Breaking Through a Plateau: How MCI Canada Found Clarity and Alignment

MCI Canada (a French-speaking church in Montreal) had reached a plateau. They had new people visiting but were struggling to retain them.

Senior Pastor Benjamin Carbone explained, “Our structure and systems were limiting us from reaching the next stage we believed God had for us as a church. Our structure was not aligned with our strategies and mission—we needed more clarity and alignment around both our strategies and our structure.”

The MCI Canada team knew they needed help to address these issues, and felt that someone outside of their team could help them identify their blindspots and offer wisdom on how to adjust their strategies and structure to find greater health. After doing some research, they found The Unstuck Group.

MCI Canada felt that Unstuck could provide a valuable outside perspective and help them slow down from the day-to-day pace of ministry to pray, reflect, strategize, and then develop clear action plans for the future.

Addressing Staffing & Structure Challenges 

As they entered into the Unstuck Process, Pastor Benjamin shared that MCI’s biggest challenge was their staff structure, which eventually led them to make some staff changes:

They had staff who were hired under the previous structure, but after rethinking their strategies, had to transition out of their roles. 

“It wasn’t easy because we love our people,” Pastor Benjamin reflected, “but we knew that for the church to keep accomplishing what we are called to do, we had to make difficult calls to put the right leaders in the right places.” 

After making these adjustments to change their structure, clarify their strategies, and put the right leaders in the right place, what felt like a really difficult season became the start of a healthier staff team and a healthier church. MCI Canada began to see how the Spirit was moving in their people with unity, clarity, and passion.

Tangible Wins from the Unstuck Process

Out of the Unstuck process, MCI Canada has experienced several tangible “wins.” Pastor Benjamin explained:

1. Since we clarified and simplified our ministry strategy, our baptisms have increased.
2. Our staff has a lot more clarity on their roles and the goals we are trying to reach as a team. 
3. We’re able to prioritize our long-term goals in the midst of the day-to-day urgency of ministry. 
4. Our leadership structure is more aligned and we have a clearer vision of what our next steps as a church will be.  
5. We were able to reach our volunteer goals faster because we had greater alignment around what matters most to our team. 
6. Because we made these changes before we went through a pastoral transition, the transition was easier. People felt that the whole church, not just our leadership, was transitioning together into what God was calling us to next. 
7. We had wanted to launch a new campus but didn’t want to jump into it too quickly and without the needed clarity and confidence. After the Unstuck process, our team is full of faith for the future and believes this is something God is calling us to do.

Although the process was not always easy, Pastor Benjamin affirmed, “We couldn’t settle for staying where we were when we knew God wanted us to reach and disciple more people.”