http://prochurchtools.com/196 - It’s important to look ahead and plan for the future. Phil joins us to take about this next generation of churches, and where he sees the church going in the future. 

What's In This Session?

• Ministering through the biggest communication shift in the last 500 years (9:11)
• Recognizing the importance of change despite being wildly successful (10:35)
• How much longer will the megachurch model remain viable? (14:05)
• Why churches are missing the mark when it comes communication (17:55)
• What makes change so difficult (23:08)
• Navigating difficult decisions & relationships with senior leadership (27:45)
• 3 questions to continually ask your team/leadership (30:46)
• What to do if you’re an older pastor recognizing the need for change (34:28)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• West Ridge Church
• PhilBowdle.com
• Phil on Facebook
• Phil on Twitter
• Drift

3 Instant Takeaways

1. In the last decade the average church hasn't changed how they communicate, but the average person has. It's critical that churches recognize this shift and learn to communicate to their community in a way that they will recognize and understand. The medium isn't sacred - the message is.
2. People are starving for authenticity. People want to go some place where they don't feel like everyone wants something from them. Our culture is inundated with advertisements. Stand out by putting people first, not your church. Don't be another sales pitch.
3. Fear makes change difficult. 80% of people do not like change. To overcome this, consider decisions based on the people in your community that still need to be reached, instead of just your existing congregation.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp196/.

http://prochurchtools.com/195 - Most people will look at your website before visiting your church. Greg talks about how to make a great first impression.

What's In This Session?

• What makes a church website so important? (6:38)
• Improving your website’s SEO (search engine optimization) (13:43)
• The most important button on your church’s website (18:55)
• Checklist for your website’s ‘I’m New’ page (19:00)
• Allowing for kids pre-registration on your church’s website (23:53)
• The importance of setting expectations (28:52)
• Pro tips & tricks for church websites (34:16)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• ExPastors.com
• Worship Impressions
• Full Strength Network
• GregAtkinson.com
• Secrets Of A Secret Shopper by Greg Atkinson
• Countdown

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Have a single call to action. It's important that your congregation always knows where to find the next step. A great way to ensure this is to always point them to the same place, such as a website. Whether they're filling out a connect card, signing up for classes, or submitting a prayer request - have it hosted in a single place so that it's always easy for them to find.
2. When creating an 'I'm New' page, don't assume anything. You'll want to create this page as though the person reading it knows nothing about who you are. You'll want to have the street address, your service times, and some discussion on what to expect.
3. If everything is important then nothing is. By giving stage time and announcing everything, you actually diminish the importance of everything. The reason for this is that the people listening are only able to retain and remember a small amount of information. If you give them too much to try to remember and they'll end up forgetting everything you've said.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp195/.

http://prochurchtools.com/194 - Balancing multiple jobs can make it difficult to feel like your ministry is reaching it’s full potential. Casey shares his tips on making the most of your productivity.

What's In This Session?

• The rise in prominence of bi-vocational lead pastors (6:00)
• Productivity tips from a busy bi-vocational leader (11:37)
• Tip #1: Powerful Exercise: Determining your hourly rate and then putting a dollar amount on each of your weekly tasks (12:37)
• Tip #2: Transitioning to a digital calendar to instantly save time (22:30)
• Tip #3: Long term vs. Short term productivity formula (25:22)
• Tip #4: Turning off mobile device notifications (29:15)
• Tip #5: Locking in on the perfect productivity tool for you and your team (32:09)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• C3 Church
• Lucid Books
• Sermon To Book
• The E-Myth Revisited
• Calend.ly
• ScheduleOnce
• System Busters
• Trello
• Slack
• Podio
• Asana
• Basecamp
• Butler For Trello
• Ultimello
• Clear Todos

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Take a week and track your tasks. Write down every task and how long each one takes you. This will help you see how you are spending your time, and where can cut out or better prioritize your tasks.
2. Pass off low level tasks. Even though these tasks are important, if they are filling up too much of your time and keeping you from tasks that only you can do, then delegate these tasks. Prioritize your tasks and pass on the things that can be accomplished by someone else.
3. Turn off notifications on your phone. Constantly receiving notifications places you in a reactive position, where you're constantly 'just texting' or 'just replying.' Instead turn off your notifications and plan to check your email or social media at a set time for a designated amount of time. This puts you in control of how much time and attention each platform is absorbing.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp194/.

http://prochurchtools.com/193 - Storytelling is the best form of communication, but sometimes it can be difficult to translate it to social media. Rob discusses how to share micro stories on social. 

What's In This Session?

• How to track down the worthwhile stories in your church community (7:04)
• Why it’s important to begin capturing stories before you need them (10:28)
• The storytelling “c word” (if you don’t have this - you don’t have a story) (12:45)
• Examples of conflict in Jesus’ storytelling (17:28)
• How to make your congregation the hero of your stories (20:27)
• Using social media to share “micro-stories” (27:58)
• Common mistakes churches make with their storytelling efforts (32:21)
• Why storytelling is the most powerful form of human communication (35:55)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• OriginalStoryteller.com
• The Orange Conference
• Product Hunt

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Create a story database. One of the best ways to be prepared is to have a single place where you keep the a list of stories for future use. Whenever you hear a story from someone, just jot it down. This ensures that whenever you need a story, you can find one rather than scramble to come up with something at the last minute.
2. Conflict is the fuel for storytelling. It is what gets the story moving forward. Conflict gives your story purpose. It is the reason for change. The reason for resolution. If you don't have conflict - you don't have a story.
3. Slice stories down into smaller pieces for social media. You can do this by focusing on a single element or moment within the larger story.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp193/.

Engage Church is taking reaching their community through social media very seriously. In fact they set the audacious goal of being the most followed church in their city on Instagram. Currently they are 835 people away from reaching this goal. Their storytelling architect, Billy Humphrey, joins Brady to figure out what they can improve to hit their goal.

Meet The Church Being Coached

• Church Name: Engage Church
• Church Location: Tallahassee, Florida
• Church Age: 5 years
• Church Size: 400
• On the coaching call: Billy Humphrey - Storytelling Architect

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• Engage Church on Instagram
• City Church on Instagram
• Storytape.com
• Linktr.ee
• Bit.ly
• EngageTallahassee.com
• Pretty Link for Wordpress
• WhenToPost
• Buffer
• Later
• Grum
• Iconosquare
• Brady Shearer on Instagram
• Gleam.io
• CreativeLive.com
• Tek Syndicate Photography Tutorial
• Building A Volunteer Photography Team At Your Church with Dave Adamson

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Set a goal. Having a goal gives your work purpose. Like most projects, social media requires daily effort with only a small margin of growth per day. Having an overarching goal can help you maintain consistent effort knowing that even small increases are moving the needle forward.
2. Following local shops and businesses. Be invested your community. By following local businesses, and interacting with them, you not only become more aware of things that are happening in your community, but you get the opportunity to invest and become involved.
3. Use hashtags and location tags to help garner more organic traffic. Instagram is a social platform that still allows you to be found organically through hashtags, so be sure to use them on every post. Use location tags on your posts as well as on your Instagram stories.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/levelling-up-on-instagram-with-engage-church/.

On this episode, we switch up the podcast and have our friend Peter Guirguis interview Brady about Pro Church Tools, how it started, and how he deals with set backs.

What's In This Session?

• What Brady was like as a child (7:41)
• Why Brady decided to attend Bible College (15:34)
• How Pro Church Tools began (19:14)
• Learned vs. innate abilities (24:25)
• God's role in the accomplishments of Pro Church Tools (28:03)
• What's next for Pro Church Tools? (33:08)
• How Brady stays so productive (38:22)
• Rapid Fire Fun Questions (50:40)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• MailChimp
• Pro Church Podcast 039
• NotAshamedOfTheGospel.com
• Audible
• Tribe Of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
• Tools Of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• The E Myth Revisited
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• #AskGaryVee Book
• Steal The Show
• Nucleus

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Hustle hard and know what your talents are. When it comes to success, a willingness to work hard; to try and fail and try again is imperative, but so is knowing where your innate skills and talents lie. Know your lane, and run in it.
2. Go where the puck is going. Being a visionary means looking ahead. Like in hockey. It means not aiming for where the puck is presently, but instead anticipating where it will be. The same for church leaders - look ahead and anticipate where the church will need to be in a couple years. Aim for that.
3. Failure is the way forward. If you have audacious goals; if you want to be the best of the best, then you must expect roadblocks. Achieving the extraordinary is no simple task. Failure and roadblocks are a requirement. They are how you learn to be a success.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp192/.

Being a once a year event, Bold Conference is struggling to build a year round advertising strategy. Brady sits down with Carson to put some plans in place.

What's In This Session?

• Church Name: Bold Conference
• Church Location: Kansas City, Missouri
• Church Age: Pre-planning
• Church Size: Sponsor church is 500
• On the coaching call: Carson Cooper - Creative Contract

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• That Church Conference
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek
• Boomerang for Gmail
• Helpscout
• Intercom
• Storytape on Instagram
• Brady on Instagram
• Jab Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk

3 Instant Takeaways

1. Be more than promotion. You want to be present in the lives of your audience, but this can be more than just advertising. It can be blog posts, behind the scenes content, podcasts, videos - anything that is valuable to your audience. Find ways to accomplish the vision of your conference in an online space.
2. Have a measurable goal. If your goal is too broad, it will make it difficult to work toward because so much can fit into it. By narrowing down your goal you can better focus your energy, as well as know when you're actually achieving it.
3. Put in effort that is equal to the size of your goal. Often churches use God as an excuse to not put in the necessary work. Yes. God partners with us, but we still need to do our part. If you choose a big goal - plan for hard work.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/single-event-advertising-bold-conference/.

http://prochurchtools.com/191 - One of the struggles when it comes to storytelling in your church is finding stories to tell. Adam shares his strategy, as well as storytelling structure in this session. 

What's In This Session?

• How to discover stories in your church (and why not everyone’s story is worth telling) (14:13)
• Convincing individuals in your church to share their stories on camera (17:59)
• Church on the Move’s story structure (21:37)
• The best place to record a video interview (27:59)
• Essential gear for story videos (30:55)
• Pro video storytelling tips from the trenches (35:18)

Show Notes & Resources Mentioned

• The Story Guide
• Church On The Move
• Adam on Twitter
• Adam on Instagram
• Manuscripts Books

3 Instant Takeaways

1. The key to stories worth telling is change. Every great story has a main character who changes. Use this as a guide when choosing stories from your congregation to tell. Look for someone who has changed.
2. What location will support this story? When choosing where to film your story videos, choose places that make sense to your story. This will help you tell the story visually before your subject even begins speaking. Choosing space that make sense for the story will also help the story feel authentic.
3. Audio first. When it comes to gear, start with quality audio. People are more likely to stop watching due to poor audio quality rather than poor picture quality. Put thought and money into a quality microphone and learn how to use it properly.

Find the full transcript for this session of the Pro Church Podcast at http://prochurchtools.com/pcp191/.