Church Marketing Podcast

How'd you like a shot in the arm of communication encouragement and strategy? In this very special episode of the Church Marketing Podcast Dave Shrein takes 60 minutes to moderate a hangout with four of the most influential leaders in Church Communication. Gerry True, Phil Bowdle, Kelley Hartnett and Mark MacDonald add their voices to the conversation of how do we pursue excellence in church communication given the many struggles communication leaders encounter. From thriving on limited resources to communicating effectively amongst your staff, our conversation is sure to encourage you in your context and reassure you that you're not alone.

CertLab '15 Instructor Hangout

The position of Communication Director (or Pastor) is fairly new. While many large churches (5,000+) have had someone in this role for a long time, the average church is just now discovering the need for someone to ask strategic questions about how their information is being communicated and received. The increase in noise (both online and in life overall) has revealed that the messages from the church are not making it onto calendars, into conversations and or translating into any type of measurable growth. In a scurry to keep up with the times churches are hiring individual to manage communications without a full understanding of what that even means. A communication director will begin to do their job and pastors realize their being told no more often or having to explain initiatives and decisions in greater detail than they have been accustomed to. No one is right or wrong in this scenario but the fact remains there is a giant gap between what pastors and communication directors see as furthering the communications of the church. In this episode Pastor Brian McCoy from Foothills Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona shares his experience working with a communications director for the past 4 months. Who is this director? It just so happens that I am the director (Dave Shrein). Throughout our time working together to improve the communication mechanisms at Foothills we've experienced significant wins, constant misunderstandings and a learning experience that has benefitted both of us.

The Communicating with Pastors Episode

Wanna hop on the wall again and learn from the success and failures of others? This is the 2nd episode focusing on awesome church communicators. In this episode we speak with two church communicators about branding, guidelines, volunteers and team building. There are literally hundreds of communicators who are in our Church Marketing Sucks family and it's about time we heard from them!

The Awesome Communicator Episode 2

There is no better way to learn than to live as a fly on the wall as others talk about their successes and failures. While there are certain names we all know in church marketing and communication, there is one set of individuals that you have yet to hear from… our listeners. The Awesome Communicator Episode is all about highlighting the successes of our community for the benefit of our community. This is the first of two episodes where we talk with Church Marketing Podcast listeners about their 2014 experiences.

The Awesome Communicator Episode

Social is a beast, mostly because there is an expectation for churches to have a presence on all networks, even if churches don’t understand all of them. Understanding a platform and then gaining clarity for our main church account is hard enough. Add to the ministries that want their own social presence. The key to conquering social for your church is to become clear on who you are and define what role social plays in communicating the message of who you are? What is the purpose? Christmas offers a very unique opportunity to discover what it is like to have a clear purpose because everyone is thinking about and talking about the same thing: Christmas. In The Christmas Social Episode we take a look at how churches can use social to connect with the culture around them and take advantage of the receptive attitude to the message of Emmanuel, God with us.

The Christmas Social Episode

The Christmas Planning Episode

Unwelcome with Jonathan Malm

The Media Essentials Episode

The Social Media Episode

Certification Lab with Jenny Rain