The Unstuck Church Podcast

There are some things a senior pastor just can't delegate. Leaders are often told they're trying to do too much—and it's usually true. But if you succeed at empowering and developing other leaders, where does that leave you? What are the things only the senior pastor can and should do ? In this episode series, Tony and Amy dig deeper into the most popular topic of all time on this podcast : the ro...

Tim Celek and Andrew Brownback have a rare shared experience: They've successfully navigated the passing of the baton from founding pastor of a thriving, growing church to successor who will lead that church for a new generation. Tim had only recently closed the door on his 40s, when he—with that visionary knack for forward-thinking—started a conversation with his board about succession planning....

It's all interim work. The sooner you can get your mind around that one point, the sooner you can be freed up to start thinking about what happens next . In a recent study, Barna Research found that half of the senior pastors in America are 55 or older, and that the number of pastors older than 65 has tripled in the last 25 years. This week, Tony sits down with William Vanderbloemen for a frank co...

What does "engagement" really mean? We hear that word buzzing among church leaders, but it's kind of a loose term. You could define engagement however you want. We recently partnered up with Blackbaud to survey church leaders across the country and find out more about how church leaders are actually defining and measuring engagement In this episode, Tony and Amy shared a few of the findings that j...

It's a dance. One church leads, the other has to follow. The data is telling us more than 40% of all multisite campuses today are the result of a church merger or the acquisition of a church building. How do you ensure a successful outcome? Jim Tomberlin joins Tony Morgan in this third episode in our multisite series to explain what you need to know about church mergers and how you can leverage th...

90%. That's the success rate surveys are showing churches are having with launching multisite campuses. Five years after launch, they're still up and running. What's more—57% of multisite churches are planning to launch another campus in the next 12 months.  Tony Morgan and Jim Tomberlin  recently announced  that our two ministries—MultiSite Solutions and The Unstuck Group—are coming together. In...

Why is Tony so passionate about getting churches to track more numbers? Really it's just about being a good steward of the resources God has given us. Stories are important, but the numbers confirm the stories. And... the numbers serve as warning signs that your church is getting stuck. In this episode, Tony and Amy share how tracking metrics related to the Front/Back Door, Leadership, Engagement...

Inwardly-focused churches don't grow.  And every church is at risk of becoming inwardly-focused. It's the natural tendency over time if intentional steps aren't taken to address the warning signs when they flash. In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss what it really means to think like a missionary in your own community, and how making that mindset shift will cause your team to view all of your chu...

The goal is to equip people to become more like Christ. So why do many churches spend so much time just keeping people busy? None of us start out intending to lead over-programmed, complex churches, but most of us find ourselves there. This topic of "programs vs. a discipleship path"  has gotten a ton of attention in our articles over the years. How do churches really make disciples? What do you d...

They sound simple, but implementing these communications best practices means big operational changes for most churches. Churches tend to be reactive instead of proactive in their communication—and that's one reason why churches we're guiding through the Unstuck Process almost always self-identify communication as a "core issue" that's getting them stuck. In this episode, Tony shares the top 3 mis...

Tony Morgan and Jim Tomberlin recently announced that our two ministries—MultiSite Solutions and The Unstuck Group—are coming together!   J im was one of the pioneers of the multisite movement back in the early 1990s and has been helping churches effectively transition from being one church to being one church in multiple locations ever since. In this episode, Jim joins Tony on the show to discuss...

Staffing issues get churches stuck. We see it all the time.  We recently took a look at all of the Staffing & Structure assessments The Unstuck Group completed in the last year. We were looking for themes or trends, and boy, did we find some. In this episode, Tony and Amy share the remaining most common staffing pain points we uncovered in our analysis. They share some indicators these issues are...

Staffing issues get churches stuck. We see it all the time.  We recently took a look at all of the Staffing & Structure assessments The Unstuck Group completed in the last year. We were looking for themes or trends, and boy, did we find some. In this episode, Tony and Amy share 2 of the 5 most recurring staffing pain points we uncovered in our analysis. They share some indicators these issues are...

Depression. Loneliness. Anxiety. They're becoming recurring health issues in our culture—even among church leaders. The danger is the secret, being in the condition alone. Lifeway Research found that 23% of pastors say they've had personal struggles with mental health. Still 49% said they rarely or never speak on the topic to their congregation. The Unstuck Group's team heard Pastor Chris Hodges f...

It's not something anyone in ministry wants to think about—legal trouble, and the circumstances that could lead to it.    The alarming thing we've noticed is that church leaders are often ignorant of the areas of the law that most pertain to them, both the protections and limitations the law creates. And that can lead to nightmare situations.  In this episode, Tony invites attorneys Steven Goodspe...

They're just trying to decide whether or not to come back.  And we hit 'em with everything we've got. We highly value first-time guests... we just don't necessarily know the right ways to show it. In this episode, Tony and Amy share 4 WORST practices for connecting with new guests that they commonly see when serving churches for The Unstuck Group .  Is your church using any of these strategies? It...

"The toughest test of a manager is not how they deal with poor performance — it's how they address mediocrity."  It's a quote we read in the Harvard Business Review a while back, and boy, is it true. Leaders can tend to blame mediocrity on ineffective employees or volunteers, instead of recognizing our own ineffective leadership as the problem. In this episode, with a bit of sarcasm, Tony and Amy...

"Great mission turn into routine jobs if they aren't pursued by great teams."  Tony made that claim a few months ago, and it stirred up a few strong reactions. Is the team really more important than the mission? What about in a church?  In this episode, Tony and Amy unpack what Tony meant when he wrote that line. Plus! They share the key characteristics The Unstuck Group looks for when adding staf...

Research, podcasts, writing—you can find a lot published about  how people are doing multisite.  We see far less written about the actual outcomes  of different multisite models and strategies. Based on experience working in and with many different multisite churches, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson discuss indicators a church is NOT ready to go multisite, principles that set a healthy foundation for...

New year, new church?  January finds our best intentions. Maybe it's the cold, maybe it's the afterglow of Christmas—but we rarely come across a church that doesn't have some resolutions for their ministry at the beginning of the year. In this episode, Tony Morgan shares 4 New Year's Resolutions he hopes church leaders will make in 2019, along with one simple mindset shift that churches can adopt...

Today we're revisiting a conversation from our most downloaded episode of 2018. We chose to re-release this conversation because it happened so long ago, you may have missed it—AND, because we think this topic is an important one for any pastor to engage again heading into 2019. Tony and Amy shared the 3 most common issues they see plaguing weekend church services—the things most pastors don't see...

Almost never. We almost never  see a multisite church succeed with live-teaching at each campus.  So naturally, we wanted to get to the bottom of why it works so well at Community Christian Church in the Chicago area.  In this episode, Tony Morgan interviews Tammy Melchein about how they've become a church that continually develops and resources new, excellent teachers—which makes this model work....

Every church could use more volunteers.  They're crucial to the life of any church. But the truth is, we never seem to have enough for all of the needs our churches have. In this episode, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson discuss the 5 Barriers to Engaging Volunteers and how you can get more volunteers so you can increase your impact. For more resources and to join the conversation, you can visit this...

Getting your church unstuck is possible.  It's a process that takes time but is effective. Our team is always working on perfecting that process and we have just made it even better. In this episode, Tony and Amy talk through our newly updated 4 Phase Process for getting churches unstuck and how this process can help your church accomplish its mission and help people take their next steps toward J...

Our heart is always to help the church. But sometimes that means speaking the hard truths that keep us from getting unstuck. Recently, Tony published an article called 20 NEW Politically Incorrect Thoughts on Church in America. As you can imagine, it caused quite the stir. On this week's episode, Amy and Tony explore his heart and thinking behind 8 of his politically incorrect thoughts and why he...