How Small Churches Actually Grow Using Social Media
Ninety days ago, I began working directly with a smaller church.
Even better, this is a church from Rochester - ranked by Barna as the #9 most post-Christian city in 2019.
My team and I got to work following our four-step process.
I'm going to show you the exact results we got.
Here’s what happened…
The Social Ministry Mountain
Now, the first thing we did was sit down with this church and emphasize our game plan.
Here's what that looks like - we call this The Social Ministry Mountain.
You can download this for yourself, and I highly encourage you to do so at prochurchtools.com/mountain.
This diagram essentially plots out the different stages of social media impact we want to achieve.
Churches are in-person organizations, so how does what we do online affect in-person?
This is how we track it.
Because, yes, while it's true, there's no way to say, "This many new followers equals this many baptisms or genuine commitments to Christ or new recurring givers in your church," social also isn't just a shot in the dark.
There's a clear trajectory and path we want to follow.
There are four stages on The Social Ministry Mountain.
Like every church, we start at the bottom and work our way up.
Stage #1: No Weeks Off
This is the foundational rhythm needed for a successful social media ministry in your church.
New content every week.
Indefinitely.
Notice this is not No Days Off. And that's because - we're churches, not influencers.
This matters because influencers monetize and, thus, earn their living off views and impressions.
If I'm an influencer and negotiating a brand deal, I will point to how many posts I can dedicate to highlighting the brand's product and the average number of views and impressions this brand can expect to get from that.
But, as a church, that isn't relevant to you. So we can follow a different posting strategy.
This is also why some of the best social media advice for creators online often is not appropriate for churches - so be mindful of that.
Now, as an aside, I should also say that my own approach to social media closely mirrors churches.
I have never done a brand or affiliate deal of any kind. The links in the descriptions of my YouTube videos aren't affiliate links, giving me a kickback.
I run a tech company full-time.
We have software called Nucleus, which is our church website builder. We work 1-on-1 with churches at SocialSermons.
That's how we make money as a business. This means I get to talk about whatever I want in my videos and blog.
I don't need to post every day, either.
Free Bonus
The Social Ministry Mountain: How to prove what your church does on social makes a difference in-person.
Climbing the First Level
Back to this smaller church we were working with.
Once we began our partnership, we immediately climbed the first level on The Social Ministry Mountain.
Because for as long as they’ll be working with us, they’re going to get new, fresh content every single week.
I cannot overemphasize how big of a deal this on its own really is.
In my experience, very few churches can achieve this first stage on The Social Ministry Mountain indefinitely.
Because we all wear multiple hats in ministry, right?
What usually happens is you read a blog like this, you get inspired, and your church is active on social media for a few weeks or months, but then your energy is needed elsewhere.
Because you've got a bunch of responsibilities at church.
Then, your social's momentum dies down.
And we go back to the bottom of The Social Ministry Mountain because we couldn't keep up the pace of No Weeks Off.
Which is why I can't stress the ‘indefinitely’ part enough.
We don't even get a chance to see how our online efforts can impact our in-person experiences if we can't keep this No Weeks Off rhythm up.
But if you look at our Social Ministry Mountain diagram again - what does the timeline say for this first level of No Weeks Off?
It says Immediate.
Because you can decide to start climbing at any point.
"Yes, we are going to be consistent. We are never going to take a week off."
And look, it doesn't have to be much.
Just Two Posts Per Week
All we did for this church was review their sermon every single week.
Someone on our team would watch it through - in its entirety, no bots or AI - and mark off two sections of about 30-90 seconds.
We would then turn that content into vertical videos.
We did this for 90 days and posted those to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Twitter/X.
So, just two posts per week for 90 days.
And this is the bare minimum you want on social - two new posts per week.
Here are the results (these are combined numbers across all platforms for context):
Compared to the previous 90 days, followers grew 45% faster.
Engagement is 204% higher.
Impressions increased by 395%.
After this, it was time for the next level on The Social Ministry Mountain.
Stage #2: Viral For Me
Now that we were posting consistently for this church, the next thing we wanted to see was our first ‘Viral For Me’ post.
This is any post we publish that reaches 10X the audience of a typical post for this church.
If you look at the spikes on this graph, you will see this church's ‘Viral For Me’ posts.
Now, it's essential here to set proper expectations.
If there are two things that derail churches on social, they’re:
Not committing to the No Weeks Off publishing rhythm.
Unrealistic expectations.
Yes, you can have a post that blows up and goes crazy and doubles your following overnight.
We literally just saw it with a church last month.
But that's not the likely outcome for your church. And, most of the time, it's not the desirable outcome.
The desirable outcome is slow and steady growth that scales with what your church can actually handle.
To that end, here are the realistic expectations you should set for your church for ‘Viral For Me’ posts.
Realistic ‘Viral For Me’ Expectations
Aim for 3-5% of your posts to be ‘Viral For Me’.
So what that means is, if you published two new posts per week (and we're talking Reels on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok because that is the content format most likely to be discovered by people beyond your existing audience) with the expectation that 3-5% of your posts are ‘Viral For Me’ posts, you would hope to see your first ‘Viral For Me’ post within roughly the first 90 days.
That would be a desirable outcome after 90 days.
We would be able to say:
Yes, we are hitting the proper checkpoints.
We're committed to No Weeks Off.
And within the first 90 days, we've got our first ‘Viral For Me’ post that reached 10X the audience of an average post of ours.
Now, I'm referring to a post going viral for you on an individual platform, not all of them combined.
And the reason for this is that we never really know which platform a church will excel on.
I have found no way of predicting that.
After 90 days, though, we should have a better feel of which platforms your content is performing well on.
Free Bonus
The Social Ministry Mountain: How to prove what your church does on social makes a difference in-person.
Quality Vs. Quantity
Now, because ‘Viral For Me’ posts are a percentage of your overall posts, the thought you might jump to is, "Great! Let's just publish more posts!"
And you'd be correct. The more content you publish, the greater your likelihood of ‘Viral For Me’ posts.
More at-bats. More chances of getting on base.
The key? You have to maintain the quality of your content.
Let me speak from personal experience here.
I've been doing this for ten years - it's a big part of my job - and I still only publish two vertical videos per week.
Similarly, for churches, unless you're creating additional content, I wouldn't suggest pulling more than two sermon clips from a weekly sermon.
Some sermons have the content there, but most don't.
And if you dilute your post quality just to get more posts out there in an effort to speed up this process, you might actually disqualify yourself from reaching people because the algorithms will just deem your content not relevant to people.
I see churches do this all the time; they get excited about social (which I love) but then they say stuff like, "We're gonna start posting more, and our content quality is gonna improve."
It's like saying, "I'm gonna go on a diet and start running!"
Maybe just do one of those things first.
And then add the second once the first is entirely a new part of your life.
Otherwise, you're just increasing the likelihood of quitting both because it's unrealistic to start both simultaneously.
Now, you might think, "Brady, what about 90 Hard? And those intense fitness challenges that demand everything you can give? People rise to those occasions!"
Sure, for 90 days.
But that stuff isn't sustainable. Which is the point. That’s not the rhythm we want for social media because:
After 90 days on social, we're just starting to lay the foundation for success online.
If we quit at 90 days, we go back down to the bottom of The Social Ministry Mountain and start again.
And look, what I'm saying here isn't rocket science. But if social media is foreign to you, it might not be obvious.
So think of it like church announcements.
Are more announcements better? Well, no. There's a limit.
If you spent 90 minutes sharing every church announcement possible, would more people come to things?
Would more people pay attention?
No. They would tune you out.
By trying to do more, you'd end up sabotaging every announcement.
It's much better to focus on just a few and make those few very potent on their own.
And speaking of The Social Ministry Mountain, let's move to the next stage now.
Stage #3: The 10X Growth Rate
This is the next goal on our horizon for this church.
The 10X Growth Rate is growing followers by 4% each month.
It's pretty modest on its own.
However, when it compounds over the months and years, it translates to 10X growth over five years.
Which means that this church would leap from 1.7K followers today to 17,000 followers in 5 years.
This is the kind of growth that is dramatic - obviously.
But it's realistic for every church.
You don't need to spend money boosting posts or on ads. You don't need to be a famous church with a famous pastor.
So why don't more churches do this?
Because it requires sustained effort and patience.
You’ve got to show up every week and be consistent.
Look at the timeline for this level:
The average is 12-18 months. It can be as short as 6 months. But it also can take as long as 24 months.
Platforms like Instagram tend to be faster, while YouTube tends to be slower.
Real-Life Results
The results you've seen so far for this church in Rochester span 90 days.
Through those 90 days, this church's growth rate is 1.5%.
Which is great. The goal is 4%.
We've been at it with this church for 90 days, so we're well on our way.
But what if nothing changed or improved, and this church's growth rate on social stayed at 1.5%?
Well, so long as we stay consistent and committed to No Weeks Off, the results would still be dramatic.
Because a 1.5% monthly growth rate translates to about 20% yearly growth.
Which would mean growing by 250% over five years if we kept that growth rate steady.
So, 1,700 followers today become 4,250 followers in five years.
More than 10,000 followers in 10 years.
You might say, "Brady, that takes time."
Yeah, it takes time. But it's free!
You're not renting a billboard or paying for radio or TV time. You're not printing and distributing mailers or even creating new content for your church.
You're literally just taking your sermons and repurposing them for online.
There has truly never been a better time to be doing social ministry. Ever!
Especially when you consider the major local component of distribution on social media.
Because people who are geographically close to your church are much more likely to see your content than I am - even if they aren't followers of Jesus.
And this takes us to the summit of The Social Ministry Mountain.
Stage #4: Crossover Events
This is when we can tangibly point to our online efforts translating to in-person.
Here's what that looks like:
One of our editors got this email from a church we're working with a week ago:
"We have had people literally join our church or show up because they saw the art that you make (the art here is in reference to the sermon clips we're making). Like probably 4 or 5 families now, and they are sticking around."
Why do we do all this? Why care about followers and reach and percentages and multipliers?
Because of crossover events.
Visitor cards saying they heard about the church first on social.
Conversations in the lobby with new folks saying they followed online before visiting.
Pastors being recognized in the community: “Are you a pastor? You were on my Instagram feed this week?”
Here's another email I got from a church we've been working with last week:
Email:
…I wanted to share 2 things about the social media. First, I was shopping at Sam's, and one of the workers came up to me.
Worker: “Hey, do you do ministry?"
Me: “Yes."
Worker: "You’ve been coming up on my Instagram. I am going to come check you out."
And then, I went out to eat after church with a few students and they started engaging with some other students who were there. They saw me and said, “Ayyee, I know who you are. You're the pastor of the church. You be coming up on my gram".
Remember when I talked about the local component of discovery algorithms these past few years?
This is it.
This is why there's never been a better time to be doing social ministry.
I get it if you miss the good old days of social.
But from a creator standpoint, from the perspective of your church - there's never been a better time.
And to be clear, crossover events can happen at any point.
But the closer we get to The 10X Growth Rate and the longer we sustain it, the more predictable and frequent they become.
Conclusion
The church in Rochester that we’ve been highlighting in this blog, located in one of the most challenging places to do ministry in America, is off to a great start.
They're just coming out of those first 90 days, so we have a ways to go.
But even if we didn't improve from where they're at now, and we just stayed consistent, it will still be transformative.
To download The Social Ministry Mountain diagram for yourself, go to prochurchtools.com/mountain.
It's free. All you need is your email address.
This diagram is so helpful for sharing with your senior leadership - with the ones that may not get social media.
It can help them understand why we do what we do online.
And it also gives you a resource to show them where you are currently on the mountain.
"Look, we are here. This is the next stage. And here's where we eventually want to get to - here's how long you should expect it to take."
If you want to work with me directly, head to SocialSermons.com.
We work with more than 150 churches each week.
Capacity is full right now, but you can join the waiting list or book a call with me.
We always try to keep a few float spots for churches that are a good fit.
So, if that's you, I'd love to chat on a call and learn more about your church's social media needs and see if we can help.
As for the next blog you should read, check out What Every Church Should Know About The YouTube Algorithm.
And thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust.
Free Bonus
The Social Ministry Mountain: How to prove what your church does on social makes a difference in-person.
More Posts
