Sarah Bouma, a ministry consultant with The Unstuck Group, joined Jeff recently to talk about staffing strategies in your 200church. Sarah is an energetic and passionate leader who loves the local church. She enjoys combining her educational background, her career work, and her local church experience to help pastors and staff to maximize their efforts for the Kingdom of God.

Sarah is not a podcaster, but you'd never know it as she lays out such practical wisdom that can quickly be applied by pastors in any size church! Sarah got to know Tony Morgan, founder of the Unstuck Group, when she attended, then served at Granger Community Church in Indiana. Years later Tony tapped her to help coach churches and pastors in the area of staffing.

Tony Morgan and The Unstuck Group are working with Jeff's church, to help them through a strategic planning process that will put them on the road to intentionality, focus, and clarity (at least if Jeff cooperates and listens to their advice!)

The Unstuck Group's church coaching process has four phases: Assessment, Planning, Structure, & Action. Jeff's church is approaching the action phase now, and it has been a lot of work, with most of the work still ahead.

You can get more information on The Unstuck Group by going to www.theunstuckgroup.com.

You can also get on the TONY MORGAN LIVE channel on YouTube, where you will find dozens of videos and interviews from which you'll grow as a pastor.  BELOW is an interview Tony had with Thom Rainer on becoming a welcoming church. Both these guys are future guests on the 200churches Podcast!

Episode 284 tackles more questions from our listeners and from some of the pastors in the Small Church Pastor group on Facebook.

• Dealing with negative and divisive people
• I want a bigger church
• Large church pastors have it easier
• Best way to keep sermons fresh in a long pastorate
• Navigating people's expectations

Dave Jacobs, from www.SmallChurchPastor.com joins Jeff in answering the questions. 

Again, if you have even the slightest inkling that you want to be coached as a pastor, Dave Jacobs is your guy! Email him at dave@smallchurchpastor.com and he will schedule you on a free 30 minute call to determine if his coaching is right for you.

And, for senior and lead pastors, there is the Small Church Pastor Facebook group, which currently has 2,438 members as of the writing of this post. It's a great community of kind, supportive pastor friends that you should consider joining.

Until next week...

What's a pastor to do who has too many ministry responsibilities and not enough willing volunteers to help?!

How to I keep from having more work shoveled onto my pastoral plate than I can possibly handle? People die, move, need a break, or just quit - and I get stuck with the work they leave behind!

How do I keep my sermon content fresh?

Why can't I get people excited about Life Groups?

These, and other questions, were all sent our way via the Small Church Pastor group on Facebook, and Dave Jacobs and I (Jeff) tackle them one by one in a two episodes, the first of which is right here with Episode 283!

Dave and I have a combined 60 years of ministry experience, so what you hear is not theoretical or ethereal - it comes from a lot of success and failure! Most of all, it all comes with a lot of LOVE for pastors of small churches! Dave and I love you and hope that this episode provides MINISTRY ENCOURAGEMENT for you!

Jonny joins me for the front and back of this episode, and his son Joseph even makes a cameo appearance!

You can find Dave Jacobs at www.smallchurchpastor.com, and you can contact him with for pastoral coaches sessions at dave@smallchurchpastor.com! Dave coaches pastors full time and has been doing it for the past ten years!

Derek Vreeland from Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri joins us on this episode in a wide-ranging conversation that covers work/family balance, discipleship ministry, his personal journey of growth and development, and even the enneagram.

Derek is the Discipleship Pastor at Word of Life Church and has served as a youth pastor, associate pastor, and lead pastor before his journey brought him back to St. Joseph.

​Derek brings practical wisdom along with some philosophical and theological insight throughout this conversation and we know that you'll be blessed by what he shares. Enjoy!

Imagine beginning your first pastoral ministry before even finishing Seminary. Then imagine that when you get to your church, you realize that yes, you really do have to preach most Sundays to a former U.S. President!

Brandon's story is an interesting one, but what is even more interesting is the heart of this young pastor. Jonny and I quickly realized why he is where he is, and doing what he is doing - he has a heart that seeks after God, and deeply loves his people.

Brandon's small church pastoral ministry story is like so many of our stories. That's right, even though he has a unique parishioner, that is not what you walk away from him being struck by, but rather you leave thinking that this young pastor is a breath of fresh spiritual air in his small church, and yet struggles with the same loneliness and isolation that so many rural and small church pastors do.

Brandon shares inspiration, affirmation, and challenge for all of us in this episode. Thanks Brandon, for joining us on the 200churches Podcast. May your words encourage pastors all around the world, for many years to come...

Jonny records a solo episode and follow's in Jeff's footsteps with his own "What's On My Mind" episode. He and Jeff have been wanting to create some solo episodes just to speak personally to small church pastors, and this is the second one.

This is Jonny's response to Jeff's challenge to create a "What's On My Mind" episode. Jonny focuses his episode on family, worship services, church decline, and a challenge to pastor's to think new thoughts and engage the world and their churches creatively. 

This week Jonny puts forth a great counter-episode to the last one, #279, with his own What's On My Mind episode, live from Holland, MI, where he is attending a seminary class!

You can hear the different perspective from a 30-something pastor with Jonny, as compared to the 50-something episode with Jeff last week.

In the coming weeks we will have some great new guests and episodes, created especially for you, men and women pastors of normal-sized churches!

Jeff records a solo episode and creates the first "What's On My Mind" episode. He and Jonny have been wanting to create some solo episodes just to speak personally to small church pastors, and this is the first one.

Jeff, of course, challenges Jonny to counter with his own "What's On My Mind" episode to follow... soon. :-) Jeff encourages the listeners to check out the "Podcast Series" page at www.200churches.com and peruse some great episodes in the 200churches Archive Vault!

Jeff's shares some inspiration and encouragement for pastors, some ideas on time/activity  placement/prioritization, and the latest books and podcasts that he recommends.

Jeff enjoyed creating this episode and sharing his love with you, pastors of small, and all, churches! :-)  And, he asked to include the following pics of his granddaughter, Addie, and his grandsons, Knox and Kash!

What is the process of making disciples? How do we form people into the image of Jesus, and develop the heart of Christ in them?

I hope it doesn't have to involve a huge time investment from me as a pastor - I'm short on that. Also, I hope I can scale the process... like if I write ten discipleship lessons, and then let people download them and work through all ten?! Then, maybe then they can be more like Jesus?

Sometimes we think if they just know the right stuff, or if they can memorize, word for word, large passages of the Bible, while at the same time stringing a lot of days together of consistent Bible reading and prayer - that's all got to help, right?

What exactly is the process of making disciples? There has to be an efficient, effective formula that will get the job done!

So, that's what Jonny and Dan Den Boer talk about in this episode. Dan serves at Northwestern College and focuses on the spiritual formation of the next generation, and he knows a little about that work in the church as well.

This episode will get you thinking on multiple levels, and for sure get your discipleship juices flowing!

Enjoy!

Jonny is joined by John Ottley to talk about his 30 years of ministry experience in small churches and his transition to becoming a chaplain. The conversation moves in directions that were surprising to Jonny--directions that will push and encourage you as you lead your church and find yourself in pastoral care situations!

Jason Wilson was pastoring a church in the Pittsburgh PA area just a few years ago when he and his wife felt called by God to move toward church planting. They wanted to create something new and provide a church for people who were not yet part of God's family. They left PA and moved to IA to become church planting residents at citylightcb.org/CityLight Church in Council Bluffs, IA.

Meanwhile Eric Carpenter and his wife have been serving across the Missouri River in Omaha NE at Christ Community Church, and also felt God's call to move toward a church planting partnership in Kansas City MO.

The Wilsons were ready to move to Des Moines, IA or Kansas City, MO. They just needed a partner couple to join them. A mutual friend and mentor connected the two couples and they are soon to move to Kansas City, and plant another "CityLight" Church. Several churches have been planted in the last five years from the original "CityLight" Church in Omaha NE.

Jeff sat down with Eric and Jason while at a conference recently and picked their brains. Then they won his heart. Jeff is going to follow up in 52 weeks with the Wilsons and Carpenters, when they will be the guests on Episode 328... of the 200churches Podcast! :-)

​Enjoy!