Pro Church Podcast With Brady Shearer

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:50): What are good ways to get feedback and a pulse on your community? Do you use surveys (and if so, what should they include?), focus groups, something else? How do you invite community feedback? Question #2 (08:00): I’m putting together a presentation to advocate for more hours in my role at my church citing that social media needs more of my time and more resources as we need to be more intentional with making it great. What are some key points I need to hit?  Question #3 (15:07): What's the best time for posting to Instagram Reels? Question #4 (16:38): Is it worth the time to add captions to videos (actually burned into the video). Premiere pro can do automatic captioning, is it actually beneficial for videos? Does it differ for YT, FB, IG, TT, etc?  

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:45): Our average attendance is around 60 people. Over half of those are students ages 16 to 22. The students run sound, do set up tear down, and do the all the food and drinks for fellowship. Most of our adults are every other week maybe in attendance. I so badly wish I had a fresh set of eyes to see what I could do to keep our adults engaged. We are a student led church. Question #2 (09:41): What are your thoughts on which tithing options to offer? How many are too many? Is it seen outdated to pass a physical plate? Question #3 (19:36): How do you feel about "Text CONNECT to 00000" as a CTA versus go to "graceky.org"? Is it better to just stick with the website url? Question #4 (22:48): Any advice for my first time managing interns?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:44): Is the perfect URL as important as it used to be? Are we past the days of needing the perfect URL or is it still just as important as always? Question #2 (09:29): Would you suggest to move to *just* Reels on Instagram? What pointers if any could you pass along? Question #3 (15:33): Do you struggle with keeping strategies away from manipulation? Question #4 (25:35): If you didn't start Pro Church Tools (Brady) or work as a pastor or at Pro Church Tools (Alex) what would you be doing instead?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (06:57): How can we use Facebook Ads as the new IG/FB rules do not allow interests related to religion anymore? Question #2 (13:52): What are some of the "easy to miss" elements of an effective and successful online ministry? Question #3 (23:47): What do you think about different ministries having social media pages? Question #4 (25:37): What do you do to relax? Are you a golfer like most ministers? 

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:07): How do I encourage growth and evolution in the way we use social media in a church that likes to stay with tradition?  Question #2 (10:21): Do you think a church can post too many clips from a sermon per week? Is there a point where you push out too much content? Question #3 (17:30): Anyone have any thoughts on the "ideal" number of next steps in the Launcher? Any thoughts on a max number? I have been wondering if the Launcher can have too many and get cluttered. Question #4 (28:11): I am trying to create a cohesive feed for all of our church's social media. However, the lighting varies greatly depending on where the photo was taken. Do you have any Lightroom presets you recommend? 

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:54): When posting about church events or announcements on social, how does one communicate information about the event, while keeping the graphics interesting each time, and without turning every announcement post into something promotional? Question #2 (11:23): Suggestions on how to handle a senior pastor creating/posting his own rogue branding/marketing/reels to his own FB/IG? Question #3 (16:05): How do you think churches should respond to negative comments on social media?  Question #4 (28:00): What camera/lens/mic combination are you using for your TikToks and Reels?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:20): How do I get a job in church when I'm first starting out? Question #2 (16:41): If a church has no tech or media presence at all...what should be their first step? Question #3 (26:15): What keeps you invested in the North American church model?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:25): How do I improve my website SEO? Question #2 (11:38): Any advice for putting together sermon bumper videos? Question #3 (19:49): It seems like churches are either able to serve young adults, or every other age demographic, but not both. Are there any churches that are truly intergenerational anymore? Is this a realistic goal? Question #4 (29:12): What's something you worried about entering your 30s that ended up not being a big deal?  

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (03:38): What is a good open rate for my church's email newsletters? Question #2 (18:18): What are some best practices for church newsletter email subject lines? Question #3 (23:05): In last week's podcast you mentioned cleaning your email list.  How would you recommend churches do this?  Question #4 (27:15): How is it actually like living in Niagara? It feels real far from Toronto.

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:58): What are your thoughts on the relevancy of email newsletters? Question #2 (15:58): What's the #1 thing for an overwhelmed comms/media person to focus on this year? Question #3 (20:55): What's a social media prediction that turned out differently than you expected in the past few years? Question #4 (27:04): When you were just starting with PCT, what do you wish you did earlier/different?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (03:03): How do you move people from being consumers of content to communicating with you to being contributors?  Question #2 (15:34): Best tips for worship leader song transitions? Question #3 (19:44): Tips for using social for outreach to people in the city? Question #4 (25:32): What's a gap in knowledge you have? Meaning, something everyone else knows, but you don't?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:45): What level of engagement is realistic for a “text your question” or “text a prayer” next step? How long should we try it or other strategies? What is a realistic level of engagement? Question #2 (12:51): Have you ever felt so burnt out that you want to quit? If so, what did you do? If not, any advice? Question #3 (27:30): What's your take on QR codes, their effectiveness, and whether or not they should be on graphics? Question #4 (35:48): When you’re feeling bougie, what is your number one splurge purchase?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:27): What is the strategy to communicate a lot of things that are happening? And then follow-up question, how many times can/should you repeat an announcement leading up to an event? Is there an effective window of time? Question #2 (25:08): How do you recommend dealing with haters online? Question #3 (35:27): If you could only choose one camera and lens combo right now - what would it be? Question #4 (39:32): As an ultra-productive, what's your sleep schedule/strategy?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (03:33): What's your best advice for a young person in ministry?  Question #2 (16:36): Do you see value in the usage of YouTube shorts? How would you advise a church using that feature? Question #3 (22:05): What’s the best way to stay on top of a schedule for creating content? Question #4 (25:45): What are your favorite TV shows?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (00:42): Do you batch film? If so, what does that content schedule look like?  Question #2 (10:09): Recommendations for handling storage.  Question #3 (17:01): What are some best practices for using outdoor digital signage? Question #4 (23:58): Did you enjoy Bible College?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (02:24): Assuming you're a full time pastor whose primary role is not digital/online/social and you only have 5-10 hours per week to devote to updating website, sending emails and creating/posting content, where do you believe that time would best be spent? Question #2 (18:02): How can I as a volunteer leader step up in the way I invest in my team? Question #3 (25:10): What is your posture on posting on a church social account about tragedies or big news events. Would you recommend a policy? If so, what would that look like? Question #4 (33:45): What are your cringiest youth group moments?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (1:28): Did you see the article about prayer apps selling data? Question #2 (27:18): You talk a lot about how you build Nucleus without investors. Would you ever consider selling Nucleus?  

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (01:45): How did we get here? Question #2 (06:55): Why did we decide to include two free products in Nucleus 2? Question #3 (09:20): What is Slideshow Syndrome? Question #4 (15:28): What action should be prioritized in The Next Steps Launcher? Question #5 (22:37): What else is coming in Nucleus 2? Question #6 (31:12): Are we doing charter membership for Nucleus 2? Question #7 (37:10): How do they become a part of it?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (1:52): What are your top tips for leading a creative/communications team? Question #2 (13:02): What is a good schedule for posting on social media? Question #3 (17:34): What are your systems for researching and posting content? Question #4 (24:13): What is the most basic thing about you?

Send in your question via text to 1-800-485-3139. Question #1 (2:57): What are people really looking for in a church right now? Question #2 (13:12): How do you overcome social fatigue even though you know you need to stay engaged? Question #3 (20:34): Can you talk about title and thumbnail optimization for YouTube? Question #4 (31:41): What's the most basic thing about you?