[00:00:00 ] Andrea Buczynski: I don't mind doing some thought work by myself. But there's nothing like getting in a room with people who want to go to the same place, and to be able to put ideas out there, bat them around. And then it might be the same group of people, but it also might be a different group of people that comes in and says here's what it's going to take to do it.

It resonates with me with the body of Christ that we all have a part to play and God's created us uniquely and we need others to bring the best out of each other. We build each other up when we're in that process. And the team that's working well together will be more brilliant than any individual player.

Tommy Thomas: Our guest today is Andrea Buczynski. Andrea enjoyed a long and storied career with Cru. She took her undergraduate degree from Penn State. At Cru, she's known as a catalyst for transformation, seeking innovative solutions and addressing challenges and creating lasting impact.

Her most recent leadership responsibility at Cru was Global Vice President for Leadership Development and Human Resources. Andrea, welcome to NextGen Nonprofit Leadership.

[00:01:15 ] Andrea Buczynski: Thank you so much, Tommy. I'm glad to be here with you today.

[00:01:18 ] Tommy Thomas: Yeah, people always want to know, how do we get these guests? And yours is a typical story.

In my business, in the search business, anytime I'm looking for a CEO, at least one way to build the pool is to call a bunch of people, describe the job you've got and say, now if you were doing the search who would you get? And if you make eight or ten of those calls generally, you'll begin to see three- or four-people’s names rise to the top and you might think I need to talk to these people.

In your case, about a year ago, year and a half ago, I was interviewing your colleagues Barry and Dee Dee Rush and Bob Tiede. At the end of that conversation I said, now y'all been through this. It wasn't quite like a root canal. Who would you recommend? And your name came out of Barry and Dee Dee immediately.

[00:02:04 ] Tommy Thomas: So then earlier this year, I was talking to our mutual friend, DeeDee Wilson, from InterVarsity and she says, who else have you got in the queue? And I began to tell her, and she says, you need to talk to Andrea. I said, okay. And then a little bit later, I was talking to Judy Douglas and Judy says who else are you interviewing?  And I told her, and she says, have you spoke to Andrea yet? And I said no but that's probably a sign. I'm excited about this.

Before we dig too deep into your professional background, I always like to know a little bit about somebody's childhood and maybe a few of the things that brought them to where they are today.

[00:02:40 ] Tommy Thomas: Do you have a couple of particular remembrances of childhood?

[00:02:44 ] Andrea Buczynski: I grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania in a small town that was full of families who had immigrated to the U.S. which included my grandparents. And we grew up in what I'd call a front porch community, where everybody sat on the front porch and knew one another, and all of my grade school teachers lived within about five blocks of our home.

And so, there was this sense of you're part of a community. If you actually did something naughty, chances are your mom would know about it before you got home. Somebody would be on the way or able to correct you. We also lived just a couple doors down from the church we went to, which was a big influence in my life.

I'm the oldest of six. And so, growing up, sharing was a common struggle and was what made the family experience rich as it was.

[00:03:43 ] Tommy Thomas: What was high school like in your town?

[00:03:47 ] Andrea Buczynski:   By the time I got to high school, we had a consolidated district. You went from that class of maybe 30 or 60 to class of, let's say 270, something like that.

Andrea Buczynski: It was just a different experience. What I enjoyed a lot was the kinds of activities that you got to do stuff together. Glee Club, Choir, Band, Marching Band, Color Guard, where you're having to actually work together to accomplish a result. When I look back on it, there was a lot that I really enjoyed.

So, like any high school, if you've got your cliques, you've got all your athletic teams and stuff like that, that makes for kind of a rich experience.

[00:04:37 ] Tommy Thomas: So back then, what did you want to be when you grew up?

[00:04:41 ] Andrea Buczynski: I don't know that it emerged right away, but when I was a junior in high school, I had a really awesome chemistry teacher. And it was known to be a tough class. And so, I was prepared for the challenge of it, but I was fascinated by the fact that you could figure out what things were made of and what they could do. And he had a really good way of showing films about the practical applications of the chemical reactions we were studying. And so, I found myself really leaning toward being a research chemist. And that's what was my intention when I headed to Penn State.

[00:05:26 ] Tommy Thomas: Did you follow through with that?

[00:05:29 ] Andrea Buczynski: Not so much. Somewhere in my college years, the Lord got a hold of my heart in a big way. And as I considered what I was going to do I think by that time I was already active in ministry with Cru. And I was just loving helping people walk with the Lord and come to know him personally.

I was also doing individual study with my supervisor that got my, what do you call that? With your college advisor and realize what life in a chem lab would be like.

And as much as I enjoyed it, the big aha I had about myself, Tommy, was that I'm an all-in kind of person, so whatever I'm pursuing I want to get to that problem.

[00:06:20 ] Andrea Buczynski: I want to get to the solution. So, I'd find myself thinking about the chemistry while I was actually talking to people about other things at night. And I thought, whatever I have to do, I'm not going to have any bandwidth to do something on the side. If I was thinking I'm going to come home from work and do ministry, I'm not wired that way, so I realized it would be all in on something.

And then the Lord began to speak to me through the gospel of Luke, follow me. And there you have it.

[00:06:55 ] Tommy Thomas: What's something that people are always surprised to find out about you?

[00:07:01 ] Andrea Buczynski: That I was maybe a church organist for seven years through high school and played the organ at the church down the street for me.

And then at another one across the river. And yeah, I'm both organ and piano, I have a piano here. And so sometimes people are surprised by that, like the music theme that kind of runs through my life.

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[00:07:30 ] Tommy Thomas: So, you joined the Cru staff and sooner or later you had people reporting to you.  What do you remember about that first, we'll call it management experience?

[00:07:45 ] Andrea Buczynski: I'd say the first memory is being a little bit overwhelmed at thinking about what I was actually responsible for. And one of the beautiful things that happened was I ended up working with a guy who as we were leading the team together, who had been a rookie the year before. And he just looked at me at our first meeting and he goes, look, I know what it feels like to be new because I'm only a year further along. And he goes, so there's plenty of grace for it for you coming into this role. And we'll just take it one thing at a time, but I'm. I'm not going to sit here and say the bar is high and all that jazz.

He goes, I understand what you're going through. And so when you have a colleague like that who's a brother in the Lord, who's looking at you with empathy and a lot of grace, it makes for a relatively easy transition.

[00:08:49 ] Tommy Thomas: Would you have called him a mentor or a peer leader?

[00:08:53 ] Andrea Buczynski: I'd say, we were roughly the same age, so it's more of a peer but what he demonstrated, I think, was just the kind of empathy and understanding of what a new leader goes