A Strategy For Making Your Church’s Story Go Viral

How do we speak about the story of what God is doing through our churches to the communities we seek to engage? How do we hold the tension of being faithful to the Gospel and being culturally relevant? How do we manage this in a world filled with an ever-growing number of social media platforms to moderate?

Michael Gatlin (Senior Pastor Duluth Vineyard – Duluth, MN & National Coordinator Multiply Vineyard) and Dan Wilt (Franklin Vineyard Church – Franklin, TN & Director of Communication for Vineyard USA) have a practical conversation on why the brand of Jesus and his Kingdom is alive and well.

What will you learn from this webinar:

• Michael Gatlin’s simple social media strategy for pastors.
• Dan Wilt’s social media strategy for churches.
• The practical tools for the ABC’s of church marketing.

“Any strategy for telling a story begins with knowing who you want to reach.” — Michael Gatlin

Watch the Full Recording:

Listen to the Full Audio:

Webinar Timeline: 

• 6:25-7:54 — Jesus was clear who his audience was
• 7:55-12:53 — Tools for assessing your audience
• 12:55-16:15 — Assessing the your audience by walking the streets
• 16:59-18:55 — Reverse hospitality to bring the kingdom
• 23:00-28:30 — Building the brand of Jesus: Product, identity, experience, and culture
• 28:59-33:55 — “What we are talking about is viral people” 
• 34:27-36:14 — The Leader is the Cultural Architect
• 36:35-44:46 — The Leader as part historian, storyteller, and prophet
• 49:00-54:35 — Creating a community of brand advocates
• 55:28-58:58 — Culture: Humans belong, then behave, then believe
• 59:03-1:04:00 — How to tell compelling stories
• 1:05:20-1:15:37 — Practical Resources
• 1:15:37-1:29:38 — Q&A

“Our story going viral starts with people.” — Dan Wilt

Resources:

• VUSA Comms Tips For Churches
• VUSA Booklets:
  • What Is The Kingdom
  • What Is The Vineyard
  • Come Holy Spirit
  • Everyone Gets To Play
  • Remember The Poor
  • What is Worship

• Practical tools for assessing your audience and your community:
  • Demographic:
    • http://www.city-data.com/
      • Helpful Resource for looking at specific city demographics, trends, and history of your city.
    • https://www.census.gov/en.html
      • Governmental census data that can be sorted, searched, and mapped in many ways.
  • Psychographic:
    • http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/ziptapestry
      • Great resource to go beyond demographics into activities, attitudes, personality, and values of your area by zip code.
    • Intro to psychographic data
  • The Association of Religion Archives (The ARDA):
    • The http://www.thearda.com/
      • Best source for religious overview by county. Great to look at how many people are not attending church in your county.
      • Examples: St. Louis County, MN, Nashville Metro Area, TN
• Simon Sinek’s: The power of why: Book, TED Talk Video
• Church Comms Video Series from VUSA
• July 28th: Raising up Women Leaders – Register here
• VUSA Diversity Conference – Register here

“Knowing our story may not change what you say, but it will change how you say it.” — Dan Wilt