The Unstuck Church Podcast

We get into ministry full of hope. But something happens along the way, and we don't see it coming: We become cynical leaders. We let ourselves project past failures onto the future. We get stuck in our own heads. In this bonus episode, Tony Morgan interviews Carey Nieuwhof about leadership setbacks, ministry burnout, and a wonderful aspect of life we give up when we let ourselves become cynics. F...

Friendly, but not welcoming.  That's how Thom Rainer describes the situation at a lot of churches. And he would know—as the current CEO of Lifeway, in addition to his time leading Rainer Group, pastoring a church, serving as a dean at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and authoring more than two dozen books, he has a unique vantage point. Tony and Thom discuss common barriers preventing ch...

How do you adjust to whoever is leading your team? Do you refuse to change your leadership style? Or do you lean into what that leader has for you? In this episode, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson switch places as Tony interviews Amy about what it's like to work for someone with a "driver" personality. She explains five ways to adjust to these types of leaders and why being adaptable ultimately stren...

Do you have a driver in the driver's seat? In Episode 47, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson described the 4 types of leaders they often see on church staff teams. This week they take a deeper look into what it means to have someone wired as a "driver" serving as the lead pastor, and how it affects both that leader and the rest of the people on the team. Tony also shares some common blindspots for drive...

Whenever our team at The Unstuck Group is working with a church, the churches almost always mention their problems with internal communication. Over the years we have found that if you think you're having a communication issue, it's probably just masking a different problem that your church is facing. In this episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson discuss what these ro...

50 episodes of The Unstuck Church Podcast, in the books.  We're taking a look back at the 5 most downloaded episodes to date, and Tony and Amy share a few new thoughts on those most popular topics. 3 Roles a Senior Pastor Can't Delegate - Episode 16 How to End Mediocre Weekend Experiences - Episode 28 Church Structure: Optimizing for Growth - Episode 24 Pruning: 3 Ministry Areas to Tackle - Episod...

When planning your annual budget, it can be easy to want to give all of your ministry areas the same amount of funding. However, like Tony points out in this week's episode, "life isn't fair." When planning your budget, you need to strategically plan where you're going to allocate funds and how much you want to spend. In the 50th episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson...

The Bible teaches church leaders that they must equip God's people to do His work. A church that is not properly engaging with its volunteers is a church not walking in its full God-given calling. In this episode, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson discuss the four main barriers they see in churches when it comes to enlisting, utilizing and equipping healthy volunteers within the church body.

While it's not something we like to admit, at some point we have to face the facts: God did not create everyone to be a leader. And for those of us who are leaders, we are gifted to lead in various capacities. However, God gives us opportunities to grow and stretch our leadership abilities. In this week's episode, Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson explain how to identify, label and increase your staff'...

There's a common gap. We see it on too many church leadership teams. It results in lack of follow-through, lack of role clarity, and a "Sunday's always coming" mode of operation. In this episode, Tony and Amy highlight why church leadership should be a reflection of the whole Body of Christ. They break down four different "wirings" they typically see in church staffing, and the next steps you can...

Two weeks ago, Tony and Amy started a conversation on some unexpected findings related to ministry leadership in growing and declining churches from The Unstuck Group's latest research. As promised, they are back with more to share. While the results may surprise you, remember that the information is based on numbers and not opinion—even if the truth is hard to swallow at times. Show Links: Leadin...

In this week's episode, Tony interviews Amy about the most common "misses" she sees when churches welcome first-time guests. Whether it's a crowded bulletin or a lengthy message, these issues typically have easy (and inexpensive) solutions.

Data from 200 churches of all different sizes.  What did it show? A few surprising trends related to growth and decline. In this episode, Tony and Amy dig into some fascinating findings from The Unstuck Group's most recent edition of The Unstuck Church Report. Just to be clear: this isn't a comparison of big versus small. The data includes churches that average fewer than 100 people and megachurch...

Sometimes leading a multisite church can lead to being "multi-stuck". However, having equipped campus pastors can help prevent this. In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss the five major mistakes that lead pastors can make when hiring a campus pastor. Tony explains why he is passionate about multisite churches using video message delivery, and why someone who mostly agrees with you may actually be...

We see them again and again: The same core issues getting churches stuck.  But we don't think it has to be that way. Church leaders who make themselves aware of the pitfalls can avoid them. In this episode—recorded live on Facebook—Tony and Amy discussed five of the most common issues getting churches stuck. They also took questions from the audience, like " What are some practical steps to simpli...

The research showed it: Only 4% of growing churches are multiplying/reproducing churches.  Why is that? All churches have leadership potential sitting in their services but a culture of discipling leaders is often missing. In this special episode, Tony talks with Dave Ferguson, lead pastor at Community Christian Church, an innovative multi-site missional church with eleven locations in Chicago, ab...

What if Andy Stanley were your boss? When we sit lower on the org chart than a great leader—or even a not-so-great leader—it's easy to feel stuck on the sidelines waiting to be given more authority.  In this episode, Tony talks with Clay Scroggins, lead pastor at North Point Church, about what it's like to lead "in the shadow of Andy Stanley," the difference between leadership and authority, how t...

No one gets into ministry for the money.  But does that mean church leaders should be paid less? In this episode, Tony and Amy share a biblical foundation for paying staff well, how to practically make it possible, and some simple ways to evaluate how much you should be paying the staff at your church. Tony also gives podcast listeners the very first sneak peek of a new resource from The Unstuck G...

When churches don't have systems in place, even the smallest decisions rise all the way to the top for senior leadership to decide. And this might work for a while—but not if you want your church to grow.  Leaders are problem-solvers, and often want a say in every decision that is made. In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss why this isn't always the best thing for the team, and how putting healthy...

A lot of the time, the churches we work with aren't truly stuck—just stalled. Why? They've failed to properly staff their critical growth engines. Every growth engine and priority ministry in your church needs a leader and champion—paid or volunteer. In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss when to staff ahead for future growth, and how you can put this into practice even with limited finances.

No one sets out to pastor a church that splits, but leaders operate in ways that ultimately take their churches there. Can church splits be avoided? In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss five things church leaders do that set the stage for irreconcilable differences. 

We all have this tendency—to hang on tightly to current methods and hope for different results.  In churches, it can happen just as often in "contemporary" circles as "traditional." What indicates that  how  you do church has become a sacred cow? In this episode, Tony and Amy unpack the primary reason we see churches get stuck.

It's ultimately a matter of stewardship—but churches rarely fire people. Even Tony's young son asked the question one time: Why is that?  In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss some basic principles every pastor needs to understand, and why performance and character issues aren't the only reasons you should consider letting a staff member go.

Growth barriers. Every church hits them. How do you respond when what was working no longer is? In a recent webinar, Tony Morgan hosted a conversation with leaders from several very large churches about breaking barriers. In the second part of this conversation, you'll learn about common multisite model missteps and how they set you back, as well as the all too frequent issue of "c omplexity creep...

Growth barriers. Every church hits them. How do you respond when what was working no longer is? In a recent webinar, Tony Morgan hosted a conversation about breaking barriers with leaders from several very large churches. In this first part, you'll learn how to recognize a toxic culture and turn it around , as well as how to o vercome a leadership void in your staff and volunteer teams.