The Nurtured Church

Many people downplay matters of faith in their everyday lives, but when disaster strikes, they often look to the church first for help. How can your church develop effective community care solutions? And what role can technology play in helping you scale those solutions as your church grows larger?

Josh & Yolly Queitsch of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida joined us on this episode of the podcast to talk about how their church's app equips church leaders and members to positively impact people in the community.

What we talked about:

-The role of community care and engagement in the local church

-Identifying the real-life needs in your community

-How the Celebration app helps church members and leaders effectively care for each other and their community

-Using automation to personalize outreach

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

Big data is a big deal in 2020. Companies, policy makers, and security firms are all trying to figure out how to mine it, store it, surface it, and use it. What about churches, though? How can churches use data to direct their marketing messages to the right people at the right time?

Ryan Moore, Principal of Clever Marketing, says it starts with knowing yourself. Ryan joined us on this episode to chat about experimenting with data-driven marketing, using data to help people find authentic relationships, and the basics of one-to-one marketing for churches.

What we talked about:

-How churches can use persona-based marketing and a/b testing

-The value of tracking your ROI on each marketing initiative

-Why you need written standards for your brand

-The value of authenticity in marketing.

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

What happens when churches grow their attendance numbers but don't invest in their people? The church often collapses. Why? Because that's not the model of Jesus. He raised up disciples through His spheres of influence. How can contemporary churches grow and empower congregational leaders the way Jesus did?

Kevin Cotter, executive director at The Amazing Parish, joined us on this episode of the podcast to discuss how his organization is helping Catholic parishes build leadership teams the way Jesus did. 

What we talked about:

-The value of leadership beyond the pastor or senior leader

-How to measure the engagement of parishioners and staff members

-The model Jesus used for making disciples and creating leaders

-The value of vulnerability between a pastor and church leaders

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

The way we engage with one another as human beings has changed dramatically, even in the last decade.That's true of any community, but it's especially true in the church space. How can churches have more meaningful connections and build better communities? And how can they leverage technology to drive deeper relationships?

Kent Woodyard, who just completed three years as Director of Business Development at Pushpay, joins us right before he transitions out of the company. He shared what he learned growing up as a pastor's kid and later through his years serving churches at Pushpay.  

What we talked about:

-The complete takeover of the digital space

-Maintaining digital communities without losing authenticity

-How to leverage technology to connect with people far from God and bring them closer

-The communication tool that lands with people better than features or functionality

-How churches can partner with other churches to drive unity

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

Culture is impossible when you have no physical location, right? That's what many church leaders say. But is it true? Has COVID-19 proven or disproven the idea that it's really hard to maintain culture when you're not all in the same building?

Lisa Zeeveld, chief operating officer at BELAY, joined us on this episode of the podcast to discuss how you can extrapolate culture out of people when you're in a remote setting. BELAY helps people hire remote virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and other staff members.

What we talked about:

• Quick tips for leading a remote team
• The team-building value of having a meeting agenda
• How to measure success for a remote team
• What we can take away from this season to help us grow in ways that we haven't been able to in the past

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

The gathered church suddenly unraveled when the COVID-19 pandemic began. How do we survive this experience as a community of faith? How do we have church now? Will church ever be the same again?

On this episode of the podcast, Erwin McManus, iconoclast, futurist, and founder at MOSAIC, offered his insights into the opportunities COVID-19 is offering the church and how we can respond to them.

What we talked about:

• How MOSAIC has been adapting to digital culture for several years
• How we can bring people what they need to thrive during this crisis
• What a remote model of pastoral care looks like
• What the church can learn during this pandemic in order to be strong and relevant in the years and decades to come.

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

COVID-19 forced online church to go from optional to essential. For some churches, that transition wasn't challenging. For others, it opened up a whole new world. Every church, though, faces the challenge of 100% digital connection in the short term at least.

What did you learn during the first week of leading a fully online church during the coronavirus shutdown?

That's what we asked Mark Venti, executive pastor at Churchome, a large faith community in Seattle pastored by Judah and Chelsea Smith. Mark joined us on the podcast for this second episode about church during COVID-19.

What we talked about:

• Why Churchome was broadening its platform long before COVID-19 struck
• What midweek connection looks like at Churchome right now
• How Churchome is connecting with new viewers, people who are linking up for the church for the first time online 
• What lessons Churchome has learned in the last 2-3 weeks and what changes they've made as a result

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, church as we know it is being disrupted. Just weeks ago, most churches thought of the digital world as the new frontier. Now, it’s the city we all live in. With everything going on, we want to resource you with practical tips from some of the churches leading the way during this all-digital chapter of the Church’s story. On part one of “Church During COVID-19,” listen in as Chad Zollo, the Online Pastor of Elevation Church, shares his advice for churches going digital for the first time.

The average person sees up to 10,000 branded messages every single day. If you're overwhelmed by that as a communicator, think about how your audience feels. At West Ridge Church in northwest Atlanta, creative arts pastor Phil Bowdle and his team are figuring out how to cut through the clutter.

Phil joined us on this episode to discuss the importance of cultivating authenticity, the new way people attend church, and how to engage people in church outside of small groups.

What we talked about:

• Practices, processes, and habits to push authenticity
• How the way people attend church now is different from 30 years ago
• What would change if we knew we had 8-10 times a year to communicate with somebody

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.

Church attendance in American has been declining for a long time. First, it was the cultural Christians who stopped attending. More recently, committed church members are showing up less frequently. Are there encouraging trends among all this negative data?

Thom Rainer, former CEO of Lifeway and founder of Church Answers, says, Yes! Thom joined us on this episode to discuss declining attendance patterns, new trends in worship participation, digitalization, and the increasing challenges of pastoral ministry.

What we talked about:

• The two reasons the physically gathered church is growing again
• What's happening in churches that aren't on board with digital giving
• The one thing that bothers pastors the most and why they should hang in there anyway

For more interviews from The Nurtured Church podcast, check us out on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or on our website.