The Unstuck Church Podcast with Amy Anderson
Amy Anderson
With THE UNSTUCK CHURCH PODCAST, we invite you into the real-time conversations our team is having about church leadership every week.
Hosted by Amy Anderson, this podcast explores common challenges in ministry and practical steps for tackling them. It's like getting to be a fly on the wall of our staff meetings.
Tune in weekly for:
Insights, observations and trends for church leaders from the Unstuck team.
Benchmarks in church growth and health from The Unstuck Group's work serving hundreds churches across North America each year.
Practical advice to help you lead your church towards sustained health.
We think that after listening to The Unstuck Church Podcast, you'll want to start these discussions with your own team at your next staff meeting.
Add your thoughts to the conversation on social media using #unstuckchurch.
Hosted by Amy Anderson, this podcast explores common challenges in ministry and practical steps for tackling them. It's like getting to be a fly on the wall of our staff meetings.
Tune in weekly for:
Insights, observations and trends for church leaders from the Unstuck team.
Benchmarks in church growth and health from The Unstuck Group's work serving hundreds churches across North America each year.
Practical advice to help you lead your church towards sustained health.
We think that after listening to The Unstuck Church Podcast, you'll want to start these discussions with your own team at your next staff meeting.
Add your thoughts to the conversation on social media using #unstuckchurch.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 1, 2026 • 20min
Structure Moves That Fuel Lead Pastor Burnout - Episode 442
They explore how church organizational structures can create and sustain pastoral burnout. They highlight siloed ministries, overloaded spans of care, and the integrator role that can relieve strain. They warn growth momentum can hide dysfunction and offer diagnostic questions to spot structural problems.
4 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 29min
Q1 2026 Unstuck Church Report - Episode 441
David Middlebrook, legal advisor for churches who helps with bylaws, compensation, insurance, and multi-state growth. He discusses legal risks around pay studies and expansion. The conversation highlights space as the top growth barrier, slipping invite culture, volunteer-leader strains, giving trends, and practical governance and risk-audit checkups.
19 snips
Mar 18, 2026 • 28min
Multisite Model Best Practices - Episode 440
A look at why multisite efforts can start strong and later lose alignment. Signs that a launch was premature get highlighted with practical warning signals. Different multisite models are mapped out, showing tradeoffs between autonomy and replication. Clear roles, decision rights, and steps to re-evaluate structure are offered to regain momentum.
13 snips
Mar 11, 2026 • 18min
Top Challenges of Multistuck Churches - Episode 439
They unpack common tensions that emerge in multisite churches and why unclear models create misalignment. They highlight the need for written playbooks and decision rights to avoid 'us vs them' dynamics. They debate teaching formats and hybrid tradeoffs that can limit growth. They explore identity questions about being one church or many and when to pivot or release a campus.
20 snips
Mar 4, 2026 • 42min
Multisite Church Case Studies - Episode 438
Christy Gibas, lead pastor at The Table Church in Pittsburgh, brings decades of multisite experience and alignment work. Mike Reinsel, executive pastor at Stone Creek Church (GA), shares lessons from launching and releasing a campus. Nick Cleveland, lead pastor of Grace Church (OH), describes shifting to a video teaching multisite. They compare misalignment, decision-rights, playbooks, and shifts that revived growth.
25 snips
Feb 25, 2026 • 31min
Ask Anything (No. 1) - Episode 437
Rapid-fire Q&A about church culture, leadership and vision. Practical takes on changing culture, building a representative leadership team, and pruning ministries. Governance questions about board roles and interim structures get clear guidance. Talks about breaking the 1,000 attendance barrier, multi-site launch costs, and who owns first impressions and next steps.
46 snips
Feb 18, 2026 • 26min
5 Common Core Issues in Churches: The Engagement & Capacity Issues - Episode 436
They unpack why first engagement steps matter and why simple attendance is not enough. They map practical pathways to welcome newcomers and pinpoint old tactics that no longer work. They propose short, low-barrier experiments and a hosted conversation model for next steps. They also tackle physical capacity: tracking limits, adding services early, and planning space creatively to support growth.
24 snips
Feb 11, 2026 • 25min
5 Common Core Issues in Churches: The Leadership Bench Issues - Episode 435
They dig into why churches often lack a deep leadership bench and how that creates reactive hiring and burnout. They highlight symptoms like the same people doing everything and growth masking capacity problems. They outline shifts to build a pipeline, practical first steps, metrics to track, and what to stop doing to create space for leader development.
29 snips
Feb 4, 2026 • 34min
5 Common Core Issues in Churches: The Strategy Issues - Episode 434
They dig into strategy issues that keep churches from growing and reaching their mission field. Practical design changes for young families and making spaces more welcome get attention. Financial strategy and trends in giving are explored, including how generosity ties to spiritual formation. The episode ends with diagnostic questions to help churches assess fit, capacity, and next steps.
Jan 28, 2026 • 26min
What's Going on With the Church in Canada? Talking Ministry in 2026 with Jonathan Smith and Drake Farmer - Episode 433
Drake Farmer, executive pastor in Edmonton who builds multisite strategy and outreach. Jonathan Smith, lead pastor in Toronto who champions invitational, multicultural ministry. They discuss surprising spiritual hunger across Canada. They explore hospitality as the new front door. They talk about rapid attendance growth outpacing resources and how churches are adapting.
