Pro Church Podcast With Brady Shearer

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?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:06): Any tips on dealing with insecurity as a leader? Question #2 (18:04): What do you do when you feel one of your church's paid staff isn't pulling his weight? Question #3 (31:11): If you could pick one social stigma The Church could magically get past - what would it be? Question #4 (41:23): Any way that Alex recommends to make a latte without any fancy equipment at home? We’re curious if the Chaplain of Caffeine had any tips?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:28): I hear you talk frequently about bridge events. We are struggling to get buy-in with our church leadership because, in years past, we had many such events and, while they were well attended, there was rarely ever a person who actually become a regular attendee through such an event. What are your tips for leading our congregation to intentionally see these events as a form of outreach? Question #2 (17:01): Should churches bother with Twitter anymore? Are there any use cases that Twitter would be good for? Question #3 (24:19): We are looking to set up a podcast/video studio, can you share how you would set it up? What’s needed and is there a way to make it portable? We don’t have dedicated studio space. Thank you! Question #4 (31:47):  What is your all-time favorite worship song?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:03): I just took the leap from a large student ministry to a small older congregation as a lead pastor. Our church is older, not tech savvy, but is looking to grow. I am 32, pretty tech savvy, and ready to reach our community. What would be your advice on updating our methods of ministry? Question #2 (12:43): How do I increase our reach on TikTok? My Pastor's reels regularly get 10-20k views on Facebook but the same video on TikTok gets around 250. Question #3 (25:53): So I posted on my Instagram Stories - "Collecting church comms nightmare stories. Please share." And it quickly turned into all the times churches have messed up their print materials. Just wanted to share a few. Question #4 (30:11): Time for a new series we're starting today called - "What's Wrong Lately." I'll go first.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:08): How do you bridge the age gap? Our church has a lot older people but they also want to bring in younger people. Unfortunately when they come, they don’t feel comfortable or connected. Question #2 (16:24): How would you go about addressing the social media presence of a church with multiple campuses? For example, we have a church with a “primary” campus and then we have two satellite campuses that currently meet in local schools with the goal of having permanent buildings. Question #3 (18:32): How important do you think it is to have an aesthetically pleasing church Instagram feed? I feel like ours isn’t as uniform as others, but I also think same colors, fonts and presets all the time is boring. Question #4 (23:11): What is your most memorable concert?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:30): What is your best tip for churches to encourage people to attend an earlier service? We are experiencing rapid growth and need to make room at our popular second service. Question #2 (06:13): Hey Brady, I work for the US Army where our church body is all transient (average two years on installation). I'm sure I'm not the only kind of church where most of the members don't stay very long. I'm wondering if any of your comms/social media advice would be adjusted for our type of audience where we are constantly seeking new members. Question #3 (13:53): We recently launched a sister campus that is completely unique in terms of events, but we are under the same umbrella of elders, beliefs, etc. What is your strategy for approaching a website that combines both? A main hub domain and links out to a separate domain for each campus? Question #4 (21:38): Hey Brady, it's a new season - what's in the fragrance rotation for Spring 2023?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:51): Can you look at the Instagram Reel that hit one million views and the other videos on our channel and see if there's anything we can be doing better? Also, I accredited you to all the staff for that video that hit one million. Ever since listening to your podcast our engagement has more than tripled!  Question #2 (17:37): Do you have any content on how we can encourage our congregations to actively share and like the church content? I’ll post something and get 2-10 likes and shares from the pastoral staff. But I know posts that have many likes and shares get seen way more often. Is this not a way to help share the gospel as it would be seen more? We're in a church of just under 400 people. Question #3 (24:01): What are thoughts on transformation church purchasing a media studio? How do you feel about churches creating their personal content at a mass scale? Should these profits go to unfortunate instead? Question #4 (39:10): Loved the favo

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:30): If you were starting over at a new church with little social media presence and an outdated website, what would be your approach/priorities. I think you message is resonating with many people today, but most of us are overwhelmed with where to invest first. Question #2 (12:25): Who or what accounts should our church IG accounts follow? Leadership team? Other churches? Church attendees? Not really sure what makes the most sense. Question #3 (18:06): You mentioned in an earlier podcast that a newsletter style weekly email wasn't a very effective form of church communication, and that it's giving the work to your congregation. Are there any cases in which E-News emails (weekly emails detailing a list of 4 to 5 upcoming events with links to register) are ever effective? Why or why not?  Question #4 (30:33): What are you favourite things about being Canadian?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:02):  What’re your thoughts on Meta’s new paid verification system? As an Aussie getting first access to it is tempting, but do you see it adding value to normal churches / individuals other than the cheap clout? Question #2 (17:36):  We're really battling with getting new volunteers for our Digital Campus and have tried personal asks, asking live during the hosting, social media posts. Any helpful tips or advice?  Question #3A (26:08): We're currently building a second studio and also adding a larger coffee area for our team of 5-10 coffee drinkers in our team each Sunday. I personally have experience with Breville espresso machines, pour over, and Aeropress (and spending a long time to make one single great cup or coffee) but thinking of something maybe easier that still gives us a great coffee experience (Chemex probably?) Would love to know what Alex's thoughts are on this. Question #3B (31:17): Money is tight right now. What is your recomm

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Got a question from a listener asking us to comment on Doug Smith - author and software engineer - on the podcast “Theology in the Raw” with Preston Sprinkle. The listener goes on to say "I’d love to hear your considered response in light of Smith's argument that many of the emerging digital platforms are designed to be addictive and hamper discipleship and our mission rather than further it in healthy ways."

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Got a question from a listener asking us to comment on Louie Giglios comments from Passion Conference 2023 in his message titled "Yes, Lord" in which he takes aim at social media. Particularly, discovery algorithms on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Shorts.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:46): Instagram Notes: Genius? Stupid? And how do we use it for church? Hot takes most welcome. Question #2 (09:10): What are your thoughts on polls/surveys sent to the church family in order to make decisions? For instance, say an eldership is divided about whether to have one worship gathering or two, and want to send out a poll out to the congregation to gather data. Is there a way to keep the poll unbiased? Question #3 (17:33): What are your thoughts on churches monetizing videos? I don’t think I’ve heard you mention that much and haven’t heard it as a listed benefit to the social sermon videos. I made almost $2000 from one of our videos that went semi-viral (350k views) on YouTube and with monetization of YouTube shorts being a thing now, there could be some money made too, yes? Question #4 (22:18): Suggestions for deconstructing church leadership? Former pastor here.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:55): I just had an engagement post asking "What was the name of the first church you ever attended?" that probably did better than any engagement post to date. When is it okay to reuse an engagement post? I'm sure it can vary! Question #2 (10:32): Do you feel the 3-phase social media flywheel (engagement, spiritual practices, your story) is still the best model or would you tweak it to keep current with current social trends?  Question #3 (16:13): Is there a way for text to give to work with Nucleus Giving? Our church seems to use that the most. Question #4 (32:22): Besides the treatment you've been doing, any other face products you recommend?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:31): What is the value of having a dedicated app for your church as opposed to just relying on your existing website? Question #2 (24:40): With the  discovery algorithms taking over, does it still matter what time I post each day? Since the focus isn't getting our followers to see our stuff, seems it wouldn't matter as much what time we post. It all goes into a giant pile and whatever resonates with the folks is what gets 'pushed' to the front of the line. Am I wrong? Question #3 (27:34): Wondering if you could tackle this for the podcast - why do many influential, young pastors preach with a hand held mic rather than an over the ear headset/lapel? Question #4 (36:04): Brady and Alex, what are your pet peeves?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:40): Hey Brady, how do you recommend responding to antagonistic or outright trolling in comments? Especially with the video reply option in TikTok and the increasing desire for authentic content - when do we engage versus ignore? Question #2 (07:38): I tried your trick of 3-10 minute sermon clips, but they only get 25% or so of the views the actual sermons get on YouTube. I've been doing this for over a year every week on the same channel as our sermons. Question #3 (17:17): How can we cleanup our church's website? It looks so cluttered to me and I've tried a few things, but I don't know what other options I have at this point? Question #4 (26:40): Brady and Alex, what are your goals for 2023?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:54): Our church records our services in landscape format - any recommendations for software to clip/crop and make our videos vertical for social? Question #2 (06:40): Do you recommend directing people to your YouTube channel at the end of a SocialSermons or just share it as a bite? Question #3 (22:58): How many SocialSermons should I post per week?