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Turn your weekly talk into a month+ of online content | Gear Up 6

churches Apr 29, 2024

Churches are "always on," yet you can't be. You need an "off time. We teach you to distinguish between projects (things that occur once a season or once a year) AND processes (things that happen repeatedly).

When you automate the processes-- recurring events such as visitor follow-up, staff meeting times, etc.-- you not only create mental margin, you also free your energy to focus on the things that matter the most.

This means you must distinguish between projects and processes— most church leaders never think about either one, let alone calendar them and create systems to implement them.

Projects are one-time + seasonal events in the life of your organization. Christmas, Easter... summer camps, youth retreats, etc., are all projects.

The problem occurs in that church leaders tend to let these CONSUME their time as they approach the "due date."

As a result, processes get overwhelmed, and everyone's stress ceiling rises...

Processes are ongoing events...

... repeating actions that need to be addressed every single week.

The solution = to schedule your PROCESSES first...

... and then let everything else fall in line, ideally facing it MONTHS in advance (example: most church leaders run crazy around Christmas and Easter-- yet these two events occur at basically the same time every year, with no major variation in terms of the message of the expectations).

Yes, we're talking about systems here.

But, embrace it. Although systems cannot create life, they DO make space where life can take hold and thrive.

In the Gear Up framework we talk about several processes. I want to review TWO of them here— as many churches make these after-thoughts, yet these can be growth engines that are easy to implement when done with a process / system.

🎙️ Your sermon / message / talk = a process to implement with it and share it

This is simple to do— and can be cheaply outsourced if you don’t have a team to do it.

Step 1 = Deliver the message (which will be placed somewhere online after it’s done). Remember, you may or may not be a candidate for live-streaming. Don’t do it if you can’t do it well.

Step 2 = Pull 3 (approximately) 3-5 minute clips from your talk (for social media, a blog, YouTube, etc.).

Step 3 = Pull 3 (approximately) 30-60 seconds clips for Instagram and/or TikTok and/or Facebook and/or stories

Step 4 = Find a few quote cards, pictures, etc., for other social posts

(Note: setting up some of this on the front end and actually writing some of your own posts will help your message prep.)

Now...

📈 Leverage the talk and social media to grow your online audience— and then invite people in closer.

Using a content calendar to share the above (see the module provided, “How to create a content calendar” at www.AmplifyOnline.info/365), grow your online audience with this 4-step strategy—

🖥️ Create a website using the guidelines we’ve outlined above (avoid the 7 mistakes; align with the 7 best practices). Be sure to collect the contact info of your visitors so you can communicate with them. It’s best, recall, if you can retarget them based on what they opted-in for

🎥 📻 Place regular content on your site— your full sermon, or pieces of it in blog form (at the bottom of each post, always have a “next best step” to a related opt-in).

📱Post the shortest clips, pictures, and other forms of content on social media— but direct people from those small clips and images back to the bigger, new content on your website (i.e., the full talk).