We are a husband-and-wife team who lead a faith community in Deep Ellum, a district of Dallas, Texas. From the beginning we wanted to be co-pastors, but we knew this would be an adjustment for the congregation. Now that we've led the church for a few years, we decided to share our reflections on how leading together is going so far.

Rachel: We knew communication to the congregation was essential. We explained that Joel and I truly serve side-by-side, a 50-50 split. Our roles would be based on giftedness, not gender. We really were going to co-pastor, together. Though we were resolute about this commitment, we tried to be accommodating in the early days. We both preached on Sundays but Joel led our staff and board meetings. Joel loved leading the staff meetings. The board meetings were another story.

Joel: Leading the board was a chore for me. Actually, "leading" consisted of Rachel creating the agenda for the meeting and spending two hours prepping me on what to cover. It ...