Exploring the characteristics of healthy churches, engaging in community impact like For the Basin in Odessa, Texas, focusing on mission field design, and empowering God's people for ministry within the church.

Many people are more familiar with what the church is against than what the Church is for. Jeff Henderson's new book Know What You're FOR: A Growth Strategy for Work, An Even Better Strategy for Life is all about shifts organizations can make to be for their communities. In this episode, Jeff joins Tony for a conversation about practical ideas leaders can implement to reframe how their churches think and behave, at the staff and congregational levels, to become a church the community would beg to keep its doors open. 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/episode115. 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 [episode115] in your post for reference.

We’ve found many church staff teams operate in one of two extremes:  They get along with each other but struggle to execute plans... or they are impressively productive but unhealthy and dysfunctional. The undercurrent is often that we church leaders can get so busy "doing" ministry that we never think about how we "do" team. It's the Sunday's always coming syndrome. But the truth is, a church's kingdom impact is directly correlated with the health and performance of its team. Your team is the most valuable asset you have in making progress toward your vision. In this episode, we're sharing a portion of our recent webinar featuring Tony Morgan, Amy Anderson and Lance Witt that focused on what we're learning about healthy, high-performing church staff teams.  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/episode114. 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 [episode114] in your post for reference.

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We’ve noted four steps that help churches open their “front door” wider. All four are critical—but we’ve found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series, Tony and Amy unpack the key steps we see helping churches reach more new guests with the love of Jesus: Pre-Guest Engagement The 1st-Time Guest Experience First Steps Engagement Next Steps Engagement  In this episode—Engaging Your Mission Field (Part 4)—Tony and Amy unpack how we can do a better job helping people find their place in the body of Christ. 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/episode113. 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 [episode113] in your post for reference.

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We’ve noted four steps that help churches open their “front door” wider. All four are critical—but we’ve found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series, Tony and Amy unpack the key steps we see helping churches reach more new guests with the love of Jesus: Pre-Guest Engagement The 1st-Time Guest Experience First Steps Engagement Next Steps Engagement  In this episode—Engaging Your Mission Field (Part 3)—Tony and Amy dig into how we can better engage new guests beyond the weekend experience, including several key strategies that will help new guests take those first steps. 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/episode112. 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 [episode112] in your post for reference.

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We’ve noted four steps that help churches open their “front door” wider. All four are critical—but we’ve found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series, Tony and Amy unpack the key steps we see helping churches reach more new guests with the love of Jesus: Pre-Guest Engagement The 1st-Time Guest Experience First Steps Engagement Next Steps Engagement  In this episode—Engaging Your Mission Field (Part 2)—Tony and Amy clarify the real “win” for engaging first-time guests. 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/episode111. 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 [episode111] in your post for reference.

Churches drift towards an insider-focus over time—more attention is given to discipleship of Christ followers than to effective outreach and evangelism. How do you fight that tendency? We’ve noted four steps that help churches open their “front door” wider. All four are critical—but we’ve found most churches only have strategies and structure to engage one or two of them. In this four-part series, Tony and Amy unpack the key steps we see helping churches reach more new guests with the love of Jesus: Pre-Guest Engagement The 1st-Time Guest Experience First Steps Engagement Next Steps Engagement  In this episode—Engaging Your Mission Field (Part 1)—Tony and Amy share unpack three elements of an effective pre-guest engagement strategy and how you can get started in your church. 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/episode110. 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 [episode110] in your post for reference.

You had more questions about church engagement—so we are  taking this week to answer them. We recently hosted a webinar on the topic of ​increasing church engagement​, and as part of the event, we fielded questions from people who tuned in. We weren’t able to get through all of the questions live, so in this episode, we’re digging a bit deeper. We saw some themes in the questions that came in. Participants were  asking things like... How do you measure engagement of people before they attend your church? How do you engage more empty-nesters in serving? What does engagement looks like in a transient area, where the turnover every year or two is significant?   Does the nature of the serving (internally within the church vs. externally in the community) have any impact on engagement? What are best practices for churches who live stream their services to increase engagement from those who watch online?  How do you successfully re-engage people who stop taking steps on your discipleship path? In this episode, Tony and Amy share their answers to these questions and more!  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/episode109. 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 [episode109] in your post for reference.

Bus ministry, cassette tape messages, door-to-door evangelism... all ministry strategies have a lifespan. Is multisite nearing its end? Recently, some high profile multisite churches made the decision to un-multisite. For a variety of reasons, their ministry strategy has shifted from “one church in many locations” to “multiple independent churches,” some even boldly downsizing to one location. Do these public shifts in strategy signal the beginning of the end for the multisite era? In this episode, Tony sits down with Geoff Surratt, pastor and author of The Multisite Revolution, for a conversation on the future of multisite church, and whether or not it's still an effective strategy in today's culture. 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/episode108. 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 [episode108] in your post for reference.

What's the "win" for your church's social media activity? If you don’t know, at best you'll waste time and resources, and at worst you’ll do damage to your brand and the potential you have to engage people outside your church. Social media platforms play a big role in the success of an inbound marketing strategy, and it seems like most churches are struggling to use them well. (Not sure what "inbound marketing" means? We covered it in Episode 61).   Why are they struggling? For one, the nuances of social media are always changing.  In this episode, Tiffany Deluccia from The Unstuck Group's team joins Tony and Amy to help unpack some things you need to know to maximize the potential of social media for reaching more people and increasing engagement. 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/episode107. 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 [episode107] in your post for reference.