5 Common Core Issues in Churches (Part 1)
If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember our “5 Core Issues in Churches” article from many years ago that went kind of viral on Facebook. Obviously a lot has changed in recently years, so we decided to revisit this topic.
After serving more than 800 churches, we’ve noticed a clear pattern: no matter the size, style, or model, many churches wrestle with a similar set of challenges. They show up in different ways, but the root issues are surprisingly common across the board.
That’s good news for pastors and ministry leaders—because if the challenges are common, the solutions can be too.
You’re not alone. And you’re not the first church to navigate these obstacles.
In this series, we’re taking a closer look at five of the most common challenges that consistently show up in our work with churches, starting with the strategy issues.
In this episode, Sean and I talk about strategies to reach your mission field and strategies for financial health.
The more clarity churches have about who they're trying to reach, and then intentionally build a ministry strategy that reflects that focus, the more likely the church is going to reach a broad cross section of their community.… Share on X The more worship styles a church offers, the more likely the church is experiencing a decline in attendance. [episode 434] #unstuckchurch Share on X The key is being willing to ask the hard questions and make the necessary changes, not just tweaking around the edges or trying to fix things in the crack of your busy ministry schedule. [episode 434] #unstuckchurch Share on X The three lids are children's ministry, capacity, parking, and auditorium space. And here's the frustrating part; if any one of those is maxed out, growth is basically gonna hit a wall. [episode 434] #unstuckchurch Share on X
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More Episodes in this Series
The Leadership Bench Issues – Episode 435
The Engagement & Capacity Issues – Episode 436
Transcript
Sean:
Welcome to the Unstuck Church Podcast. I’m Sean here again with Amy Anderson. Amy, if listeners are tuning in on the date that this episode releases we’re about four days away from Super Bowl 60.
Amy:
60. Wow.
Sean:
60. And I have a little Super Bowl trivia for you. Are you ready?
Amy:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love talking football.
Sean:
Well, let me mix a little football with television.
Amy:
Okay. Oh, alright.
Sean:
What are the top 10 most watched US programs, US TV programs in the history of television?
Amy:
In the history of television?
Sean:
Okay, I’ll give you a hint. Eight of them are Super Bowls.
Amy:
Oh my gosh. Really?
Sean:
What are the other two?
Amy:
The other two in how many year frame? Forever?
Sean:
In the entire history of TV?
Amy:
The Tonight Show by Johnny Carson.
Sean:
No. Not correct.
Amy:
Seinfeld?
Sean:
Eh. Oh, that’s a good guess but not correct.
Amy:
Friends?
Sean:
Not Correct.
Amy:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show? Carol Burnett?
Sean:
Okay. So here’s what’s interesting. You’re on the right track. You’re on the right track.
Amy:
They’re old ones.
Sean:
But you have to go farther back in time.
Amy:
I Love Lucy.
Sean:
‘Cause we just don’t watch TV anymore like this, right?
Amy:
Right.
Sean:
So number one most watched show in all of television history in the United States was the MASH finale.
Amy:
Oh, I believe that. I watched it.
Sean:
Almost 106 million viewers.
Amy:
Wow.
Sean:
Back in 1983.
Amy:
I still can’t get that chicken outta my mind.
Sean:
I won’t mention how old I was in 1983.
Amy:
For anyone who saw it.
Sean:
So interesting because we would still all gather around a television in 1983 together, right? Watch an event. Okay. So similarly, the other show that lands in the top 10 that’s not a Super Bowl is the finale of Roots. A hundred million viewers.
Amy:
Wow.
Sean:
Back in 1977.
Amy:
Seventies?
Sean:
Yeah. 77.
Amy:
I was eight years old. I actually watched it.
Sean:
So here’s what’s interesting to me. All the other eight of the top 10 are all Super Bowls. And actually they’re recent Super Bowls. So we’ve got 2015, 2013, 2010, 2009. So the only reason I think we gather around a TV really anymore is the Super Bowl. Right?
Amy:
Right. I think that’s true. It’s on our calendar.
Sean:
A little more football trivia for you. And then we’ll move on to what listeners actually tuned in for. And this is a question that’s near and dear to me and you. How many times have the Green Bay Packers played the Minnesota Vikings in all of NFL history?
Amy:
Well, never in a Super Bowl.
Sean:
Never In a Super Bowl.
Amy:
The NFL history I would say 139 times.
Sean:
Oh my goodness.
Amy:
Am I close?
Sean:
You’re so close. 131.
Amy:
Oh yeah.
Sean:
Well done. You’re a true fan.
Amy:
Thank you.
Sean:
Okay, so here’s why this question’s important to me. Guess who leads in most wins between the Packers and the Vikings?
Amy:
The Vikings.
Sean:
No.
Amy:
Ugh.
Sean:
That would be the Green Bay Packers with 67 wins to the Minnesota Vikings. 61 wins head to head. Now, they did tie three times. But we won’t count those.
Amy:
Okay. Thank you for not asking me how many times Minnesota’s won the Super Bowl. That would be salt in the wound.
Sean:
I tried to steer clear of that question for you. You’re welcome.
Amy:
Thank you.
Sean:
Yeah, maybe next year.
Amy:
Maybe next year.
Sean:
Alright. Well, other than the Super Bowl to be excited about, listeners I think should also be excited about the new series that we’re launching today. At least I’m excited about it.
Amy:
Me too. I have actually, it’s been Sean, I think a few years since we’ve talked about the most common issues that churches are facing. So I think it’s definitely time for an update.
Sean:
It is. Yep. Back in 2021, actually, we published an article about the core issues we were seeing across churches of all sizes and styles. Our founder, Tony Morgan, put it together, a great piece, and the article kind of went viral and became one of our most read resources. But here we are, we’re in 2026 now, and while we’re still seeing some of those same challenges, we’re also seeing some new patterns emerge from working with the hundreds of churches that we’ve been with.
Amy:
Yeah, exactly. You know, after serving more than 750 churches, we’ve noticed that no matter what the size, the style, the model most churches wrestle with a similar set of challenge. They show up in different ways for sure, but the root issues are surprisingly common across the board.
Sean:
Yeah. And that’s actually good news for pastors and ministry leaders because if the challenges are common, the solutions can be too. You know, you’re not alone and you’re not the first church to navigate the obstacles that you’re navigating. So in this series, we’re gonna take a closer look at five of the most common challenges that consistently show up in our work with churches. Today we’re focusing on two critical areas, and they are strategies to reach what we call your mission field and then strategies for financial health.
Amy:
Yep.
Sean:
But before we get into today’s topic though, let’s stop and say thanks to our podcast sponsored Planning Center. Planning Center is an all-in-one church management software that’s really built to help churches simplify administration so they can actually focus more on people. You can easily track first time guests, you can schedule volunteers, you can manage check-ins, create event signups, and even accept online giving all in one place. Planning Center really helps you better nurture your community, reduces your stress as a leader, and then keeps everyone on your team engaged. So you can learn more about Planning Center and even start for free at planningcenter.com.
So Amy, let’s start with the mission field conversation. What would you say to church leaders, just kind of about the importance and why it’s important to know who you’re trying to reach.
Amy:
Yeah. Well, I wanna start by talking to church leaders who do not have their mission field designed. These are churches that kind of avoid focusing on any specific mission field because they don’t wanna be exclusionary, they wanna reach everyone, anyone type of thing. And you know, when we work with churches on this, I come upon it once in a while. In fact, I was trying to just remember a church I recently had this conversation with, but we just had a long conversation about really the scripture from First Corinthians nine where Paul says, you know, even though I’m a free man, no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. And here’s the key. When I was with the Jews, I live like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. And it goes on, you know, when I was with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, right? I live apart from that law too.
The key is Paul was always assessing who is around me right now? What mission field am I in? And adapting his styles to reach that mission field. And so when we work with churches and talk through this, it’s really about being intentional. It’s not about being exclusive to a certain group of people. And when we work with churches, we challenge them. Okay, look at where God’s placed your church and define at least three characteristics that begin to focus them on who they are specifically trying to reach. So one is an age range, and ideally this is 10 years, maybe 15, but no more than that. What’s the age range we’re trying to reach? What’s their spiritual condition? Are they churched, unchurched, de-churched, spiritually curious, apathetic, whatever that would be. And you can imagine if you’re a church in Georgia versus a church in Portland, you’re going to answer those questions differently. You’re gonna describe it a different way.
Sean:
Yeah. Exactly.
Amy:
Life stage, you know, is it singles? Is it married, parents, empty nesters? What stage of life are they in right now? And when this is defined, at least those three, there might be other things around diversity or county or this type of stuff, but when you define that, it just gives you clarity or a filter to discern what ministry strategies need to be pruned or eliminated. what ones need to be optimized, which ones we need to create. In other words, it helps you discern what you should stop doing and what you need to start doing. So if you’re trying to reach, going back to the church that doesn’t wanna define this, if you are trying to reach everybody, then there’s no parameters, there’s no banks on the river. Everything, every idea is equal. So we say that, we’ve said this before in the podcast, but at The Unstuck Group, we’ve learned that the more clarity churches have about who they’re trying to reach, and then intentionally build a ministry strategy that reflects that focus, the more likely the church is going to reach a broad cross section of their community. And the reverse is when there’s no intentionality, or in some case total disregard for who the church should be reaching. The church actually struggles to reach its community and very few people are saved.
Sean:
That’s good. That’s so true. Okay, so let’s talk about the churches that have done the work of defining their mission field, but maybe they’re not seeing any growth right now. What might be going on for those churches?
Amy:
So you want me to go back to your original question?
Sean:
Yes.
Amy:
Okay. I think the headline question they need to ask themselves is are they really designing their ministry strategies with the mission field in mind? This is the biggest disconnect we see, Sean. You know, this many churches, they’ve identified a mission field, but they’re not actually designing their ministry strategies around it. And again, that’s the point of defining a mission field. So you can think through a filter as you design ministry strategies. So for example, many churches when we go through that mission field conversation, they say they wanna reach that life stage of young families, okay? But their programming, even their physical environments are not designed with that mission field in mind.
Here’s a couple of examples I’ve seen over the years. One smaller church I was working with again that wanted to reach young families, all of their children’s spaces were adult spaces that they converted on the weekend into kids’ space. Those converted spaces were not a draw to kids. So churches that really wanna reach young families, they would design kids spaces for kids that adults can convert, you know, when they need the space type of thing. Another one, I’ve seen a lot of churches with preschools, which they think will help them reach young families, but they typically don’t. But that’s the topic for another day. But my point here is that the kids’ spaces at those churches, they’re primarily designed for a preschool, a school setting, and then they get a small makeover on Sunday. But again, it still feels like a school setting. Kids are just not drawn to that. They’re in school all week long.
Sean:
Right.
Amy:
Or churches that launch a service that’s not on Saturday morning, say they add a Saturday night, but they don’t offer any kids programming at that service. And I get it because launching on a new day is hard work, and it requires a lot of people to pull another day of the week off. But if your weekend is your main strategy to reach your mission field, it needs to be designed for that mission field, which would include kids’ ministry.
Sean:
Yeah. Amy, I agree. You know, a lot of churches, maybe most churches we work with identify young families and reaching the next generation as part of the mission field description. I get that question from time to time too from pastors that reach out to us. You know, when you talk about mission field, doesn’t everybody just say we wanna reach young families? And I would say, in some ways yes, because of course, you know, when we look at the data churches that are doing a great job of reaching young families tend to be healthier across the board. We also have a lot of communities that are made up of young families. And so people are just being honest about their mission field and who they’re trying to reach’s.
Amy:
That’s right.
Sean:
Where some of the differences come in is when we start to kind of create some descriptions around their life stage outside of just their parenting. And some of the things that are important to them and some of the ways they spend their time and their money. There’s where some the differences begin to show up, but also say it’s not true of every church we work with. We worked with a great church in Florida that was in the Villages area. Mm-hmm. And of course their mission field was not young families.
Amy:
Right. Right. 55+.
Sean:
They’re trying to reach a different people. I talked to a church recently that had because of some dynamics in their community, a large influx of people 55 and older into their community, and it’s dramatically impacted the church and their makeup of the church. And they’re considering and thinking through how their mission field focus needs to shift. So this is all like, back to what you said at the very beginning, it’s all about intentionality. And I, of course, you know, many churches do identify we need to reach young families, but that’s because they’re being intentional about the community around them. Right?
Amy:
That’s right.
Sean:
So, I’m wondering, Amy, what changes you’ve seen churches make that have gotten them traction on actually reaching their mission field? It’s one thing to say you wanna do it. But it’s another thing to enact change and see it actually happen.
Amy:
Yeah. Keeping with this theme of young families or raising kids, churches that take action, put this through the filter of their mission field. They have stopped trying to do a blended service. They designed their music around, what the next generation, you know, what that style is, what they’re listening to. And you know, Sean, we know from our Unstuck Church reports over the years that declining churches are more likely to have multiple worship styles. In other words, the more worship styles a church offers, the more likely the church is experiencing a decline in attendance. There’s a correlation there.
Another example, what churches do when they’re thinking through the mission field, they invest in kids in student ministries. Right? They’ve designed those experiences to be ones where kids are dragging their parents to church because they don’t wanna miss it. I’ll do a shout out to my own home church. It is so fun when I work at kids check-in just to see kids running to the kids’ area. They have such a great time.
Another thing they do is they look at how they’re teaching God’s word and they commit to really teaching in a way that applies to their missions field life and to their challenges. They teach on parenting and relationships and how to make wise decisions, how to do money God’s way. And, you know, as a 50 something myself, I love when I’m at our church looking at all the young parents hearing God’s perspective on these topics ’cause I know it’s going to be real help to their lives.
Sean:
Right.
Amy:
You know, one of the questions we lead churches through once we’ve identified their mission field is to have them kind of put their feet in the shoes and talk about what’s important to them, right? So put yourself in that stage of raising parents and having two parents working and kids in three different sports, you know, what matters to them. Not what we want for them, but what they care about right now in their real life. And most often we hear things like their kids are super important, they need to be successful, they need to have money. I need purpose in my life. Our time is super important. They have so little time with schools, jobs, and sports. So these are the things that need to be considered when designing a weekend service. So if your service, for example, if you are trying to reach young families and you have a service that runs north of an hour, it may be a barrier to retain young families that show up—that’s as an example.
Sean:
Absolutely agree. So what I hear you saying is if churches don’t feel like they’re reaching their mission field, they need to consider whether their current approach is truly designed to reach the people they say they wanna reach.
Amy:
Absolutely. And I think what they’ll find is that there are some gaps between who they want to reach and who they’re actually designing their ministries for.
Sean:
Yeah, that’s right. As you were sharing some examples, Amy, I was thinking just about a few other things that churches need to consider. The first was, you know, is the environment at the church truly a welcoming environment for new people. I think most churches think we’re a welcoming environment, but have you actually tested that recently? And I’ve mentioned this before on the podcast, but I’ve walked into a number of churches personally where I feel like I just walked into a stranger’s house and grabbed a seat at the dinner table.
Amy:
Yep.
Sean:
And everybody’s staring at me like, why are you here? Not a great feeling and not one you want to go back to. From what I’ve seen, a lot of churches underestimate how much the physical space matters. Also, you know, if you’re trying to reach young parents, let me ask it this way: Does your kids’ area make parents go, wow, okay. They really value kids here. Or do they say, I’ll just hang on to my kids the entire time.
Amy:
Right, right.
Sean:
We actually have seen several churches really invest into great environments for their kids’ ministry space. A great partner of ours PlainJoe Studios does an amazing job of helping churches think through and transform their space to a wow experience for kids so that they walk in and they’re just, they really feel like this is a place I wanna be. And parents notice that, you know? Is the building clean? Does it feel current? I mean, this is really simple stuff, but is there clear signage or are first timers kind of doing that awkward wander? Where they’re pretending they know where they’re going, but they absolutely do not. I have done that wander many, many times personally.
The second thing that came to mind, and this one’s big I think, are your people actually equipped to reach your community? Because here’s what’s true. Your congregation is your outreach strategy. You know, if people are showing up and they’re having a compelling experience that actually helps them in real life, marriage, parenting, stress, faith, the things that you talked about, Amy, guess what happens? They talk about it.
Amy:
Right.
Sean:
They invite other people, not because you beg them to, but because they actually want to. When someone leaves your church thinking, man, I wish my friend had heard that today, that you’ve officially created your invite culture. There’s no catchy marketing campaign needed. Just people who believe what’s happening inside your church is worth sharing outside of it.
Amy:
Yeah. That is so key, Sean, because every weekend you have the opportunity to either build trust or erode it with your regulars when it comes to them inviting their people to your church. They have to trust that you will be ready for their friends and their family when they invite.
Sean:
That’s right. Yeah. The last thing I’ll mention is what we call the three lids. The three lids are children’s ministry, capacity, parking, and auditorium space. And here’s the frustrating part; if any one of those is maxed out, growth is basically gonna hit a wall. No matter how good preaching is, no matter how dialed in your strategy is, no matter how many leadership books you’ve read personally this year, you can have the best mission, the clearest vision, the most compelling experience. But if parents can’t check their kids in, if people can’t find a parking spot or there is just nowhere to sit, you’ve officially capped your growth. Right?
Amy:
Yep. Yep.
Sean:
And we’re gonna unpack that a lot more in a later episode because I think it deserves more than just kind of a quick hit. But for now, hopefully just, just gives you a few things to honestly assess. Especially if you feel like you know your mission field, you’re doing the right things, but the numbers just aren’t moving because sometimes the issue isn’t your strategy, it’s just actually the lid that you’re bumping up against.
Alright. Amy, we mentioned earlier in the podcast we’re gonna talk about strategies for financial health as well. So let’s shift there.
Amy:
Okay.
Sean:
The second core issue we’re seeing in churches is just overall financial health. And this ties directly to the church’s ability to execute any strategy, any plan that they have. So what are you seeing in as far as financial health in churches right now?
Amy:
Yeah. Budget constraints and that word constraint has been kind of the headline word the last few months as I’ve been looking at this. But constraints and financial health continue to be a big concern for churches. In fact, Sean, I reached out to Joe Park who is the CEO at Horizon Stewardship, and he confirmed that they are saying the same thing. Here are the three big pain points right now.
First churches are finding it difficult to pay competitive wages and fund staffing. I see that every week I swear as I go out to churches. Second, many are struggling to maintain that 45 to 50% staffing budget benchmark that allows them to have, you know, healthy margin for ministry operations. I’m seeing many churches south of, I’m sorry, north of 60% right now. It’s a headline issue for ‘em. And then there’s this widespread kind of struggle to develop what they in the biz call integrated funding strategies that go beyond just simply asking for money. So a much more comprehensive way to approach generosity. Churches just don’t have a plan for that.
Sean:
Yeah. That’s the part that keeps coming up for me, Amy, is, you know, most churches don’t have as much of an income problem. They have more of kind of a system problem. You know, for a lot of churches, generosity is still looked at as a moment in the service instead of a pathway to spiritual growth. We have an announcement, you know, maybe a short story once in a while, and then we’re surprised when it feels like giving’s disconnected or it’s inconsistent. And healthy churches are actually intentionally teaching generosity, normalizing it and tying it directly to life change that people are experiencing, not just gaps in the budget.
Amy:
Right.
Sean:
The second thing is financial pressure tends to expose misalignment faster than anything else. When people aren’t aligned and in and unified when money gets tight, it forces really hard questions like, are we funding our mission or are we funding everything we’ve always done? Are our staffing dollars actually aligned with our strategy or are we protecting roles because they’ve existed for a long time? Financial health isn’t just about more dollars coming in. I think it’s really about clarity, focus, and then having courage to make decisions that match where God is actually calling the church to go next. It’s actually about aligning our resources to the strategy God’s called us to.
Amy:
I think that’s actually the fruit out of facing financial constraint. It forces you to ask the right questions. We don’t always ask great questions when we are financially on the healthy side of things or when we have more funds and reserves. We don’t ask questions. We don’t change things.
Sean:
Yeah. True.
Amy:
And so I think even in my ministry experience, looking back, we went through some of our best growth because of the constraints that we had felt. So maybe there’s an upside, but let me build off of what you said in my conversation with Joe Park, based on research that Horizons has done, he shared just some interesting perspectives that I think church leaders need to be aware of.
First, Americans are giving about the same percentage of after tax income as they have for the last 50 years. It’s right at about 2%. In other words, there is as much giving today as there has always been. I think that’s interesting. Second, about 67% of individual giving is spiritually motivated, but only 23% falls into the category of giving to religion. That’s how they would state their research. And that is down from over 30% in 10 years. So it’s gone from over 30% down to 23% in 10 years. Joe said the church’s falling share of giving is our greatest challenge. It continues to drop like a rock. So I think that’s important to recognize. Third, Christians increasingly see the local church as one of many options for investing in God’s work in the world. And so they’re not giving less, they’re just giving less to the church. And lastly, and lean in on this one, people who are engaged in small groups or in serving ministries give three and a half times more of their income to those who attend church just once or twice a month.
Sean:
Yeah, that last one is huge. We, I think we have to remember generosity isn’t a line item or just kind of a seasonal push, you know, end of year thing. It is part of spiritual formation, it’s taught, modeled and should be reinforced the same way we approach prayer, serving, gathering together in community. The goal isn’t just to close a budget gap again; it’s to help people take a next step in their faith. And that’s why integrating generosity into your discipleship pathway matters so much. We work with this on, you know, nearly every church that goes through our Unstuck Process. When giving is disconnected from discipleship, it always feels awkward. You know, like we’re kind of interrupting the service to talk about money . But when generosity is clearly tied to life change and mission, I think it makes a whole whole lot more sense. People understand why it matters. And the churches that are doing this well aren’t relying on one big annual moment to kind of carry the whole year. They’ve built simple, intentional rhythms, stories, teaching and celebration, honestly, that consistently reinforces generosity as a normal and joyful part of following Jesus.
Amy:
Exactly. And Joe recommended, in our conversation, that pastors need to constantly be addressing two questions in the minds of those they lead in the mind of the people who attend their church. Number one, why be generous? Churches need to talk about that. Why be generous? And as you’ve made a great case for it, it is a spiritual question. Right? But second, why invest in God’s work through my local church? Pastors need to effectively demonstrate that their church is a worthy steward of people’s giving.
Sean:
Yeah. Right.
Amy:
People who give, we’re givers, Sean. People who give, we wanna see the resources we give accomplish something significant. We wanna know that our generosity is making an impact. And Sean, we know this. Our nonprofit friends are exceedingly effective at identifying the spiritual motivations of Christian givers and connecting dots between the good they do in the world and those motivations. So, yeah, I think sustainable financial health, it just requires, again, that comprehensive generosity strategy that helps people grow in their giving as they grow in their faith.
So I just had a conversation with a church this week. You need to have a vision, right? You need to have a strategic ministry plan that follows that and then have a discipleship pathway that integrates those generosity conversations. So that’s what we need to do as church leaders. We have to be really good, we have to get really good at connecting stories of impact to the giving, you know, that people are doing at our church and like, as you said, integrating that into that discipleship pathway, that comprehensive kind of strategy that includes generosity. So people can answer that first question, why be generous?
Sean:
Yeah. Alright. So let’s move to some practical steps. If church leaders are listening and they’re thinking, Hey, this is exactly what I’m dealing with, let’s start, let’s start building a healthier culture of generosity. Where do they begin?
Amy:
If this is you, and again, it’s many churches right now, I would just start by auditing your current approach to generosity. I would ask yourself and your team, maybe as an exec team, when and how often are we talking about generosity? Is it integrated into teaching and discipleship or like you said Sean, or just when we need money? Answer that question. Do you have generosity integrated into your spiritual formation strategy? Are you helping people see giving as part of their spiritual growth journey versus just being transactional? And then do you have clear next steps for people at different stages of their generosity journey, right? First time givers, different language or first time givers to people who are learning to give until you get to that sacrificial giving stage.
So I would just start with some assessment, have a conversation around what’s our current state, our current approach, and as a part of that, I also challenge you to audit your mission and vision. This goes back to that second question we asked around, why should I invest my resources through the church when there’s so many different places I could give? So do you have a mission that’s compelling and being lived through the leadership of your church and through your ministry strategies? Do you have stories to tell of how people are being reached with the good news of Jesus? And are you seeing and telling stories of life change? You know, as someone, as a follower of Christ, that’s what I want my church to be doing if you have an externally focused heart. But second, do you have a compelling three to five year vision that’s gonna rally your people to give their time and their prayer and their resources to, is there a dream out there, like a bold move that your church is rallying around? I think getting the answer to those questions is the start of addressing generosity in your church.
Sean:
That’s good. I think people give to purpose, Amy.
Amy:
They do.
Sean:
Right? And if we’re not clear on our purpose, it’s hard to align people’s resources towards that.
Amy:
You know, really quick, Sean, when we were together as a full Unstuck team in December I remember as we were looking at the spiritual kind of formation path and we were talking about being in groups and being on a serve team and one of the people from our team said, yeah, we have found when people have relationship and responsibility, they’re so much more likely to be, you know, growing into that follower of Christ. And you remember that quote that Joe gave us. People who are doing those two things give three and a half times more. So it’s like, we need, we need relationships, responsibility, and purpose tied up in that.
Sean:
That’s really good. Alright. And then jumping back to the start of the podcast where we began the conversation, where should they start with mission field strategy? Where do they begin if they need to address that?
Amy:
Yeah. Here’s three questions I think every church should ask. One, who’s in our community that we’re best positioned to reach? And this goes back to those of you who haven’t defined your mission field. Be specific, not just families, but what kind of families, what life stage, what age range, you know, fill out those three categories we talked about. For those of you who have done that work, what would you need to change about your environment, your programming and your communication to genuinely welcome and serve that mission field. Are there any changes that need to be made? And then I go back to what you shared, Sean, are you hitting any of those three lids, the children’s ministry parking or auditorium capacity that would prevent growth even if we got the strategy right. And by the way, church leaders, I know it’s hard to pause. Someone on your team needs to be playing the movie forward on capacity issues in those three areas. You wanna know about two years before you’re going to hit your lids if you’re gonna have a plan to address it when the time comes. The time is not to start working on what are we going to do next when we’re at 80%. The time to do the work is when you’re sitting at about 50 to 60%.
Sean:
Yeah. Amy, it’s interesting. That’s something we’ve helped a lot of churches with over the last year or two. You know, we’re working with churches that are growing 15, 20, sometimes 30% year over year. And they’re, they’re starting to feel some of those lids already. But then we’re also looking out, okay, where are we gonna be two years from now? Let’s start planning today for what we need to do to be ready and prepared for that in a couple of years.
So, this has been a good kickoff to our brand new 2026 core issues series. Amy, any final thoughts before we wrap up today?
Amy:
Maybe an observation. I bet our listeners are going, this is a really long Unstuck Podcast, so they probably have it up to 2.0 right now. No. While we don’t like these challenges, I hope our listeners heard that these challenges are common. So many church leaders are facing these same things. You are not alone, and you don’t have to figure it out alone. We’ve helped hundreds of churches work through these exact issues and develop strategies that actually work in their context. In fact, Sean, I just spent two days working with my home church, and these were two of the conversations we spent a few hours on. The key is being willing to ask the hard questions and make the necessary changes, not just tweaking around the edges or trying to fix things in the crack of your busy ministry schedule. So to do that, you need to get off the treadmill of in and week out ministry. Set aside some time to think through and wrestle with your right next steps. And again, this series is designed to help you identify these common barriers and take practical steps towards long-term sustainable church health. So let’s not just talk through all this, let’s roll up our sleeves and get a plan to turn things around.
Sean:
Yeah, of course. And if you’re listening to this episode and you just feel like, okay, these are a couple of my challenges that I have in my church and you’re ready to do something about it. Of course, as Amy said, we’d love to help. We have actually a proven process now. We’ve helped over 750 churches, 760 the last time I looked, Amy now, which has been a huge privilege of ours to partner with that many churches. And really our goal is to help pastors lead unstuck churches. We want you to be unstuck and moving towards health. So you can start a conversation if that’s something that’d be helpful for you at theunstuckgroup.com/start. And then also make sure you subscribed to catch the next episode in the series where we’ll unpack the third core issue we commonly see in churches. And that is the issue of developing a deep leadership bench. That’s where Amy and I are going next week. Until then, we hope you have a great week.
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