Ministry At Scale Chad Williams - Five Q

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.

Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, helping organizations innovate to grow their impact. He draws from over a decade of experience leading a digital team at a major nonprofit agency. Dave is also the author of the Weekly Wave Report on innovation trends and co-host of the Purpose and Profit podcast. In this insightful episode, Dave shares:
Why an "Outside Mindset" is Critical for Innovation
Dave emphasizes the importance of looking beyond your expertise to see problems differently. He shares how his narrow perspective as a fundraiser initially blinded him to insights from the subscription economy that ultimately unlocked innovative recurring giving models.
How the Six "Working Genius" Types Drive Breakthrough Ideas
Drawing from Patrick Lencioni's framework, Dave explains the six distinct genius types needed for innovation - from wonder and invention to galvanizing action and tenacious implementation. Understanding these types can reduce unnecessary judgment and guilt while maximizing your team's collective strengths.
Why Crises Are Catalysts for Transformation
Conventional wisdom says innovation happens in good times. Dave flips the script, arguing that crisis is "the mother of innovation." He challenges listeners to seize current disruptions as "Christitunities" to pioneer solutions.
Leveraging Your Unique Context for Impact
True innovation means operating at the powerful intersection of your God-given identity and circumstances. Dave outlines how pivotal innovators like Martin Luther capitalized on their natural resources and skills within a specific historical context.
This engaging episode provides a rich framework for leading innovation grounded in clear purpose, diverse collaboration, and practical wisdom from the past and present. Don't miss Dave's inspirational charge that you were created to innovate!

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!