We live in a divided world that tries to use the teachings of Jesus for political gains. For us to reach people this culture, we have to show them that what we’re talking about is not political or governmental, but rather personal and spiritual. This week we go more big picture and talk about how we walk the line of speaking into the culture around us while not being partisan. We’ll also talk about how we respond to those who accuse us of jumping onto political trends. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Whether it’s prosperity preachers buying planes for themselves or the local pastor wearing expensive suits and driving a Cadillac, there’s a feeling amongst people – both in the Church and outside of it – that churches just care about getting people's money. This week we talk about how we need to own up to that perception before we can boldly invite people to invest their time, resources, and money into our church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We always want to give people a menu of things to choose from, but what they really need is a map of how to get where they want to go. This week we talk about what that looks like, how to implement it, and how to communicate it to your church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

People are wired differently. They all learn in different ways and respond to different things. While some are motivated by fun and exciting things, others want to know details and facts before they commit to something. For us to have success in motivating our church to respond – whether to an event, to a service, or to the Gospel – we have to recognize everyone learns in different ways and then adapt our communications styles to those different learning styles.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

People’s schedules don't revolve around the church anymore. We have to realize them coming to anything we do is a sacrifice of time and we should be honored they made that choice. If we treated people like that as opposed to shaming them for not making time for church, we’d be much more likely to attract people to things in the future. We talk with Drew Powell from Cross Point Church about how to shift our thinking to better reach people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Walking in to a new church is terrifying. When I visited a new church for the first time last fall, I tried to do everything I could to figure out where I’d be going so I didn’t feel dumb or overwhelmed on Sunday morning. How can we address those things before people get to church, once they’re there, and as they start doing new things in our church.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

People choose our church for a specific reason - it could be the teaching, the music, the culture. Whatever it is, people are there for a reason. This week we talk about how you should leverage that and press into it as much as possible to more effectively reach people in your community. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Church hurt is real. We have to realize we don’t automatically get the benefit of the doubt anymore. We have to earn that and earn the right to be heard. How do we do that? How do we acknowledge past hurts without making it awkward? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Season 6 of Solving Problems kicks off in one week (January 13). In this episode, we talk about what to expect this season, who we'll be talking to, and give you a rundown of what each episode will be about. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're a month into the coronavirus cycle. If you're like me, you've had times where you've struggled mentally/spiritually. That's normal! Our routines are all sorts of messed up and we're dealing with stuff we never prepared for.This episode looks at a quick story from the Bible and gives you three questions to think through that will help you pinpoint exactly where you are spiritually so you can begin to get back to being healthy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When we don't have church services, our giving goes down. But how do we talk about giving when the economy is so uncertain and people aren't sure if they can pay their bills? In this episode, we give you three tips to having giving conversations that care for your people and produce more income. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

People are going to disagree with the decisions you make regarding the coronavirus. And unfortunately, many of them will disagree vocally. Today we talk about how we talk to those people, how our response reflects our church, and how to best lead through these decisions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With no church services, we're all adjusting to live streaming. But simply doing what you do on a Sunday and filming it can feel awkward and lack authenticity. Today we talk about how you can teach directly to the camera in a way that speaks to the person watching in a way that's different than teaching from stage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our church family is stuck at home learning a new life of remote working and home schooling. We want to love them well, not burden them with more to do, and the line between those two things can be tough to navigate. Today we discuss the things we can be talking about to help them during these transitions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most of our ministry is built around the weekend gathering. With those gatherings being canceled for a few weeks, how do we reach the people in our church community and our local community at large? In this episode, we give you some ideas for how to continue ministering during what is a very strange time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With concerns about coronavirus ramping up, we wanted to get you a special episode to help you think through what to say and how to say it as you communicate to your church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most churches think if they simply promote things enough, people will be more likely to show up. This week we talk about how saying fewer things to a smaller audience will actually help you get more people involved in your ministries and events. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There aren't many things more frustrating than looking around the auditorium when your service is starting and seeing 8 people in the room. The good news is the room will fill in over the next ten minutes, but why are people always late? This week we tackle three questions you should ask to find out the answer for your church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Your church can't function without volunteers. But getting volunteers to serve is one of the hardest things we do. In this week's episode, we talk about the big reasons your volunteer pushes are falling flat and give you some tips on how to motivate more people to serve within your church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Social media ads are great – except when they're not. Today we talk about three ways your church is burning money on social media ads and give you tips on how to get the most bang for your buck. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most church videos are boring and long winded. In today's episode, we talk about how to create great story videos that capture the heart of your audience and inspire them to take action. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Social media is one of the best ways to communicate to your church. But if you're like most, you aren't getting the interaction you think you should be getting. In today's episode, we talk about three reasons why no one is paying attention to your social media and give you some practical tips on how to increase engagement. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we talk about the changes to the show and preview everything coming up in Season 4. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Jonathan and Kyler end the season off telling some stories of churches they’ve helped and some of the success they’ve had. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The problem with most church websites is that while they may look nice, they don’t actually speak to how their church uniquely solves the problems of the people they’re trying to reach. They say great things about their church, but those great things don't tell the guest how you can help with what they’re looking for. And that’s why many websites aren’t nearly as effective as they could be which is super frustrating. In this episode we talk to a former executive pastor and current StoryBrand Certified Guide about how his church implemented StoryBrand onto their website, in email campaigns, and throughout their communications and the results they had with it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Announcing events is something that most of us hate but we can’t get rid of. Tracking down the right information and then making that compelling takes more time an energy than it should.In this episode we talk to one church who has started requiring their ministries to submit a BrandScript to go along with their event promotion requests. We discuss what it’s been like to have ministry leaders do that, how they got them to buy in, and how it’s made their promotions and communications better. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Leading people in worship of Jesus is a very sacred thing. But unfortunately, because of the nature of the role, many worship leaders are disconnected from the people they’re trying to lead. And it’s not their fault! Worship leaders spend hours each week listening to the songs they’re leading so they can know them well enough to lead others in them. When Sunday morning comes, there’s a disconnect between what the song the worship leader has been thinking about and listening to and what it means to them and what the attender who just fought their kids at drop off is thinking an experiencing.In this episode we talk about how we become the attender’s guide and take them to Jesus during our worship sets. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Preaching or teaching the Bible is one of the highest callings a person can have. But we’ve all sat through sermons that may have been factually accurate but left us feeling bored. They’re the ones we end up checking Facebook 1000 times during.We have the greatest story ever told – the hope of Jesus – but if we can’t communicate it in a way that people connect with, we’re just wasting our breath. In this episode, we look at how you can use StoryBrand to preach your sermon. We also talk about what it’s like to create a BrandScript for an individual sermon and how to use that within your talk. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Talking about money is awkward. But it’s important. We can’t do the things God has called our churches to do without broaching the topic of money and asking people to sacrificially give.But if we do it the wrong way, people not only won’t give, they may actually end up leaving the church.In today’s episode we take to Seth Muse, communications director at Hope Fellowship in Frisco, Texas. When Seth took the job at Hope, they were a year into a two-year giving campaign and were already behind schedule. After implementing StoryBrand into their messaging, they made up their deficit and actually raised more money than their original goal. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Planning a teaching series week after week and month after month gets to be tedious. But like it or not, most of our weekend services are built around what our teaching team is doing. How do we simplify what we do, stay creative in how we do it, and continue to reach people in a noisy world?In this episode, we look at how one church uses StoryBrand to plan out their teaching series and what it looks like to implement that throughout their marketing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The StoryBrand framework is different than what we’ve traditionally done in the church world. Getting people to buy in that the people we’re trying to reach are the hero of our communications and not Jesus is a hard sell to many because many of us are programmed that Jesus is the hero of the story no matter what.In this episode we talk to a lead pastor who has made the leap into using StoryBrand for their church. We talk to him about what drew him to StoryBrand, what it was like to develop their BrandScript, and how it’s helped his church do ministry better. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Having a clear, common language to use when communicating to your church makes your job easier and more effective. This week we talk about one-liners (4:09) and how you can use them to have a common language amongst your church (14:44). We also talk about how most announcements are unnecessary hype (5:16), why speaking into problems is important (11:22), and how a common language equips people to invite others to your church (15:45). Lastly, we get practice by BrandScripting VBS (7:26) and turning that Brandscript into a one-line you can use to motivate people to show up (9:31). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We could have the greatest message in the world – and we do – but if we can’t lead well, people still won’t follow us. This week, we talk about how we can use StoryBrand to be better leaders (3:12). We'll dive into how people don't know what we're thinking (4:30) and how to determine what events/ministries we should be doing (6:12). We'll also look at how we can use the BrandScript to have better meetings (12:33) and will do a sample BrandScript for a hard conversation (14:18). Lastly, we'll look into how we can lead up and lead our supervisors (20:47) and how the StoryBrand Framework gives you a unifying language (26:05). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's one thing to give people information. It's a totally different animal to then ask them to do something with that information. But if we want people's lives to me changed, we have to call them to action. This week we talk about why it's important to ask people to respond (3:53), how pushy we should be in our ask (10:39), and how we balance getting the message across without being annoying (12:25). We also talk about how Cross Point Church uses their branding to help them move people to action (15:04). Lastly, we look at how we can give people half-steps for when they're not ready to commit (19:01) and ask if the first time guest form is too pushy (23:18). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Talking about giving is awkward. This week, we talk with Stu Baker from NewFire Giving about the biggest mistake churches make when talking about giving (2:49), why talking about money is weird (6:56), and how our biggest problem with the money conversation is our messaging (8:37). We also look at why giving to nonprofits is up while giving to the church is down (12:58), the #1 reason a person gives to an organization (13:55), and how Charity:Water used success to motivate people to give (16:50). To close the episode, we dive into how more options to give isn't always better (19:39), when to use text giving (22:34), and the importance of celebrating giving (25:24). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This may be our most fun episode to date. We spend ten minutes (22:43) looking at the silliest event and ministry names we've ever seen. But before that, we talk about why being cute is a bad idea (4:01), how to lead other leaders away from using cute names (17:01), and why relationships matter more than results (20:07). We also give you a test to see if your names are effective (5:54), introduce the middle school test (35:13), and explain what a slippery bowling ball is (11:47). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the past, churches have use failure as a weapon and it's burned people. This week we talk to Drew Powell from Cross Point Church about why churches are afraid to mention failure (5:15), how failure can actually help people (12:02), and how pressing on pain points can motivate people to respond (21:01). We also get in the weeds of how to use failure in our teaching (7:56) and in our promotions (15:55). Oh! And Jonathan introduces the idea of making a failure sandwich (11:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Finding the voice of your church is one of the hardest things in church communications. This week we talk with Kelley Hartnett about why the words we use matter (4:16), how our words can make people more at ease (11:02), and what to do if you’re hitting a wall in developing your church’s voice (21:11). We also discuss how the voice of our church has to reflect the vision of our church (20:07) and how finding our voice takes a frustrating amount of time (30:28). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this week's episode, we follow up with part two of our look at The Curse of Knowledge. We talk all about how we can leverage the things we already know to reach people and make them feel more like they belong at our church. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we start a two part episode on The Curse of Knowledge. We discuss pet peeve curse of knowledge examples (4:01), some of the things we assume everyone knows (5:46), and how some confusion is unavoidable (7:31).Jonathan talks about how an assumption almost made him leave the church (8:56) and how we can avoid turning people away (14:11). To round out the show, we hit on how assuming people don’t know this isn’t dumbing down our theology (18:32), Jonathan uses another bad dating metaphor (21:29), and how we can never explain things too often (23:30). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the season 2 kick-off, we talk with Tiny Horse GM and former Elevation Church Creative Pastor Larry Hubatka to try to solve problems like isn’t Jesus the hero of the story? (6:17), how does marketing factor into the church? (7:11), what does the word hero even mean? (10:13), what are some ways we make people the hero? (11:58), and how do we make people feel like they belong? (17:33) He also shares how Elevation Church tracks their discipleship process (22:40) and gives us a grid for how making people the hero changes how we do ministry (27:51). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the season two preview, we take a look back at season one (1:20), talk about what StoryBrand is (3:33) and who this podcast is for (8:48), and then turn our attention to previewing what's coming up in season two (10:20). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week is all about Christmas! We ask if people even know what Advent is (3:20) and talk about the Christmas traditions we take for granted (4:20). We also create a BrandScript for Advent (8:50) and give you a templated video script to promote the season (17:42). Plus we try to determine if Kyler has ever read the Bible (23:20) and discuss how singing Silent Night to candle light is actually a little weird (29:46). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our culture trusts the Church less than at any point in recent history. In this episode, we talk with Wes Gay about how we must find common ground with people (2:30), what empathy looks like (4:25), and how we develop an empathetic culture (12:22). We also look at balancing empathy with numbers (15:07), how we communicate empathy online (16:45), and how we can show empathy in a Sunday service (22:52). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Drew Powell from Crosspoint Church is back with us to talk about why our event promotion usually doesn't work (2:45), how the hype man is played out (6:38), and how to craft your announcements to connect with people (8:14). He gives us a great story of how he leveraged what people were already thinking into Crosspoint's biggest one-day small group sign ups ever (10:03) and we discuss having fun with failure (17:07). Plus - are QR codes a thing again (24:20) and a quick tip with Kyler (26:40). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kyler's in for the full episode and we're talking websites! We hit on why your words matter (3:57), examples of great website headlines (7:43), and what should go on your home page (11:15). We also give you some questions to consider about your website (15:02) and tell you why your next steps on your website are probably wrong (19:37). Oh! And Kyler makes a reference that's probably a little inappropriate but was perfect (21:25) and we give you a wireframe you can use for your home page (23:01). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we talk to Drew Powell from Crosspoint Church about who the Christmas service is designed to reach (6:49), how we get people to come back in January (12:18) and how we keep kids engaged in a Christmas Eve service (20:45). Plus we discuss how to leverage your pastor's influence to reach people (25:03) and have another quick tip for you to implement (30:52). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, we talk about the single biggest problem churches have in their marketing (3:52) and why making people the hero of the story is hard (4:28). We also give you a fun game to play at your next staff meeting (13:55) and discuss how your marketing plan is different than your discipleship plan (16:49). Plus we show you how to use StoryBrand for your preaching (27:16) and give you a quick tip for how to do a push for volunteers (30:00). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode we talk about who we are and what you can expect, how we're different from the other church marketing podcasts out there, and why you should subscribe to us. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.