The Unstuck Church Podcast

Think of culture as gasoline and your ministry as an engine. It's not enough to have high-quality gasoline. Gasoline is purposeful; it is for powering the engine. A high-octane gas and a powerful engine will get traction quickly.  
 Organizational DNA, or culture, is really about the way your team operates. It's how you do what you do. And if you don't shape culture intentionally, you might not li...

Team dysfunction. You feel it when you're in it, but can you see it coming? Can you be intentional about the culture you're building so the team stays focused on both relationships and  results? Churches can be clear on mission, vision and how they believe God has called them to operate, and yet... Something can still be broken. That brokenness often falls into one of two extremes: Either the team...

Taboo. When personal evangelism seems taboo, it's no surprise that invitations to new guests have decreased in many churches. In 2019 research, Barna Group found that nearly half of practicing Christian millennials felt it is wrong to share their faith. But what if there were a way to train and equip people to have a better understanding of why and how to talk about church? In this episode, Tony t...

What if all of your ministry planning was aimed at the wrong objectives?   It's important to regularly check in on your church's movement in the typical life cycle so you can develop ministry plans that help you continue up the slope towards sustained health— or reverse the decline that has already begun . In this last episode of our ministry planning series, Tony and Amy review the typical life c...

Repetition—It's the key to building strong muscles. It takes repetition to see stronger results. That's because it's the key to getting better at execution , too. Good planning helps us make the right investment in the right ministry at the right time. And organizational planning tends to be a new muscle for church leaders to develop. That is, the staff, the pastor and the senior leadership team h...

Possibilities. With the turning of the calendar, there's often a renewed sense of hope and a dream of what could be. We all tend to believe this is the year things will be different. Too often, though, leaders hold onto this hope without a plan to achieve it. In this episode, Tony and Amy explain why hope is not a strategy for your church and explore some practical ways that you can create a plan...

We're still on a high from a gathering we had in Phoenix a few weeks ago. The Unstuck Group 's team members—about 30 of us—got together for our annual meet-up. Tony shared highlights from the last 12 months of helping churches get unstuck, which included celebrating 10 years of The Unstuck Group, serving our 400th church , kicking off a merger-succession to join Jim Tomberlin's MultiSite Solutions...

The results are pretty predictable… vision stalls out, staff teams can get dysfunctional, and tension can develop in the relationship with the lead pastor. All because the wins for the Executive Pastor role aren't 100% clear. In our recent webinar, Dan Reiland, Jenni Catron and Paul Alexander joined Tony for a practical conversation how to get an XP firing on all cylinders. When an Executive Pasto...

When people see their church being led intentionally and efficiently with wise financial decision making, they will become incredibly generous. Unfortunately, many churches make unwise decisions when it comes to budgeting and planning that result in regular cuts and spending freezes. Churches can operate with enough healthy margin that will prepare them for some of the amazing opportunities God wi...

When churches plan their finances strategically, they can fund even the biggest visions and dreams from God. Unfortunately, poor financial planning can lead to money dictating ministry instead of driving it. This week on the podcast we continue our four part series on financial challenges that churches face today. Jill Mutimer from the Strategic Consulting Group joins me to talk about how churches...

Churches today are facing more challenges than ever when it comes to their finances.  Discipling givers, managing money and creating annual budgets are complicated issues that every church has to navigate.    This week on the podcast we continue a four part series on the specific issues churches face when it comes to money.   In this episode, Tony is joined by Dan Dorner from In Rhythm Consulting...

I think most church leaders would agree that they're experiencing some shifts in giving. And while it's not always easy to talk about money, financial means resource our ministry and our church. In the past 15 years, the percentage of households giving to charity has dropped 18%. Research says that the number one corollary to generosity is being a Christian. With trends showing a significant decre...

How do we develop great leaders? This seems to be the golden question of church leaders today. But the truth is no organization can thrive without great leadership. And it's not likely that you'll stumble upon enough great leaders to maintain the health and growth of your ministry.  When we work with churches, we consistently see a tension with how to not only find potential leaders, but how to de...

Churches decorate, plan and hold extra services—but are we really connecting with the people who only come to church during the most wonderful time of the year? Our culture still embraces Christmas. Easter? Not so much. Church leaders can leverage this holiday better than any other to generate momentum for reaching people outside the church. In this replay of a popular episode, Tony and Amy review...

It's possible to grow a church that is  not  healthy. It's also possible for healthy churches to get stuck. But we think the win is for there to be both  health and growth  in a church. When that happens, we get to celebrate as churches continue to fulfill the Great Commission and make more disciples. In the second part of this episode series, Tony and Amy unpack the next 5 things on a list we bra...

It's possible to grow a church that is  not  healthy. It's also possible for healthy churches to get stuck. But we think the win is for there to be both  health and growth  in a church. When that happens, we get to celebrate as churches continue to fulfill the Great Commission and make more disciples. In this episode, Tony and Amy unpack the first 5 things on a list we brainstormed of 10 things we...

Many people are more familiar with what the church is against than what the Church is for . Jeff Henderson's new book  Know What You're FOR: A Growth Strategy for Work, An Even Better Strategy for Life  is all about shifts organizations can make to be  for their communities. In this episode, Jeff joins Tony for a conversation about practical ideas leaders can implement to reframe how their churche...

We've found many church staff teams operate in one of two extremes:  They get along with each other but struggle to execute plans... or they are impressively productive but unhealthy and dysfunctional. The undercurrent is often that we church leaders can get so busy "doing" ministry that we never think about how we "do" team. It's the Sunday's always coming syndrome. But the truth is, a church's k...

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We've noted four steps that help churches open their "front door" wider. All four are critical—but we've found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series,...

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We've noted four steps that help churches open their "front door" wider. All four are critical—but we've found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series,...

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We've noted four steps that help churches open their "front door" wider. All four are critical—but we've found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series,...

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We've noted four steps that help churches open their "front door" wider. All four are critical— but we've found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series...

You had more questions about church engagement—so we are  taking this week to answer them. We recently hosted a webinar on the topic of ​increasing church engagement​, and as part of the event, we fielded questions from people who tuned in. We weren't able to get through all of the questions live, so in this episode, we're digging a bit deeper. We saw some themes in the questions that came in. Par...

Bus ministry, cassette tape messages, door-to-door evangelism... all ministry strategies have a lifespan. Is multisite nearing its end? Recently, some high profile multisite churches made the decision to un -multisite. For a variety of reasons, their ministry strategy has shifted from "one church in many locations" to "multiple independent churches," some even boldly downsizing to one location. Do...

What's the "win" for your church's social media activity?  If you don't know, at best you'll waste time and resources, and at worst you'll do damage to your brand and the potential you have to engage people outside your church. Social media platforms play a big role in the success of an inbound marketing strategy, and it seems like most churches are struggling to use them well.  (Not sure what "in...