thinking.church podcast

My guests today are Chas & Ann Paul. Chas & Ann serve on the leadership team in One Church Gloucester and look after the prayer team. Chas previously worked with Suzette Hattingh, the head of intercession with Reinhard Bonnke, and have been serving faithfully at One Church for over a decade.

My guest today is Tony Morgan. Tony is the Founder and Lead Strategist of The Unstuck Group. Started in 2009, The Unstuck Group has served 500 churches throughout the United States and several countries around the world. Previously, Tony served on the senior leadership teams of three rapidly growing churches including NewSpring Church in South Carolina. He has five published books including, The Unstuck Church, and hosts The Unstuck Church Podcast which has thousands of listeners each month.

Unstuck Teams Report: https://go.theunstuckgroup.com/ucr 

Tom Geatches is the Kids Network Lead for One Church, based in Gloucester, that has 4 locations in the southwest of Gloucester and three in Zimbabwe. It’s also my church! Tom is passionate about pastoring kids into all God has for them. Tom also owns his own Kids Club business, Limitless Kids, as well as working part time as Executive Assistant to One Church’s Senior Pastor, Simon Jarvis. Needless to say, Tom has a lot on his plate!

My interview guest today is Dale Sellers. Dale is the executive director of the 95 Network and has a calling to help weary and worn pastors and church leaders. Dale has been in ministry for almost 40 years.

He launched Dale Sellers Leadership, Inc. in March 2014 to assist organisations in the areas of leadership, inspiration, and evangelism. Dale became a ministry consultant for The Unstuck Group in April 2017 with a focus on helping the small church.

In July 2018, he accepted the position as the Executive Director of the 95Network, and in September of 2020, he published his first book Stalled: Hope and Help for Pastor’s Who Thought They’d Be There by Now. His years of ministry have grown a deep love for small and medium-sized congregations — the backbone of the church.

The 95Network equips small churches to thrive, and connects weary church leaders with friends and partners who care.

1. In the U.K. lockdown restrictions have now been fully taken away, which means that churches are getting used to a post-COVID world, with that comes a renewed need for vision. Why is vision so necessary for this next period?

2. Small churches often struggle to know how to come up with vision. Many churches get stuck worrying whether this is just something they’d like to do, or if it’s God’s vision for the church. How can church leaders know that the vision on their heart isn’t just their ideas but God’s vision for the church?

3. Why do small churches struggle to launch a big vision? What things do you think stop them?

https://www.95network.org/

Stalled book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalled-Pastors-Thought-Theyd-There-ebook/dp/B086VBZJTC/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=stalled+dale+sellers&qid=1631793822&sr=8-1

It's difficult to know if your church has started to decline. It's often not just as simple as looking at attendance numbers. In this Podcast, Chris & Lee discuss 6 signs of decline. Listen to the first 3 points fro free, or get the full conversation by joining our Member's Podcast, just go to https://www.thinking.church/offers/XhC7i8FN/checkout 

KEY POINTS

On 19th July 2021, all restrictions were lifted, and that means that Sunday 25th July becomes the church's Freedom Sunday. However, before you drop all restrictions, there's some things to consider.

KEY POINTS

Church planting isn't easy, and in the post-COVID world, many pastors will feel like they are back into a planting season. So what can we learn to do it more effectively? This week, we're joined by Lisa Daniels, who is the Location Pastor at One Church Podsmead. She gives great insight from her experience of planting, and what she's learned along the way.

KEY POINTS
1. Chose sledge hammers not scalpels
2. Plant not placate. 
3. Don’t scale too quickly
4. Work out what should be pencil and what should be permanent 
5. Sons and daughters of the house
6.  Focus on momentum

In the life of our church, we know there are some things that are most important. However, they tend to get overtaken by the urgent tasks, or we get bogged down in the detail. in this episode, Chris & Lee talk about the common things that stop us doing the most important things, and what we can do about them.

KEY POINTS
1) Getting involved in things that don’t require them
2) Not focusing on the right things
3) Control issues/lack of trust
4) Expectations of a pastor
5) Overly hierarchical structures
6) Inability to say no

Strategy isn't easy. We often don't know what we don't know, and that means we can fall prey to common mistakes that don't help us get to where we want to go. In this episode, Chris & Lee talk about 6 common mistakes.

Membership: www.thinking.church/membership-pre-sale

KEY POINTS
1) using last years strategy
2) Confusing mission & vision
3) not thinking about it will be delivered
4) The Field of Dreams mistake 
5) using someone else’s strategy
6) waiting for perfection

The online world is easier to access than ever, but seemingly harder to engage with people than ever. What can we do as churches to create community and content that people find engaging? Chris & Lee discuss.

KEY POINTS
1) You’re not competing with other churches
2) Don’t expect people to engage in series
3) Content content content
4) Use thumbnail and naming conventions
5) Community community community
6) Advertise with Facebook Ads