The Unstuck Church Podcast with Amy Anderson
With THE UNSTUCK CHURCH PODCAST, we invite you into the real-time conversations our team is having about church leadership every week. Hosted by Amy Anderson, this podcast explores common challenges in ministry and practical steps for tackling them. It’s like getting to be a fly on the wall of our staff meetings. Tune in weekly for: Insights, observations and trends for church leaders from the Unstuck team. Benchmarks in church growth and health from The Unstuck Group’s work serving hundreds churches across North America each year. Practical advice to help you lead your church towards sustained health. We think that after listening to The Unstuck Church Podcast, you’ll want to start these discussions with your own team at your next staff meeting. Add your thoughts to the conversation on social media using #unstuckchurch.
Episodes
In this episode, Amy sits down with Doug Turner, President of GenerosityOS, to talk about how church giving strategies have evolved (spoiler alert: episodic capital campaigns are so 2004). Doug brings decades of experience from helping churches like Willow Creek and Redeemer Presbyterian fund their vision, and he’s got some fresh insights on why year-round generosity and vision clarity are the new power couple in church finance.
If...
Do you wish your church could have more financial margin for ministry? Are your people struggling with debt and low giving? In this episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast, Sean interviews George Kamel from Ramsey Solutions about how Financial Peace University is helping churches break free from financial stress.
We’re shooting straight with these questions. Why are so few churchgoers tithing regularly? How is debt truly impacting h...
Talking about money in church can feel like walking on eggshells while juggling chainsaws. (Okay, that may be a bit dramatic, but are we wrong?) What if it didn’t have to be that way?
In this episode, Pastor Jason Anderson (yes, that Anderson—he’s Amy’s husband and somehow still agreed to be on our podcast!) from Crossroads Church shares how he turned potentially awkward “money talks” into powerful moments of discipleship and life ...
Feeling uneasy when it comes to church finances? You’re not alone. In this week’s episode, Sean and Amy dive deep into something that’s close to their hearts—creating a funding plan that actually supports your church’s vision. We’re not just talking spreadsheets and budgets here (though those are important!). We’re talking about aligning your resources with God’s mission for your church.
We’ll explore practica...
Budgeting. Giving. Financial health. Money is often a taboo topic in churches.
But what if we flipped the script? Money shouldn't be a source of anxiety—it should be a tool for mission.
In this new series, Amy and Sean and some special guests will help church leaders develop a healthier relationship with church finances. From practical budgeting strategies to creating a culture of biblical generosity, we'll walk through how to alig...
It's an oft-overlooked but crucial aspect of retention: engaging people in their calling.
In this final episode of our series called "Reach & Retain Strategies," Amy interviews Noah Herrin, lead pastor of Way Church in Nashville, who shares insights from the remarkable journey of growing a church plant to 800 people in just 16 months while primarily reaching Gen Z and Millennials.
Noah shares how Way Church is addressing the crisis...
In this episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast, Sean and Amy continue their series on reach and retain strategies, featuring a compelling conversation with Doug Dameron from Orchard Church in Brighton, CO, about crafting effective next steps for new attendees.
Doug shares how his team transformed their follow-up process, leading to dramatic improvements in engagement—from just 5% of new believers becoming known to over 40% today.
Th...
In this episode of The Unstuck Church Podcast, Amy and Sean dive into part two of our conversation on reach and retain strategies, focusing on how churches can leverage their weekend services as effective “front doors” for connecting with new people.
From common misses like poor signage and untrained volunteers to practical solutions that create excellent guest experiences, Amy and Sean unpack what’s working (and what isn’t) in chu...
Frustrated by the persistent tug between pleasing your core people and reaching new guests? In this episode, Sean and Amy explore why reaching new people requires focus and how lack of clarity about who you’re trying to reach leads to ineffective ministry.
We’re discussing how churches get stuck trying to be everything to everyone, what Scripture teaches us about having a clear mission field and practical ways to lead your church t...
In this quarter’s edition of The Unstuck Church Report, Amy Anderson unpacks the latest trends showing both encouraging growth and engagement challenges in churches across America.
While attendance numbers are increasing, the data reveals churches are grappling with engagement metrics that aren’t keeping pace. From small group participation to per capita giving, the numbers tell a story of churches needing to strengthen their conne...
We’re wrapping up our series on church staffing oxymorons by tackling perhaps the most challenging one yet: the perfect staff structure for never.
Many churches find themselves caught in a structure that doesn’t work for today’s needs and definitely won’t support tomorrow’s vision. It’s that nagging feeling that something’s off—workloads are uneven, decision-making is unclear and leadership gaps are widening.
In Part 3, Sean and Am...
In Part 2 of our church staffing series, Sean and Amy tackle another challenging oxymoron: having the right wrong people on your team.
In this episode, we unpack:
- How to assess your current staff leaders beyond basic performance metrics
- Understanding the four levels of leadership capacity (10s, 50s, 100s, 1000s)
- The importance of evaluating roles separately from the people in th...
In Part 1 of a new series we're calling "Church Staffing Oxymorons," Sean and Amy explore a common staffing oxymoron that all too many churches face: teams that are simultaneously understaffed and overstaffed.
In this episode we unpack:
- Why churches often end up with misaligned staffing
- What this tension feels like for different ministry areas
- Common but ineffective solutions churches try
- How to properly assess your starting p...
The '90s called again, and they want their 3-ring binder back.
In Part 4 of our series, Sean and Amy explore:
- Why documenting a strategy isn't the same as creating aligned action
- How churches sometimes use planning to avoid significant change Read more
The '90s called, and they want their core values back.
In Part 3 of our series, Sean and Amy discuss how churches can move beyond generic “permission to play” values to define authentic, culture-shaping behaviors that drive real organizational change. They cover:
- Why traditional church core values often end up as meaningless wall art
- The difference between “permission to play” values and true culture-shaping behaviors
- How to ...
The ‘90s called again, and they want their 10-year visions back.
In Part 2 of our series, Amy and Sean explore how churches can move beyond outdated vision-setting approaches to create more focused, time-bound visions that actually drive change.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why the 10-year vision approach from the ‘90s no longer works in today’s fast-changing world
- How to start with identifying the core problem in your missio...
The '90s called, and they want their strategic planning process back. That binder that’s still on the shelf. The 10-year vision that has come and gone.
So many churches are still doing vision, planning and strategy following an old playbook—a 30+ year-old playbook. Is there a more modern way to unify your church body around your vision?
In this series, Amy and Se...
Wow, 2024, what a year of highs and lows. If there were ever a year to pause and look back, this is the one for us.
In this episode, Sean and Amy are joined by Tiffany Deluccia, the third member of The Unstuck Group’s leadership team. We reflect on God’s faithfulness in 2024 and preview some of what’s to come in 2025.
We have covered the things that can start to feel like crises related to the people side of growth, and we’ve covered the challenges you can expect related to the emotional side
Continued growth can feel like an engine.
As a leader, you’re seeing results. You’re running on the high of seeing the fruits of all the effort, intention and faithfulness. You and the team have been on mission, and you’ve sensed God’s blessing and hand on the ministry.
And then it all starts taking a toll, and if you’re not careful, things can go sideways.
In part two of our ser...
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