The Unstuck Church Podcast with Tony Morgan Tony Morgan

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.

 
Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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, automatic volunteer scheduling, and much more.
Start using for free now at planningcenter.com.
 

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/episode357.
 
Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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 churches that engage the most volunteers in serving roles, and specifically, how this needs to be considered a spiritual formation issue.
 
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.
 

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/episode356.
 
Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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. 
In the first episode, they unpack the strategy mistakes churches are often making that inhibit a strong volunteer engagement culture.
 

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.

 

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/episode355.
 
Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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 and retaining younger people on their teams Best practices for raising up leaders from within Learn more about Slingshot Group
Connect with Tim Foot 
Planning a Restructure?
People-problems are uniquely challenging on a ministry staff team. Leading your people through them is hard. Through our Staffing & Structure process, you can go from feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the people-problems to feeling confident in your ability to structure and lead your team for health and high performance. Learn more at theunstuckgroup.com.



Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.

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 Restructure?
People-problems are uniquely challenging on a ministry staff team. Leading your people through them is hard. Through our Staffing & Structure process, you can go from feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the people-problems to feeling confident in your ability to structure and lead your team for health and high performance. Learn more at theunstuckgroup.com.



This Episode is Sponsored by The Church Lawyers
The Church Lawyers’ Client Member program was created for organizations just like yours. Their team of Christian legal professionals are personally called to empower and protect churches, ministries, and their leaders to fulfill their mission by providing biblically informed and ministry-focused legal solutions. Whether governance, employment, litigation, or other matters, let The Church Lawyers walk alongside you as you navigate legal issues facing your ministry. 
Sign up for the The Church Lawyers’ Client Member program today at thechurchlawyers.com.

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/episode354.
 
Join the 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 X. Or you can join in on Facebook.