Workshop Track

Digital media

Gain better mastery of the essentials of building a robust digital presence for your church. Covering communications, SEO, social media strategy, web design, and more this track equips you with the tools to enhance your church's online footprint.

Speakers

  • We know the Bible talks about a refining fire…and honestly, that’s kind of how working at Willow (in a communications role) has felt over the last five years! Liz considers herself a problem solver and communicator, both of which were grown as Willow went through multiple years of change and challenge. She now leads a team that serves all campuses and ministries and includes web and app, content, social media, email, design, photography, advertising, and comms. For fun? Well, she has three kids under 5, so fun looks different these days!

  • Kenny Jahng is Editor-In-Chief of ChurchTechToday.com. He's also the founder and CEO of Big Click Syndicate, a strategic content marketing agency for churches and ministries. He served as the 21st Church Online Pastor in the world, earned his M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and MBA from Columbia Business School. You can connect with Kenny at linkedIn.com/in/kennyjahng and instagram.com/kennyjahng.

KENNY JAHNG

LIZ SCHAUER

  • Rohn has a passion to help churches take their creativity to new depths and help creatives understand their stride, style, and voice. He spent the last 10 years on a creative journey filled with highs and lows of taking a step of faith in creativity. With clients and churches like Transformation Church, Change Church, Vous Church, Elevation Church, Maverick City, and many others, there’s a plethora of creativity structure, and practical tips he uses to help churches finally win the battle they’ve been facing with social media. Rohn loves the church and appreciates making meaningful connections with anyone he meets.

ROHN STARLING

  • Creator of Pro Church Tools and Nucleus. Brady helps churches navigate the biggest communication shift in 500 years.

BRADY SHEARER

  • Bart Blair has served in vocational ministry since 2002. He has worked in pastoral roles that include worship, creative, discipleship, preaching and church planting. He is ordained as a minister in the Charis Fellowship of Churches. Bart serves as Executive Director of Missional Impact for Missional Marketing, an agency that provides services to churches and Christian non-profits. Additionally, Bart is the Director of Church Revitalization for Assist Church Expansion, a ministry that serves churches in the Charis Fellowship to help them plan a fruitful future of ministry.

    Bart and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in the Dallas-Fort Worth area where they are involved in local ministry and church planting. They are the proud parents of three children, Sarah-lynn, Silas and Ephraim.

  •  Allie Bryant is the Strategic Alignment Executive at Traders Point Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, with over a decade of ministry experience. Her background includes Graphic Design, Marketing, Project Management, and Organizational Leadership. Over the past four years, she's focused on refining the church's systems and processes to keep Traders Point aligned and effective in its mission. Outside of work, Allie enjoys traveling and spending time at home with her husband and five-year-old daughter.

ALLIE BRYANT

BART BLAIR

“Spiritually refreshing,

creatively inspiring,

practically transformative”

- John S.

Workshop Topics

20 AI Tools That Will Change How You Do Your Ministry Work

Kenny Jahng, AI Next

The promises of artificial intelligence are tangible and real for ministry leaders -- if you know how to approach it, and which AI tools to use in your workflows. In this workshop, Kenny Jahng, will walk you through 20+ AI tools that can practically increase your productivity, help unlock more impact, and ultimately free up your time so you can focus on what's most important to you. This fast-paced workshop will share various use cases, examples of real-life projects, and suggestions for how to best approach integrating the various AI tools available to leaders today.

Key Takeaways

  • Boost Productivity and Impact: Learn how to leverage AI tools to streamline your workflows, increase your productivity, and ultimately drive greater impact in your ministry.

  • Assess Your AI Readiness: Discover a tool that can help you evaluate your team's AI readiness and provide guidance on supporting them through AI education and implementation.

  • Uncover New AI Use Cases: Explore a wide range of practical AI applications you have considered before, including ministry-specific AI tools available today.

The One-Pager Social Media Plan

Brady Shearer, Pro Church Tools

Learn the blueprint for translating a single sermon into a week’s worth of social media content. Plus, how to specifically reach people on social media that are local to your church (without paying for ads).

Key Takeaways

  • Never run out of social media post ideas.

  • Harness discovery algorithms to reach more people than ever before.

  • Actually learn to track your social media efforts and quantify their contribution to your church.

Creating Infectious Socials

Rohn Starling, Content Creator

Would you like to level up your socials? Go from saying “You don’t want to miss this” to having people sad they missed church.

Key Takeaways

  • Learn how to make content that connects with their.

  • Learn how to SIMPLIFY making content to keep making content for a long time.

  • Learn how to lead a team that works for you so you can fix your focus.

Internal & External Communication Strategy for Change

Liz Schauer, Marketing & Comms Pastor \ Willow Creek Community Church

Whether you have a new pastor, a clarified strategy, or an exciting God-inspired goal, getting people to run with you — not pull against you — is a crucial (and often overlooked) part of any plan. So how do you get your staff, volunteer, and congregation focused on what's ahead instead while making space for them to grieve the change? We'll unpack simple and effective methods for communicating change on all levels.

Key Takeaways

  • Develop a framework for communicating in a personalized and pastoral way.

  • Learn how to identify points of resistance.

  • Create space for people to acknowledge loss and move through it.

  • Gain energy and vision for what's ahead.

Building a Digital Engagement Pathway

Allie Bryant, Strategic Alignment Executive

Does "engagement" feel like the new buzzword that no one can really define or track? We'll explore why engagement is important and how digital tools can help. Plus, we'll share some lessons on setting the right engagement strategy and implementing the tools to support it.

Key Takeaways

  • Learn how to communicate strategically by addressing what your people are looking for, rather than sending out messages to everyone.

  • Discover ways to turn engagement into effective pastoring, helping to guide and support your people.

  • Gain insights on how to assess and understand the spiritual health of your community.

  • Learn to build dashboards that identify gaps in your engagement strategy, making it easier to improve and refine your approach.

How to Enhance Your Church’s Visibility Through SEO

Bart Blair, Strategic Alignment Executive

In this workshop, we’ll explore SEO for churches. Learn how Google works to leverage your website and digital presence to reach more people and grow your church.

Key Takeaways

  • Understand how key elements of your church website interact with search engines so that you appear in search results

  • Learn how to rank up at the top of local search results in Google and Google Maps

  • Discern when it is appropriate to pay for ads vs. depend on organic search results to get new visitors to your church website