The Unstuck Church: Equipping Churches to Experience Sustained Health

by Tony Morgan

Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group , Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church , Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck . The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.

Genres: Leadership, Church, Christian, Theology, Nonfiction, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2017

About the author

Tony is the Founder and Lead Strategist of The Unstuck Group. Started in 2009, The Unstuck Group has served more than 500 churches throughout the United States, Canada and several more countries around the world.

Previously, Tony served on the senior leadership teams of three rapidly growing churches including NewSpring Church in South Carolina. He has five published books including, The Unstuck Church, and, with Amy Anderson, he hosts The Unstuck Church Podcast which has thousands of listeners each week.

Reviews

[Nancy]

After reading about half of this, I think I get the gist.
A church is not a business. (I'm saying that, the book doesn't say that.)
I would say, buyer be very aware with this guy and his book and his whole business. He will try to give you his advice for building your church for a very hefty fee.
I wouldn't give him one cent.
Not recommended.

[Robert Hillier · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. I agree with a lot, learned and thought about a lot, and am still trying to figure out where I stand on a lot of it. Would be an interesting companion read with Francis Chan’s “Letters to the Church.”

Side Note: shout out to Thomas Nelson publishing for making one of the most indestructible whole simultaneously soft paper back books I’ve ever read.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really well written practical advice for churches to help understand where they are in their lifecycle us ideas for moving in a direction towards a more healthy church. We are using this information to reinvigorate our church here in Durango.

[Evghenii · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for pastors and church leaders

This is a major work for the healthy church development and should be listened to by every church leadership team and most importantly applied.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great guide to church "life-cycles" with lots of helpful models and (literal) illustrations. It's very much the Bill Hybels - Andy Stanley - Rick Warren sort of mindset, but applied more universally than just 20k+ megachurches. And I think that's a really helpful perspective. It felt both easy and useful to apply it to our under-300 context.

It's also a very quick read, and is the sort of book that sparks really productive conversations among church staff and leaders. Definitely worth the time investment.

[Matt Kottman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave some outside perspective that I thought was helpful. Churches have a life-cycle and yet Jesus created his Church to continue. There is a lot of practical wisdom on how to continue in the Great Commission with a church that has plateaued or is in decline.

[Nick Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read, some helpful strategy bits, but overall another book focused mostly on the move “from good to great,” rather than from greatly struggling to fuller life.

[Andrea Vrtikapa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for church conference Feb 29

[Devin Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, read it in two days. Mainly cause I read it for class, but also because it’s outlined well and the information is great. Regardless of where you think your church might be on its life cycle (growing, sustaining, or dying - these are not the terms Morgan uses) this book would be immensely helpful.
After an intro chapter Morgan devotes a chapter to each of his stages of a church’s life cycle (launch, momentum growth, strategic growth, sustained health, maintenance, preservation, and life support). Every chapter gives warning signs for that stage as well as prescribed actions to advance to the next stage or move back towards healthier stages. He provides an appendix at the back for quick reference.
There is plenty that could be brought out but what I appreciated most were his comments on restructuring leadership and programs. Churches most often die because of an inward focus rather than a focus on people outside of the church. I pray more churches begin to realize this.

Great book. Highly recommend.

[Chesna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A LOT of good in here, particularly for diagnosing problems and strategies for staving decline. It's going to be of limited use for churches with polity and accountability structures outside the congregation, or for those with tiny staffs. As a Presbyterian, I found the borderline dictatorial power given to the senior pastor completely unacceptable, although it did give me an insight into why another one of these megachurch pastors crashes and burns every month. Strong executive leadership needs several safety checks in place to be healthy, particularly in Christian community. But it will still be useful for helping a session see what needs help.

[Bobby Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for leadership teams of any church of any size! Tony Morgan has created a book filled with the most detailed description of the life cycle of churches. The bell shaped curve illustration includes seven stages within the life cycle of churches from launch to life support. The descriptions of each stage are accurate, helpful and filled with content to help churches achieve and remain in the stage of sustained health. Your team would benefit greatly from reading through each of the cycles and figuring out where your church is on curve!

[Aaron Carlberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars, but felt 3 was probably better for where I landed. The whole book feels like a seminar that Morgan came up with that worked for him and wrote a book around it. It is very formulaic and programmatic. Are there good things in the book, of course, are there others that could make you second guess God's leading, yep, that too.

I suppose if you feel like your church is stuck it wouldn't be bad to read, just understand that programs and procedures do not replace God's Spirit.

[Jared Pilkington · Rating 5 out of 5]

So dang good, practical, tactical, and helpful. Hope is what we need to place in Jesus, but hope can’t be our strategy for growth. Gotta have a discipleship path: connect, commit, grow, and invest. Encourage and lead people to take steps, not put more on their calendar. Love seeing this all come together and love the vision we’ve got for our church!! Plan the work and work the plan. Stay outsider-focused.

[Esaias Yap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Critical read for any key ministry leaders or staff

This book provides a very good handles for minsiry leaders or staff to reflect on - dip stick test on the current state of affairs.

[David Roseberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book with Old Wisdom, New Insights, and Clear Thinking

This is what I call an “Airplane Book”...reading it is like taking an airplane ride that gains some altitude and clear the mind. Great insights and scary practical. It will be highly recommended to other churches!

[Mike Amos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides clarity on different stages of a church's lifecycle and gives you solid methods to improve and grow. This book gave me a lot of understand about the life of a church and how to keep it moving forward.

[Eugene Downing, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great practical guide for a reality check & steps to evolve

Unstuck Church gives great biblical insight in an area I needed, moreover the premise of the book is not an indictment but rather and opportunity to genuinely assess and evolve.

[Lori Hendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book to shake your Church up!

An excellent approach to identifying if and where your church is stuck. This book has really opened my eyes to how churches function well and not so well and how we can improve ourselves in our mission,

[Justin Ruszkiewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good resource! I’ve been reading this as part of an assigned reading as a church staff, it’s been very insightful, inspiring, challenging, CONVICTING, and overall highly valuable. I’m excited for where God is taking us and the best is yet to come!

Rating: 9/10, five stars!

[Jon Major · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for churches to grab hold of. It really speaks to assessing where you are at and what steps to move forward. I will be going back to this often, as a Pastor this is a great tool to help us continue to grow.

[Rand Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great conversational approach to getting and staying unstuck. What you would expect from Tony Morgan. Insight galore.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book that really will help you assess the stage your church is in and also help you identify some ways to get your church into a healthier stage.

[Tim Ogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quality work and concise overview of what it takes to lead with a strategy. My favorite quote, “Hope is not a strategy.”

[Jonathan Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great information, but many of the suggestions aren’t realized. For example, the author says to get people to take the next step, but does nothing to clarify what that means.

[Michele Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of practical advice and clear steps to take for minimizing. More importantly, it answers the why and gives many benefits.

[Bill Abbate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book for churches at every stage of development, regardless of age. Highly recommended for anyone that works with churches, or is involved in a church.

[Joel Kersey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful book for churches to learn strategies in healthy growth no matter what phase of the life cycle a church is in. Highly recommended.

[Harold E McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and helpful

[Joel Rockey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superficial at times, but that's to be expected. However, there were some really great points scattered throughout the book. I found it helpful.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciate the walk through the lifecycle stages in detail. Helpful for diagnosing, understanding how got there, and how to interrupt.