Pro Church Podcast With Brady Shearer

On this episode of the Pro Church Tools Show we talk with the social media and production directors from Legacy Church in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Ruth Seal and Vitaliy Kot joined us to let us in on their social media strategy, their production process, and how they work together to create viral content to reach millions with the message of Jesus. We talk about the philosophical to the very practical, and everything in between.

On this episode of the Pro Church Tools Show we interview Crystal Ennis, Creative Director at One Church in Sulphur Springs, Texas. One Church has experienced rapid growth on social media thanks to some viral videos, and Crystal joins us to speaks to how that has impacted the life of their in-person gatherings. She shares about her social strategy, how to lead a creative team, and how to help millions of people take next steps with Jesus without ever stepping foot in her church.  

On this episode of the Pro Church Tools Show we interview Trey VanCamp, pastor of Passion Creek Church in Queen Creek, Arizona. Trey has been effectively using digital media to reach new people with the message of Jesus and spiritually form people who already belong to the church. We talk about the success of his Plan Your Visit video, his unique discipleship strategy through podcasting, and the delicate balance of being a content creator and a pastor.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139.   Question #1 (1:50): One thing your church needs to stop doing   Question #2 (13:58): How do you cope as an Enneagram 1?   Question #3 (30:48): Our church coffee sucks, how can I make it better?   DRAFT SEGMENT (38:20): Hillsong United Popular Songs Draft   Question #4 (79:54): The best technique for applying fragrance   Question #5 (83:02): The best eats in Niagara Falls   Question #6 (87:55): What "tone" should our church use on social?   Question #7 (90:41): Tips for starting a podcast   Question #8 (95:23): What's your favorite Bible verse?   Question #9 (99:28): Do you have an internal monologue?

On this episode of the Pro Church Tools Show we interview Jeremy Cole, pastor of Mosaic Dubai. Jeremy is a former airline pilot and an unconventional pastor, serving a very unique congregation in the UAE that's experiencing notable growth. We talk about the particular challenges of pastoring in Dubai and the great success that they've had on social reaching many people with the message of Jesus.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (2:49): What are the most common mistakes to avoid when considering website design? We are a small congregation (average attendance 100) and we cannot afford full time tech people. Question #2 (12:55): What are your top three leadership tips? Question #3 (26:31): Hi Brady! I just took over the comms for our church. What is your advice or strategy for a church rolling out a new sermon series? Three weeks out? Two weeks out? One week? Week of? Question #4 (32:45): What's wrong lately?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (2:15): Brady, what's the story behind your Bible College experience? Why did you never become a pastor? Question #2 (20:43): If you work at your church full-time, what is your day off each week? Question #3 (36:42): How does a church recover in the social media climate when there is a viral video that tries to cancel the church for false reasons? Our church has gotten many death threats and harassment via phone, email, and especially social media. We’ve had to turn comments off on most things. I was wondering if you had any wisdom! Question #4 (50:17): The two of you seem to have such good chemistry.  We would like to know what is it you have most in common, versus not so common.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (05:24): What are your thoughts on Threads? Is Meta doing too much? How can churches utilize this new platform? Question #2 (20:00): Love the new podcast studio. Can you talk about the setup? Question #3 (28:28): On The Social Media Church Podcast this week, they talked about developing an AI policy similar to how you should have a social media policy. Is that something you've processed at all yet? If so, what would you include in a policy like that? Question #4 (34:36): You have mentioned that you are breaking into the world of watches! (Happy dance!)I was skeptical until you mentioned Wolf 1834 watch cases! What are you looking at Watch wise and have you made any purchases?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (1:49): Responding to Christian comments like "just preach the gospel!" Question #2 (7:30): We've long used connection cards at our church for people to take next steps, digitally and physically. And then other signup pages or PCO forms for people to take other steps. I love your view of next steps, and the central hub concept, I've been trying to get buy-in across the board on this and utilizing our website's main page as a central hub. Here in lies my question. I know your thoughts behind mass texting as a church, very limited if at all. What are your thoughts on engaging people through text in keywords and one-on-one follow up for next steps, all through text? Question #3 (15:45): Will there be a backlash against generative AI where people intentionally move offline? Question #4 (24:22): What are your beige flags?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:27): If a church wants to do a podcast, what should they consider? (Tech, Content, labor, red flags, etc.) Question #2 (15:58): I'm amazed at the number of churches that do photo dumps on social media. There is the wide spread belief that you should share everything you snap. Just curious of your opinion as to the optimal number of pics to include in a post. Also, am I wrong to feel a bit squeamish about posting pics of people praying or worshiping? Are there any studies on how non-believers react to these? Are we invading someone's personal moment even if it's experienced in corporate worship?  Question #3 (25:45): Are there any "best practices" you guys talk about on the pod/social/website/YouTube that you DON'T do at the church you pastor? If so why? Question #4 (32:24): What's WRONG lately?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (09:31): This is why our pews are empty. We’ve accepted the counterfeit online substitute for church. It’s destroying the local church for a "stay in bed and watch a livestream" type experience. Question #2 (17:12): Should I or should I not use music in the background of sermon shorts? Question #3 (22:52): I was curious about the new language on the Nucleus website, "The premium church website builder for small & mid-size churches." I don't remember that delineation before of "small & mid-size" being applied to Nucleus and its capabilities. I'm just curious about that decision and what, if any reason, would be for a large church (I guess what would you consider a "large" church?) not to use Nucleus. Question #4 (34:00): In honour of the Toronto Raptors latest draft pick "Gradey Dick," what was your cringiest outfit you've ever worn?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:35): Agreed, but what do you believe would be a better gift or solution for guests specifically? Question #2 (19:38): Brady, how do you recommend we setup our Plan A Visit page on our church's website? Question #3 (28:50): Brady do you have any ideas for intros on our website from the leadership? Question #4 (33:51): Brady, when is Nucleus 2 launching? I won't tell anyone. I promise!

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:30): What are the top three church tech ministry red flags for you? Question #2 (12:38): When it comes to livestream, do you think there is value in streaming to multiple platforms (e.g. Facebook, website, YouTube) or do you think it is better to drive traffic to one place? We currently stream to Facebook and website but I am wanting to break in to YouTube this year in a big way. Live-streaming there and then clipping the stream down to the sermon portion seems like a good start but not sure if we should phase out Facebook live stream in the process.  Question #3 (21:05): We are starting to post vertical social sermon videos to multiple platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok). Is there a way to schedule and upload these videos at once without having to log onto each site and do it manually? Also, is there a way to collectively see the response data of these videos with one service or app?  Question #4 (30:09): What are you

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:32): I need a pros and cons list, church photos taken on cell phones vs. professional photos. Question #2 (13:50): How do you help church leadership understand how long it takes to do good video work for the church (or other marketing work) that they maybe have never done before, so they have no concept of how long it should take or how many people it would take to produce it and do it well? Question #3 (24:55): Both of you (Brady and Alex) have many interests and irons in the fire, both in business and personally. Whether it's designing website software, starting new services like SocialSermons, photography, forest foraging, hunting, coffee, sports, fragrances, etc etc, you are also both married and have kids, and Alex pastors on the side. How do you guys stay sane? I know Alex talked recently about reclaiming a Sabbath, and I wondered how this may factor into that larger topic, as someone also has many varied interests, but is wondering if I'

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:28): How do you navigate creating content in a small church where most of the ppl are camera shy? I’ve tried asking ppl for testimony, tried asking ppl how they felt about service, we even tried a segment where we highlight entrepreneurs in our congregation as a way to involve community. Overall, engagement is low both on and offline. How do I as the social media manager help turn it around?  Question #2 (09:14): I've been trying to find some data and stats that prove converting our Catholic homilies into short form video would be worth the time it would take to do it.  Do you happen to have any data or stats showing performance by churches who are doing this? More specifically, it would be great if it could be data from Catholic Churches. I hear everyone pitching to do it, but cannot find any data to show results. Not to sound all corporate, but what is the ROI? Question #3 (19:43): Here’s a boring but helpful idea for a podcast question. Busi

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:32): What's the future of video and that whole field of work in your opinion - considering the rise of AI? Question #2 (11:01): How to know when it's time to leave a job? Question #3 (19:56): What do you think of video banners on church websites? Question #4 (26:20): What are your favorite go-to meals right now?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question 1A (01:22): I’ve been asked to run a promotion for a campaign to raise money to pay for our HVAC system. I want it to be effective and not cringy.    Question 1B (01:30): I’ve been asked to promote the current financial promotion! I need help! To be fair, our church is debt free and raising money for an air conditioner. Nevertheless, how can I make it not so cringy?   Question 1C (01:58): My church board wants us to make announcements about our Spring Business Meeting....I know you talk about telling a story (that inspires) for announcements. How do you do that for the annual business meeting?  Question #2 (12:17): Our new-ish (about a year) senior pastor is very active on social media. He also shares a lot of our church posts. My question is how much should we share each other's posts? Going through his followers, (a few thousand) I'd say about 1/3 of them also follow the church's accounts, so a lot of the same people may be seeing the same posts on

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:14):  You're both busy, successful individuals, managing families, social, church, coffee and even scents. I'm just wondering what you two use to manage your tasks/outlining/mind-mapping. Is it Evernote? Notion? A simple spreadsheet?  Question #2 (13:03): My goal on vertical video is to get it under 60 seconds which I’m usually at 58-59 on sermon clips. I’ve noticed clips under 30 seconds possibly doing better. Have you seen a better goal of 15-30 seconds for vertical video? Question #3 (22:39): When you encourage social sermon posts, you point out the importance of the hook at the intersection of faith and culture. In my position, I have influence on our sermon series titles. I'm not sure it makes sense that our sermon series titles should be the same as a social sermon hook, but I feel the faith and culture principle could still apply. Am I putting too much thought into something no one cares about?  Question #4 (29:08): Heard you say you nev

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:27): Is "high production" vs. "low production" a heart issue? Question #2 (13:13): For announcements it’s easy to shift to a model of: inspiration and one next step, but I’m wondering how do you shift the vocabulary of your main speakers? I’ve notice that most of the biggest churches have preaching and MCing that use a shared vocabulary, some things are vision statements (which is easy to have a shared language around), some things are cultural statements and some things are functional to that church. But I’m wondering how do they unify behind that? Is there a list of statements or is there a quota per service? Is there a comms strategy meeting that they plan out what to say and what’s worth saying? How do all these different speakers have the same vocabulary? Question #3 (22:52): How soon should I publish our sermon clips after the sermon was first preached? Also, should I be trying to add new designs onto every SocialSermon? Thanks! Question

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:00): How best to use ChatGPT in church? Church leadership? Ministry issues? Question #2 (16:44): Just curious, what are your thoughts on the social media app Lemon8? Do you think it would be beneficial for a church to utilize that app? Question #3 (22:57): Communications Minister here at my church. I have a church member that has gone and made their own custom T-shirts after we just did a church-wide shirt order. They don’t match the same shirts everyone else has and this person is not in a position of leadership. How should I address this with this individual? What's consistent branding worth? The shirts are honestly fine, but I just don't feel like I can have a church member just making whatever they want ESPECIALLY when we've done a church-wide shirt order recently that allowed everyone to have something similar and have a sense of unity. Question #4 (29:09): What are your top 5 favorite sports moments?