experience God’s grace and freedom in Jesus is because we won’t allow ourselves to. 

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The Pain of Breaking the 200 Barrier

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200 barrier

Most churches in America never break through the 200 barrier, in fact, only 15% of churches break through it. Some pastors talk about it like it is the mythical unicorn. There are books, podcasts, webinars, and articles on how to break it. For years, Revolution would bump up against the 200 barrier and then go back down. We’d have seasons where we would stay above it and I thought we were through. Finally, we broke through it.

Breaking the 200 barrier isn’t a mythical thing, but does take specific steps.

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No light from heaven shone. There were no songs or angels. It just happened.

Since that moment, I’ve learned something.

Breaking through 200 hurts. A lot.

To break through 200, a lot of things in your church change and most of them are connected to the lead pastor. Teams you used to lead and meetings you used to be in, you no longer are. There is now a layer between you and someone you used to talk to every week.

If you are a planter, things your wife used to do you are now paying someone to do. People who were leaders from the moment of your church starting to get to 200 have hit their lid and are now replaced by other leaders.

This issue of control and feeling of loss looms larger than most leaders talk about. Don’t get me wrong, a growing church is exciting, but it is painful.

Here in lies why most churches don’t grow: the church and the pastor are not willing to go through the pain for it to grow.  What I mean is, people who feel connected to the pastor at 150 will often feel less connected at 200.

Churches that break the 200 barrier are willing to make room for more people.

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You will begin hearing things like, “the church doesn’t feel like a family anymore.” “I don’t know anyone at church.” “I used to have coffee with the pastor, but now I have to make an appointment.” People will lament it feels like a corporation instead of a church or that there are a bunch of new people. Pastors will have to stop micro managing and allow leaders to run with ideas. You will start to see things you don’t like in your church, the church you started. Not every pastor can handle this. Communication loops change. What used to take a phone call or a text, now takes a video, announcement or mass email. Putting together an event or work day used to take a few days of lead up now takes a few weeks to work out schedules across ministries. Where you used to know every leader and were able to put people into place of leadership roles, you now need a process to vet and check those who are leading teams. The world has changed. And this is why most churches break through 200 and settle back at 150. They don’t like the way things felt at 200. 

In addition to all this, there is another reason few pastors are willing to make the jump through 200.

Finances.

Churches that break the 200 barrier are willing to take a step of faith financially.

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It is a squeeze on a church financially to break through 200. At this point, you need to hire some more staff and you won’t have the money for it. It will stretch your budget and your faith. You will take a step that depending on where your church is could sink your ship if it goes poorly. Many pastors and churches are not willing to take this step, are unsure of how to hire correctly and so they stay stuck. In the end, this boils down to a willingness to do what it takes to become the church God has called you to become.

If you are still with me and arguing with me in your head, let me hit the last reason churches and leaders don’t break through this barrier.

Their personal lid.  Many churches or pastors simply don’t have the capacity to break this barrier. Many will say, “Then they shouldn’t. We need small churches.” There is some truth in that and some lie. We need small churches, but we need those churches to be healthy, must be discipling people and helping people find Jesus and baptize them. Some churches do this, plant more churches and never break 200. Some planters start churches well, get it to 200 and pass the baton to go and plant another church.

Churches that break the 200 barrier are led by pastors who are willing to lead and grow.

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In the end, the churches and leaders that break through 200 and go on to break 400-500 have the willingness to make the sacrifice so that a church can do more and help more people enter a relationship with Jesus so they can become who God has called them to be.

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How to Work from Home Successfully

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work from home

It is becoming more and more common to work remotely. Not only in offices, but for churches. Especially with the rise of church plants, more and more pastors find themselves working from coffee shops, their house or a shared work space.

The transition to this or starting your own business in your house can be difficult. After 7 years of working in a church office, we planted Revolution and I’ve been working from home and other places since then.

Here are 6 ways to work from home successfully:

  1. Have a designated work space. Depending on your set up, this can be hard but it is important that you have a work space. If you can have a room with a door, this is ideal but not completely necessary. I’ve had seasons where my office was a kids bedroom and that is part of it.
  2. Have a clear start and stop time. Some jobs that work remotely have this built in. I have a friend who works for a call center but does it in his house, so he has to sign in at a certain time. For others, like a pastor, this isn’t as clear. It is important define, especially if you are married and have kids, when you will start and when you will stop. This will help to prevent working more than you should and having a clear boundary.
  3. The water cooler factor. If you work in an office, interruptions are part of the day. People stopping by, you getting up to walk around. These can be helpful and intrusive. It is important that you plan for these in working from home. I try to break my day up into 90 minute increments and have a break in between that could be as simple as getting more coffee. You also need to keep this in mind as you think about how long your work day should be as your spouse probably isn’t stopping by to talk about fantasy football for 30 minutes while you work.
  4. Stay focused. It is easy to work from home and not stay focused. After all, you can see other things that need to be done and no one is looking over your shoulder telling you not to look at blogs, Facebook or the news. You must have a system to stay focused on the task at hand. One of the things I installed was Chrome Nanny and put in certain websites that are blocked during my work hours, like social media sites, to help me stay focused.
  5. Handling interruptions. Working from home, you will still have interruptions. Kids knocking on your door, your spouse asking you to do something. This is part of the flexibility of not being in an office, but you have to have a system for handling them, otherwise you won’t get any work done. There are times when my door is locked and the kids leave me alone and times when it is open and they can do schoolwork or play on my floor while I work.
  6. Disconnecting from work. If you work from home, you walk out of your home office and your home. You don’t get that 30, 60 minute commute to disconnect from work, listen to sports radio or have some silence before you connect with your family. I used to work and as soon as I was done go into family mode. This doesn’t work as I can be on edge or still thinking about work. Now, I workout, take a walk or read some sports blogs and then go into family mode. You have to learn how to make your commute happen without having a commute.
6 ways to work from home successfully.

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Working from home isn’t for everyone or for every job. Some people can’t handle the freedom that comes from not having a set start time or not having a boss look over their shoulder. We had someone on our staff team once that struggled to accomplish 30% of their job because of this, so you must be wise when deciding to work from home as it is a stewardship issue for you and your company or church.

 

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3 Essential Values for Strong Teams

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strong teams

Every leader and team have different values. Things that determine how they live and work with each other.

For each team I lead, I give each person 3 promises and ask them to make the same to me. If everyone on the team fulfills each of these to each other, it is amazing what the team can accomplish and how much people enjoy being a part of it.

Here they are:

1. Never surprise me. There is nothing worse as a leader than being surprised. Most leaders know this conversation, someone comes up to you and says, “Did you hear what is happening in the kids ministry, or my missional community or _________?” You didn’t know, and depending on the situation, you might have to defend it, put your name and reputation on the line for it, or look like you have no idea what is happening. This is why honesty and being up front is so important. If you don’t surprise me, I can be behind you always and make sure I throw all my leadership change behind you. Don’t make me have to pick by being surprised, let me do so privately beforehand.

Strong teams don’t surprise each other.

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2. Always make me look good. When people first hear this one, they usually pushback as if this is selfish. It isn’t. It is a value that each team member will do whatever they can to make the other members of the team look good. Put them in the best light, believe the best about them, speak highly of them in public and in private, to set them up to succeed instead of fail. This means, you are willing to make yourself look poorly so that someone else can look better. This is humility and no effective team can make it without this.

Strong teams make each other look good.

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3. Always have my back. This is loyalty, plain and simple. Teams can handle many things, but when loyalty is lost, the game is over. I can walk with a leader through many things, but if I’m not convinced they are loyal, I’m not that interested in riding the storm out with you. For the people that work under me, they want to know I will have their back. That I will be on their side, get what they need to succeed and do their job and that I will be there.

Strong teams always have each other’s back.

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4 Things People Want From a Leader

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leader

According to Tom Rath in Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, there are 4 reasons that people follow a leader, 4 needs that every follower has that a leader meets. They are:

  1. Trust: Trust is everything for a leader, but especially for a pastor. Because we are dealing with people’s lives, hearts and souls and not merchandise like a company, trust becomes the pinnacle of leadership. The moment your followers stop trusting you, stop believing you, the game is over. Character and integrity take a lifetime to build, but can be lost in a moment. This is why boundaries are so important for a leader, this is why a leader must continually make sure he is putting the needs of the organization first instead of his own empire. This is why authenticity and being the same person in private as you are in public is so important.
  2. Compassion: While compassion may not be high on the list of CEO’s, if you are a pastor, it is in your job description. To care for, love, serve, shepherd, celebrate and weep with those you lead. Pastors need to be available to those in their church, to listen, counsel, pray with and sometimes just to give a hug. People want to know that you care. This comes across in personal interactions, but also how you talk about others, especially in a sermon.
  3. Stability: If you are a church planter, stability is difficult. Even if you are an established pastor, stability can be hard, especially if you are making changes or leading your church into the future. A leader must learn how to balance leading change and keeping things stable. Followers want to feel safe, secure and that the world will not fall in on them. As we were planting Revolution six years ago, several people left at once and when I asked why their answers essentially were, “Too much is changing, we aren’t sure if we’ll make it.” Most of those people have since come back, but followers want to know something will make it.  
  4. Hope: No one likes a negative leader. Yes, it may sell books and run up blog stats if you spout out about how the world is ending or it has never been so sinful (before you say that be sure to read the book of Judges and 1 Corinthians). According to Gallup, the best leaders make their followers “feel enthusiastic about the future.” Leaders continually must be looking into the future and helping their followers see that the best is yet to come, even when it feels impossible. Not by painting rosy pictures that aren’t possible, your followers are too smart and will see through that. But to continually say, “If you follow me, if you stay with us, here’s where we’re going.”
4 reasons people follow a leader.

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Why You Aren’t Ready for What’s Next

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ready

When I was 25 I was a young, punk of a leader. I had a Master’s degree and had been a part of large, successful ministries. I was always the smartest person in the room (in my mind and I made sure others knew it). I also had had a relatively easy life up until this point.

I was sitting in an interview with a large church for a student pastor position. The interview was going well and I thought I would for sure get the job. The executive pastor was getting ready to wrap up the interview when he asked if anyone had any final questions. The lead pastor had been in the interview the entire time but hadn’t said a word. He looked at me and said, “I have one question.” I was ready to talk vision or strategy, but his question caught me off guard. He looked at me and said, “Tell me your deepest hurt.”

I was silent.

He then said, “Tell me about your deepest wound.”

I stumbled for an answer.

While I had been hurt, I had never really been abused or beaten. I wasn’t abandoned or from a broken home. My life had been easy up until this moment. I gave him a rather lame answer that I can’t even remember.

After my answer he said, “Thanks Josh, but we won’t be hiring you. I’m afraid of a leader who can’t name his deepest hurt because I don’t know if he’s past it, but I also don’t know what he’ll do when he meets it.”

Little did I know, the next 3 years after this moment, I would encounter hurts and pain I had never dreamed of.

Fast forward 10 years and I’m on the other side of the table of interviewing people. One of the questions I ask each person is, “Tell me about your deepest pain. What do you do when life hurts? When God seems silent? What you can’t connect with your spouse? When your ministry feels like a failure?”

Like that lead pastor, I’m scared of leaders who stumble through this answer.

Why?

Because they will face a desert, they will face failure, they will come up against their deepest pain at some point and I don’t know how they’ll respond.

This right here is why many people fail to move forward in life, fail to capitalize on their gifts or see the doors open to them that they wish to have open. 

We like authentic people and leaders, people who have been wounded as we have but have found a way to move forward from it. Who aren’t scarred by it, they are marked by their past, but they aren’t destroyed by it.

There is something about a leader who has faced what we have faced and come out the other side. We want to be around them, we want to be like them, we want to follow them to where they are going.

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It’s Not Them, It’s You

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them

Have you noticed how people often seem to have the same problems? They get frustrated in one job, so they quit, change companies, careers and still have the same frustrations. Or, they get frustrated in one marriage or relationship so they walk into another one, only to have the same frustration.

The common factor?

The one person.

At some point, difficulties and problems in our lives need to start being our fault and not everyone else’s fault. 

We don’t like this in our culture and thinking though. We are the victim, it isn’t our fault we are the way we are. If other people hadn’t hurt us, hadn’t walked out on us, cheated on us, lied to us, we wouldn’t be the way we are. Or, if people could wise up, see the world from our perspective, understand why we are right and they are wrong, things would get easier.

This became clear to me a few years into Revolution Church. Like most church planters, I had a rough go as a student pastor, but every student pastor has a hard season. From 2004 – 2007 was brutal in my life and God took me through the ringer a few times. When we started Revolution in 2008 I used this season as an excuse to bulldoze people, get my way, not listen to critics or coaches and pressed on. I hurt people, burned people, burned myself out and missed opportunities to learn. Slowly, as the church got older and so did I, and I got further and further from that hard season of 2007, I couldn’t keep using that as a reason. The further away we get from those times, the more insecure and immature we sound when we blame it on that.

Also, if you continue to run through relationships and jobs for the exact same reasons it is time to stop and realize, you are the common factor in all of them.

It is you. Not them.

It is easier though to continue complaining, yet, this doesn’t help us have freedom.

Until I faced my hurt, my part in it, what God was trying to teach me in it, I couldn’t move forward. I was always trying to prove myself to someone from my past. I was always trying to prove I was smart enough, talented enough, good enough or worthwhile. I was trying to prove I was better. In this, I missed how God wanted to grow me and I missed the chance at some great relationships and opportunities because I was bitter, hurt, prideful and spiteful.

Those aren’t great descriptors for a pastor, but they embody many church planters and people who simply attend church.

One of the most common sins among Christians and leaders is bitterness. We don’t let go of things easily. We make people pay (those from our past and those in our present who pay for the sins others committed).

Why?

It makes us feel superior if we can blame someone else. 

At some point, healthy people are able to say, so they can move forward, “It’s not them, it’s me.”

At that moment, change becomes a possibility.

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Helpful Hints from Visiting Other Churches

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churches

I love visiting other churches. I love learning from what other churches do well, stealing ideas to improve Revolution. I love being able to worship with my wife and hear great sermons and have my heart be challenged. Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to attend some churches in Tucson and in California on vacation. Here are some things that I was reminded of for my own leadership and for Revolution:

  1. Signs matter. I’m blown away by how many churches have horrible signage. Most churches assume everyone knows where everything is: the front door, exit, bathroom, worship service, kids ministry, etc. If you think you have enough signs, you don’t. Someone should be able to pull onto your campus, walk in and find everything without having to ask for help.
  2. Say hi but don’t mob people. I’m an introvert so I don’t like the 15 people shaking my hand, hugging me or the 2-10 minute greeting time where we talk to people around us. I know some people do and if you do, you can skip this one. You should say hi to someone, but don’t mob them. They should receive a smile, a touch (handshake, high five) and a thanks for coming and we’ll see you next week. If people want more, they’ll get it. Extroverts have no problem getting more interaction at church.
  3. Show me, don’t point me. When a guest asks where something is, don’t give them directions. I remember visiting one church and we asked where the kids met and they said, “Go through the auditorium, out into the courtyard, look to the right, when you see a soccer goal, look beyond that to a modular trailer and it’s next to that.” And we started walking. We asked 5 people along the way to make sure we were heading in the right direction. Show a guest to something, don’t tell them directions or point. 
  4. Treat me like I don’t know what’s coming next, because, I don’t know what’s coming next. Tell me what’s next. Tell me how long I’ll be there, how long the service will last. Tell me what page the bible verse is on because I may not know and don’t want to feel stupid as I look for it.
  5. Preaching matters. Preaching takes up half of a service or more. Make sure it is good. It doesn’t have to be world class, but be prepared. Don’t stumble around. Make me care about what you are talking about. I don’t care simply because you stand up and preach. Tell me why I should care, speak to my heart and my head. And, tell me what to do with what you just told me. If I walk out with no clear next step, studies show I’ll probably forget everything you said by Wednesday.
  6. Worship matters. Worship is the other half of the service, make it count. I wrote a letter to worship leaders here that can explain what that means.
  7. Kids ministry matters. In today’s culture, if you want to reach families, kids matter. It needs to be safe and secure. If you don’t give me a tag for my kids, I won’t leave them with you. If my kids didn’t like it, I probably won’t be back next week. If you are a kids worker, when you say hi to a child, get down on their level and talk to them.
  8. Say thanks. This seems like a silly thing, seeing as the person who visited your church chose to, but they didn’t have to. They gave up their morning to be with you. Got the kids out of bed, got dressed and came. Tell them thanks. This might be a gift or words. Tell them to come back, let them know you hope to see them again.
  9. Make announcements shorter. Announcements are too long at most churches. Period. Make them shorter. Cut as much out as possible.
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“I Want Deep Preaching”

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healthy leaders

Here are some things that if you preach on a regular basis, you will hear at least once in your life:

  1. I love that you preach deep.
  2. I left my last church because the preaching wasn’t deep enough.
  3. I’m so glad you preach the bible at this church.
  4. I don’t like your preaching because it is too topical.
  5. I’m leaving your church because you aren’t deep enough (maybe someone said this to you yesterday).

Deep preaching is a moving target, for the simple reason: Deep preaching takes on different meanings for different people.

Usually it is a churched person that wants deep preaching and what they often mean is, “I want preaching that makes me think.” Or, “I want preaching that fills me up.” Often, the person asking for deeper preaching is actually an immature Christian who doesn’t want to read their bible for themselves. Not always true, but I’ve found that to be common thread.

I was told by someone recently, “You preach too topically for me.”

If you’ve ever said that or thought that about a pastor, here’s something to keep in mind: every preacher preaches topical messages.

Topical preaching is simply preaching on a topic. A good preacher, looks at a text, studies it, prays over, discerns what they think the author is saying, what their church needs to hear from this text and then preaches on it. Now, some preachers will simply decide on a topic and go looking for a passage that says what they want it to say. That isn’t good preaching and that isn’t always what topical preaching is, though for the people who have a disdain for topical preaching, this is what they are talking about.

“Deep preaching”  to me is when the preacher is lazy. If a pastor isn’t careful, in an effort to be deep, his sermons will simply be an information mind dump. They stand up and preach a seminary lecture or quote a bunch of commentaries or dead guys.

That isn’t preaching.

I remember doing a preaching lab with some younger preachers and one of the preachers gave no application in his sermon. When I asked him about it he said that he wanted to preach a deep sermon and that “the Holy Spirit will apply what he just preached.” While I fully believe the Holy Spirit brings the conviction and change through a sermon, this is simply being lazy. If that is your view of preaching, why are you preaching? Why not just read a text and then sit down and “let the Holy Spirit do his work?” Or better yet, we don’t even need a preacher, just have people read a passage silently and then listen to the Holy Spirit.

That would be ludicrous.

Romans 10:14 tells us we need preaching. We need preachers who will do the hard work of studying, praying, confessing their sin and applying the text to their congregation.

Which means, you will preach on a passage and not preach everything in the passage. 

This is okay, but hard for younger preachers to handle.

You feel like you are failing or not being biblical. That isn’t the case. There are times when you get to a text and something jumps out for your church, but if you were to preach that passage in a year, you might emphasize a different part of the text. Are both right and biblical? As long as you say what the author said, yes.

It also means you edit your sermon. You spend more time on an idea than another. Every preacher does this, even though the Christians looking for “Deep preaching” don’t think it happens. If it didn’t, every pastor would simply preach on one verse every week or one word just so they preached the whole text.

Editing is one thing that separates a good sermon from a great sermon.

It is getting to what is most important in the text for your church to hear in that sermon.

We don’t need more “deep preaching” in our churches. We need more preachers who will do the hard work during the week so that when they preach, they are laser focused on the heart, so that we see the transformation we long for in our churches and in our society.