Spiritual formation is less about what we ask people to do and more about who we’re equipping people to become. In this episode, Tony interviews Pastor Daniel Im, author of The Discipleship Opportunity: Leading a Great-Commission Church in a Post-Everything World, about the role serving has in helping people grow closer to Jesus. This episode is brought to you by Planning Center: An all-in-one software to help you organize your ministries and care for your church. With an easy-to-use platform of products, you can bring people together with event signups, room and resource reservations, au ..read more

Before the pandemic, we typically saw 45% to 50% of all adults and students serving on a volunteer team at least monthly. Our most recent data shows churches reporting only 35% are serving today. In the first episode of this series on "Serving as Spiritual Formation," we talked about some of the most common mistakes churches make with their volunteer engagement strategy that are contributing to that shortage of volunteers. But in this second episode, we’re going to look at the structural mistakes churches make that lead to low volunteer engagement. Tony and Amy talk about the structure of ..read more

Most churches say they need more volunteers. But answer this honestly: What is your theology of serving? How well is your church discipling people to offer their spiritual gifts as part of the Great Commission? Many churches have gotten further away from viewing serving as an integral part of spiritual formation than they’d likely admit. In this series, Tony and Amy and special guests will share best practices on the strategy side of engaging people in serving, as well as critical elements of team-building and structure to engage more people using their gifts in the mission of your church.&nbs ..read more

We know from our research and conversations with clients that finding great people for the ministry staff team is very challenging right now.  As an addedumn to our series on "Staffing Wisdom for Church Leaders," we bring you this bonus interview with Tim Foot of Slingshot Group for some timely insights into church staffing in 2024. In this conversation, Tony and Tim discuss topics like: The positions churches are having the hardest time filling Insights into how churches find great people for their staff teams on this side of the pandemic Distinctives about churches who are attracting a ..read more

Leaders know it's true: Not having the right people on the team hinders the impact of your church. So what do you do when it's clear you need to remove someone from the team—when it's clear they are not a fit? In the last episode of our series on "Staffing Wisdom for Church Leaders," Tony and Amy discuss the very real reasons why letting someone go is so hard for ministry leaders, the ways you need to be effectively evaluating performance as an organization (and specifically, managing people who are underperforming), and how you can approach it all with wisdom and grace. Planning a Restru ..read more

Do you believe your current senior leadership team offers you your best chance to achieve the vision and mission God designed for your church to accomplish right now?  Before you start restructuring departments of your ministry, you need to clarify the role of the SLT and get the right people leading on it. In the second episode of our series on "Staffing Wisdom for Church Leaders," Tony and Amy talk about stacking your leadership team with gifted and qualified people. FREE WEBINAR: How to Restructure Wisely In this webinar on June 20 at 1pm EST, Tony and Amy share how you can lead t ..read more

We help teams solve complicated staffing challenges with wisdom and grace all the time. We’ve helped more than 650 churches do it. So, we’re going to share some of that wisdom related to structure, leadership, getting the right people in the right roles, and handling “misfits” in this new series we're calling "Staffing Wisdom for Church Leaders." In the first episode, Tony and Amy unpack the core tension pastors feel when it becomes evident an organizational restructure is needed, and some of the most critical factors to take into account before you start making any decisions about specif ..read more

Every quarter, The Unstuck Group releases The Unstuck Church Report to help church leaders monitor trends and benchmarks in key ministry areas.  In this episode, Tony and Amy discuss key findings from the Q2 2024 special edition of the report focused on staffing and structure trends.  You can subscribe to receive the quarterly report for free, or, if you're subscribed to the podcast show notes, we'll send it out to you for free, as well. This Episode is Sponsored by Horizons Stewardship Horizons Stewardship utilizes a collaborative and integrated ministry framework designed ..read more

Constant crises, lack of training, inadequate systems for project management—there's a long list of reasons why the process of "assess, plan, and execute" may be simple but not easy.  In the final episode of our series on "How Healthy Churches Grow," Tony and Amy share some practical, proven ways to carve out time to follow through on the priority initiatives you've identified to grow the church in health and numbers. FREE WEBINAR:  What's Working in Large Churches Now In this webinar, Tony Morgan is sitting down with lead pastors J.D. Greear, Eric Geiger and Adam Starling to di ..read more

You can make better decisions today regarding people, money, current priorities, etc. when you have clarity on what the future looks like.  In this episode of our series on "How Healthy Churches Grow," Tony and Amy focus on the importance of making it part of your culture to have a regular rhythm of planning that involves the right voices. FREE WEBINAR:  What's Working in Large Churches Now In this webinar, Tony Morgan is sitting down with lead pastors J.D. Greear, Eric Geiger and Adam Starling to discuss what’s actually working in their large churches now to reach new people and eng ..read more