When Your Church Feels Stuck: 7 Unavoidable Questions Every Leader Must Answer

by Chris Sonksen

Every pastor wants their church to grow, but the reality is that most churches are stagnant or shrinking, leaving most pastors frustrated, weary, and discouraged. They continue to search for answers at conferences, in books, and on websites, but they don't find them. They don't realize that the answers that can actually make a difference in their ministry are the ones they need to give themselves.

When Your Church Feels Stuck poses seven unavoidable questions church leaders must answer before they can chart the unique path to growth for their church. These challenging questions address the key subjects of mission, strategy, values, metrics, team alignment, culture, and services, and the way pastors answers these questions will help them discover the real reasons their churches are stuck--and what steps to take to facilitate real growth.

Genres: Leadership

192 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2017

Reviews

[Peter Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book will be a waste to time for most pastors. Why? It assumes a large church paradigm with the multiple staff members. Even for larger churches the focus is off. There are some useful principles here, but these can found in much better books and often just common sense. The book focuses on numerical growth driven by developing and implementing a seven step process. There is lip service paid to spiritual growth, but that is clearly not the primary aim. Being stuck means you are not growing numerically. Numerous parts of it were not just ill-conceived, but actually wrong and showed a lack of theological, biblical, and historical understanding of what the church is and what she is called to do. For example, he says that he wants a service that both believers and unbelievers will love. How can that be? How can a lost, dead man love the same thing a found, alive man loves? There was very little Bible at all. He did not seem incline to prove what he was doing from the Scriptures. The chapter on culture was the most helpful, but would not merit buying the book. All in all it contains much of what I think is wrong with contemporary evangelical pastors. It is filled with cliches ("stay hungry" "negativity is bad"), it is shallow, it shows no concern for the historical forms of worship and church, it is more interested in the lost than the saved, and it promotes constant change.

I got this book free from the Baker Books in exchange for an honest review.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This book provides great fodder for discussion, which is its value, and the topics for discussion are presented in a very organized and narrative way (with the author providing consultation to a fictional church).

The 7 questions are great. However, the six stages of a church, which is presented earlier in the book, frustrated me. While no one wants status quo, failure to grow (in a season or a location) is not always a pitch into failure.

And the author felt a little too slick, a little too “if my book is good maybe I’ll get more consulting clients” for my taste. He provides formulas in a world that’s not one-size-fits-all, and many that would be a stretch in small or rural churches where there’s a personality but not a staff to drive some of these things. Ultimately I just don’t buy into the formula. There are guidelines but no universal fix to a stuck church, yet the writing felt so smug about having answers.

Again, this book: great for others, just wasn’t a fit for me.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Churches, like all institutions, go through stages when they feel stuck. Leaders try everything—programs, strategies, worship styles, staffing changes, new haircuts, but when you're stuck, you're stuck. Chris Sonksen is a personal coach for more than two hundred churches, impacting thousands of leaders. In When Your Church Feels Stuck, he helps church leaders get unstuck by facing seven critical questions every leader must answer.  The questions are:

What do we do? (What is our mission as a church? Why are we here?)
How do we get it done? (What is our strategy?)
What are the guiding principles we live by? (What are our values
How do we measure a win?  (What are our metrics?)
Do we have the right people in the right seats moving in the right direction? (Do we have team alignment?)
How do we match what we say is important with what we really do? (what services do we actively provide?)

If you read leadership books, which I do occasionally, none of these questions is terribly surprising (some cribbed directly from leadership literature). Sonksen helps pastors and leadership teams clarify their purpose, strategy, and impact on a community.  I certainly see how a book like this may be helpful and certainly clarifying the answers to each of these questions would help churches and other organizations do what they want to do. As a pastor, I can readily see how asking these questions of our church leadership at key moments would have been helpful.

Unfortunately, I find the questions more helpful than the content. A lot of it is rehashed leadership you can get anywhere and Sonsken's definition of unstuck is simply numeric church growth. He uses a fictionalized example of Pastor Jeremy throughout the book. Pastor Jeremy has tried everything but his church is stuck and he can't get it to grow higher than 250 members. The questions and conversation Sonsken has helps Jeremy and his team move past their stuckness into growth.

I don't have anything against church growth per se, but it seems like Sonksen's expertise is growing multi-staff churches. For example, when I read his chapter on metrics, I knew going in that churches often measure success by the three B's (bucks, bricks & butts). I saw the value in asking how do we measure a win? because I know a church that is involved in community partnerships to impact the neighborhood and cultivates deep fellowship may not have the same kind of tangibles. Unfortunately, Sonksen's metrics don't look appreciably different than any denominational spreadsheet (123).

I do appreciate what Sonksen is trying to do, and I think he probably would be fine with me taking his questions in a different direction if it helps clarify my leadership vision of church, though I kind of bristle at the content. I give this book 2.5 stars.

Notice of material connection: I received this book from Baker Books in exchange for my honest review.

 

[Travis Heystek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I thought that this book was a decent read. It presents exactly what it promises to deliver; 7 unavoidable questions every leader must answer. However, I finished my reading hoping for more. That being said, I thought the book did a good job getting the wheels turning and providing a few action steps.
I have two complaints about the book. First, I’d like a little more data to support that what he is presenting is working in the churches they’re coaching. I don’t disbelieve it, but without “metrics” it lacks punch. Second, I felt like it was missing a step. At the end of the last chapter he mentions the importance of rolling out the new strategy to your congregation, but leave it there. This step seems pretty important, but it got minimal time. Overall I would still rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. I think it is still worth reading, but I don’t think it paints a complete picture.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes churches get stuck in a routine that doesn't seem to get them anywhere. Other times, churches are doing well but aren't sure why they are doing well. This book explores how church leaders and members can develop a way to minister and reach out to those in their congregation and community. The biggest thing I got out of this book was having a mission. A mission gives purpose to a person or group and lets others know what they are going to do. After the mission is defined, the book goes through other issues/challenges churches can overcome in order to fulfill their calling.

[Blake Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical steps

I've read several books like this but found Chris's book to be very practical with useful steps to take with my team.

[Ashley Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book as a leadership team. Love Chris, he has so much wisdom. Lots of good stuff underlined, circles and hi-lighted. 👏🏻

[Paul Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Processes that produce implementable plans

Great read and easy to understand and practical guidance in helping a leader lead their church to the next level.

[Andrew Zoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the perspective of a young pastor who feels trapped in a culture of tradition in my church, watching it slowly die because we have not changed, this book has been for me a clarion call of encouragement and hope. We can and we will change by God’s grace toward being a place that is reaching the lost, loving the broken, healing the hurting, and showing sinners the saving and transforming power of Jesus!

This book was given to me for free as part of an outreach by Baker publishing to pastors whose churches feel stuck.

[Tena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this in a GOODREADS giveaway -- When Your Church Feels Stuck: 7 Unavoidable Questions Every Leader Must Answer