Featuring Chris Martin, Director of Content, Moody Global Media

Recorded live at the Digital Ministry Conference 2025.

In this compelling session from the 2025 Digital Ministry Conference, Chris Martin—veteran digital strategist and content leader at Moody Global Media—pulls back the curtain on how ministry teams can use data not just to drive vanity metrics, but to deepen real connections with their audiences.

With transparency and humor, Chris recounts lessons from the infamous "pivot to video" era and how platforms like Facebook once inflated metrics by up to 900%. He uses this cautionary tale to highlight a central truth: not all data tells the truth, and not all metrics matter. Instead, ministries must learn to focus on engagement and meaningful interactions—then use that insight to draw people into deeper channels of connection, like email and direct relationships.

For digital marketers and communications teams in ministry, this session is a goldmine of takeaways:

• Why your email open rate may matter more than your follower count
• How to interpret social metrics as communication—not just performance
• Practical steps to shepherd your audience away from algorithmic platforms
• How to avoid the trap of pleasing stakeholders instead of serving your audience

Tune in to this podcast to rethink your strategy and walk away with a clearer roadmap for using data to inform content—and ultimately lead your audience into deeper ministry engagement.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode

• Chris Martin on LinkedIn
• Terms of Service newsletter by Chris Martin
• Moody Bible Institute
• Chris’s Book: "Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media"

Featuring Adam Graber, Christianity Tomorrow & Co-Host of Device & Virtue Podcast

Recorded live at the Digital Ministry Conference 2025

How do we saturate the digital world with Scripture? In this episode of the Ministry at Scale Podcast, Adam Graber unpacks findings from groundbreaking research conducted in partnership with the British and Foreign Bible Society. With a deep understanding of digital theology and years of experience consulting ministries worldwide, Adam reveals the current state of Bible engagement across 27 “digital nations” — platforms with over 70 million monthly users — and outlines where the greatest gaps and opportunities lie.

Listeners will discover which platforms are overserved or underserved by digital Bible creators, the surprising dominance of individual creators versus organizations, and what types of tools and alliances are still desperately needed. Whether you're a ministry leader, strategist, or digital content creator, this episode offers data-driven insights and a compelling challenge to rethink your role in the digital Bible ecosystem.

Recommended Resources:

https://adamgraber.com/

Christianity Tomorrow

Adam on LinkedIn

Device and Virtue Podcast

Dave Raley of Imago Consulting works with nonprofit and business leaders to help them grow

revenue profitably. His mission is to help nonprofits and businesses identify and understand

opportunities, develop new strategies, and launch new products and initiatives.

In this episode of The Ministry of Scale podcast, Chad Williams interviews Dave whose

upcoming book, The Rise of Sustainable Giving, explores how the subscription economy model

is transforming nonprofit fundraising. Raley draws parallels between the widespread adoption of subscription services (like Netflix or Spotify) and the increasing comfort with recurring

donations. He explains how organizations can tap into this trend by creating a strong recurring

giving program.

Dave outlines foundational steps for nonprofits to build these programs effectively. First,

nonprofits need internal focus on recurring giving—assigning someone responsible for its

growth. He stresses that nonprofit tech stacks, especially CRM and donation platforms, should

support scalable and ongoing donor engagement. He also highlights that recurring donations,

unlike one-time gifts, benefit from a well-communicated value proposition, showing donors the

long-term impact of their support. By building strong, personalized donor relationships,

nonprofits can see exponential growth in recurring giving.

Resources:

sustainablegiving.org

Dave on LinkedIn

Josh Kashorek is the Marketing Director at Five Q, a digital marketing agency focused on helping ministries reach more people online. With over 15 years of experience in digital strategy, analytics, and marketing, Josh brings valuable expertise to this topic.

In this episode, Josh shares insights from Five Q's annual Ministry Benchmark Study, analyzing digital metrics across over 1,000 ministries. Here are some of the key topics covered:

The Continued Importance of SEO

Nearly 70% of ministries gained rankings for keywords in Google's top 100 search results this year, up from 50% last year. Josh emphasizes that SEO remains crucial for driving organic traffic, which comprises over half the traffic for many ministries.

Website Speed Impacts User Engagement

While ministry websites showed modest improvements in PageSpeed scores, Josh notes there is still plenty of room for optimization – especially on mobile devices. Faster websites lead to better user engagement and reduced bounce rates.

Social Media Integration Trends

83% of ministries did not list any social media channels on their websites, choosing instead to drive traffic back to their owned properties. Among those promoting social, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube were the top channels utilized.

Follower Growth Insights

The median number of Facebook and Instagram followers grew year-over-year across ministries studied, while Twitter and YouTube follower counts shrank slightly.

Realistic Posting Frequencies

Despite advice to post daily, the median number of monthly posts was 16 on Facebook, 13 on Instagram, and lower on Twitter and YouTube – highlighting the content creation challenges many ministries face.

The full benchmark study is available for free download, and ministries can request a personalized scorecard and strategy consultation from Five Q.

Listen to the entire Ministry of Skill podcast episode for more valuable digital marketing insights and to learn how you can better evaluate and improve your online impact.

Kedron Rhodes, Director of Digital Experiences at Crowe LLP, has over 25 years of expertise in optimizing customer journeys. In this insightful episode, he shares a powerful framework for enhancing donor relationships through empathetic experiences. Here are some key topics covered:

Why Cultivating Donor Empathy is Crucial

Kedron emphasizes the importance of stepping outside your own perspective to truly understand how donors feel at each touchpoint. He provides examples of how changing expectations can create mismatched experiences over time.

Building an Empathy Map for Your Donor Persona

Kedron guides listeners through developing a relatable donor persona by mapping out their objectives, frustrations, influences, and behaviors. This lays the groundwork for evaluating the journey through their lens.

Auditing the Full Donor Journey

Using the persona, Kedron demonstrates how to document every interaction from initial awareness through consideration, donation, support, and even discontinuation. The goal? Identify pain points where the actual experience falls short of the donor's expectations.

Prioritizing Seamless Donation Experiences

Kedron stresses the importance of minimizing friction during the crucial donation process when the donor is at their "aspirational high" and most motivated to give.

Never Neglecting the Discontinuation Phase

While often overlooked, Kedron explains why mapping the discontinuation journey is vital for understanding departing donors and preventing negative impressions.

Through hands-on activities and real-world examples, this episode equips you with a comprehensive journey-mapping approach to continually optimize your donor's experience through an empathetic lens.

Listen to the full episode for all the insights, templates, and group exercises around this transformative donor-centric methodology.

Josh Kashorek is the Director of Marketing at Five Q, a platform helping organizations leverage no-code tools and automation. His creative mindset and technical skills converge in an insightful perspective on how ministries can steward AI for greater impact. In this thought-provoking episode, Josh shares:

The Existential Crisis Inspiring His AI Experiments

Josh opens by recounting the "minor existential crisis" sparked by a report predicting that up to 70% of work activities could be automated by 2030. As someone in marketing/communications, he wondered if his skills were becoming obsolete. This led him to dive into exploring AI capabilities hands-on.

Overcoming AI Content Creation Challenges

While tools like ChatGPT can generate passable content, Josh outlines key hurdles like factual inaccuracies, lack of unique voice/opinion, and generic sameness across outputs. His solution: provide contextual guardrails by inputting your ministry's real content to infuse your distinct voice and brand.

A Replicable Framework for Automating Workflows

Josh walks through his code-enabled workflow for rapidly generating branded social media visuals with compelling quotes from source material. What manually took 15 minutes was automated in a mind-blowing 3 seconds! He encourages ministries to analyze repeatable tasks for automation potential.

Embracing Joy over Fear in Kingdom Stewardship

Drawing inspiration from the Parable of the Talents, Josh challenges listeners to not cower under the "weight of stewardship" amid radical changes like AI. Instead, he cheers embracing your God-given role and responsibility with joy, trusting your ministry is part of God's plan.

Whether providing a basic AI content creation demo or translating a biblical narrative, Josh casts a vision for faithfully experimenting with these emerging tools. His parting charge? Use AI as a megaphone to amplify your ministry's unique voice and mission, not replace it.

Don't miss this creative thinker's perspective on facing technological disruption as a "Christitunity" to invest the Master's resources for greater Kingdom impact.

Josh Burnett is the founder of Church.tech, an AI-powered platform helping churches streamline operations and engage people more effectively. Drawing from his background in ministry and entrepreneurship, Josh brings a unique perspective on leveraging technology for greater kingdom impact. In this insightful episode, he shares:

How AI Transcribes, Summarizes and Generates Discussion Content

One of Church.tech's core features is the ability to upload sermon videos and instantly generate transcripts, summaries, discussion questions and more using advanced AI models. Josh walks through a live demo showing how churches can quickly create robust small group materials and content resources from their weekly messages.

The Power of Unified Messaging Across Ministries

Josh describes the vision of enabling churches to develop a synchronized discipleship strategy with unified teaching flowing from the pulpit all the way down to kids' ministry. AI-generated age-appropriate lessons and parent guides ensure families are receiving the same biblical truths packaged for every age level.

Practical Applications for Sermon Illustrations and Visuals

The platform's "Playground" feature allows pastors to interact with the AI by asking it to generate compelling illustrations, social media post ideas, decoration themes and more - all aligned with the main sermon concept. Josh shares how this creative capacity stretches the imaginative potential.

Upcoming AI Innovations on the Roadmap

Looking ahead, Josh previews several groundbreaking products in development at Church.tech including an "ethical AI co-pilot" for augmenting sermon writing, a social media automation tool trained on a church's voice, and workflow features to streamline operations.

Whether exploring the live product demo or dreaming about future AI capabilities, this episode highlights the powerful ways Church.tech is empowering ministries to increase efficiency and impact through intelligent technology.

Don't miss Josh's passion for helping churches spend less time on logistics and more time making disciples! Listen to the full episode for a glimpse of the AI-powered future awaiting the church.

Corey Alderin is the founder of Sermon Shots, a platform that helps churches transform their full sermons into popular short-form video content for Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. In this hands-on workshop, Corey shares his expertise on leveraging AI to create thumb-stopping, engaging clips that reach people where they are consuming content.

Why Vertical Video Content Matters Now More Than Ever

Corey highlights the seismic shift happening in social media, where follower count doesn't determine who sees your content. The AI algorithms analyze each video's content and match it with the right audience members most likely to engage. This unlocks massive reach potential even for ministries with small followings.

5 Keys to Creating Viral-Worthy Vertical Clips

1. Captions - With most viewing on mute, having captions is crucial

2. Keep It Brief - Shorter videos perform better to sustain engagement

3. Grab Attention Early - Use a provocative hook in the first 2-5 seconds

4. Leverage Music - Adding the right music can invoke desired emotions

5. Highlight Faces - Close-up shots of faces are proven attention drivers

Walk-Through: Turning a Sermon into Multiple Engaging Clips

In the live demo, Corey shows exactly how the Sermon Shots platform utilizes AI to streamline the clip creation process:

1. Upload your long-form video content

2. Select from pre-built appealing designs and styles

3. Let the AI suggest top moments or identify them by keyword

4. Fine-tune clips with text, branding, zooming, music and more

5. Preview clips on each platform to optimize appearance

6. Download ready-to-post video clips in a fraction of the normal time

The Power of AI to Multiply Your Content's Reach

What used to take hours can now be done rapidly thanks to AI capabilities like speech-to-text, facial detection, and identifying engaging moments. This allows ministries to repurpose one sermon into a stream of natively formatted videos perfectly suited for each social platform.

Corey's innovative approach combines AI's efficiency with human curation to create ultra-engaging content that expands your ministry's reach and impact like never before. For a first-hand look at this game-changing process, listen to Corey's full instructive workshop now!