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
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In Part 2 of our series, Amy and Sean explore how churches can move beyond outdated vision-setting approaches to create more focused, time-bound visions that actually drive change.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...
When your church is in a season of growth, there are certain challenges that you are bound to run into.
The good news is these challenges are predictable. But just because they are predictable doesn’t mean they are easy to navigate. In fact, some of the pastors going through a season of big momentum would tell you it’s one of the hardest seasons they’ve led through, but it’s also extremely rewarding.
We’re kicking off a new series ...
It's the most wonderful time of the year... time for The Unstuck Church Report!
Every quarter, The Unstuck Group compiles all the data we’ve collected to monitor trends in churches in the United States. Our Q4 report focuses on current data and trends in multisite churches specifically.
Read more
In this series, we’ve talked about how to evaluate your in-person weekend experience. But there is another aspect to the weekend that we don’t want to overlook—the online service experience.
Evaluating your online service can be tricky; it’s both part of the weekend and not. How do we measure the quality of it?
In this episode, Sean and Amy close out our Weekend Quality Check series by discuss...
You’re ready for first-time guests. You’ve planned your sermon series. You’ve prepared your message. But how do you know if it’s working? How do you evaluate your weekend experience?
Throughout the “Weekend Quality Check” series, we’ve shared some practical ways you can increase the quality of your weekend planning, preparation and execution. Now, it’s time to evaluate it.
In this episode, Se...
How do you teach in a way that engages insiders without alienating the outsiders? How do you develop teachings that are relevant, relatable and truly transformational?
Sean and Amy address these questions and more in Part 3 of the “Weekend Quality Check” series.
In this episode, we dig into the core tensions pastors face in developing transformational messages that engage both insiders and out...
Weekend quality is about more than creative excellence. It’s about how well you leverage that time to engage both insiders and outsiders—for people who know Jesus and people who don’t.
The sermon is a core component of any weekend experience. In this episode, Sean and Amy break down strategies for planning a sermon series that really connects with both church-goers and newcomers. Joel Thomas from North Poi...
Weekend Quality Check (Part 1) - We’re hearing it from churches across the country: More and more people are showing up on the weekend, and it’s really encouraging.
When you have that kind of momentum, it’s easy to start coasting. It’s easy to stop noticing what needs attention, which is why now is a really good time for a quality check. Weekend quality is about more than creative excellence, though; it’s about how wel...
Is the leader of your family ministry included at the leadership table?
In the final episode of our series on "What It Really Takes To Reach Young Families," we had a conversation with Christie Penner Worden. Christie is a strategic leader, speaker, preacher and writer who is passionate about discipling children and equipping churches to raise this next generation with courage...
One thing is often overlooked when it comes to engaging kids and families—the environment. Creating compelling ministry spaces is crucial for reaching the next generation.
Justyn Smith from PlainJoe Studios has 22 years of experience in kids’ ministry. He works with some of the most innovative and creative churches in the country to develop compelling ministry spaces for children. In this episode, we invited Justyn to share what he...
Who is responsible? When kids’ attendance numbers are down, senior leaders can tend to blame the kids’ pastor.
But the truth is that the children’s pastor has very little control over creating the necessary environment for reaching young families. The church’s leadership and vision are big factors.
Before Tony Morgan’s tragic passing in early September 2024, we had recorded the remaining podca...
Many of you have already heard of Tony Morgan's passing on the morning of Wednesday, September 4, 2024, after suffering a heart attack two days before and battling with all his strength.
But we wanted you to hear it from our voices.
...If a church is engaging young families, it’s pretty easy to see. What’s less obvious to the outside observer is all the decisions they have made to become a church that parents and kids want to attend—what it really takes.
There’s much more to it than curriculum, facilities or finding the right staff, and through this series, we are going to unpack all of what goes into it.
In this first episode, we explore wh...
Every quarter, The Unstuck Group compiles all the data we’ve collected to monitor trends in churches in the United States.
In this episode, Amy and I discuss findings from the Q3 2024 Unstuck Church Report and take a targeted look at key differences between growing churches and churches that are plateauing or declining.
You can subscribe to receive the quarterly report for free, or if you're subscribed to the podcast show notes, w...
Organizational health impacts the overall health of churches.
When there are gaps in strengths, trust and accountability in staff teams, stuckness soon follows.
Here at The Unstuck Group, we've found an effective way for our team to identify their strengths and close gaps in their leadership through Working Genius by The Table Group.
In this BONUS episode, Tony Morgan inter...
Our data consistently contradicts the broader trends of declining religious affiliation and church engagement in our country.
In fact, we personally know many churches that are experiencing major momentum right now—in terms of attendance, engagement, professions of faith, giving and all kinds of metrics of church health.
Clearly, there’s something different about the churches ...
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