The '90s called, and they want their core values back. In Part 3 of our series, Sean and Amy discuss how churches can move beyond generic “permission to play” values to define authentic, culture-shaping behaviors that drive real organizational change. They cover:

• Why traditional church core values often end up as meaningless wall art
• The difference between “permission to play” values and true culture-shaping behaviors
• How to identify and define values that reflect who you actually are (not who you wish to be)
• Practical steps for embedding these behaviors into hiring, firing and performance management
• Why senior leaders must model the behaviors they want to see in their culture

Plus, they explain why values should be tangible and observable, share real examples of effective culture-shaping behaviors and provide guidance for leaders who want to intentionally shape their organizational culture through clear behavioral expectations.

This Episode Is Brought to You by PlainJoe:

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

The ‘90s called again, and they want their 10-year visions back. In Part 2 of our series, Amy and Sean explore how churches can move beyond outdated vision-setting approaches to create more focused, time-bound visions that actually drive change.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the 10-year vision approach from the ‘90s no longer works in today’s fast-changing world
• How to start with identifying the core problem in your mission field before crafting a vision
• What makes a vision effective for the modern church (hint: it’s specific and time-bound)
• Practical examples of bold moves from real churches

Plus, they’ll share key questions every church should ask when developing their vision and explain why getting crystal clear on the problem you’re trying to solve is essential for rallying your entire church body around a common purpose.

This Episode Is Brought to You By PlainJoe:

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

The '90s called, and they want their strategic planning process back. That binder that’s still on the shelf. The 10-year vision that has come and gone.

So many churches are still doing vision, planning and strategy following an old playbook—a 30+ year-old playbook. Is there a more modern way to unify your church body around your vision?

In this series, Amy and Sean will kick off 2025 by helping you learn a more nimble, actionable approach to planning and aligning your staff and church around a common purpose. 

And in Part 1, they’re picking on church mission statements and sharing what makes more sense.

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/episode378.

This Episode Is Brought to You By PlainJoe:

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

Wow, 2024, what a year of highs and lows. If there were ever a year to pause and look back, this is the one for us.

In this episode, Sean and Amy are joined by Tiffany Deluccia, the third member of The Unstuck Group’s leadership team. We reflect on God’s faithfulness in 2024 and preview some of what’s to come in 2025.

For the full episode transcript, visit this episode’s Show Notes at  theunstuckgroup.com/episode377. No Leader Conversation Guide this week!

This Episode Is Brought to You By PlainJoe:

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

We have covered the things that can start to feel like crises related to the people side of growth, and we’ve covered the challenges you can expect related to the emotional side of growth. But there's one more area that contains a lot of practical, preventable challenges in a growing church: the systems and structure side of growth.  In this episode, we're talking all about the logistics. The practical obstacles you start to run into as more and more people show up. The really obvious issues that have less obvious solutions.

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/episode376.

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is an all-in-one toolkit to organize and run your ministries. And what is a ministry without volunteers? Planning Center helps you build a sustainable and balanced volunteer schedule that aligns ministry needs with people’s availability. Then, you can connect with your team using chat, where you can coordinate ministry details, make announcements, and engage in fun conversations with your teammates.

Get started for free at planningcenter.com.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

Continued growth can feel like an engine. 

As a leader, you’re seeing results. You’re running on the high of seeing the fruits of all the effort, intention and faithfulness. You and the team have been on mission, and you’ve sensed God’s blessing and hand on the ministry.

And then it all starts taking a toll, and if you’re not careful, things can go sideways.

In part two of our series “Predicable Challenges of Lead a Growing Church,” Sean and Amy talk about the emotional side of growth. 

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/episode375.

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is an all-in-one toolkit to organize and run your ministries. And what is a ministry without volunteers? Planning Center helps you build a sustainable and balanced volunteer schedule that aligns ministry needs with people’s availability. Then, you can connect with your team using chat, where you can coordinate ministry details, make announcements, and engage in fun conversations with your teammates.

Get started for free at planningcenter.com.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

When your church is in a season of growth, there are certain challenges that you are bound to run into.

The good news is these challenges are predictable. But just because they are predictable doesn’t mean they are easy to navigate. In fact, some of the pastors going through a season of big momentum would tell you it’s one of the hardest seasons they’ve led through, but it’s also extremely rewarding.

We’re kicking off a new series called “Predictable Challenges of Leading a Growing Church,” where we will be discussing the tensions growing churches face and, most importantly, how to combat them. In this episode, Sean and Amy talk about what’s most important in a growing church—people.

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/episode374.

This Episode is Sponsored by Planning Center:

Planning Center is an all-in-one toolkit to organize and run your ministries. And what is a ministry without volunteers? Planning Center helps you build a sustainable and balanced volunteer schedule that aligns ministry needs with people’s availability. Then, you can connect with your team using chat, where you can coordinate ministry details, make announcements, and engage in fun conversations with your teammates.

Get started for free at planningcenter.com.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year... time for The Unstuck Church Report!

Every quarter, The Unstuck Group compiles all the data we’ve collected to monitor trends in churches in the United States. Our Q4 report focuses on current data and trends in multisite churches specifically.

We received data from over 100 multisite churches ranging from fewer than 500 people in physical attendance to more than 20,000 people in attendance. These churches had as few as two locations to more than 20 locations, and the average attendance of the churches responding to the survey was 2,982 people. In this episode, Sean and Amy discuss findings from the Q4 2024 Unstuck Church Report and take a targeted look at trends and data for multisite churches. 

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/episode373.

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 disciplemaking 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.

Join the Conversation on Social Media

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

In this series, we’ve talked about how to evaluate your in-person weekend experience. But there is another aspect to the weekend that we don’t want to overlook—the online service experience.

Evaluating your online service can be tricky; it’s both part of the weekend and not. How do we measure the quality of it?

In this episode, Sean and Amy close out our Weekend Quality Check series by discussing how to evaluate your online service experience. Aaron Bennett from Stonecreek Church in Milton, GA, also shares his insights in an interview with Amy.

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/episode372.

This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

You’re ready for first-time guests. You’ve planned your sermon series. You’ve prepared your message. But how do you know if it’s working? How do you evaluate your weekend experience?

Throughout the “Weekend Quality Check” series, we’ve shared some practical ways you can increase the quality of your weekend planning, preparation and execution. Now, it’s time to evaluate it. 

In this episode, Sean and Amy talk through some ways to evaluate our weekends. Plus, we have another great interview to share with you from a very strategic Millennial pastor whom we love dearly: Jimmy McCloud at First Christian in Canton, Ohio.

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/episode371.

This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram. 

How do you teach in a way that engages insiders without alienating the outsiders? How do you develop teachings that are relevant, relatable and truly transformational?

Sean and Amy address these questions and more in Part 3 of the “Weekend Quality Check” series.

In this episode, we dig into the core tensions pastors face in developing transformational messages that engage both insiders and outsiders, sharing practical solutions to navigate that tension while preparing messages. We also host Pastor Carlos Ortiz from Gateway Church in Austin, Texas, who shares insights about how he develops teachings that transform.

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/episode370.

This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios

Unleash the power of your church’s story with PlainJoe, a Storyland Studio!

Their creative, fun-loving team of designers, architects, and specialists will come alongside your church to help you excel in your storytelling—and reach the people who need you most.

PlainJoe has expertise in strategic, spatial, and digital storytelling, from brand development to architecture, website design, and beyond. Learn more at plainjoe.net.

We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on X and on Instagram.