The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer

Real photos of real people at your church are incredibly important when it comes to branding on your website and social media. Alex discusses his recommendations when it comes to gear.   What's In This Session? DSLR Camera Body (1:38) 6D Mk II (3:30) 5D Mk II (3:40) Fast Lens (4:02) Lens Pen (5:14) Pelican Case (5:56) Neewer Glass Prism (6:45) Backdrop Kit (8:50) Editing software - GIMP / Lightroo...

Every one of our churches want to grow and the best way to do that is to increase next steps. Brady discusses how to make this happen in your church.   What's In This Session? Quick wins (2:05) The lie (2:36) The paradox (3:05) The study (3:25) Less announcements (7:03) Connect cards (7:31) A single call to action (8:17)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Nucleus Church The 50% Rule For Church Ann...

Churches often struggle with having too many announcements, but being unsure about which ones to cut while keeping the peace. Brady shares his 50% rule that allows you to limit announcements without favouritism.   What's In This Session? Announcements promote first steps (2:25) The 50% Rule (3:16) Reason #1: Conditioning (4:02) Reason #2: Removes conflict (5:25) Reason #3: Reduces announcements (6...

Brady discusses why next steps are such a beneficial metric for your church and the steps you need to follow to begin tracking them.   What's In This Session? Ep. #144 (1:05) Every church mission statement (1:55) Next steps (2:18) Step #1: Audit (5:04) Step #2: Assign value (5:45) Step #3: Set your baseline (6:47) Step #4: Work to improve (7:49) Nucleus (9:37)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Th...

With church attendance continuing to drop due to major cultural shifts, it is no longer the best metric for tracking church growth or health. Brady shares 3 reasons why, and some other metrics to use instead.   What's In This Session? Current attendance trends (1:04) Reason #1: Millennial drop off (2:01) Reason #2: Affluence (2:38) Reason #3: Communication shift (3:17) Weight loss analogy (4:18) D...

Brady shares a job description and five principle concepts to help your church decide if you need to hire someone to fill the role of communications director, or why you should have one at all.   What's In This Session? The DM (0:21) Job description (2:03) Pillar #1: Grand vision (2:54) Pillar #2: Communication shift (4:35) Pillar #3: Attention (6:15) Pillar #4: Seize the 167 (6:30) Pillar #5: Suc...

Social media is constantly changing. Alex discusses a DM he received with story about using the slider feature on Instagram stories to encourage connection and engagement.   What's In This Session? Episode 108 review (0:21) Kieran's DM (1:05) The results (2:54) Tool #1: PicMonkey (4:01) Tool #2: WordSwag (4:46) Tool #3: Photoshop / Illustrator (6:00)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned How To Use I...

Brady discusses a message he received from a pastor who is seeing the effects of using social media at his church first hand. EJ has seen incredible growth at his church plant, and Brady shares some principles you can apply to your church.   What's In This Session? Pastor EJ's story (1:09) #1: Low-hanging Fruit (2:26) #2: The Brand (2:14) #3: Facebook Live Devotion (5:34) #4: Ownership Over Attend...

Social media provides a lot of feedback and accurate tracking on how well your posts and presence are performing. Brady discusses how to know if you're succeeding as a church on social media.   What's In This Session? The DM Brady received (0:22) Attention, engagement, and next steps (1:13) Brady's Face (3:07) Empty Church (3:43) Formula #1: Attention (4:32) Formula #2: Engagement (5:24) Formula #...

We understand the struggle of designing graphics for summer events and needing new, up to date fonts, but without spending a ton of money. Brady shares 7 free fonts for your church to use this summer.   What's In This Session? #1: Mattilda (1:04) #2: Oxford (1:34) #3: Alberto (2:49) #4: Gilroy (3:23) #5: Hansief   (4:35) #6: Garment District (5:45) #7: Tuesday Night (6:18)   Show Notes & Resources...

Statistically less and less Americans attend church every single year. Ryan Wakefield of Church Marketing University joins us to discuss how to create a welcoming environment for first time guests.   What's In This Session? The world is becoming more unfamiliar with church (1:20) Tip #1: The Host Address (3:47) Tip #2: The FAQ Sheet (7:28) Tip #3: Be understandable (8:28)   Show Notes & Resources...

If you spend enough time online - you'll get an angry comment. This can leave you wondering, what do I do? How do I respond? That's what this episode is about. Brady responds to a real life situation.   What's In This Session? Adam's experience (0:41) Option #1: Delete & reach out personally (3:33) Option #2: Hide (4:56) Option #3: Respond (5:55) The popcorn comments GIF (7:02)   Show Notes & Reso...

If you are a one man (or woman) band at your church, wearing multiple hats, and feel like your to-do list is a bit too much - Brady talks about building a team and bringing on new members.   What's In This Session? Misconception #1: You need people with experience (2:22) Misconception #2: I'm too important to delegate (3:22) Step #1: Audit (3:54) Step #2: Create standard operating procedures (4:48...

If you're wanting to grow your church's social media presence faster than you are currently - this is the Pro Church Daily episode for you! Brady discusses 3 methods to help encourage growth.   What's In This Session? Churches' unique advantage (0:30) Method #1: Cross-promotion (3:16) Method #2: Contest (4:21) Method #3: Paid promotion (7:30)   Show Notes & Resources Mentioned Pro Church Tools Pro...

Tech is advancing at an incredible pace, which is great for creatives because technology that used to be reserved for studios with big budgets are now highly affordable. Brady talks about 5 pieces of gear we're excited about in 2018.   What's In This Session? Digital tools become more affordable every year (0:23) #1: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera V2 (announced for Fall 2018)   (2:24) #2: DJI Ron...

Brady responds to a member of Pro Church Nation who feels stuck and is struggling to shift the culture of his church to become more healthy. Laying out a four step plan, Brady discusses how to get started.   What's In This Session? Human nature (1:03) To change culture you need: clout, patience, and time (3:24) Step #1: Ensure everyone agrees on the destination (4:23) Step #2: Wait and prove you'r...

Brady received an Instagram DM the other day from a member of Pro Church Nation. They asked the question, "how big is a small church? Less than 2,000?" Having attended a church over a thousand attendees, they didn't realize that this was not the norm. Brady discusses the facts on church attendance.   What's In This Session? 1: Only 23-25% of Americans show up to church 3 out of 8 Sundays (1:19) 2:...

We travel a lot here at Pro Church Tools. Whether it's capturing footage for Storytape, or speaking at conferences, there's always a trip in the works. Over the past couple years we've learned a lot about travelling light and efficient. Brady talks through our travel essentials.   What's In This Session? 1: Lowepro Flipside (2:01) 2: Hexad Access Duffel (3:20) 3: Skyroam (4:26) 4: Portable iPhone...

We constantly encourage churches to seize the 167 hours outside their Sunday service each week. Brady explains why this applies to churches with older demographics as well.   What's In This Session? The stats (1:44) #1: Number one source for finding information (2:20) #2: 19 hours per week are spent online (4:50) #3: 4 hours & 9 minutes per week are spent on social media (6:30)   Show Notes & Reso...

We are living through the biggest communication shift in 500 years. We see this reflected in companies like Disney and Netflix, and churches are not immune. Brady talks about how this changes the way you do outreach.   What's In This Session? Disney (0:21) Market value of Disney vs. Netflix (1:09) "Until Disney launches its own streaming service" (2:36) Churches aren't immune to this change (6:11)...

Brady has presented more than 30 thousand individual church announcements over the last 5 years which has helped him develop the unique skill of reading from a teleprompter well. He shares his tips and tricks for beginners.   What's In This Session? 7 feet between the teleprompter and the talent (1:50) Pre read the script (3:01) High contrast (3:37) Expressive face (4:07) Resting spot for your han...

We have spoken a few times about Millennials here at Pro Church Tools, and the reason for that is because we are millennials, but also because we are in a very unique time period. Brady discusses one quality that sets millennials apart.   What's In This Session? Intergenerational friction (0:47) Older generations (1:33) Younger generations (2:29) The current pop culture shift (3:04) We need each o...

When Facebook updated their algorithm for 2018, founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the changes were to encourage "meaningful interaction." This is what you should be aiming for with your church accounts if you're wanting to see engagement. Brady talks about some ways to do just that.   What's In This Session? Meaningful interaction (0:31) #1: Day Of The Year (1:30) #2: The Elimination Game (3:49) #...

One of the struggles for churches in 2018 and beyond is the ever growing amount of digital and social platforms to be active on, and not understanding the value in this. Brady discusses how online presence relates to your church's vision.   What's In This Session? #1: Attention (3:12) #2: Engagement (3:57) #3: Next Steps (4:15) Example #1 (Analog) (5:01) Example #2 (Digital) (6:51) Predictable (7:...

We all know how important social media is to the life of our churches, and its searchability online, as well as just engaging your congregation throughout the week. Brady shares 11 social media tools you can use at your church.   What's In This Session? 1: Instagram Business (0:48) 2: Buffer (2:59) 3: Evernote (3:33) 4: VSCO (4:21) 5: Priime (5:33) 6: Airdrop (6:06) 7: Boomerang (7:40) 8: Hyperlap...