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Now displaying: August, 2020
Aug 26, 2020

Keep people from leaving. That's the priority focus of churches in the Preservation phase of the typical church lifecycle.

Churches in this phase put very little focus on reaching new people for Jesus, and there’s a strong desire to “return to the good old days.” 

Decision-making gets bogged down in multiple committees and divisive church boards, making it almost impossible to implement ministry changes.

Financial decline leads to protecting turf, rather than investing in ministry initiatives to grow the church’s Kingdom impact.

Leaders tend to dwell on the problems, blaming those problems on things that are beyond their control (like a global pandemic, for example) rather than investing time and energy into solutions.

Any of that sound familiar?

In Part 2 of this conversation, Tony and Amy explore Preservation phase, and sharing some specific changes churches need to make—and that pastors need to personally lead—if they find themselves here during this season.

For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode157.

Join the Live Conversation on Social Media

If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.

Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic.

If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 157] in your post for reference.

Aug 19, 2020

Google “Covid Accelerating Change.” It’s happening everywhere—it’s rapidly changing the workplace, our habits, digitization, how we connect and much more.

Over the past few years, the Church has experienced a significant amount of change. And, like the rest of the world, the pandemic is accelerating these changes—falling in-person attendance, the use of online, fewer new people connecting, and more.

In this episode, Tony and Amy dive into pre- and post-pandemic data, the characteristics of maintenance phase and why these accelerating trends are a way to discern God’s direction for your ministry NOW.

For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode156.

Join the Live Conversation on Social Media

If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.

Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic.

If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 156] in your post for reference.

Aug 12, 2020

Following the leader. A merger is always more successful when each church is clear on who leads and who follows.

But for the church in the following role, deciding to merge with another ministry raises difficult questions related to governance, what happens to staff leaders and specific ministries, who has decision rights, and more.

In this episode, Tony wraps up a two-part series by interviewing Warren Bird, co-author of the book Better-Together: Making Church Mergers Work, to discuss how your church can successfully take the following church role in a healthy merger process—and see greater kingdom impact.

For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode155.

Join the Live Conversation on Social Media

If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.

Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic.

If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 155] in your post for reference.

Aug 5, 2020

Better together? Over the past decade, we've seen a trend in churches merging together for many different reasons... and it seems likely that this trend will only increase in a post-pandemic world.

On the positive side—healthy, mission-focused churches are benefitting:

  • Multisite: Ten years ago 30% of multisite campuses came by way of a merger; today it’s more than 40%.
  • Church Planting: In a recent survey we discovered that 20% of church planters found a permanent facility through a merger.
  • Pastor Succession:We are also seeing mergers as a pastor-succession and a pastor-search strategy.
  • Denominations and Networks: They're proactively encouraging church mergers as a growth strategy for their healthy churches and as a revitalization strategy for their struggling churches.
  • Racial Diversity: A small but growing number of church leaders are seeing mergers as a way of becoming more racially diverse.

In this episode, Tony Morgan interviews Jim Tomberlin, co-author of the book Better-Together: Making Church Mergers Work, for the beginning of a two part conversation on the emerging trend of healthy, mission-driven church mergers as an alternative to the old, failure-prone mergers of two declining churches. 

For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode154.

Join the Live Conversation on Social Media

If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.

Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic.

If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 154] in your post for reference.

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