Her Story: Jess Bogard
her |həː, hə| pronoun 1 used as the object of a verb or preposition to refer to a female person: Her hope in God is inspirational.
Jess Bogard and her husband, Reed, are the Lead Pastors of Hillsong Dallas! They originally met at Hillsong International Leadership College in Australia in 2005 and have since served on Hillsong staff for 14 years in different capacities, including being part of the teams on the ground that planted the Hillsong New York City and Los Angeles campuses in the USA.
They have three amazing boys Judah (11, born in Australia), Lando (7, born in NYC) and Cash (5, born in California) and their greatest desire in life is to build the Church, to help as many people as possible find Jesus, and to live out the message that as imperfect as we are as people, we can still be loved, accepted, and know that we can all come to Jesus as we are.
We loved our time with Jess and we know you will too. Read more of her story below or watch the Facebook Live video here!
Q&A with Jess Bogard
1. How did you know you were called to the ministry?
I have always felt a call to ministry. I feel so incredibly privileged to be called a Christian. My parents divorced when I was 11 and I moved with my dad and my sister to a small back house in a town of 200 people. A family walked to our house, knocked on our door, and asked if my sister or I would want to go to youth group or church with them—so I went. After 4-5 months of going to church, I had never asked the question, “How can I become a Christian?” I just felt as though I couldn’t be in a relationship with God because of all I had experienced in my life. I would wish I could have a relationship with Him, but I felt unqualified. I thought, “ f I can’t have a relationship with You, then I don’t want to go to church." A year later, after a crazy night of partying, I decided I wanted to give the whole God thing another shot. Just going to church and knowing Him was better than the life I was living. I followed the music one Sunday morning and found a church. I gave my life to Jesus and have never looked back.
2. How did your spiritual journey evolve?
I met a beautiful lady named Mary. She was an 85-year-old widow and felt it was her calling in life to bring young girls under her wing. I had no money, was a young, grimy little 13-year-old girl—believing big things for her life. I would meet with Mary every Tuesday afternoon and we would read the Bible together. I would ask her questions, convinced I had done a sin that couldn’t be forgiven. She was so sweet and patient with me. A year and a half into my journey at that church, I wasn’t able to go to our Hillsong conference because I couldn’t afford it. So the church got together to sponsor me to go. I walked into the Hillsong arena conference, a naive young girl—I grabbed my senior pastor and said, “I didn’t know there were this many Christians in the world!” I just decided I wanted to be part of this church for the rest of my life.
3. How did you and your husband meet?
We met at the leadership school at Hillsong, Australia. He got off the plane and I was greeting students. We had a mutual friend who thought we would be good together. I was an 18-year-old girl with the attitude that I didn’t need a man. But there was another girl who had started to vibe with Reed—and I found out she was doing his laundry and making him apple pies. I couldn’t compete with that so I wrote him a letter that said, "I think you’re going after the princess and you could be going after the queen." We had 6 more months of hanging out, were engaged in February, married in July, and had a honeymoon baby.
4. When did you know it was time to start your own church? Why Dallas?
I’m a big believer in being “sent" and not being one of the “went." When we were in Australia, we knew we wanted to come to the United States. That’s why we originally moved to New York. We just submitted to Hillsong leadership—submitted our dream to Brian and Bobby—and for 9 years, we served as executive pastors, always knowing it was a dream and desire to lead something of our own. But I believe God speaks through leadership. At the right time, we had more of a stirring about it and they said yes when they thought the time was right. In all honesty, we could have gone out and done something earlier, but it wouldn’t have had as much impact without the blessing of a healthy house.
Honestly, we didn’t think about Dallas when planning to plant a church. But we didn’t realize how unbelievable this city was. We lucked out. I fell in love with Dallas the moment we flew in 18 months ago. Our first service was May of last year. Then COVID happened—and it feels like we’re going to be starting from scratch all over again. Right now we’re in North Dallas High School, and after COVID, we’re excited to do something in Frisco as well as Downtown Dallas.
5. You’re a mom, wife, and lead pastor—how do you find the time to grow in your relationship with God? How do you manage to help so many people and still take care of yourself and your family?
I’m a big believer in maintaining my own relationship with Jesus. It’s really hard to lead people in a place you haven’t gone yourself. When it comes to caring for people you have to know when to help them yourself and when to pass them to people on your team. I stay fueled and motivated — honored that God would choose me and have a relationship with me. That’s where my motivation comes from. I have a very active daily relationship with Jesus. It’s not based on feelings and emotions. Stake-in-the-ground type decisions to hold me through the seasons. We are honest with our church about not being perfect—nobody is. We’re going to make mistakes, but if we are open about our humanity then I think we can go far together. It wasn’t Jesus’ perfection that drew me to Him—it was His ability to accept me as I am. I lift my hands in worship, even when I don’t feel it—and it fills my spirit.
Pastor Bobby Houston once said in response to the “balance” question—“I don’t look at life or ministry as something you balance—because that word implies that something may get dropped. Rather, life has ebbs and flows." Some seasons will require more time with the kids—like COVID. This last season, I’ve had to put more time and effort into my family and kids so I haven’t done as much speaking in church. But Reed and I lead the church together—with our arms linked. We do all of these seasons together and I try to make sure nothing competes with our relationship, our kids, or our family. We just try to figure it out the best we can—making mistakes and learning from them along the way.
6. How are you teaching these values to your kids?
We’re really intentional with the kids about not feeling any pressure as being a pastor’s kid. My husband was a pastor’s kid. With the boys, I try to be as real as possible. My teenager said something in response to COVID the other day—he said, “This is the worst year of my life!" I felt the Holy Spirit stop me, “Don’t be the positive police—just sit and empathize.” So I responded from that place. I said, "It sucks bud. I totally get it. It’s such a rough season. The good news is we’re all going through it together." We try to create a normal life in the midst of something nobody has ever experienced before. We allow them to see us have our moments of frustration—and I will always apologize to my kids when I react the wrong way or do the wrong thing. We ask their forgiveness. All you can do as a parent is try your best. But I never want to push God on my kids because God is capable of getting their attention Himself. We create opportunities to experience God but we allow them to choose for themselves.
7. How would you encourage someone else in how to pursue their calling or purpose?
The Church isn’t a building. If anything—this last COVID season has begun to show us that the Church is people. We are those people. The body of Christ is made up of a lot of different parts. We can glorify the pastor and the preacher—but truth be told, if we don’t have great people financing the Kingdom of God, people loving people, people serving through outreach—then we don’t make up the full body of Christ. Wherever you are at is your point of ministry. Use what is in your hand to fulfill what is in your heart. God can use you where you are. I used to work as a receptionist at a hair salon. There were women there that needed to hear about the hope and love of Jesus—and when I began to understand that, I realized that place was my ministry. Sweeping, smiling, encouraging—that was my ministry. Grab hold of where you are at right now and see it as your ministry. God won’t take you to the next level until you allow him to use you where you’re at.
You don’t have to have it all together to make an impact for Jesus. I’ve been so broken and God has used me regardless. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you’ve made. Repent and change your ways—God can use you wherever you’re at. I always ask people, “What do you love?” I believe God places a natural thing in us to where we are inclined to do the things we love—pursuing that will show you what your gifts are. I love to be around people, to communicate, or to give others an understanding of God. It was natural for me to want to preach. But before I had a platform, I was preaching. Look at your own life—ask yourself what you are good at and what you love. Then you’ll discover it.
8. What are the biggest obstacles you’ve had to face up to this point?
My biggest obstacle is myself. We all struggle with insecurity and comparison. All of the ugly things we don’t want to talk about. 12 years ago, we were living in New York. We just got a second-hand “new” car—and I was so excited about it. It was God’s greatest blessing to us. We called our friends to come see our new car. We went to meet them on an access road and I saw a red Hummer coming in our direction. I thought, "Surely that’s not them…" But they had also just gotten a new car. A shiny new red Hummer. We showed them our car and I remember watching as they drove off—I looked back at my “new car”—the car that 5 minutes ago had represented God’s blessing over my life—and I began to compare my car to theirs. Comparison has been a constant thing I’ve had to battle in my own life. But God continues to remind me to stay in my own lane. When I try to step out of my lane, I get out of God’s grace.
9. What would you say to someone who is ready to give up or throw in the towel?
At the end of the day, you have to get a little gritty in your decisions and understand that we only have one life. We have one shot at this and we don’t get a do-over. One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is that I want to make decisions now that my future self will be grateful for. At night when I’m tired and want to go to bed and see the dishes in the sink, I do them because I know the next morning with the boys will be crazy and I’ll feel better if I do it now. I don’t want to get to heaven and think I could have done more with my life. I want to get to heaven exhausted—using every opportunity I had to share about God's grace and love. When we start to get an eternal perspective—we can see our lives in light of eternity. This life is but a vapor. We are going to make mistakes. But God’s grace covers it all.
10. What is your favorite scripture?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)
Thank you, Jess! You are bold, beautiful, and inspiring. Thank you for allowing God to use you to touch the lives of others in our city!
We’ll see you all next month on September 2nd for our next Equipped by Faith first-Wednesday gathering. Be sure to follow us on social media @equippedbyfaith and subscribe to our newsletter at info@equippedbyfaith.com to receive weekly Bible Reading Plan devotionals, Equip Group meet-ups, and other special updates!
XO-
Equipped by Faith