Navigating Growth: Leadership in a Flourishing Church

Welcome back to the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re joined by Jason Hanash, the founding and lead pastor of Discovery Church in California—one of the fastest growing churches in the country.

How do you restructure your staff leadership to keep pace with rapid church growth? Tune in as Jason shares how Discovery evolved from a living room gathering to a thriving church reaching nearly 5,000 people—and the leadership shifts that increased alignment, ownership, and execution.

• Train your team as you grow. // As Discovery grew past the 2,000–2,500 attendance mark, Jason realized their existing pastoral team model was no longer scalable. The team was too broad, meetings were inefficient, and execution lagged. In response, Jason transitioned to a leaner executive team structure, developing four key leaders over two years and empowering them with oversight based on their unique gifting.
• Hire from within. // Rather than recruiting externally, Jason believes in developing leaders from within. Each of Discovery’s four executive team members aligns with the church’s culture, vision, and values, making them ideal for executive leadership. This long-term investment in development allowed for high trust and deep synergy across the leadership team.
• Don’t skip the training runway. // Discovery spent two years intentionally developing its executive team. The first year was spent modeling leadership and included seasonal staff meetings, goal setting, and retreats focused on strategic management. The second year involved gradual empowerment and coaching. This slow-build approach created leaders who understood the organizational DNA and could lead with confidence.
• Navigating change with vision. // Organizational change inevitably causes friction—especially when some staff members lose direct access to senior leaders. At Discovery, staff are reminded to “marry the vision, not the position,” and flexibility is woven into the culture. Involve key influencers early, explaining the “why,” and selling the benefits of change.
• Weekly and monthly rhythms. // Discovery uses a two-tiered meeting system for their executive team. A quick weekly huddle every Tuesday creates space for real-time coaching and decision-making. Then, once a month, the executive team meets for a deep dive focused on five pillars: advancing the vision, influencing the culture, managing the systems, multiplying the leadership, and stewarding generosity. Each season emphasizes one pillar, helping the team stay mission-focused and proactive.
• Daily department huddles. // Each department also holds a five-to-eight-minute daily huddle. These quick stand-ups increase alignment, clarify priorities, and offer real-time coaching. The brief check-ins save time, prevent costly miscommunication and provide a space for the team to exchange ideas.
• Yearly themes that drive culture. // Jason and his wife take time each summer to fast and pray over the coming year. In 2024, the theme was “Year of Freedom,” which led to a yearlong focus on emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. The theme shaped sermon series, events, small groups, and even the launch of a counseling center. In 2025, the theme is “Identity,” with a new devotional, curriculum, and book—Christ Formed in You—guiding a 12-month journey of spiritual formation.

Learn more about Discovery Church at ilovediscovery.church and check out their leadership conference on July 12, 2025 at leadershipconference.church.

EXTRA CREDIT // 15-Minute Daily Huddle Toolkit

In this episode, Jason Hanash shares how Discovery Church grew from a living room gathering to a thriving church of over 5,000 without losing clarity, culture, or team alignment. One key system that supported that growth? Daily 15-minute leadership huddles.

To help you implement the same high-impact rhythm, we’ve created the 15-Minute Daily Huddle Toolkit,  available exclusively to unSeminary Extra Credit members.

What’s Inside the Toolkit:

• Toolkit Overview – A one-pager that explains what daily huddles are, why they matter, and how to lead them with impact
• Email Sequence – Pre-written copy-and-paste emails to launch the 6-week challenge, keep it moving, and close it strong
• Printable Prompt Cards – A set of creative conversation starters to keep your huddles focused and engaging throughout the challenge
• Weekly Leader Tracker – A reflection tool for team leads to identify patterns, highlight wins, and capture learning
• Celebration Ideas – Fun and flexible ideas for wrapping up the challenge—whether you continue the huddles or pause to reflect

Extra Credit members can download the complete toolkit here.

Not a member yet? Support the podcast by joining unSeminary Extra Credit. It’s just $7/month  and as a thank you, you’ll get access to this toolkit plus a growing library of practical resources designed to help your church lead better, grow faster, and stay healthy.

Join today and start your team’s next 6 weeks stronger than ever.

Thank You for Tuning In!

There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally!

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Episode Transcript

Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. Super excited to have you with us today. Looking forward to today’s conversation. We’re we’re talking with Jason Hanash today, great leader. He is a lead pastor and founding pastor with his wife, Veronica, of Discovery Church. And it’s repeatedly one of the fastest growing churches in the country. So you know, I’ve got a lot of questions. We want to lean in and learn more.

Rich Birch — The church is located in beautiful Bakersville, California. Their ministry includes a counseling center that offers biblically-based therapy. And in partnership with Vanguard University. The church hosts a partner site on the church campus called Discovery College or Discover College, which offers students affordable degree programs. I am so glad to have you with us today, Jason. Welcome to the show.

Jason Hanash — Hey thanks so much, Rich. Excited to be here, man.

Rich Birch — No, I’m excited to talk to you. Kind of fill in the picture for folks that, ah you know, that aren’t aware of the church. Kind of tell us a little bit of the Discovery story.

Jason Hanash — We started in 2013. And just to tell the story, I probably take 30 minutes to all the God stories, to be honest, ah to be where we’re at today at reaching almost like 5,000 people after 11 years, almost going to be 12 years this year, is just miracle after miracle, to be honest, doors that were open that I couldn’t open, just grace and favor and provision that we look back and we just say, man, that was that was God.

Jason Hanash — So there’s so many God stories to get us where we are, but it truly has been year after year, knocking literal walls down after walls down, expanding and expanding because the Lord has been bringing lost sons and daughters to his church. It’s been beautiful.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — That’s great. Well, there’s a ton we could talk about there, but I know one of the things that often kind of happens in a fast-growing church ah is we start to see some cracks on kind of the leadership side and being able to find enough leaders, release them. This is a critically important issue. Can you talk us through what has your church’s journey been with that whole side of this this trying to manage what God’s doing at your church, trying to keep up with what he’s, you know, what he’s sending your way.

Jason Hanash — Yeah, you know, when you start a church, your church plant, you’re like, do you have a pulse and are you breathing? Let’s go. You can serve. Let’s do this. We used to say at the the beginning, If you can open up a bag of chips and, you know, open up your home, then you can lead a small group. And my goodness, the Lord’s grace on us.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Jason Hanash — So there’s…Yeah, there’s there’s some things that happened probably in that season that could have been prevented. But honestly, we were so fast moving, fast growing, and there is a messiness on the side of grace. But yes, as you grow, um yeah those cracks become wider and wider.

Jason Hanash — And so we have always been a leadership development church focused on leadership development and raising leaders. And we did that, have done that in a variety of ways, but we probably saw the most glaring gap was in our 2000s.

Rich Birch — Okay.

Jason Hanash — And and I say, that because leadership development and in teams and multiplication has has always been part of our DNA and part of our systems and processes. But at the 2,000, 2,500 mark, we hit a lid…

Rich Birch — Okay.

Jason Hanash — …that we were not ready to grow beyond. And and that was where we had this pastoral team model. And I’m leading, and you know my wife as well, we lead together, but we’re leading the pastoral team. It’s one meeting. It’s a large team. It’s all the pastors, all the ministry pastors. So It just became too broad…

Rich Birch — Right. Okay.

Jason Hanash — …too slow, lacked execution and detail at the level that ministries and ministers needed needed it.

Jason Hanash — So um this was probably, don’t know how many years ago now we’re at at that stage, maybe just after COVID. It was probably leading into COVID and after COVID, they just COVID kind of lengthened everything. But it was that stage that we were at this 2,000, 2,500 mark that we needed to restructure.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — And we moved to this executive team model where I was able to focus on some mission-critical things and raise up some leaders to another level.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — So we kind of identified four leaders on our team, and we took them on a journey of about of two years…

Rich Birch — Wow.

Jason Hanash — …pouring into them and and helping them understand what executive leadership looked like and modeling it for.

Rich Birch — Yep. Yep.

Jason Hanash — So even like the first year, what do you doing we didn’t even call it an executive team. We called it an admin team. This is our administrative team.

Rich Birch — OK, great.

Jason Hanash — We didn’t give them the name.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — It was like, no, they were right you you haven’t earned that label, that title yet.

Rich Birch — Right, right.

Jason Hanash — So administrative team. And and we, one year we poured into them and and modeled ah for them. And then the second year they started, they started carrying more. And so now we are in a very healthy executive team model now where…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …and we’ve been able to grow, not only grow to the 3,000, but now reaching almost 5,000 people. So it’s it’s been a tremendous shift for us.

Rich Birch — That’s great. That’s great.

Rich Birch — Yeah, let’s double click on that. When you, because there’s a bunch there I want to unpack. But before we think about kind of where things are at now, how those four roles are structured, that sort of thing. What were some of the kind of things that led you to the place where you’re like, um I’m just not sure, you know, that this is really working.

Rich Birch — I’m thinking for leaders that are listening in, they might give a few hearty amens to like pains that you were feeling at that time, that they might see that, hey, may um maybe we need to make a change.

Jason Hanash — You know, when when you start noticing the the lack, the gap, the deficiency or the decline…

Rich Birch — Okay.

Jason Hanash — …in ministry or in baptisms or in team members or in leadership, when you start noticing those pain points after the pain happens, you’re just it happens you’re like, what what happened? You go, oh, we we don’t have that team meeting. We don’t have that, we’re not running that system the way it’s supposed to be. Why aren’t we? And there was so much that we just, we just, we missed.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — And so we we were now looking in hindsight going, how did we miss that?

Rich Birch — Okay. Yeah.

Jason Hanash — And whenever that starts to happen, it’s because there’s probably too much bureaucracy or there’s not enough intentional leadership being given to your, to your pastors or your departments. And so where we were planning and looking ahead and we’re able to support our ministries, we got too big to where we were, we were looking behind and see it react…

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Jason Hanash — …rather than rather than acting.

Rich Birch — Then proactive. Okay. So then you ended up restructuring around kind of a four-part leadership team. Talk to us about how those roles kind of work out. What are the kind of various buckets that the people have? And then and then we’ll talk about the transition to that.

Jason Hanash — Yeah, so I’m big on on you know the answer’s in the house, and raising up your leaders that you have…

Rich Birch — That’s good. So good.

Jason Hanash — …your your pastors, your leaders, your team. And we have have not hired out at Discovery.

Jason Hanash — And I’m not against it fully. I mean, if there’s a need for that, I’m open to it. I just have always tried to develop the people that God has given me and raise them up. And so that’s why it it took probably two years for our executive team to start humming. But I have people on our executive team that have been here for 11 years and…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …and I’ve been able to raise them, them up. So, they have culture, they have the vision, they have the heart of our, of our ministry.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Jason Hanash — And there is, there is relationship that there. We have chemistry. There’s a lot of alignment and synergy with that. So, and I say that because, you know, what buckets that they have, are really a reflection of their their gifting and their leader capacity…

Rich Birch — Right, right. That’s good.

Jason Hanash — …their their passions. And so in working with who you have and raising them up, I think you have to leverage people’s gifts. So our leadership structure is leveraged towards the the giftings of of the elders…

Rich Birch — Of the people. Yep.

Jason Hanash — …that God has called to lead this church. And so um we you know we have a zone who oversees our experience and creatives They lead all communications experience, creative ministries. We have someone leads all of the worship and and services and moments across all ministries. We have another executive that leads all of our next gen and as well as guest experience. And then we have some leads all of our what we call freedom ministries and our counseling center, pastoral care. And so those are the the four primary executives. And then myself and my my wife, we we you know have some mission critical things ourselves, but we oversee the the executive team.

Rich Birch — So that’s great. I love your word there around, um you know, really taking this from who are the people God’s put in in your church and trying to build their roles around them rather than like where we’ve got some artificial, you know, org chart that we’re trying to fit people into. That’s not how you said it, but I but I really appreciate that.

Rich Birch — That’s, now you did this, talk to me about this training, this kind of before you launched, what did that look like? I love the intentionality of that. Like, Hey, we’re going to march towards it. We’re bridging towards this, not just saying like, okay, go for it kind of thing.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — Tell me about, tell me about that.

Jason Hanash — Well, there’s a lot of things that we do in leading a high impact ah action-oriented, change-oriented staff and and ministry. So from um the goals that we set, how we set goals, our lead measures, lag measures, the org charts, how we plan our staff meetings. We have seasonal you know seasonal meetings with with department heads and what are the goals you’re focusing on.

Jason Hanash — So there’s there was a lot that hit just show we had to walk them through and we took them on a few retreats and showed them how to manage a staff and a team, and different departments goals and teams and how to keep keep them looking forward. So it it was just come along let us we’ll do it with you and we’ll actually break away a couple times to to to have you ask questions and and build it out build it out together. So um it was it was a year of modeling what what that looks like.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — And then this second year was us kind of um but releasing a little bit to them while we coach them is is what it looked like.

Rich Birch — That’s cool. Now, what about the people? So I’m assuming that these folks and this this may be a foreign question to you because everybody always gets along at Discovery Church. There’s never any tension. Everything’s perfect. But I’m assuming from what I hear you saying that, like, you know, you’re you’re raising up a few people by definition.

Rich Birch — And you know, that might have, there might be some stepped on toes in that feeling. How you know, again, how did you avoid that? Or what did that theoretically look like to try to avoid that? If that’s not really an issue, how how did you navigate that? Do you understand the kind of question I’m wondering about there?

Jason Hanash — I think change in any regard is going to cause friction…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — …and especially when you’ve got organization structure change, organizational change.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — So there there is that. I think what we have going for at Discovery though is we have um grown every year and had to restructure quite often.

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Jason Hanash — And so kind of in our culture, to be change oriented.

Rich Birch — Right. Good.

Jason Hanash — And of our staff in our, in our, so that, that is going for us where that is something that is embraced structure changes, meeting rhythms change. We tell people to marry the, the, the vision, not the position. And so you’re going to might have to shift on, um, you know, what hats you’re you’re wearing depending on what season we’re in and and what what the needs are.

Jason Hanash — So there’s there’s that in the culture, but inevitably there is going to be, hey, well, I was sitting at this table and now I’m not at at that table.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — And so with that, I think you have to be, use some change strategy and have conversations with key, not only key influencers, but but people that it’s going to impact the most.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.

Jason Hanash — And share vision with them, you know, get embodied on the vision and and the why. And that is something that hopefully that they’re going to be able to grow through.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — That they’re not meeting maybe with me anymore or with Pastor Veronica…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …but they’re actually meeting with another executive. And, you know, there’s still value that I add in coaching them. And these are the rhythms of of what that looks like and how I can speak into your life and really selling them the benefit. It’s a benefit to them and a blessing to them…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …because I’m not able to give them, honestly what they need to do.

Rich Birch — Right. The care they need.

Jason Hanash — I cannot. And they need so much more than what I’m able to. And with this structure, here’s what they’re able to do. And I’m able to lean into where I’m strong at. And I can mentor you.

Rich Birch — Yep, yep.

Jason Hanash — I can care for you. I can stretch your leadership. And and they can actually help you see the details and stay on track and grow faster and larger. And so they just need to understand the why.

Jason Hanash — And we try to try to do that, but inevitably there is going to be, you know, feelings and and to navigate people’s very real feelings so its is important.

Rich Birch — Yes. Feelings are part of working with people. There’s ah there’s definitely is feeling there.

Rich Birch — Talk to me about your ah the you’re meeting rhythm. This is like typical unSeminary question, like love to get in the weeds there. How often do you meet one-on-one? How often do you meet as a group with that executive team? And did that change from before? I’m assuming you reduced your your total, your direct you know headcount that you’re managing. So to talk us through maybe before and after what’s that look like?

Jason Hanash — Yeah, so it’s it’s looked different throughout the transition.

Rich Birch — Right. Yep.

Jason Hanash — And and honestly, our meeting rhythms shift quite often, probably more often than and went then we should, and to be honest with you. And I feel like it is, but honestly, it is because people come and go and hats get shifted and leadership assignments get shifted. So that necessitates maybe some movement.

Jason Hanash — So but currently where where our rhythm is at is we have a weekly huddle with our executive team. And this is on our first day.

Rich Birch — Okay

Jason Hanash — We have a Monday Sabbath because Sunday is a week packed into one day for us.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Jason Hanash — We have five services, range from 8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. And so it’s Monday Sabbath.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Jason Hanash — And then so but Tuesday, when we come to the office, the first thing that that we do is the executive team meets together. And this is where we just, it’s just a huddle, really. This isn’t a detailed meeting. It’s not we we just want to have FaceTime with with them. What are the the the projects and priorities? What are any problems? And if there’s any people conversations that we need to discuss. And it’s it’s pretty quick. And we we let our our executives give them a room every week to just share. And that’s where we can have some real time conversations. So coaching real-time answers to to barriers or challenges that they’re having and where we can get alignment across our executive team.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Jason Hanash — So it’s time for us to so huddle. They have a weekly a daily huddle that they have with their with their departments, and it’s like a five to eight minute things. It’s standing up and they get to, they just do that a quick huddle. And so we kind of model that as well, where it goes a little bit longer though. We probably have about 25 to 30 minutes that, that we, we try to stand too and not sit down.

Jason Hanash — And then we do a monthly executive meeting. In the monthly executive meeting we try to stay bigger picture and, and looking ahead. And to do that, we actually, we have a a rhythm that every month is a different a little bit of a different focus. Every month we’re talking about vision and we are going to have our vision metrics that are that, how are we moving people toward the process of discipleship here at Discovery and their the, their vision goals in their specific departments. But we have a different focus every month that we move through. And these are and this is probably going to be more in the weeds that you’re probably looking for, but it’s…

Rich Birch — No, no, it’s good.

Jason Hanash — Okay. We we have really, there’s five, the five focuses of of an executive at Discovery is: advancing the vision, influencing the culture, managing the systems, multiplying the leadership, and stewarding generosity. And so these these are five focuses that the executive team is is, it’s like a heartbeat that they, they, so every month we shift from what the focus is. So vision is actually going to be the one that’s in every every meeting.

Rich Birch — Right. That’s cool.

Jason Hanash — But we shift from influencing the culture, managing the systems, multiplying the leadership and stewarding resources. So what it works out, because it’s four of them, it works out, we do a seasonal calendar. We actually focus on one of those habits, if you will, or one of those um pillars every season.

Jason Hanash — And so we get to do a deep dive in our systems every season.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — We get to do a deep dive in our in our leadership pipelines and our leadership ah team and the goals that we have for leaders every season. Culture…

Rich Birch — That’s great.

Jason Hanash — …how are we influencing the culture of our church? What what is the culture of our church? We have culture conversation and how we are, we get to talk about how are we shaping the culture of our church this season and how are we going to shape it next season?

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good.

Jason Hanash — What are the stories that need to be told? What are the things that need to be highlighted? There’s a we get to just do a deep dive into that. And then as well as every season, we talk about stewarding generosity. And so we get to do a deep dive into how we have stewarded their budgets.

Rich Birch — Yeah. Where are we at and all that.

Jason Hanash — And where are they at? And how are we looking? And so it’s it’s both reflective of what has been done and where are we moving moving forward. So we’re able to do just a deeper dive with this team…

Rich Birch — I love that.

Jason Hanash — …that is that influences the the the background, the heart, the foundation of of the church. It isn’t we’re not talking about events. We’re not talking about you know who’s speaking there and and what what is the that conference looking like. That’s not what we’re talking about in that meeting. We are shaping the heart of the church and moving it forward toward the vision.

Rich Birch — Love it. I love that. And I love the just—listeners, as you’re listening in—I love that you’re using the rhythm. Like we have a very, what we do is very routinized in the church. Every seven days, we’re doing a giant event. And you guys in particular, five services that we were joking about this before we went ahead of time. Oooh, that’s a lot. I get tired just thinking about it. But you know we have this rhythm already in what we do. Let’s leverage that. And I love this idea of like, hey, we’re just going to march through these five things and talk about them. We’re going to every, you know, I guess that’s like a third of the year, we’re marching through every one of those areas. I think that’s so good.

Rich Birch — You caught my eye with daily meetings, daily huddles with your team. I know we’re not talking about your executive, but they’re having daily huddles.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — I have a friend of mine who runs a business who swears by daily huddles. He’s like, why are you not doing these? And pushes me on it. So, and I do, I, in fact, I don’t know any churches that do daily huddles. I think you’re the first church that I’ve heard of that does that. So tell tell me about that. Tell me what that looks like. Unpack that. Convince us that we should be doing that.

Jason Hanash — Well, it gives an opportunity for the executive to look in the eyes of their of their staff and and for that department to get alignment and to talk about their their projects and and priorities, what their focus is for the week.

Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Hanash — And when they when they come together, they are saying again, what the focus is for the week, what are they accomplishing, what challenges or questions that that they have.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Jason Hanash — Real-time decision-making feedback is is it so important, man. I think people, there’s so much that doesn’t get done and get stalled because they just didn’t have the line of communication that was that was open, the clarity that was needed, a question that went unanswered. So I think it creates that open line of communication. It creates an opportunity for there to be collaboration across the different team members of your department. But it is a good rhythm of accountability where everyone can work on what they’re working on instead of being in the weeds and like just grinding, they actually have to pick their head up and go, what is my focus this week? What should I be accomplishing? And be able to articulate that in a succinct way.

Jason Hanash — And so this is an opportunity for them to become great administrators and time management and task management and project management And as well as an executive or a leader who’s leading them to discern where people are at in that, if they need coaching in that, if they need redirection, if they need focus. Sometimes in a huddle, they’re saying, I’m I’m working on this, this, this. And an executive has to go, and actually, let’s talk about that because I actually I have I have some redirection for you there.

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Jason Hanash — I need you to focus on a few more things this week, and and we’re going to table some of those. Oh oh, yeah, you didn’t. There was something we actually canceled that or we changed that. We need to connect. And so it creates so much alignment and and focus and momentum when you get people in the room…

Rich Birch — Love it.

Jason Hanash — …talk about what they’re going to be working on. And it gives opportunity, like I said, for coaching. So it’s been huge for us. We’ve been able to, I think, save so much time…

Rich Birch — Yeah, 100%.

Jason Hanash — …and energy and mistakes in wrong direction…

Rich Birch — Yes.

Jason Hanash — …by dedicating 10-15 minutes…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …in the morning first thing to just talk about what you’re actually going to be working on together.

Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. I can see that. I remember reading, I think I’m going to butcher the number. I think it was 40% or 45% of staff time is occupied with waiting on management or feedback around, you know, it’s literally just like I’ve communicated. I just need to wait for someone to respond.

Rich Birch — And, you know, the the the kind of theories of constraint idea behind that is if you can just get people talking more, you can speed up at the pace of your organization because it’s like, and if you know, in this case, every day you’re going to have a quick check-in, man, we can move from, because then the question becomes, hey, what did you do on that project yesterday? Or I can just wait till tomorrow morning to ask my supervisor about that. And we’ll, you know we’ll move as opposed to like, well, I’ve got a meeting up three weeks from now or whatever. So yeah, I love that.

Jason Hanash — Right. And there there’s ways, I mean, you can use systems as well.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — We have we use Basecamp.

Rich Birch — Yeah.

Jason Hanash — A lot of people use different different software. We we use Basecamp for, sometimes they they don’t do the huddle because people are in different towns, in different cities.

Rich Birch — Yes.

Jason Hanash — They’ll do Basecamp. Basecamp is an ongoing system of communications as well. Must must happen.

Rich Birch — Yeah. Love it. Love it. So good. Okay. So let’s pivot in a slightly different direction. You did an initiative called Year of Freedom.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — It caught my attention. Tell me what is Year of Freedom? Give us, give me a sense of that.

Jason Hanash — So every, it was 2024, last year…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — …we we just ah really felt like the Lord leading us in a direction. And every summer, I take a month off, not just a vacation, but I take about two weeks. I pray, fast—my wife wife and I both—and we’re seeking God for his voice and direction. And not just for like ministry and the church, but for my life and for God to align me…

Rich Birch — That’s good.

Jason Hanash — …as a father, as a husband. It’s our marriage. It’s

Rich Birch — So good.

Jason Hanash — …it’s in that time in the summer we’re we’re praying and we’re fasting and we’re seeking God that the Lord will show us some things about our our children. He’ll give us insight as to importance in this next year that we’re leading into and what they need to learn and grow and how we need to lead them.

Jason Hanash — And so it’s in that time though, that that we also seek God’s direction for what everything we’re stewarding, including including the ministry and the church. And the Lord has been pretty faithful these last I don’t know, four or five years to to just give us clarity of focus. And and this year was just um was ah one that focus was around freedom. And that was the word that Lord just spoke to our heart. And and it it came in birth out of the the need. There’s such a great need of healing of mental and emotional and spiritual strongholds that that that people have. And and um…

Rich Birch — So good.

Jason Hanash — …we felt that the Lord wanted to wanted to set people fee free. And and we were going to take people on a journey the whole year of freedom…

Rich Birch — Wow.

Jason Hanash — …and crafted that journey and through our series and our men’s and women’s nights and experiences, even our youth and young adults and the retreats that we went on – the thread of the year was was freedom.

Rich Birch — So you organized, I love this idea. Like I, you know, I’ve heard of churches doing the like, like, you know, whether it’s a word or it’s a focus. Peal that back a little bit. How did that drive your planning process? How did it drive, you know, series selection?

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — Give us some examples of what that looked like.

Jason Hanash — So it starts for us in the summer. And then when we take our staff on our annual retreat in October, we share the vision with them and they begin to craft the experience and their events and moving into the year with this thread of freedom.

Jason Hanash — But for me, with our sermon series, that the the planning is is around that how does this how is this reflective of this this year of freedom that we’re moving into? I began the year with a series called Freedom. We released a curriculum called Freedom as well.

Rich Birch — Wow. Yep. Yep.

Jason Hanash — A book we wrote that was like small group curriculum called Freedom. The, and then throughout the year, it’s not that every single sermon was about, you know, freedom…

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — …but we, we had like, you know, The Relationship Rehab is one of the series. So we’re relational freedom. We did a series called Anxious for Nothing and it was about anxiety and depression. And we did a spiritual warfare series called Battles and Breakthrough. And this was on a spiritual freedom. We did Truth Over Trend and the deceptions of culture. And so the the thread throughout the year was, was freedom. We were going to see people set free.

Rich Birch — That’s cool.

Jason Hanash — And then when we did like a men’s night or a women’s night, we were leading intentionally men and women, specifically in the things that they deal with. So we’re addressing some of those things to lead them out and into freedom.

Jason Hanash — We did Freedom nights in in January and August. We have those 21 Days of Prayer. And so we we have worship nights during those times. And so those were nights of of freedom…

Rich Birch — Wow.

Jason Hanash — …that we were intentional about the focus every time we’d gather, a different area of focus where we’re where we were going to break strongholds, and we were going to believe that people were going to be set free and and start walking out a new freedom journey.

Rich Birch — I love this from a clarity point of view. I love this. Like, Hey, we’re, where this is like an organizing principle for the, for the year. Have you done this multiple years or is this like a one year thing? Has it been, you know, is it gaining momentum internally? Like we’re thinking, cause I hear you say like, Hey, we’re thinking about in the summer. So that would mean, Hey, you’re thinking about next year. You know, how, how’s that all work?

Jason Hanash — Yeah, it really, this last year in 2024 probably was the greatest year of alignment with it that we’ve had.

Rich Birch — Right. Right.

Jason Hanash — We’ve had focus and and clarity on on maybe a theme and and it would thread through maybe sermons, and um but not the kind of alignment that we had this year. And this probably is, again, a result of empowering people our our leaders to lead at higher levels…

Rich Birch — Yeah, I love it.

Jason Hanash — …seeing that kind of traction thread through…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — …all of the church. I it was it was a result of that. I got to share the vision…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — …to a team that’s carrying it and they get to mobilize.

Rich Birch — Right.

Jason Hanash — And it just thread through everything. We have small groups and like as a curriculum. We launched our counseling center. We launched a freedom prayer ministry. We we started LGBTQ support small group and saw people set free that were going to take hormone blockers and confusion and and homosexuality and and saw people saved and set free from from all of that. It was all like it was it was all because we we shared vision and invited the team into it.

Rich Birch — Yeah, love it.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — That’s so good. I love how those two connect together. Obviously this, you know, taking what’s an idea, you know, given to you, but then, hey, accelerated through your team, expanded and even, you know, greater alignment and then obviously impact from all of that. That is, yeah, that’s that’s so good.

Rich Birch — Well, when you think about the future, this has been great today. First of all, this has been so good. Lots of, I got a page of notes here, stuff to think about and chew on. But when you think about the future, ah you know, at Discovery, kind of where, what are the questions you’re asking or wrestling with in in the future?

Jason Hanash — I think where we’re at right now is is this is 2025…

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — …and the year or theme for us was identity. And I really felt like it was an identity crisis and has been an identity crisis. And not just culturally that we see maybe with with with gender, um but I think in the kingdom, people do not know are in Christ. They don’t know their identity in Christ.

Jason Hanash — And so so I I believe there’s a hunger for for that in the body. There’s a hunger for that in the world because what the world has told people where they would find belonging, fulfillment and meaning has has just leaving them broken, lost and confused. And so there’s a I believe there’s ah there’s a message in a revival coming to the church where we are bringing people into understanding into their, their identity, who they, who they were created to be and their identity in Christ.

Jason Hanash — So this year we kind of, we we wrote like a devotional for it.

Rich Birch — Wow.

Jason Hanash — And in I’m actually, you know, finishing up a new curriculum, a book I’m writing called Christ Formed in You is launching in July 30th, I believe.

Rich Birch — Nice. Love it.

Jason Hanash — And we’re [inaudible] spiritual formation and a culture of [inaudible] faith.

Rich Birch — Yep.

Jason Hanash — And we’re going to take people on a year long journey…

Rich Birch — So good.

Jason Hanash — …where our foundational new believers curriculum needs to be 12 weeks. We’re stretching it out to a year and the 12 habits of the disciple.

Rich Birch — Love it.

Jason Hanash — We’re just taking people on a deeper journey of spiritual formation so that they’re just not practicing habits, but the habits are shaping Christ’s likeness in them.

Rich Birch — Ah, that’s so good. I love that. Yeah, I was thinking that, you know, the interesting thing about launching, you know, you talk about launching a year like that.

Jason Hanash — Yeah.

Rich Birch — If you launch at the beginning of January, that means you’re writing at the in, you know, the year before. So you’re trying to balance out this year, next year, trying to keep it all straight. That’s, that’s cool. I love, I love that. It’s interesting to hear.

Rich Birch — Well, this has been a fantastic conversation. What what else would you like to say just as we come to land today’s conversation?

Jason Hanash — Man, it’s it’s been a pleasure, been a pleasure, man, to hang out with you and to share. I think that that there’s, I what I would say is I’m seeing across the the nation, as I talk to pastors, it truly is the sparks of revival.

Rich Birch — I would agree. 100%.

Jason Hanash — There is such a hunger for the the word of God and the presence of God. And, and what is, what used to be, I don’t know, we’ve moved away from, guess, the teachings, the word of God and, and we tried to attract people and wow people and lights and, and, and music and, and that’s, there’s nothing against that. I, we, I use that. But, but I think what, what’s really attracting the next generation is truth. And this generation is starved of of truth and there’s so much deception and the truth is is is in the Word of God. And as we teach the Word of God and we teach the truth, they’re coming. And I see young adults coming with their Bibles and they want to read the Bible, they want to know the Bible.

Jason Hanash — And so I think a church growth recipe is, is you know, teach the Word of God. Get back into the Word of God.

Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so true. Absolutely.

Jason Hanash — Open it up and dive into and you’ll see a ah spark, I think, in your congregations.

Rich Birch — No, that’s so good. What a great encouragement, great place to, uh, to end. Where do we want to send people online? If people want access, is there a way to access some of these resources that you’ve used for the entire year? Is there a place we can send people to kind of see that or where do we want to send them online to track with you track with the church, that sort of thing?

Jason Hanash — I mean, you can go to our website, ilovediscovery.church to see a lot of our, all of our content. We’re actually putting on our first ever leadership conference on July 12th.

Rich Birch — Oh, great. Good.

Jason Hanash — It’s just a one day Saturday. We’ve we’ve been getting a lot of just, you know, questions from pastors and ministry leaders on on how we’re doing what we’re doing.

Rich Birch — Good for you.

Jason Hanash — So we’re kind of opening up the house and giving our playbooks and resources and workshops and bringing in some speakers and hopefully going to be a really great value add.

Jason Hanash — But we’re, we’re we have a ah website, I believe it’s leadershipconference.church.

Rich Birch — Ooh, that’s good.

Jason Hanash — And if you want more information about that, leadershipconference.church, you can check that out. I believe that’s it. I’m probably murdering it. Let me see. Rich, I’m good my team’s going to kill me here if I don’t get this right. Yep, leadership.

Rich Birch — No, that’s right. That is. Yep. That’s right. That’s, that’s the, that’s the address. That’s good.

Jason Hanash — That’s it. So if you want more information um and more resources and how we do what we do and how we grew from a living room to 5,000 people, that’s that’s what we’re going be sharing there.

Rich Birch — That’s so good. That’s great. You got some great speakers there, Natalie, Ryan, Chris, and yourself. That’s going to be a great. Yeah. We’ll, we’ll link to that in the show notes. Incredible value. Uh, you know, you should check that out if you’re in the area for sure.

Rich Birch — Thanks so much, Jason. I really, uh, really appreciate you being here today. Thanks for being on the show.

Jason Hanash — Thanks, Rich.