Church Executive SEPT / OCT 2019 DIGITAL ISSUE | Page 11

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
JOEL GUTHRIE / HOST, THE CHURCH ENGAGEMENT PODCAST / CONTENT MARKETER / WORSHIP LEADER / YOUTH LEADER / AUSTIN, TEXAS
From social media best practices, to using tech to help increase small
group attendance, and everything in between, The Church Engagement
Podcast [ faith.blackbaud.com/the-church-engagement-podcast ] aims to
ensure technology makes it easy for congregations and communities to
get involved and find opportunities to engage with their churches.
The podcast, which is sponsored by Blackbaud, the world's leading
software company powering social good, went live in spring 2019.
As Senior Content Marketing Manager, Faith Solutions, at Blackbaud,
Guthrie knows the market for long-form content for church leaders is
“crazy oversaturated,” from eBooks to actual books, to presentations, to
lengthy podcasts.
“We were trying to figure out where we could fit in in the space and be a
valuable addition to the content they're already consuming,” he explains.
“That's where the idea for a short-form podcast came to be.”
So, from the beginning, The Church Engagement Podcast has done
things differently — offering content that church leaders can digest
easily, quickly, and use right away.
But why tech? (And why Joel?)
For many pastors, the topic of tech can be intimidating, especially when
they’re already always strapped for time. As Guthrie acknowledges, the
last thing a church leader needs is one more tech to-do beating down his
door: “They're being bombarded with, ‘You need technology.’ ‘You need
to be using social.’ ‘You need to be livestreaming now.’ ‘You need to have
another campus.’”
Given his own background and experience in church leadership and
development — as well as in tech marketing — he is all-too-familiar with
this pressure-meets-time-crunch dynamic. This awareness, in fact, is what
informs the direction, content (and even the guests) on the podcast.
For one thing, each episode is short enough to listen to during a pastor’s
morning commute or as he makes coffee. Most are 10 to 15 minutes long.
This is possible, Guthrie says, because the podcast spends less time talking
about the ‘why’ than the ‘how.’
“We give listeners super actionable steps,” he explains. “So, if they’re
driving to the office, they can put those steps into practice when they
arrive. We try to stay super tangible.”
In terms of content, Guthrie aims to keep the podcast applicable
and dynamic, for churches of all sizes. By this, he means that some
listeners have the budget and staff to execute on what they learn at their
churches. They primarily want to know how they can help their teams
be even more effective.
On the other end of the spectrum, some pastors represent smaller
churches, where they’re doing everything. “So, they’re not looking for
another task — they're looking at how can they be more efficient with the
time they do have.”
Personally, as the son of church planters and elders, Guthrie has
observed both types of roles up close. “I think it's just understanding
the unique issues and nuances that come with church leadership, and
then being able to take that knowledge and pair it with technological
best practice knowledge that I've learned from helping these large
organizations — the frontrunners of innovation in the world, and in
technology. I like to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is how a church could use this
technology and put it into church leadership language.”
Doing otherwise, he points out, runs the risk of sounding too corporate
for most church leaders.
This is critical because, as Guthrie explains, the church tends to be a few
years behind on technology and tech marketing best practices. With his
unique, feet-in-both-worlds perspective, he’s able to see the opportunities
in tech that might have not found their foothold in the church space (yet).
For this reason, he says, many of the initial podcast topics are very market-
focused, “because that's my bread and butter in my day-to-day job, as well.”
To drive these points home, Guthrie calls upon his relationships with
other pastors, people he’s met at conferences and events, and more.
For example, a summer podcast with Nona Jones — head of Faith
Communities at Facebook — drills down on using Facebook groups to
grow your church.
“We find church leaders who want to innovate and
are in the church space testing and trying things.
They’re not afraid to sail with technology — to see
how we can use these trends to grow and engage
our church beyond the Sunday service.”
— Joel Guthrie
An important tool takes shape
The guests on the podcast share this passion for growing the church
with technology.
“We find church leaders who want to innovate and are in the church
space testing and trying things,” Guthrie says. “They’re not afraid to sail
with technology — to see how we can use these trends to grow and engage
our church beyond the Sunday service.”
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