Quotes and Encouragement from the Social Media Church Conference 2021

There have been a lot of online conferences in the past year with a lot of them very well done. This past week I attended the Social Media Church Conference which had 42 different ministry leaders share. Over the course of the 3 day event attendees got to hear a variety of topics centered around platform priorities, content management and strategy development.

The Social Media Church Conference was fantastic and I learned and was reminded of so many key social media and content development principles. Here is a list of quotes that the various speakers shared throughout that encouraged and challenged me. They are organized by alphabetical order by first names.

Ben Stapley

• “The reason we want to build a photo team is because the Church has the most important message to communicate. That everyone is wildly loved by God.”
• “Photos tell a story. People remember stories.”
• “Photography allows people to visit your Church before they actually visit your Church.”
• “There are places in which it might work to use stock photography but your website is not that place. Amateur photos of people, your people, is better than professional photos of an actor.”

Brady Shearer

• “Copying other influential churches or brands is only going to get you so far. It’s imperative that you understand the strategy and philosophy that undergirds why we do what we do online.”
• “Social media IS a ministry. It’s not just a vehicle to promote ministry.”
• “Use social media more like a pulpit; use social media less like a bulletin.”

Briana Zananiri

• “If someone has less knowledge in social media but really has a heart to serve and they are willing to learn than I would say to recruit them right away.”
• “Having a social media calendar is not only going to help you prepare in advance but it also helps you to gather with your team and create impactful creative content.”

Chris Abbott

• “Not learning how to use social media effectively is like a missionary moving to a country and refusing to learn the language”

Christopher Harris

• “The audience in the auditorium has shifted.”
• “Be dedicated to Discipleship.”
• “Prioritize people who are not in your bubble.”

Dave Adamson

• “Content is important because you need to have content to where you are going. But context should be the purpose behind the content.”
• “Content make a post but context makes a difference.”
• “Understanding the context of your audience is what gives your content purpose.”
• “Use social media to invite people to conversations not just church events.”
• “But being relevant is actually about meetings someone’s need in the moment they need it.”
• “You can’t be relevant unless you are speaking to the context of your community.”

DJ Soto

• “What’s fascinating about Virtual Reality church is we never had to shut down. Our doors remained opened.”
• “We are leaving the information age and entering into the experience age of virtual reality and Augmented reality.”
• “But what virtual reality allows us to do and why I believe it’s the future of faith is that we can create worlds and experiences.”
• “Virtual reality allows us to do is it brings the interaction back face-to-face person-to-person we’re talking real time we’re having a discussion we hear each other‘s voice and I think it’s going to bring a balance back where maybe social media is kind of dragged us downward vr can bring us upward.”

Heather Heuman

• “One-third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses and organizations.”
• “If social media is going to INFLUENCE, it needs to: inspire, educate, motivate, evoke emotions, or make people’s lives easier.”
• “Imperfect action over perfectionism every single day.”
• “Make both your lives easier by being clear, repeating the same message in a variety of ways.”

Holly Tate

• “It’s really important that you get clear on what goals you are trying to achieve before you start posting on social media.”
• “The beauty in this social media world that we live in is connectedness and community that we, as a church, have the opportunity to leverage as we bring people together.”
• “Social Media is a great way to communicate our Church’s culture.”

Jason Caston

• “Look at your website from the perspective as someone who has never been to your ministry as well as someone who continually visits.”
• “Throwing up a website and hoping people understand it is not a good strategy…you need an overall strategy.”
• “All your branding messaging and digital should all be consistent. All under one umbrella.”
• “We are creating these online experiences. We want to give our online users the right content at the right time on the right platform. That is how you get to this immersive customer experience.”
• “We are not changing or altering the messaging. But we are continually evolving the method.”

Jay Kranda

• “You need to humanize your Church. Your Church needs to look like what life looks like.”

Jeff Reed

• “We don’t need no stinking building!”
• “Digital community does not work like physical community, so digital church does not work like physical church.”
• “It’s not a matter of recreating a physical church in a digital environment. That is the mistake. Instead what we should be doing is reimagining how a church can operate digitally not making up things on our own and not losing sight that we still need to be grounded in scripture.”
• “The challenge for us in the Church in social media…a church that only exists on social media….can we be the thing on social media to the place where people want to join us…the place where people will listen to us.”

Jonathan Malm

• “Discipleship doesn’t happen in massive spurts. It happens with small simple steps we take to get closer to Jesus.”
• “The key is, we have to think about the people who are scrolling through social media. Think about the things that they need. Not the things we think they need.”
• “Likes are not the goal here. The goal is to hopefully get people to take intentional steps towards discipleship.”

Katie Allred

• “Online, people are really wanting prayer right now…If you go and look at Google Trend it shoots up like a hockey stick the amount of people who are searching for prayer.”
• “If people are searching for prayer and we have prayer, how selfish of us not to give it to people.”

Kenny Jahng

• “COVID may have closed Church doors, but it also opened up many screens and windows.”
• “On-demand wins. Mobility wins. Nichification wins. Microcontent wins.”
• “Screens are the New Mission Field.”
• “Version ONE is better than Version NONE.”

Ryan Wakefield

• “It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about sharing the good news of Jesus.”
• “It is social first. Media second….it’s not a megaphone for announcements. It’s a coffee table for relationships.”
• “It’s not about really people in the community getting to know the Church. It’s about the Church getting to know people in the community.”
• “Ministry flows out of relationships. Relationships take time.”
• “If there is any sort of secret sauce to social media is that consistently showing up and committing to develop those relationships.”
• “Every comment is an opportunity for a relationship.”

Sean Cannell

• “If you start posting videos on YouTube without a clear strategy and clear understanding of who you are talking to, you are going to struggle.”
• “The creator who understand the viewer best wins. The Pastor who understands his city the best wins.”
• “Polarizing content always does well if it is presented well by someone with real authority.”

Sly King

• “It’s not about me. It’s not about the worship center. It’s not about anybody else but Christ. It’s about magnifying Him.”
• “If you did not know the Digital Online Campus is your least expensive campus you could ever have.”
• “When you are engaging the online community. You got to speak. You got to have conversation. You got to engage them, welcome them in.”
• “Everybody has a next step…what are you doing in the digital space to engage those who have a next step.”
• “Find what you can do and do that well…make is sustainable”

Steve Fogg

• “Are you broadcasting or are you being social?”
• “Your job is to stop the scroll.”
• “People love fun. Some of the best social media I’ve seen from Churches is where people are having a bit of fun with staff, with Pastors, with volunteers.”

To learn more about Social Media Church, click here.

Did you attend the Social Media Church Conference 2021? If so, what quotes or learnings inspired you the most? Share your experiences below or on social media using #ymsidekick as you share. 

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