The Unstuck Church Podcast with Tony Morgan

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 podcast episodes in this series on “What It Really Takes To Reach Young Families.” Tony was passionate about this topic and had so much practical wisdom to offer. We’ve decided to release the remaining episodes of this series over the next few weeks.

For Part 2, Tony and Amy had a conversation specifically about the aspects of ministry vision and leadership that are essential to the success or failure of kids’ pastors in their roles.

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/episode365.

This Episode is Sponsored by Horizons Stewardship

Horizons Stewardship utilizes a collaborative and integrated ministry framework designed to fit each organization’s unique culture and support church and faith-based nonprofit leaders in their mission to grow disciples and fund ministry through coaching, planning, technology, and analytics.

Horizons has over three decades of experience and has developed a spiritually focused approach that consistently yields more funding for ministry and more effective disciple-making strategies. With the support of seasoned ministry strategists, proven generosity guides, and ICF-trained coaches, ministries that partner with Horizons experience, on average, a double-digit increase in giving within the first year.  Interested in learning more? Click here.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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.

This is a tribute to the best boss we ever had, the leader who practiced what he preached, and the man who loved Jesus and His church. In this short episode, Sean, Tiffany, and Amy share the statement released by The Unstuck Group, along with some updates on the future of the podcast. 

It's been an unspeakably difficult week. Thank you for all your kind words and prayers. Please continue to lift up Emily and all of Tony's kids in prayer, and the Unstuck team too. 

The Morgan family has published Tony's obituary and asked us to share it with you. 

We will be celebrating the life and the legacy that Tony lived on September 19th at 11:00 am Eastern at his church, North Point Community Church. If you choose to attend, please wear anything but black clothes, because this is a celebration—celebration of the life he lived and the impact that we will continue to carry throughout our lives.

If you plan to attend the service, please bring a handwritten or typed note with a memory of Tony or a description of the impact he had on your life. Notes will be displayed on a memory board at the reception following the service, and treasured forever by the family. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that you make a donation in support of a cause close to Tony’s heart: developing the next generation to lead unstuck churches. You can donate here to a fund established to provide scholarships for young pastors to participate in leadership training through The Unstuck Group.

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 why reaching young families needs to be a priority and the tensions we know pastors are feeling around it.

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/episode364.

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, automatic volunteer scheduling, and much more.

Start using it for free now at planningcenter.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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, 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 to fit each organization’s unique culture and support church and faith-based nonprofit leaders in their mission to grow disciples and fund ministry through coaching, planning, technology, and analytics.

Horizons has over three decades of experience and has developed a spiritually focused approach that consistently yields more funding for ministry and more effective disciple-making strategies. With the support of seasoned ministry strategists, proven generosity guides, and ICF-trained coaches, ministries that partner with Horizons experience, on average, a double-digit increase in giving within the first year.  Interested in learning more? Click here.

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/episode363.

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/X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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 interviews Beau Johnson from The Table Group about the importance of organizational health in churches and how Working Genius offers solutions. 

This episode is brought to you by The Six Types of Working Genius:

Working Genius is the fastest way to increase productivity, improve morale, and decrease turnover on your team. It takes ten minutes to discover the work that gives you joy and energy, and the work that is leading to staff burnout. 

• Take the assessment.
• Discuss your results.
• Engage the geniuses of the people around you. 

Get started today: Use code UNSTUCKWG for 20% off at workinggenius.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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 that are part of our tribe. So, in the final episode of the series, we’re going to share a few other things that make a church unstuck—more things those churches have in common.

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/episode362.

This episode is brought to you by The Six Types of Working Genius:

Working Genius is the fastest way to increase productivity, improve morale, and decrease turnover on your team. It takes ten minutes to discover the work that gives you joy and energy, and the work that is leading to staff burnout. 

• Take the assessment.
• Discuss your results.
• Engage the geniuses of the people around you. 

Get started today: Use code UNSTUCKWG for 20% off at workinggenius.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

People are often surprised when they read our reports for the first time.

Our data shows contradictory trends to much of what we read in general research.

For example, in our most recent edition of The Unstuck Church Report, the average year-over-year attendance increase was 17%. There’s clearly something different about the churches engaging with our surveys. Despite the headlines, we know 100s of churches that are NOT in decline.

So, are U.S. churches stuck or unstuck? Over the next two episodes, we’re going to try to explain what’s so different about unstuck churches—based on real-life examples—and give you some practical ways to make sense of the things contributing to church growth or decline.

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/episode361.

This episode is brought to you by The Six Types of Working Genius:

Working Genius is the fastest way to increase productivity, improve morale, and decrease turnover on your team. It takes ten minutes to discover the work that gives you joy and energy, and the work that is leading to staff burnout. 

• Take the assessment.
• Discuss your results.
• Engage the geniuses of the people around you. 

Get started today: Use code UNSTUCKWG for 20% off at workinggenius.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

New data, same headlines. The surveys and studies always seem to repeat the same refrain: Church attendance is in decline. Religious participation is phasing out of American life. Except…our data shows the opposite. In our most recent edition of The Unstuck Church Report, the average year-over-year attendance increase was 17% across churches of all sizes. There’s clearly something different about the churches engaging with our surveys.

In this series, we’re going to try to explain what’s so different about unstuck churches and give you some practical ways to make sense of the things contributing to church growth or decline.

We have our own data and observations from the work we do that we will share in the next two episodes, but we wanted to start out with an exploration of recent data and trends from an authority on religion in American life. So, we invited Alan Cooperman from Pew Research Center to join us for a conversation about the broader trends happening in the U.S.

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/episode360.

This episode is brought to you by The Six Types of Working Genius:

Working Genius is the fastest way to increase productivity, improve morale, and decrease turnover on your team. It takes ten minutes to discover the work that gives you joy and energy, and the work that is leading to staff burnout. 

• Take the assessment.
• Discuss your results.
• Engage the geniuses of the people around you. 

Get started today: Use code UNSTUCKWG for 20% off at workinggenius.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

When people discover their gifts, they begin to feel more connected and fulfilled. But few churches know how to help people discover the unique wiring God has given them—and fewer still have a plan to help people leverage those gifts once discovered.

We wrap up this series on "Serving as Spiritual Formation" with an interview with Pastor Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands to unpack the success they've had with "Growth Track," which has inspired thousands of churches across the country, and the overall importance of helping people serve with their gifts as part of their spiritual formation journey.

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/episode359.

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, automatic volunteer scheduling, and much more.

Start using for free now at planningcenter.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

It is possible to integrate serving into your spiritual formation strategy in a practical and effective way. We’re seeing churches all across the country do it.

In recent years, churches we serve have been telling us they love The Rooted Experience.

So, in part four of this series on Serving as Spiritual Formation, Tony interviews Pastor John Thomas from Mariners Church in California about The Rooted Experience. John shares how Rooted is helping people connect to faith and the church, why it is so effective and how Mariners Church encourages people to engage in serving opportunities as part of their spiritual formation.

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/episode358.

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, automatic volunteer scheduling, and much more.

Start using for free now at planningcenter.com.

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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.