Today, I'm joined in our Niagara Falls studio by fellow Canadian and friend of close to ten years now, Carey Nieuwhof. Carey does a lot of work in leadership development, so I wanted to hear Carey’s best leadership advice - especially for younger Christian leaders.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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0:00 - Intro

2:10 - What are you most excited about right now? Personally or professionally?

19:45 - What do you feel you’ve changed your mind on recently?

24:08 - How do you escape or unwind?

38:00 - What practices or rhythms have been most nurturing for your marriage?

45:20 - What are you doing to take care of yourself at your age?

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Show Notes:

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From Strength to Strength [Arthur Brooks]: https://bit.ly/3v8rXy4

At Your Best [Carey Nieuwhof]:  https://careynieuwhof.com/at-your-best/

Carey Nieuwhof: https://careynieuwhof.com/

Highly Productive Leader Challenge: http://productive2024.com/

Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast: https://careynieuwhof.com/mypodcast/

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://prochurchtools.com/podcast

The discovery era of social media is only a few years old, so many are still getting used to it, and as they do - there is one specific thing that comes up that creates a eureka moment for them. This is what churches always overlook on social media.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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0:00 - Intro

0:54 - Can you explain more about the local element of discovery algorithms? 

10:03 - Have you been experiencing issues with Reels engagement and reach?

13:08 - What has been the most influential thing to help you grow as a business?

20:47 -  What is Alex’s current favorite coffee brewer?

24:13 - What do you recommend for someone just getting started with social media strategy?

25:46 - What is your favorite album of all-time?

40:17 - What’s a new game-changing habit you started this year?

48:38 - How can a church compete with sports games during worship times?

59:12 - What are some fashion trends you’re embracing this season?

01:07:26 - What benchmarks should a church use to determine if they should launch a podcast?

01:11:06 - When is a time you’ve missed on giving advice?

01:13:51 - What is the thing that has made you the happiest in the last week?

01:17:07 - How can we do digital ministry on Snapchat?

01:19:30 - How can I help my ministry find our “voice” for posting on social?

01:22:20 - How do I know what to post on social that will best serve my audiences?

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Show Notes:

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- The Church Social Media Masterclass: https://youtu.be/t1g6iMRR_Tk

- ORIGAMI Dripper M: https://bit.ly/3RdxtXw

- Fellow Stagg [X] Pour-Over Set: https://bit.ly/41biIsN

- Ratio 6: https://bit.ly/3Thmyyx

- SocialSermons: https://socialsermons.com/

- Nucleus: https://www.nucleus.church/

- Cannot Be, Whatsoever [Novo Amor]: https://spoti.fi/47O1iF6

- Everglow [Mae]: https://spoti.fi/3GBYvD4

- Flame [Flame]: https://spoti.fi/3tatt1S

- For All The Dogs [Drake]: https://spoti.fi/3GxCVj5

- Zeal [Kings Kaleidoscope]: https://spoti.fi/488ToFX

- Quantity Is Job One [Five Iron Frenzy]: https://spoti.fi/4a9jYRh

- The Beautiful Letdown [Switchfoot]: https://spoti.fi/3Rf3rT5

- Unreal Unearth [Hozier]: https://spoti.fi/47Pvb7N

- Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia: https://bit.ly/3Td3QYZ

- Acne Studios: https://www.acnestudios.com/

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://prochurchtools.com/podcast

As we bid farewell to 2023, we eagerly set our sights on the horizon of the upcoming year. The dynamic realm of social media, ever youthful and constantly evolving, continues to undergo rapid transformations. Keeping up with these changes can be overwhelming, but fear not – we've got your back! Today we will share our social media predictions for 2024, so that you - the church - can stay ahead of the curve and ensure your online presence thrives in the exciting landscape of the new year.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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0:00 - Intro

0:50 - #1. New Monetization Models & Subscriptions

8:45 - #2. The Future Of X

14:00 - #3. Churches & TikTok

16:41 - #4. The Stratification Of Social Media

22:28 - #5. More Reels On Instagram & Facebook

22:50 - #6. SEO Replaces Hashtags

26:01 - #7. Newsletters

33:25 - #8. More accessible TOFU content

37:43 - Summary

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Show Notes:

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- Meta to offer ad-free subscription in Europe in bid to keep tracking other users (TechCrunch): https://bit.ly/46DZSvA

- X launches two new subscriptions to boost your replies (The Verge): https://bit.ly/46G6V6I

- X valued at $19 billion in share plan for employees (The Verge): https://bit.ly/3Rp2lW8

- As Users Abandon X, Sports Twitter Endures (The New York Times): https://nyti.ms/3uNRPyL

- Threads: https://www.threads.net/

- Discord: https://discord.com/

- Lemon8: https://www.lemon8-app.com/

- beehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/

- Substack: https://substack.com/

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://prochurchtools.com/podcast

Instagram's algorithms (that’s right - there’s more than one!) have changed again, and if you are a creator (and even if you’re not!) this is good news. This time around, Instagram came right out and explained how it all works, so today on the podcast we’re going to walk through those changes, what they are, and what this means for you and your church.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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0:00 - Intro

1:30 - Algorithm vs. Algorithms8:46 - The Feed Algorithm

16:40 - The Stories Algorithm

22:56 - The Reels & Explore Page Algorithm

24:30 - Hashtags

34:08 - How to Grow

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Show Notes:

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- Instagram Ranking Explained | Instagram Blog: https://bit.ly/47oagZu

- Social Media Masterclass: https://youtu.be/t1g6iMRR_Tk

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://www.nucleus.church/podcast

For churches, finding the right people is essential to building a strong team. But how do you know what to look for in a potential higher? Today we're talking with William Vanderbloemen the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, who are regularly hired to find the right people to work in faith-based organizations. After 15 years and more than 30,000 interviews, they've extracted the data from all that experience to answer the question: what are the skills we should be looking for in young Christian leaders? What are the skills we should be developing ourselves? And inversely, what are the red flags we should be on the lookout for?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Show Notes:

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- Vanderbloemen Search Group: https://www.vanderbloemen.com/

- Be The Unicorn: theunicornbook.com / https://amzn.to/3SLIPEj

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://www.nucleus.church/podcast

One of the most regretful decisions we made as a society over the past 20 years was indiscriminately embracing digital media. Even if this *is* how things typically go with new tech, it's imperative that we as Christians have some guidelines for how we behave online. In today's episode we talk about church rules for digital hygiene.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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00:00 - Intro

00:53 - Automobiles vs. Digital Media

12:20 - Why I'm Still Bullish On Social

28:12 - Rules For Digital Hygiene

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://www.nucleus.church/podcast

As a leader, you might think that I have it all together, that I never drop the ball or make any mistakes - but here's the kicker: I mess up all the time. How? Let me tell you - these are the costly mistakes I’ve made as a Christian leader.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139 📲

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Table of Contents:

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0:00 - Intro

3:08 - #1: Neglecting Core Competencies

13:23 - #2: Self Awareness Gone Too Far

24:10 - #3: The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://www.nucleus.church/podcast

Today on the podcast we speak with trailblazers of the online church movement - Life.Church. Our question? How can we make online church less about programming and more about ministry?

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Show Notes:

- Life.Church: https://www.life.church/

- Life.Church Online: https://live.life.church/

- Church Online: https://online.church/

- Church Online Hosts: The Complete Guide: https://prochur.ch/470JC8f

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Connect With Brady:

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradyshearer/

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/pfArcS/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradyShearer

The Pro Church Tools Show: https://www.nucleus.church/podcast

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?

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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 your three favorite non-fiction books?

Question #5 (53:20): What is your favorite color?

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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'm over extending myself.

Question #4 (37:56): I listen each week to your podcasts. I'm 50+ years old & have never purchased or worn men's cologne. I'm intrigued with your conversations about the topic. So much so, that I'm planning on trying some. What are your top 5 or top 10 that one should sample? 

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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. Business card tips? We do a feeding the needy program and distribute business cards for people to know who we are and how to make contact. Tips?

Question #4 (25:14): What are your hottest food takes?

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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?

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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 both accounts. Personally, I think it's a great idea for both of us to share each other's posts to stories on IG and FB, and to retweet them, but not so sure about sharing to our IG and FB feeds. What do you suggest? How much sharing should we be doing?

Question #3 (15:39): How do you get more followers on a church account?

Question #4 (27:36): What did you learn in your last year of life?

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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 never check bags (I think). How do you pack for international travel with all of your camera gear?

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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 #4 (35:08): Coffee Corner with Bishop Barista - Question for Alex: what decaf/low caf coffees does he recommend for people with high blood pressure that need to reduce caffeine intake but still want to enjoy a good.

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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 favourite things about Canada you and Alex shared on the pod. I think it would be a fun follow up question to hear what you guys like about the US, from your travels there and interactions with so many Americans, and for Alex having family there.

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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?

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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 recommended low-cost whole bean coffee for French press/pour over? Costcos Colombian Supreme? Walmart? Trader Joe's?

Question #4 (38:44):  What has helped you be as confident as you are with your big, and successful, decisions?! Like: starting Pro Church Tools, creating a work culture that seems beyond healthy and incredible, launch a website builder, social media analysis, etc. How did you know those things would work out for you and how have you stayed focused and motivated to build all that you have?

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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.

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.

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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Question #1 (02:26): We've posted sermon clips before on Instagram Reels. They haven't gained a ton of traction. What are we doing wrong?

Question #2 (07:13): Your sermon clip system for social media is just using business tactics that don't belong in church. Pathetic.

Question #3 (13:05): One concern I have about posting our sermons on social is that they may be too insider-focused. What should I post for people we're trying to reach if I'm already posting sermons?

Question #4 (20:16): Brady, I've had enough of your rambling - just give us the flipping formula - Alexander Mills