How Healthy Churches Take the Lead in a Merger - Episode 154

Better together? Over the past decade, we've seen a trend in churches merging together for many different reasons... and it seems likely that this trend will only increase in a post-pandemic world. On the positive side—healthy, mission-focused churches are benefitting: Multisite: Ten years ago 30% of multisite campuses came by way of a merger; today it's more than 40%. Church Planting: In a recent survey we discovered that 20% of church planters found a permanent facility through a merger. Pastor Succession:We are also seeing mergers as a pastor-succession and a pastor-search strategy. Denominations and Networks: They're proactively encouraging church mergers as a growth strategy for their healthy churches and as a revitalization strategy for their struggling churches. Racial Diversity: A small but growing number of church leaders are seeing mergers as a way of becoming more racially diverse. In this episode, Tony Morgan interviews Jim Tomberlin, co-author of the book Better-Together: Making Church Mergers Work, for the beginning of a two part conversation on the emerging trend of healthy, mission-driven church mergers as an alternative to the old, failure-prone mergers of two declining churches.  For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode154. Join the Live Conversation on Social Media If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook. Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic. If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 154] in your post for reference.