Pro Church Podcast With Brady Shearer

There are a ton of new Instagram features that are coming later this year - along with many that have already been released. Do you know all of them? Do you know how to use them to help your church? By the end of this episode of Pro Church Tools you will - as we’ll cover thirteen of the newest and most exciting changes to Instagram in 2019.  ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/13-exciting-new-instagram-features-for-churches-in-2019/  What's In This Session? SOON: Create Mode: Simplified design (1:45) Donation sticker (4:56) Creator Profiles (7:55) The downsides of creator profiles (12:00) Instagram Stories Filters (13:37) Anti-Bullying Initiatives (14:32) NOW: Countdown (17:00) Remove followers (18:50) Close friends (19:15) Q&A IG Live (19:38) Line breaks (21:20) IGTV Previews (22:17) IGTV Horizontal Videos (25:40) Pro Church Tools GIFs (27:20)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: 7 Exciting Instagram Features Coming in 2019 New Instagram Update Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools

The way churches hire has drastically changed with the rise of digital platforms and the Internet. Positions in ministry now exist that never did before - and the process for filling these positions is different as well! So what does this mean for you if you want to work at a church? In this video, I’ll share seven skills that contributed to me getting hired at a church when I was 21 years old - and how these skills can help you as well.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-to-get-hired-by-a-church-7-skills-you-need/  What's In This Session? #1. Understand the senior leader's vision and struggles - and identify ways you can help (1:58) #2. A portfolio/platform (6:52) #3. Relationships (9:30) #4. Indicate your ability to work on yourself (12:05) #5. Organization (14:44) #6. Exceed expectations (15:49) #7. Volunteer/Free Work/Don’t get taken advantage of (16:22) WARNING FLAGS: You trash your old church and boss (18:25) You’re overly critical with few solutions (18:43) Someone who wants

In this podcast, you're going to learn three advanced tips for prepping your church's services. I'll show you how my church prepares for Sunday each and every week, and by the end of this episode, you'll know exactly how to implement these tips in your church as well.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-the-internet-is-provoking-the-next-christian-reformation/   What's In This Session? What role does/will the Internet have in reforming the church? (1:50) The story of Martin Luther is that he nailed his 95 theses to a door and thus began the Protestant Reformation (2:15) How can an unpublished, obscure Roman Catholic monk move from the shadows to the world stage in a matter of years? (2:27) Brand Luther by Andrew Pettegree (3:15) Luther quickly learned how to use printed books and pamphlets to spread his views widely and effectively. He obsessed not just about the words he wrote but about the timing, accuracy, visual appeal, and effective distribution of these printed works. Second,

For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with a new type of social media template for churches. And amazingly, this type of post has quickly become one of the most popular within our social program - and hundreds of churches are seeing great engagement numbers with this kind of post. And so in this video, you’ll learn all about what I like to call the ‘Church Invitation’ template - and I’ll share with you 11 real examples of what it can look like.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/the-church-invitation-social-media-template-11-examples/  What's In This Session? Social program feedback from real churches prompted the creation of these posts (1:58) Three Benefits: Build anticipation for church tomorrow, demonstrate to your congregation that every Sunday is special, fill in a day on your social media calendar (3:00) Example #1: Slideshow (4:47) Example #2: Jackpot (5:55) Example #3: Crossword (Church gathers tomorrow) (7:13) Example #4: Countdown (7:20) Example #5: Breaking News…

 Church stage design can feel intimidating - especially if you’re a smaller church. But here’s the good news: you *can* design a stunning church stage on a budget. And by the end of this video, you’ll know exactly how - and I’ll share with you five churches that are implementing these cost-saving stage designs as inspiring examples.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/simple-cheap-church-stage-design-ideas-real-examples/    What's In This Session? Stage design is one of the things that churches obsess over that doesn’t move the needle forward (0:28) 65 published videos on our YouTube channel - the most popular with a quarter of a million views is called ‘3 Small Church Stage Design Ideas’ (1:08) STAGE DESIGN FOUNDATION: Lighting (1:45) BIG IDEA: 1x2x8 wood boards from Home Depot, painted black and combined with LED tape (2:32) Example #1: Worship Leader Hangout (4:46) Example #2 - The Well (Geneva, IL) (6:22) Example #3 - Palm Valley Church (Mission, TX) (7:12) Example #4 - Dunn’s Creek

“Is the church’s primary goal to convert people to Christianity?” This is a question I recently asked more than 500 church leaders. And the responses I got? Frankly, they surprised me. And so in this video, we’ll breakdown how churches understand conversion - and why we need to stop caring so much about it.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/why-churches-should-stop-caring-so-much-about-conversions/    What's In This Session? My Thesis: Too many churches believe that converting people to Christianity is their primary goal - and this belief causes harm (0:32) 629 people were asked, “Is the church’s primary goal to convert people to Christianity?” 40% said yes; 60% said no (1:05) My IG Demographic: 25-34 age; 70/30 men vs. women (1:43) How do you quantify a conversion? 603 responses: 33% sinner’s prayer; 4% church membership; 25% baptism; 38% IDK (3:05) Harmful #1: Quantifying a conversion is virtually impossible - if your church’s primary goal is immeasurable, how do you know you’re on

Most churches still use bulletins. But with that being said, when was the last time you examined the true purpose of your church bulletin - and whether or not it was accomplishing its goal? In this video, we’ll lay out a series of principles that we believe a church bulletin should abide by and I'll even give you a free bulletin Photoshop template to help you create your own.     BULLETIN TEMPLATE: https://prochurchtools.com/u6oh   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/16645-2/   What's In This Session? Does your church have a bulletin? 64% of responders said yes; 36% said no (0:31) This episode isn’t about eliminating your church’s bulletin (1:04) Principle #1: There is value in physical handouts at an in-person experience (1:20) Principle #2: Your church’s bulletin should align with your overall communication strategy (2:37) Principle #3: The less the content changes - the better (average cost of printing bulletin is $0.25 - a church of 100 people printing weekly bulletins costs more than

A simple and easy way to get more followers and likes on social media is to run a contest or giveaway. But beware! Because these types of promotions can turn sideways if you don’t follow best practices. So by the end of this video, you’ll know the tools, the strategies, and the frameworks needed to run a successful contest on social media.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/16632-2/   What's In This Session? The Simple Contest: ex. We’re giving away a $25 gift card to a person that likes us on Facebook (0:51) Livestock on IG (1:48) The Advanced Contest: Earn more entries by completing more tasks (2:37) Advanced contests should have more valuable prizes (2:37) Stack the prizes to increase chances of winning (5:47) When you should use a contest (7:08) The Downsides: Increased quantity hurts overall engagement rate which may impact people reached (9:28) Livestock has 0.3% engagement rate on IG (500 likes per post with 200K followers) compared to my 3% engagement rate (500 likes per post w

Social media is constantly changing and it can sometimes feel like an impossible task trying to keep up. But that’s why this channel exists! And so by the end of this episode, you’ll know all about the big changes coming to Facebook and Instagram right now and what it means for your church online.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/16611-2/   What's In This Session? Facebook Developers Conference held at the end of April/early May (0:28) An experiment was run to Get rid of like counts on Instagram (2:37) Instagram announced at its F8 developer conference today that it’ll start testing a new feature later this week that’ll hide users’ public like counts on videos and photos. (2:55) Likes are a currency on social; devalue the currency - upend the culture (3:22) Problem #1: Do it for the gram - Iceland/Scotland trip research - the performative nature of IG (3:59) Problem #2: Like for like (6:48) New Facebook app design Is called FB5 - it’s cleaner, faster, and isn’t blue anymore (13:23) F

Christian churches in North America are facing a crisis. Attendance is down, giving is down, young people are leaving churches at alarming rates - but that’s not the worse part. The worse part is that our Christian churches are exacerbating this crisis thanks to a handful of shoddy beliefs. And by the end of this video, you’ll know what those beliefs are - and how to resist the pull of them.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/16590-2/   What's In This Session? Branding is what others think about you - before our churches can truly reach our city and/or community - we need to understand how we are perceived (2:22) #1. Persecution Complex (2:55) More than 245 million Christians in the world are highly persecuted for their Christian faith. 1 in 9 Christians worldwide experience high levels of persecution (2:59) White evangelicals think they’re super persecuted (4:23) God’s Not Dead feeds the narrative (4:43) Don’t belittle the real persecution of others by manufacturing fake persecution f

Today, I want to share with you my step-by-step system for creating gripping church testimony videos. This is the type of video that shares the real story of someone in your church - their story of life change in Christ. So follow along, and by the end of this video, you’ll know what questions to ask during your interviews, the best way to light your setup, and I’ll share with you a pair of real examples I’ve produced as well.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-a-church-testimony-video/   What's In This Session? Core Value #1: Show don’t tell (1:07) Core Value #2: Don’t force resolution (2:41) Core Value #3: No story is too small (4:03) Core Value #4: The responsibility falls on the storyteller (4:54) Stage #1 - The Interview (5:33) Finding interview candidates (5:40) Interview prep (6:45) Film location - interviewee’s home (8:58) Record for about an hour of talking (12:07) Keep the questions open-ended - ex. Tell me about a time when, or tell me the stor

Your church’s logo is the foundation of your visual identity. And with the prominence of digital platforms, your church logo is now more visible than ever before. So to get you inspired, I want to share with you eleven of my favorite church logos - along with seven rules for logo design to help put you on the right path toward better church branding.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/?p=16552&preview=true   What's In This Session? #1: Rileyville Baptist Church--Design by Ariel Rudolph Harwich (4:30) Rule #1: Meaningful (4:40) #2: Risen Church--Design by Michael Sevilla (6:30) Rule #2: Scaleable (7:28) #3: Trinity Presbyterian Church--Design by Peter Voth (9:15) Rule #3: Work well in monochrome (9:30) #4: Lakeside Church--Design by Even place (10:24) Rule #4: Simple (10:30) #5: Limitless Church--Design by Bruno Nascimento (11:32) Rule #5: Unique (12:29) #6: Harvest Church--Design by Benjamin Oberemok (13:22) Rule #6: Memorable (13:50) #7: 20 MIle Church--Design by Joel Davis (14:20

As church attendance continues to decline, ministries are beginning to confront a glaring problem with how we do church today. The problem? Our buildings are extremely expensive, they only get used once or twice per week, and they’re often removed from the everyday life of our communities. Thankfully, there are churches working to solve this problem in innovative ways. And by the end of this video, you’ll learn the new rules for church buildings and how your church can begin applying these principles immediately - whether your church is big, small, young, or old.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/?p=16525&preview_id=16525&preview_nonce=4110ca7c64&post_format=audio&_thumbnail_id=-1&preview=true   What's In This Session? Century Church: A United Methodist church plant meeting at Pike Road School in Pike Road, Alabama has grown to about 500 people - lead by their lead pastor Dr. Patrick M. Quinn. (2:11) Century is ready to build their own building - but, they’ve set o

One of the most iconic houses of worship in human history recently burned, leaving the world stunned and shocked at the loss of such a precious artifact. Most American churches look nothing like the Notre Dame Cathedral, but what if there’s something about that specific building that we could learn from? Today, we’ll talk about being intentional with your church building and creating something to last.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-we-lost-a-teacher-in-the-burning-of-notre-dame/   What's In This Session? Creating things that last (0:36) Catholic theology (4:40) Built with intention (5:45) Curating a church environment 96:05) Retelling the greatest story (11:55)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: Featured Resource: RebelGive Notre Dame Cathedral The Art Of Curating Worship by Mark Pierson Scott The Painter Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram  

Churches all around the world are beginning to embrace digital signups and are saying goodbye to papers and clipboards. But why? If we’ve done something for so long and our church is familiar with it - is it worth changing? Today, you’ll get the ultimate comparison between paper and digital signups. And you’ll learn how to smoothly make the transition.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-to-finally-ditch-paper-signups-for-digital-at-church/?preview=true   What's In This Session? #1: Volume of church attendees (1:20) #2: Volume of events (2:08) #3: Storage (2:39) #4: Acess (3:10) #5: Backups--digital backups are neater and easier to store (3:38) #6: Complexity--Digital forms allow for conditional logic (4:35) #7: Changes (6:03) #8: User and church data (6:35) Seize the 167: Paper signups limit the ability for your congregation to sign up for events beyond Sunday service (9:14) Switch over cold turkey: Station volunteers at a kiosk (12:20)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: Nucle

YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. And it’s far and away the most popular platform amongst Gen Z. And yet, most churches are completely absent from this platform. Thankfully, there’s a solution. Frankly, it’s been right in front of my face this whole time and I’ve been missing it. So in this video, I’ll reveal to you the absolute best YouTube strategy for churches that you can start implementing right away.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/?p=16464&preview=true   What's In This Session? YouTube is the second most visited website in the world. (1:41) 500 000+ searches are made on YouTube every month on how to study the bible. Churches are not stepping up with YouTube videos. (1:50) One study suggests 75% of kids want to be YouTubers (4:40) 95% of Gen Z use YouTube, 50% say they can't live without it, and 75% say they use it every day. (6:59) Churches should be empowering young people to create YouTube content. (8:12) 56% of Gen Z want to see Vlogs--document w

A viral Instagram account has riled up a lot of Christians and church leaders over the past couple of weeks. @PreachersNSneakers on Instagram publishes photos of prominent pastors in costly sneakers or designer clothes next to their price tags. And while the account was started as a joke amongst friends, it blew up overnight amassing tens of thousands of followers. So what should we make of all this? Well, you’re in the right place, because by the end of this video, you’ll know why God works in mysterious ways.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: http://prochurchtools.com/3-advanced-church-service-prep-tips/   What's In This Session? The origin story of @PreachersNsneakers (0:43) Should a pastor be paid? How much? (8:34) Can a pastor have a second job? (8:43) Cultural standards: everyone who drives slower than I do on the highway is a slowpoke; anyone who drives quicker is a lunatic (9:54) An average of 38 thousand consumer debt in America: we are all spending on things we shouldn't, and drawing arbitrar

For the first time this year, the entire Pro Church Tools team was all in one room. Our team that works remotely joined us for the launch of RebelGive which gave us the perfect opportunity to shoot new headshots! And so in this video, we’ll walk through our setup, production flow, and editing process for capturing new staff headshots.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-to-capture-amazing-staff-headshots/ What's In This Session?   How to achieve clean, moody, and dramatic style (1:43) Attire: neutral and everyone on the same page (2:18) Backdrop: black wall, black sheet, or savage paper (3:00) Lighting: single light, big diffuser (4:16) Camera angle: locked down on a tripod, slightly elevated (6:10) Editing: black and white, create preset or free download (7:38)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram

Sermon bumpers are the short videos created to promote and accompany a church’s sermon series. Sermon bumpers build anticipation and are great for setting the emotional tone and atmosphere for a message within a service. And so in this video, I’ll share with you a brilliant sermon bumper example from a person in Pro Church Nation - and we’ll reverse engineer how you can make your own sermon bumper just like it.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/the-new-sermon-bumper-formula-5-easy-steps/   What's In This Session? #1: Establishing shot (2:50) #2: Narrated scripture passage (3:15) #3: Serif font (6:03) #4: Glitch transitions (6:47) #5: Atmospheric backing track (8:03)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: Featured Resource: RebelGive Storytape Slack Voices.com Vintage voice effect from Mike Russel in Adobe Audition 20 Best Google Web Fonts Peter McKinnon Tutorial Glitch Soundstripe Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram B

Ever since social media platforms replaced chronological feeds with algorithmic feeds, people have been suspicious. How do these mysterious algorithms really work? And how can your church stay on the good side of the algorithm? In this video, you’ll learn ways to maximize your exposure on social media and how to beat that pesky algorithm.   ***VISIT THE FULL POST HERE: https://prochurchtools.com/how-to-beat-social-media-algorithms-2019-update/   What's In This Session? #1: Don't fall for conspiracies (1:30) #2: Understand how the algorithm works (4:00) #3: Captions (6:35)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned: Featured Resource: RebelGive Pretty Caption Instagram's tweet Pro Church Tools Pro Church Tools on Facebook Pro Church Tools on YouTube Brady Shearer on Instagram Brady Shearer on Twitter Alex Mills on Instagram