13 Engaging Social Media Post Ideas For Churches

Speaker 0 00:00:00 In today's episode, we discuss 13 engaging social media, post ideas for churches. Every pastor knows that being on social media is an integral part of your church's outreach strategy, but often church leaders get stuck trying to figure out what to post, join us as we help your church break the social post log jam, and share ideas that are proven to work. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. Speaker 1 00:00:38 You're listening to the read-write podcast. The show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. We're here to help you your church see more visitors and grow you guys. Welcome to the reach right podcast Speaker 0 00:01:07 Episode number 41. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my cohost Ian Hyatt. What's up Thomas. Hey, not too much in looking forward to our conversation here today, we're going to be talking about 13 and engaging social media, post ideas for churches. Uh, this is going to be a fun conversation. I think a light-hearted, but I think it's something that a lot of, uh, church leaders, pastors, church communication directors that we struggle with sometimes because it is a never ending cycle. Putting out social media content is something that you have to do, uh, probably every single day if you're doing it right. Um, I think on some channels, uh, on other channels, maybe you can get away with it being a few times a week. Um, but it's a constant thing. You have to always be putting out social media content as a church communications person. Speaker 0 00:02:00 Uh, and I've seen a lot of, uh, church leaders get logged, jammed there and have a hard time coming up with new ideas. And what do I post next and getting that all scheduled out. So hopefully we can give some people some ideas today. Yeah, that'd be great. I think for years we've seen, uh, that, you know, the usual stuff is like, here's the word or the verse for the day, and then here's our next event. And those are all those things are good. Sure. There's more that you can be doing. And I think it's hard sometimes for churches to kind of think outside the box and, you know, they have their usual daily stuff that they're doing. And so hopefully this is helpful for a lot of pastors. It's been said that variety is the spice of life. And I think if you get caught in that rut of just doing a new inspirational scripture every week or some kind of a pithy quote, um, you know, there's not to say that isn't valuable, but I think that at the same time, uh, having some kind of variety out there will probably be helpful for most churches. Speaker 0 00:02:54 So we have 13 of them. So it's a pretty good size list today of things that I, yeah, this hope this is something that's helpful for our audience to be able to, uh, to dig in. And just maybe if one of them or two of them give you a new idea on something you can post. Um, one thing I've seen be helpful for churches too, is having, uh, some kind of a schedule like a weekly schedule. So, uh, they'll have, um, interesting question Friday is, or they'll have a scripture of retro graphics. They do those every Saturday that kind of ties in with the, the message the following day, or they'll have different ideas, but it'll be in some kind of a regular schedule. That's the same post every single week with the same, uh, the same format, at least with different content each week there. Speaker 0 00:03:37 So there's lots of ways to use this, but yeah, we just hope this is something that gives people a few ideas. So, uh, I'll go ahead and kick us off with number one. It is to ask interesting questions, ask interesting questions. And by interesting, I don't mean deep theological questions like, uh, you know, what do you think have really happened on the Mount of transfiguration? No, that's not the kind of question that's going to get a lot of response on social media. Uh, I think questions that, um, that will get people to stop what they're doing and that a question that someone has an opinion about, uh, that there'll be, it's usually kind of lighthearted, uh, but it would be interesting and people will, um, will, will be willing to do it. So an example of this would be something like, um, what is the best flavor of ice cream? Uh, that would be a great idea of an interesting question. Uh, your answer to that question. Ian is Speaker 2 00:04:29 Mint chocolate chip comes to mind first mint Speaker 0 00:04:31 Chocolate chip. I'm a, I'm a chocolate peanut butter guy personally. Uh, so that's the way I roll with that stuff. Um, it's also said that Elvis loved that flavor of ice cream. So, uh, yeah, so Speaker 2 00:04:42 Famous people that like mint chocolate chip, just to try to Trump the King, Speaker 0 00:04:46 I have a cloud of witnesses in my favor for that one, but you, so that's the kind of thing that immediately you'd know what the answer to that question is for you. And that's one of those things is that with social media, don't make the mistake of thinking that everything has to be super serious all the time. I know we have a serious message. I know that, um, eternity is important. We're not, we're not saying that any of that stuff isn't true. Right. But really our goal is to engage people in conversation and the Facebook and Instagram and Twitter algorithms when they see content that's being interacted with, even when it's someone writing mint chocolate chip like that, that goes a long way to what it, what it does to the algorithms. As it says, this organization, this church, they put out a lot of content that people like to comment on. So next time they write a post, let's put that out to a few more people, so they'll see it there. So I think asking interesting questions is a great way. Anything to add on that, Speaker 2 00:05:44 How much I think though that I like what you said about just, you know, the mint chocolate chip or that's my, this is still in my mind anyway, the favorite ice cream thing shows that you're personable too. Cause a lot of times you think about the unchurched person or person who's, de-churched considering coming back to church there, they may have kind of an expectation that this is all going to be spiritual. Where am I at with God and, and all of that. Uh, and when you kind of just show that you're human and you know, you also love, you know, ice cream and Jesus, then it makes you more personable. So I like it I'll tackle the second one, which is a sermon teasers. And I think that that's great, we're in the age of sermon series. Um, and that's relevant to a lot of people. Speaker 2 00:06:27 A lot of people are looking for when they're looking for a church, they're looking for what kind of preaching and series and what what's this church addressing. You know, obviously when a day and age where a lot has been taking place in the world and in our country, it's the people you're having relevant topics that you can kind of promote out there. It generates excitement. Um, and now there's a lot of, you know, sermon intro, um, the term for these, you just said them the other day, it's escaping me, but these videos that you kind of video bumper video bumpers that you can put out on social media and on your website and I get just generates excitement and it's, it's gonna, it's gonna give people something fun to anticipate. Speaker 0 00:07:10 Yeah. I think this is especially valuable for churches that preach it in series. I think it's really hard work if every message is its own independent message. And so to do graphics or, you know, sermon bumpers and that kind of stuff for every individual message, uh, that's out of reach for all, but the largest churches, I would say Speaker 2 00:07:29 Very busy media person. You Speaker 0 00:07:31 Absolutely make a new videos every week like that. But I think if you're doing a series, um, I'm, I've always been an expository guy. So I'm that guy that spent two years on the, on the book of Luke preaching verse by verse through that. But if you're spending four, six, eight weeks, even on a series a, it makes sense to make a graphic that goes along with it at a minimum, if you can pull off a sermon video or some kind of an intro to it, that really goes a long way too, but just kind of teasing what's happening. And what's going on in kind of the sermon culture there at the church that goes a long way. It's good stuff. Good stuff. Awesome. Number three, uh, scripture graphics, uh, tried and true, I believe in these, uh, because they actually get results. We've all seen these before. Speaker 0 00:08:14 It's usually some kind of in most cases like, uh, a natural scene or some kind of an interesting photo with scripture written in a creative way with like font decorations on top of it. Uh, and it just really, a lot of times it really helps the graphic behind the scripture. I know for me, at least it helps me, um, just make sense of what the scripture is saying. It can kind of reinforce like the, the adage that a picture's worth a thousand words, the image behind that. Uh, like if, if you do one about the heavens declaring the glory of God and you have imagery of a large Panorama with the heavens up there, it's just, it's something that it helps you reinforce the message of the scripture there. So these are great because they actually do work. We've seen, we've tested these at reach, right? We've tested these in churches. And we've seen that when churches and ministries share these kinds of graphics, people are very likely to take that content and share it. They, uh, they're good for that. They're also good for likes, not as good for comments. Usually if your aim is to get more comments, a lot of people are giving their commentary on scripture, but I think they are very likely to be shared. And that's a really good stat, I think for churches to measure. Speaker 2 00:09:24 I agree. I just shared one of these actually on good Friday. Uh, I was actually, uh, on my Bible app and, uh, it was the, uh, the verse where Jesus speaks from the cross, forgive them father. They know not what they do. And I was like, you know what? And it had a great graphic with it. And, uh, and, and I shared that. And, uh, I was surprised because I was just like, okay, you know, I just, I had my devotion and I I'm going to share this on social media. I don't always do that. And, uh, I was surprised how many likes I had and I think someone else reshared it. And, uh, and so I was like, people are visual. And, and, and I agree, I think that, you know, just rather than just a verse, uh, you know, it makes it a little more lively. So, Speaker 0 00:10:02 No, that was a pre-made one from the Bible app. Is that the one you shared? Okay. Gotcha. Um, did it have any branding on it or was it, was there any kind of a, another as the Bible app logo or something like that on there? Do you remember off the top of your, Speaker 2 00:10:16 So I know I remember it being across like image, but it was modern and well done. Speaker 0 00:10:21 Yeah. So I think that that's one rule is that, um, in general it would be best to it's okay to share other people's scripture graphics. But a lot of times people will make a graphic of any kind, not just scripture graphics and put their branding or their name or their website on it. It's usually best if you had your own or you could put your own logo, or I, with scripture graphics, I'm not a big fan of like really like making your branding. It's really, God's branding we're after with this here. So, I mean, for us, sometimes we'll put a little, like for our retreat ones, we'll put a little retreat watermark or something on the bottom. It's very unobtrusive. So people know where it came from and kind of, they can tell that, but it's not something you would usually notice on there. But, um, as far as the recommendation, if you are making your own scripture graphics, Canva is a great place to do that. You could do most of those with really cool designs for free. If you pay for a premium account, it's like $10 a month and you can do some really creative things on there. So Canva can help you to churn those out in just a few minutes time. So a great resource for our audience there. Speaker 2 00:11:25 Good stuff. It's possible textual tackle. The next one, this one's a unique one. I like it. Spotlight your volunteers. Um, so, um, this, I think goes a long way. Uh, first thing I think of is not only is it a, a great way to honor your volunteers, um, because that's a good thing to do. Uh, we all know how valuable of volunteers at your church, someone that's just, you know, giving you their extra time. That's already hard to come by in this day and, and serving your church. And, but what it shows to people on the outside, or maybe not serving at your church yet, or a part of your churches that you care about your people. And I think it's a creative way to make these are the heroes of the church, right? They're the heroes of the church. So I know I would feel valued if I was someone who was just really going the extra mile for my church and my church took the time to honor me there. And so I really like these, and I haven't seen enough churches doing that. My church has done it. And I'd love seeing that when they've done it. And I'm like, I know that person. Yeah, they're always there, you know, greeting or they're always within children's ministry and they deserve to be recognized. So I think it's a, it's a good thing. Speaker 0 00:12:36 You said that, right. I think that what comes to mind for me immediately is what a great opportunity for children's ministry, every church I've ever been a part of, uh, and every church we basically talk to, they'll tell you the hardest place to recruit volunteers is in children's ministry, right? Because it takes an army to do that well. Uh, and I've never heard a church tell me before, you know, we probably have too many kids ministry volunteers right now. Like I've never heard that phrase come out of anybody before. Speaker 2 00:13:02 These are just so easy to deal with. Lots of people, Speaker 0 00:13:06 Worship team. A lot of times, a lot of singers I've heard that kind of stuff before, but never for kids ministry. And I think the reason for that is that a lot of times that's, they're out of sight out of mind, they're in the back of the church. And a lot of people never even see what happens back there. Uh, but what a great opportunity, like in that particular area, if you get someone that's a good photographer to take some pictures, you should be doing this in general, as a church, having good photography take place, but having a candid shots of kid of people serving in children's ministry and enjoying themselves, and just have a candid shot with one or two sentences that talks about who it is and what they're doing. And maybe a quote from them that says, I love serving in children's ministry, something to that effect. That goes a long way. Now, if you can pull off video testimonials from volunteers, yeah. Obviously that's even better, but this doesn't have to be something really hard to do, but an engaging photo with a short description of someone and celebrating them for their service in children's ministry or any other area of ministry at your church. I think that really goes a long way. So yeah, go it, Speaker 2 00:14:08 I think that's good stuff. That's a good segue for the next one once you tackle. Speaker 0 00:14:12 Yeah, absolutely. Uh, number five is video testimonies a little bit more involved, but these are some of the most powerful things that you can do is putting video testimonies from people out there on, on social media platform. So, uh, we had a lady from our church that just recently, she lost her home in a fire, uh, and on Easter, uh, there was a video testimony from her, uh, that the church did, and it was great on social media. There's thousands and thousands of views of this video because she was, uh, someone that everybody kind of cares when someone goes through that kind of tragedy in their life of losing their home. Uh, and it was a great chance for her to kind of tell her story and the reason that she still has hope in the midst of this situation there. So I think those kinds of video testimonies, people telling about, uh, who they were before, Jesus, how they met Jesus and what they have become now tried and true, right? Like it's, it's not something we're not reinventing the wheel with that. That's something that's been powerful for, for centuries now. And it's something that they practiced in scripture. Uh, this is just a modern way to do it, is get those kinds of videos out there for people to see. So what do you have to add? Speaker 2 00:15:20 Yeah, my church on a regular basis, actually, I would say one a week. We, we put together now we are a larger church and so not every church is going to be able to do one a week. And if you did one a month, that'd be great. And, you know, even if you had some that were just done and you kept them on your website for a year, shared them on social media at different times throughout the year. That's great, but they're always powerful because, you know, it takes, we always hear from the pastor right on Sunday, we hear the preaching and the teaching. This takes someone else from, who's not up on the pulpit and it's, and I think of like that first time visitor at a church to see not just the pastor and the worship team and all of the other talking heads that are usually used to seeing here's a person that's like them that experienced God in a powerful way website that comes to mind is that when it's been out for years, I am second. Speaker 2 00:16:12 Now this, this, now this website, it, they often highlight celebrities and everything. And it's really neat whenever, uh, someone who's rich and famous comes to faith, but, uh, um, but that website has been a very powerful one for years because of just the power of video testimony. That's not something that's going anywhere. It's not dying and that's not a, just a trend. Uh, it's, it's very powerful. We've had website clients that, uh, one of my favorite examples is a church that, um, they on their, like I'm new page. They had a welcome video from the pastor and his wife, but right below that they had a section that said, why I love this our church. And they had three different people from all different walks of life. They had, you know, whether or not it's someone different age at tonicity, whatever. And it was just very powerful and it, and it was very successful. Uh, and so, yeah, I'm, I think these are something that you should definitely prioritize and that, that people would see good results from, Speaker 0 00:17:11 From my perspective, what I see is that there's been a shift over and it's still kind of happening, but pastors have gone from some of the most trusted people in the community to, in some cases they're becoming at least less and less trusted, I guess it's whatever the pastor says is true. And that's the variety of reasons. I think, uh, there's, uh, you know, there's people that are not favorable toward, in their view towards the Christians or pastors in general. Uh, but I, I just think it's, it's important to recognize that there's people coming into your church now, or people that are seeing you on social media that have a higher level of skepticism than they ever have had before, about what you're saying as a pastor. And so the way I think of testimonies is that people there's people out there that are thinking, yes, this pastor is saying that, but, you know, he's kind of paid to do it. Speaker 0 00:18:02 And that's, his job is to, to say those things, but to hear it from other people, um, the term we've used, I guess, in our company before, is there, it's almost like a third party, credibility builder, like a testimony. It builds this credibility of what the Pat, what the church is saying. It's message from a third party. Um, it's almost like a review on Yelp. You'll trust that more than you would trust a, about a restaurant then the restaurant's website and what they say, how good they say their food is, you'll trust what other people are saying. That's really what a testimony is. It's someone else telling in their own words, what God has done for them in this experience. And I think it's a great tool for social media. Speaker 2 00:18:42 Yeah. That's a good segue to the next point. And I'll introduce that when that testimony quotes, so a little bit different than a video testimonials and, uh, but, uh, can often be equally as powerful. I know you've seen several examples of this here recently. And once you kind of expand on that, Speaker 0 00:19:00 I think just a, it's really the same principle. The testimonies are powerful. Uh, and I just want to have something out there for churches that can't pull off doing, like your church, weekly testimony, videos, but you hear testimonies all the time as a pastor of a church, people are telling you that, uh, the things that God's doing in their lives. And I know a lot of times we have to recall these and it's helpful for me. I know as a ministry leader recalling the great things God has done in my life and the things in the lives of people around me, that really is, uh, it encourages my faith. And so anytime we can do that, even if we don't have the time to put in spend hours and hours on video production, just a photo of someone who has, uh, who, who shared a testimony and a quote from them that goes a long way. So seeing a picture with it now, that is what I would say is that there has to be with a quote. I think you need to have photography, almost every social media post with the exception of one on this list. It involves some kind of photo or a video. That's important part of it, I would say so. Yeah. But yeah, having quotes of these same testimonies, they're just easier to pull off for a lot of churches. So, um, yeah, we won't minimize that. I think that's important too. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:20:09 And one more thing I would have to add to that. I think that people read these maybe even a little bit more now because we're so used to Yelp reviews and those types of things, or if you're buying something on Amazon, you do take the time to read a brief review. Uh, and so I think that, you know, these are, these are unknown thing that people are seeing daily. So, um, yeah, I think that they're very relevant right now, too, so, Speaker 0 00:20:30 Yep, absolutely. Yeah. That's a good way to put that. So why stack on the next one, which I'm excited about number seven is memes. Uh, and I think it's important and I really think every church should be sharing memes. Now memes can sometimes descend into negativity, I think, and being critical. And I would be cautious with that, but I think there are lots of them that are just they're lighthearted and funny. And I think that they're great ways to engage with people. This goes back to that first thing about, we were talking about asking about ice cream flavors, same kind of thing. Don't feel like every single thing has to be a direct invitation to make a decision to follow Christ. That's not what we need to do in every single post. And in fact, if you did that, I think you'd become a clanging symbol, right? You'd just be kind of, it would be something that repeats. Speaker 2 00:21:17 This is the church that likes ice cream. Okay. Enough already. Speaker 0 00:21:21 But I think with memes, uh, you know, whatever they are, whatever your style of memes are. I think they are a powerful tool to communicate deep truth sometimes. But I think that they have high share-ability people like them. I mean, how often do you find yourself this last night? I was sitting out in my, my daughter, my wife and I were waiting. Uh, I think we were waiting for our sons at their sports that they were doing. And we were, they were sitting there and they were on their phones and I just watched the two of them holding up their phones over and over again, sharing memes that they saw and laughing about stuff. I'm sure you can relate to that. That's something people do nowadays. And so what a great way to engage with people and engage them with, uh, with your church, uh, as giving them something that they're willing to hold up their phone and show it to one of their friends, uh, I think means are powerful. Speaker 2 00:22:07 It creates humor. You know what I mean? I think again, and that breaks the stigma, you know, the more humorous you are and the more you share that it breaks the stigma of old, just boring old church. And it just going to be thumping me over the head with the Bible. It shows that you're real and authentic, just like the ice cream question. Uh, and so, and it is something that people are doing on a, on a daily basis. Now I look for stuff, silly stuff to send you throughout the day. Something that I think like, Oh, this is going to get a reaction out of Thomas. And you think about that to think about the people that are following you on social media, what is it that they like? What can you do to make them laugh and stay engaged? Speaker 0 00:22:45 Yeah, I think memes, um, they are strong to build the culture of your church. I think that's what they can really do. I think they build any organization. Memes can build the culture there. I know our culture within reach, right. Uh, I know that we have a strong culture here and a lot of that is captured in the memes that we all share with one another on our Slack channels and those kinds of things. And so the same thing goes for when you're posting memes on social media, I think it reinforces that your church is approachable. Uh, and that it's something that people can relate to you more, as opposed to if you were just doing purely theological content all the time. I think it makes you less approachable that way. So I think they're powerful. Speaker 2 00:23:27 Great. I'll tackle the next one. And that's behind the scenes photos and I like this because I think a lot of people there, you know, mindset is that, okay, church is just on Sunday and they may be thinking that's really all this church does. And so, but if you, I mean, there's a lot of preparation that goes into Sunday service. So you can actually show behind the scenes photos of your worship team getting ready. I know we've done that. There's a lot that goes into our worship production and not just that outreaches, what, you know, if you're doing anything in the community, um, behind the scenes, your volunteers at work, um, you know, get, and these should be candid. I think I should. I think you would agree with that. Getting people caught inaction, not posing for the shot. Like, look at me, I'm serving or something like that, but getting an action, getting a, maybe it's even the pastor prepping, going through his, his sermon, getting ready for that praying, uh, you know, you can get creative and think of all the things that your church prepares for on a weekly basis. And what I think that does is it shows outsiders, people that are not yet a part of your church, uh, who may be interested. Wow, this is a church that's, they're doing a lot. They're putting a lot into this. They must really care about this. Speaker 0 00:24:41 No, I think I agree with you completely. I think some ideas are, um, you know, prayer meetings, uh, that people maybe, especially the things that maybe everybody from the church isn't invited to. So let's say you have a staff meeting every week. Uh, and part of your staff meeting I assume, is to pray, uh, you pray your staff meeting and you take some time. And just to, to capture that kind of intimacy, that kind of image. I think that's really what it would really go a long way. This is something that is really valuable to most audiences on social media now is authenticity. So behind the scenes and not just the highly produced stuff, but the actual images of life are people caught in the act doing what your church is about. I think that really goes a long way, uh, to help build that authenticity. Speaker 0 00:25:25 And to that end, I'll go ahead and hit number nine with that too, in that same kind of vein is outtakes. I think outtakes are really fun. Um, every church now is doing some video. It seems like, or just about every church with the pandemic, we all got forced into doing video, uh, of all of our services, even if we weren't doing it before. Uh, and I would guess that every church has a video mishaps that have taken place, you film something, and I just did not go the way that it was supposed to. Um, those are a great way to kind of build and capture some more of that authenticity. So if your worship team is doing a, a worship video, uh, and it goes horribly wrong because the they're in two different keys or someone forgot to put a cable on and it sounds terrible and everybody cracks up at the end of it. What a great video, you know, what, what a great little piece of video that you can put out there and make sure that it, you can reinforce that, Hey, everybody is, we make mistakes. We're never perfect in these kinds of areas. And it's a way for you to just get that kind of message out there. So outtake videos are fun. People love to watch them. They are great for comments and for likes, I think on social platforms. So I really love these. Yeah, Speaker 2 00:26:35 Not much to add there, maybe your pastor slips and falls, as long as they don't get a, as long as they don't hurt themselves. That could be funny too. So I'll tackle the next one, which is worship videos. I think this one you want to be maybe a little careful on, maybe you would agree or disagree. I think that, you know, again, quality, when you think of a worship videos, we, we, we work with a lot of churches that they're very, and you should always be proud of what, no matter if you have a small worship team, big worship team, uh, whatever it is, you should always be proud of those folks doing that. But the quality of what you put out there is important, but if you can get some of the worship, video and action and everything, that's really great. People do want to know what you know, and I'm not just talking about them, not just the potential first-time visitor, even though we always kind of think of them first. And I think that's a good thing. Uh, but, uh, you know, even your members, if they're seeing worship there, they can enjoy it, you know, on social media throughout the week. So another good idea for video content. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:27:32 I'm with you on the production side of things that I, I, I don't feel like it needs to be overproduced all the time, but I think that there's a real season right now where people are open to really stripped down, uh, type of worship videos. So how many times have you seen on YouTube or social platforms? Just one guy or one gal who's doing their version of maybe a secular song. They'll just kinda they'll sing to it over the backing track or something like that. These are the kinds of things that I think go a real long way, or what we saw in the pandemic was the Kari Jobe song, the blessing, right. And then everybody made their variant of the blessing. And not to say that didn't take a lot of work and a lot of production time because to do this well, it takes hard work to do it, but I think there's a lot of value in people being able to engage in worship music, that kind of content. It really does well on social media. Speaker 2 00:28:22 Yeah. That's good. Why don't you tack on the next one, Speaker 0 00:28:25 11, it is inspirational quote graphics, uh, kind of in the same vein as our, uh, as our scripture graphics that we talked about. Again, I don't think you should usually on most platforms, maybe Twitter it's okay. But on Instagram and Facebook, I don't recommend ever doing a, a quote that's just text or a short quote like that. I shouldn't usually an image will get you better results. Uh, so a quote graphic will be more likely to be shared. We'll get more likes and we'll usually get more comments. Uh, so, um, you know, maybe it's this theologians of old Speaker 2 00:28:58 Or Billy Graham or Martin Luther King. Yeah, Speaker 0 00:29:02 Absolutely. So, um, and I think that those are just really valuable things that, um, they get a lot of shares and a lot of content is made in that vein. So I think, again, variety, you don't want to do only social, uh, or quote graphics. Uh, but I think, uh, every other week having a quote graphic or something that has moved you, I think putting that into a graphic form and giving it to people, it's a great way to deliver that kind of content. Speaker 2 00:29:25 Yeah. And again, I think it shows authenticity and it also shows people, uh, on the outside that you're not only just quoting scripture. Uh, so I like, you know, there's a lot of positive quotes out there that are not like anti Bible or anything like that. So, I mean, you can have positive and encouraging out there. And I think that just shows that, uh, you know, churches appreciate, uh, even people out there that may not have the same beliefs that still share something that's beneficial to all humans and Lord knows we need as much positivity these days as possible. Speaker 0 00:29:56 So, yep. Yep. That's it. Number Speaker 2 00:29:58 12 good stuff. So long form current event commentary. Um, so this is something that's a little unique. So this is something that takes a little bit more explanation than just a wait. We always think of trying to keep things short, uh, you know, on, uh, with everything right with, uh, you know, with your website, you know, content, uh, people, it is true. People have a really short attention span even more these days. Sometimes I admit whenever I'm scrolling on, on social media, if I see someone and it says read more, I just I'm like, okay, I can't do this and I just keep going. But, but, uh, in this instance, there's, there's some things out there that need a little bit more explanation and maybe you can kind of expound on that. Yeah. Speaker 0 00:30:45 I think that this is something that, um, that it's right on the edge. I think of what, um, I think you should be careful about this one. So I think, uh, current event commentary, um, you can trust that anything you say will be liked by some and aggressively disliked by others, and that's just going to be something that, that happens. Uh, so I would be very careful in what you choose to enter into. We have always been big proponents and retried, and I know in my own ministry of being a political, uh, wherever that is possible, unless there's something that is clearly taught in scripture, I am not going to choose left or right. Blue or red type sides. I don't want to talk about that. Do I have opinions? Sure. Do I need to share them with everybody? Um, does it help my cause and reaching people with the gospel in most cases I would say no. Speaker 0 00:31:38 So what I, what I would see, what I've seen to be effective, uh, is when there is some kind of a current event issue, uh, that, uh, pastors don't just give pithy quick takes. Uh, but they give long well-reasoned, uh, kind of arguments or maybe even encouragements about these issues. So one example, um, I know for me, one of the posts that I have written that has done the best, uh, in a organizational standpoint was right after the pulse nightclub shooting. You remember that was the, uh, the nightclub in Orlando. It was a gay club and, uh, a guy came in there and shot it up. And there's still some confusion as the motivation and whether it was more religious or it was more anti-gay or what it was about, but at its core, um, I hate that people died and Jesus, I believe hates that people were murdered and it grieves God. Speaker 0 00:32:31 Uh, and, uh, rather than saying just, um, it's so terrible that that happened. I went into like six or seven of content about the scriptural backing as to why that's wrong. And while we're going to pray for, uh, our, our, the Muslim community, we're going to pray for the gay community. We're going to pray for Orlando and all the people we're going to pray for not taking a political position on what's, right. What's wrong. What we believe about these people, all of that is left to the side, but just, uh, wanting to come out there and give a commentary on what God thinks about what happened here. And that got hundreds and hundreds of likes that got dozens of shares. And it went really far because it's giving a thought field, a response to that. And I found that, and you've probably seen this before, when people give longer form posts about social commentary, not just the quick talking points, because I find talking points usually go left or right, right. Speaker 0 00:33:24 That's, they're usually they go one way or the other, but to give a reason to Christian response to things, I think it's really powerful. Uh, if you're looking for some inspiration on this, Tim Keller is one of my favorite, uh, guys that does this kind of post. Uh, he just did a long thread that I read on Twitter yesterday about, um, the purity culture and where it came from and where it was wrong, where it was. Right. It's just that kind of stuff. It really can be powerful. I think. So that's what I'm thinking on that long form current event commentary. Speaker 2 00:33:52 Yeah. Yeah. And you went a little longer on that for good reason. Good reason. Speaker 0 00:33:58 Let me, let me wrap us up with, uh, with number 13. Uh, and this is kind of a fun one to end on, but I think it's important that churches on social media celebrate anniversaries, celebrate things that are happening, uh, celebrate your churches, uh, uh, anniversaries. When the church was started, when you moved into a building, how long your leaders have been there, celebrate these kinds of things, make a little party of it, celebrate, uh, key members or key leaders, their birthdays, uh, celebrate this kind of stuff, because you want to build a culture of celebration within your church. I've read that this is a, this is something that Rick Warren talks about in a purpose-driven churches. This culture of celebration is only going to help you so anywhere you can find places to celebrate. And social media is a great place to do that. What do you have to add to that? Speaker 2 00:34:46 Yeah. You know, again, made me think of my church, uh, as you know, our churches at large, what would be considered a mega sized church now, but it started with 20 people in a library in downtown round rock. And the funny thing is, is that our celebration with what we've seen God do over the years and the growth and everything. Uh, it's really neat when we look back and I see photos shared on social media and during church of like our pastor who at that time was about 150 pounds heavier than he is now and dressed in like late nineties, you know, ver looked like the TBN pastor and all of that. If you like TV and that's fine, I'm not time just, you know, poking a little fun, but, uh, and in about 20 people in a library, uh, compared to now, uh, you know, and it's just, it makes it really special when you, when you see those types of photos Speaker 0 00:35:38 Into the animal, it makes the anniversary more special and makes you remember back to where you were at at that time. And, uh, yeah, so it's, that was great. I think one of my, one of my favorite ones I saw recently a picture from elevation churches. Uh, it was like there, they were a couple of months into their service and I, I think it was like a library or a cafeteria of a school or something like that. And you saw, uh, you know, Steven Furtick was considerably less ripped that he is now wearing less expensive clothes and all that stuff. And we, we like what they're doing at elevation. I don't mind that's in good fun, but I, I just think it's really encouraging. I think for people to see, uh, anniversaries, tell the story of where we've been, where we're going, it's almost like a mini testimonial when you see some of these kinds of photos there. Speaker 0 00:36:26 So that can be really powerful stuff. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, uh, we hope this was encouraging and, and humorous and helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You're right. That's exactly right. So if it was helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe. And as they tend to say in a social media culture, you smash that like button. I don't know. That's what they say. So, uh, if you would, uh, like it, if it was something that was helpful to you, uh, we thank you guys for being part of our retried family and we'll see you next week. Speaker 1 00:36:56 <inaudible> thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week. <inaudible>.