Do you ever feel like you have to choose between creating a healthy team culture and getting results? It doesn't have to be that way.
Lance Witt is the author of Replenish: Leading from a Healthy Soul and is a former executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church. In this episode, Tony and Lance discuss how to lead your team to find the essential balance between health and performance.
You can find more resources including this episode's FREE Discussion Guide and join the conversation by going to theunstuckgroup.com/episode66.
Has the way you do church become more important than why you do church? It's tempting to try to keep the people you already have happy. But the moment you stop focusing on reaching non-believers, you've become stuck.
In this episode, we identify four signs that your church has become inwardly focused and give some solutions on how to reach new people.
You can see the show notes, download the Conversation Guide, and join the conversation at theunstuckgroup.com/episode65.
Your worship leader is great. That doesn't mean he or she should lead your Creative Team. Music is obviously creative, but we need more creativity in our churches than just music—and we very rarely find worship leaders who are equipped or able to lead more than music.
Hiring leaders who can focus on the creative aspects of your church allows your musicians to do what they do best while still getting stuff done. In this episode, Tony and Amy talk about who should be leading your creative team and how to structure your creative team to make the most of it.
You can find resources from this episode and join the conversation by going to the show notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode64.
Are events killing your church? Every church has events, but not every church knows why. Events have the potential to be helpful for people to take their next steps toward Jesus, but it's rare that they actually work.
In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss 6 questions to ask when planning events as well as 5 ways to make your events effective.
There is a ton of great information in this episode and we created a Discussion Guide to go along with it if you'd like to take this conversation to your next leadership team meeting. To get the Discussion Guide and join in on the conversation visit http://www.theunstuckgroup.com/episode63.
We've found 12 common issues that routinely cause churches to get stuck. In this episode, we cover two important ones that have something in common: leadership. Whether it's senior leadership or volunteer leaders, if we're not structuring our churches in a way that sets leaders up for success then our churches will become stuck.
In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss two leadership issues churches face and how to solve them so your church can grow and get healthy.
Join in the conversation and see the show notes at theunstuckchurch.com/episode62. We also discuss the Leading from an Unstuck Church Course in this episode. Find more details and sign up at theunstuckgroup.com/course.
What's one thing we almost never see a church doing well? Even the big ones? Content strategy. And that's just one reason why church communications is stuck in 2004.
We're living through the biggest communication shift in 500 years. As fewer people attend church and more utilize the web for every aspect of their lives, our churches can't afford to not have a strategy. This isn't an add-on to our ministry; it's a full scale shift.
In this episode, Tony and Amy interview The Unstuck Group's Marketing and Communications Director, Tiffany Deluccia, about how the world has shifted, why your church needs to be thinking about "inbound marketing," and the tools you can use to make it happen.
This episode shares a ton of resources that will help you create and execute an online strategy so you can reach more people! Find the resources from Episode 61, including links to the tools mentioned during the show, in the Episode Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode61.
Andy Stanley wants us to rethink how we read the Bible. In his new book, Irresistible, he addresses questions like: What do we do with the Old Testament commands? Are Christians obligated to follow the 10 Commandments? What did Jesus think of the Old Covenant?
In this episode, Tony Morgan asks Andy to weigh in on why a "Mix & Match Theology" is so prevalent in our churches, why Jesus' one command makes our faith generationally transferrable, and how we go back to where our faith began to better understand how to connect with the next generation.
Check out the show notes for more resources on this topic, links from this episode and to join the conversation at theunstuckgroup.com/episode60.
Is your staff structure a lid? It's worth digging into. We hear this all the time from churches we're serving:
"I knew we needed the ministry health assessment. I knew we needed to plan for the future. But we didn't even realize our real problem was our staff and structure."
In this week's episode, Tony interviews Amy on the most common structure challenges she sees getting churches stuck and some practical ways you can pivot to get healthy.
Check out the show notes for more resources on this topic, links from this episode and to join the conversation at theunstuckgroup.com/episode59.
20 years of ministry. Tony Morgan left his job in city management to enter full-time ministry as a pastor at Granger Community Church.
In this week's bonus episode, Tony shares the story of how he got started in ministry, the people who encouraged him along in this path, the challenges he faced, and how he met Jesus in the first place. There is one big takeaway that Tony has from his 20 years in ministry and in this episode, he shares it with us.
Tony wrote a post exploring this more on his blog.
Rogue ministries. We all know the signs. Ministries in our church that are fundraising on the side or creating separate branding. Leaders who think their ministry is more important than the others in the church. What went wrong and how do we fix it?
In this episode, Tony and Amy share 4 ways to realign rogue ministries with your church’s mission, vision, and strategy. The fourth one might step on some toes but it needs to be said.
Find the resources from Episode 58, including links to the tools mentioned during the show, in the Episode Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode58.
Sunday's always coming. You've heard it said. You may have said it yourself, frustrated with the lack of progress your team makes on the ministry's plans. But is it just that? Or is it that another meeting's always coming? Or that decision rights are confused? Or that key members of the team manage projects with Post-It Notes instead of an effective system?
In this episode, Tony and Amy outline 4 proactive steps taken by teams that execute really well. (And there's a bonus fifth thing those teams DON'T do.)
This episode shares a ton of resources that will help you get more stuff done. Don't miss out! Find the resources from Episode 57, including links to the tools mentioned during the show, in the Episode Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode57.
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.
Find more resources from Episode 56, including links mentioned during the episode and bonus material, in the Episode Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/56.
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 churches from becoming welcoming, why small churches have a welcoming advantage, and how to better serve first-timers in the moment when they feel most awkward at church.
Find more resources from Episode 55, including links mentioned during the episode and bonus material, in the Episode Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/55.
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 strengthens your church.
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 drivers, and 3 practical tips for overcoming them to lead a healthier team.
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 root issues are and how to solve them.
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.
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 explain the Biblical principles behind budgeting and how to utilize them in your church.
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's leadership capacities.
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 take if you recognize you have a crucial gap on your leadership team.
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:
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 megachurches with 2,000+ people. The factors correlating to growth and decline seem to be irrespective of your congregation's size today.
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 more dangerous to your mission than someone who completely disagrees with you.
____
Check out our new online course—Multisite Unstuck, or learn how we help churches get unstuck at theunstuckgroup.com.