The Q2 2026 Unstuck Church Report is here!

For this report, we are focusing on staffing trends in churches of various sizes.

In this year's survey, we asked pastors and church leaders to tell us about the biggest staffing and structure challenges their churches are facing. And it's clear that there are some big hurdles churches are working to navigate. These hurdles are real, but as many churches have shown, there's also a clear path through them. And this year, it's visible in the data.

In this episode, Sean breaks down the staffing data and trends we're seeing in churches this quarter:

• The biggest staffing challenges
• The hardest role to fill right now
• The strategy for a lean but healthy staff
• Exclusive interview with Todd Rhoades from Chemistry Staffing

This Episode is Sponsored by Chemistry Staffing

Chemistry Staffing is a church search firm helping churches across the country hire healthy pastors and ministry staff who stay. Led by experienced pastors and church leaders, we match every role across the five areas that predict long-term fit: theology, culture, personality, skills, and chemistry.

From senior pastors to worship and operations roles, plus coaching, compensation, and succession support, we make your next hire easier.

Learn more at chemistrystaffing.com.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

"Where do we find great staff leaders? We need them, and we need them now."

If your only approach to finding staff leaders is to hire fully formed, fully capable leaders from the outside whenever you need them, you will always be reactive.

So far in this series, we've talked about the importance of developing your volunteers and volunteer leaders. But all of that volunteer development work, as important as it is, only pays off long-term if you know how to develop your staff leaders well, too.

In this episode, Sean and Jonathan talk about developing and equipping your staff leaders to do the work God has called them to do.

• Identifying the leadership capacity of every person on your team
• Intentional development toward the highest level they're wired for
• Building a staff culture where leadership development isn't just a one-time event

This Episode is Sponsored by The Church Lawyers

Every church needs trusted legal counsel, but finding attorneys who truly understand ministry can be challenging.

The Church Lawyers specialize in church and nonprofit law, serving thousands of organizations nationwide. From by-laws and governance, to IRS compliance and employment matters, The Church Lawyers provide the expertise you need with sound legal advice giving you peace of mind.

Discover practical free resources and affordable membership options at TheChurchLawyers.com.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

You probably have people serving with more leadership capacity than you know, and you may have volunteers who have taken on more leadership than they actually have capacity for.

Often, churches hand leadership responsibility to volunteers who don't have the capacity for it. Or they fail to develop the people who do have leadership capacity because they're spreading attention evenly across everyone instead of investing deeply in a few.

The problem isn't a lack of leaders. It's a lack of a system to develop them.

In this episode, Sean and Jonathan break down what it actually looks like to intentionally develop volunteer leaders through a pipeline:

• The evidences of leadership capacity
• The three levels of volunteer leadership to have in your pipeline
• Auditing your volunteers and putting your framework into practice

This Episode is Sponsored by The Church Lawyers

Every church needs trusted legal counsel, but finding attorneys who truly understand ministry can be challenging.

The Church Lawyers specialize in church and nonprofit law, serving thousands of organizations nationwide. From by-laws and governance, to IRS compliance and employment matters, The Church Lawyers provide the expertise you need with sound legal advice giving you peace of mind.

Discover practical free resources and affordable membership options at TheChurchLawyers.com.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

You need great volunteers if you want to hire internally. But to develop volunteers, you need more great staff…

It can feel like an endless cycle. But it doesn't have to be.

Trying to find leaders as quickly as possible leads to high turnover and hard conversations. But when you develop leaders with a sustainable volunteer leadership pipeline, leaders are identified earlier and developed more intentionally, which ultimately results in a healthier, higher performing church team.

In this new series, we'll share a practical, repeatable pathway for increasing leadership capacity. We'll talk through clear levels of leadership: strengthening your volunteer bench, developing volunteer leaders and equipping staff leaders.

Today, we're starting at the foundation—the volunteer bench itself—because you have to know how to fill the bench and how to identify leadership capacity before you can develop great volunteer leaders.

This Episode is Sponsored by The Church Lawyers

Every church needs trusted legal counsel, but finding attorneys who truly understand ministry can be challenging.

The Church Lawyers specialize in church and nonprofit law, serving thousands of organizations nationwide. From by-laws and governance, to IRS compliance and employment matters, The Church Lawyers provide the expertise you need with sound legal advice giving you peace of mind.

Discover practical free resources and affordable membership options at TheChurchLawyers.com.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

We're back with another "Ask Anything" episode!

Sean invited Ron Baum, a long-time consultant at The Unstuck Group and ministry leader who has served in the local church for over 30 years, to answer some questions that YOU, our listeners, have sent in.

We have some fun questions to address today—a few about space and adding service times and several about strategic planning and getting traction.

If you've got a question for the next "Ask Anything" episode, call our voicemail line at (615) 398-9171 or send us a message on social media.

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is software designed to help churches help people. With multiple tools in one connected platform, you can stay organized, communicate with your team and create meaningful ways to connect with your congregation. Start for free at planningcenter.com—pay only for what you need, and cancel anytime.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

• We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

For many years, one of the main reasons for stuckness in the Church was that churches lacked discipleship steps. Instead, they just had a lot of programs for church people to engage in.

Now, most churches have done the work of designing next steps for people. They've created a pathway instead of a program calendar.

So, why is it still not working?

In this episode, Sean and Tiffany break down the most quietly misunderstood thing in church ministry: the Spiritual Engagement Journey.

• Common gaps in the Spiritual Engagement Journey
• Why outcomes matter more than participation
• How to accurately measure spiritual catalysts

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is software designed to help churches help people. With multiple tools in one connected platform, you can stay organized, communicate with your team, and create meaningful ways to connect with your congregation. Start for free at planningcenter.com—pay only for what you need, and cancel anytime.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

• We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

Everyone has opinions about multisite.

Advice often gets shared like it's one-size-fits-all, but multisite is complex; what worked for one church in one city at one moment may not work for another church.

There are best practices you can follow, but the truth is that multisite comes with a lot of nuance.

In this episode, we're continuing our "This Isn't Working Anymore" series by getting into the nuance that tends to get left out of conversations about multisite.

• "Acting your age" as a multisite church
• Launch, multi-stuck and adding locations: the phases of multisite
• Building your own multisite strategy

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is software designed to help churches help people. With multiple tools in one connected platform, you can stay organized, communicate with your team, and create meaningful ways to connect with your congregation. Start for free at planningcenter.com—pay only for what you need, and cancel anytime.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

• We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

This isn't working anymore...

Too many churches keep running the same plays that used to work, even when the results have clearly changed. Ministry is a moving target, and what worked in 2010 doesn't automatically work in 2026. The ministry landscape has shifted, and it's time to make some upgrades.

At The Unstuck Group, one of our core values is "Make It Better," and we are committed to practicing what we preach. So, in this series, we're being honest about where we've had to upgrade our own thinking and why we think you should, too.

In this episode, Sean is joined by Tiffany Deluccia, our Director of Business Development, to discuss a topic that might be one of the most talked about—but least understood topics—in ministry: the difference between vision and direction. And why, in this era, we've learned that clear direction wins.

• The problem with "organizational statement clutter"
• The design flaw in the traditional format of vision statements
• Creating concrete, current and actionable direction

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is software designed to help churches help people. With multiple tools in one connected platform, you can stay organized, communicate with your team, and create meaningful ways to connect with your congregation. Start for free at planningcenter.com—pay only for what you need, and cancel anytime.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

• We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

"Structure changes have really changed our church... and it's changed me."

We're doing something different this week on the podcast. We invited Pastor Donny Wadley from Fountain City Church in Knoxville, TN, to share his experience of going through The Unstuck Process.

Before engaging with us, the church was hitting a growth barrier—like many of the churches in our tribe. They had facility challenges and questions about making room for all the people who were coming to their church, and they needed an outside perspective to guide them through it.

In this episode, Sean and Pastor Donny talk about the impactful learnings and changes Fountain City went through as they navigated growth.

• Using metrics to look at ministry in a comprehensive way
• Getting the right people in the right positions
• The journey to creating a fresh vision

This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios:

Unlock the power of story in your worship space. The creative, passionate team at PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio, works with churches to create beautiful, engaging spaces that connect with your community. They're a team of architectural, design, and branding experts who transform worship spaces into attractive, engaging hubs for the community. Reach out to their team at plainjoestudios.com and dream up the bright future of your church.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.

How do you know if burnout isn't structural...but is personal?

We're closing out our "Structured for Burnout " series with something that doesn't always make it onto the agenda: caring for yourself and your soul while you're busy caring for everyone else.

We invited Lance Witt, a member of The Unstuck Group's lead team and a respected voice to pastors all across the country on the topic of leading from a healthy soul, to share his wisdom and experience.

In this episode, Lance and Sean dig into the topic of personal burnout: what it actually looks like and what practical next steps leaders can take to lead from a healthier place.

• Burnout warning signs for church leaders: structurally and personally
• Why do we believe that busyness equals importance?
• How to keep yourself out of burnout and stay replenished

This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios:

Unlock the power of story in your worship space. The creative, passionate team at PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio, works with churches to create beautiful, engaging spaces that connect with your community. They're a team of architectural, design, and branding experts who transform worship spaces into attractive, engaging hubs for the community. Reach out to their team at plainjoestudios.com and dream up the bright future of your church.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.