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Loving Community, Connections, and the Church - Katie Allred
Uncover the inspiring journey of Katie Allred, a trailblazer who has combined her faith with technology to transform church communications.…
Oct. 25, 2024
Loving Community, Connections, and the Church - Katie Allred
Uncover the inspiring journey of Katie Allred, a trailblazer who has combined her faith with technology to transform church communications. Growing up in rural Alabama, Katie's passion for church life started early and led her to creatively evangelize on platforms like Harry Potter forums. Through personal loss and resilience, she founded Church Communications, an online community connecting church leaders worldwide. Katie's story offers a heartfelt look at how community and faith can intertwine to create impactful, supportive spaces for spiritual growth.
Join us as we explore the creation and influence of Church Communications, a bustling Facebook group that transcends theological differences to foster meaningful connections. Katie shares how her past experiences and love for community building paved the way for this vibrant network where church communicators exchange ideas on marketing, branding, and social media. Discover the joy and challenges of crafting resonant messages that speak to both newcomers and long-time congregants, as well as the importance of addressing spiritual queries in the digital realm.
Our conversation delves into the future of church communication, with a focus on how technology, including AI, can enhance community interactions. Katie reflects on the shifting dynamics of modern church life, emphasizing the need for genuine relationships in a fast-paced, information-saturated world. We examine the evolving role of church spaces as havens against loneliness, advocating for churches to foster a sense of home and belonging. Engage with these insights and more as we navigate the transformative shifts reshaping faith-based communities in today's digital age.
(00:00) Faith Journeys and Church Community
(12:49) Building a Church Communications Community
(24:41) Effective Church Communication Strategies
(35:54) Building Community in the Digital Age
(47:01) Navigating Modern Church Communities
Website - https://faithly.co
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/faithly.co
Katie Allred
https://faithly.co/profiles/katieallred
Church Communications
https://churchcommunications.com
Chapters
00:00 - Faith Journeys and Church Community
12:49:00 - Building a Church Communications Community
24:41:00 - Effective Church Communication Strategies
35:54:00 - Building Community in the Digital Age
47:01:00 - Navigating Modern Church Communities
Transcript
00:00 - Speaker 1
I think I just kept searching after that same feeling of being connected. I felt like I really knew these people. I love community. I think that's why I love church so much. I love community. I love creating relationships and connections. I'm good at that, and so I had created this beautiful community online that I loved when I was, you know, a kid and a teenager, and I think I've just been searching for that kind of feeling ever since. Hi, my name is Katie Allred and I'm the founder of churchcommunicationscom, where we help churches clarify their message and help them speak more clearly to their congregations and their communities and figure out new ways to reach them. So this is my Faithly Story.
00:53 - Speaker 2
Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders as they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life. Join us as we delve into their challenges, moments of encouragement and answered prayers. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. Learn more at faithlyco. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as we unveil the heart of faith through stories from the front lines of ministry. On the Faithly Stories podcast.
01:29 - Speaker 3
So yeah, if you could start by just telling me your faith journey.
01:33 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I would love to share. So I grew up in church. I grew up in very rural Alabama and I can remember the first time we went to church actually I mean I was four, so we weren't going really extensively before that we had just moved to a new area that was pretty rural. It was where my family on both sides actually, like came from, but my mom and dad had moved, you know, away and away and even actually my grandparents had moved away, um, so yeah, so anyways, we had a lot of family heritage in this area. So, uh, when we moved back, we started going to the church.
02:14
Actually that my church, uh, that my family helped plant, uh, back in 1818, a year before alabama became a state. So, uh, we had a lot of family history out in that graveyard. So, yeah, we started going to this church when I was really young and then I just fell in love with church. I love the community. I was a very extroverted child. I wanted to be there at all times. I love the business of church, which I thought was probably a little weird for most people Like I wanted to be at the church budget meeting on a Sunday night and like the church band would have to come pick me up because my mama wasn't taking me.
02:58
You know she was like why do you, you don't need to be there. Like why do you? You don't need to be there, and I'd be like no, I need to know how much they're spending, anyway. So, yeah, I think that played a big part in it. But like, talking spiritually, you know, I started like having the head knowledge of understanding Jesus and what he did for me, like pretty early on, understanding Jesus and what he did for me, like pretty early on. But then around 10, I started asking a lot of these questions and I don't think I fully understood then. But I, I got baptized then and which is a very Southern baptist thing to do.
03:45
I grew up in the southern baptist church, um, and I ended up like feeling like my head knowledge, my heart knowledge, caught up with my head knowledge around 16 really. Uh, but even in those years in between that I was evangelizing on the internet from 9 to 16 on a Harry Potter forum and so funny because like, yeah, I didn't like exactly know what I was talking about, but I just knew that like I love Jesus and I love church and I love following what Jesus taught and how we should love one another, and I wanted to share that with the world because that's the good news is that Jesus is for everyone and so, yeah, so that's a little bit. I mean that's like a short version. I mean I went on to lose some. Actually I lost a friend in a tornado, which is a very strange thing that happened, but it really affected me very early on with grief and but through that, god actually taught me a lot and there's there's there's not actually a story about this online. I prefer not to share the whole thing, but, like, I think God really prepared me for that, because then we ended up my my school ended up losing someone in an accident and then I ended up losing my father in 2008. So I dealt with grief myself and then I had to help my school deal with grief and then, because I was the Fellowship of Christian Students president at the time, it's a small school I went to a very small school and, uh, then, yeah, and then with losing my dad at 18, I kind of grew in my faith quite a bit, and that's when I answered called ministry and so, yeah, that's a little bit of my faith journey, of like understanding.
05:44
I don't know where I wanted to kind of fit in, because in that meantime, while I was doing it, uh, when I was doing the online community thing for harry potter, I understood like I wanted to do something with technology and jesus. I didn't know what that meant. So I studied like computer science because I thought like that was the closest thing. Like digital marketing didn't exist, and online community the idea of it just didn't exist, um, and so I studied what I thought was closest to it that would help me make it happen, and ended up studying like web development. My master's and yeah and and all that kind of led me to working at a church and then uh becoming a professor and working at meta and then uh founding church communications and it's a very strange story that's been interweaved, but it all makes sense like looking back on it.
06:43 - Speaker 3
So yeah, most of life is that weaving. And only when you look back he's like, oh, all of these interconnect and god knew exactly what he was doing, right oh yeah, 100 yeah, um. So there's a lot there that you shared, so I kind of want to unpack some of it. Um, what was it about church that like really stuck with you and like, what did you enjoy most about church as a child?
07:08 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, there's a saying it takes a village to raise a child. I actually said that. So when I graduated I like made a speech and I remember saying that in high school like it took a church to raise me. And I think I really love the aspect of having all these older adults that weren't necessarily my parents, that spoke into my life and that I could go for advice and I knew, cared and loved about me just as much as anybody else. And I love the discipleship aspect. I think you know churches, they love to build a program and do events.
07:50
Something I really loved about growing up was not that, it was the personal relationships I made with people that were not, you know, they weren't intentional, but they were.
08:03
The guy who discipled me was my sixth grade Sunday school teacher who ended up we just became really good friends and I mean, which is so funny to say, because he was like a, you know, 60 year old man and it's fine, he'll be okay with me talking about this still but yeah, he owns a furniture store, you know, um, but yeah, he owns a furniture store, you know, uh, and but he was so good at like answering my questions but then also asking me questions back and saying like, all right, but can you find it like in scripture, can you uh back up what you're saying with?
08:40
You know like some scriptural background or whatever, and so it was really good. I you know that like some scriptural background or whatever, and so it was really good. You know that was a very discipleship relationship that came very organically and I think having that really good experience early on made me love it, because not everybody grew up in a church for the same 15 years and then walked away with a good experience of it. You know, of course there are people in church that will like Bernie, but I was really grateful to have had basically the same pastor the entire time and I mean the congregation was only like 100 people, so I knew everyone and for me that was a really beautiful way to see church and then I ended up working at a mega church right out of college.
09:31
so funny because I told myself I never would. I didn't think to me that didn't feel like the expression of church, but that was the one I you know I didn't grow up in that time and so it was really neat to see the opposite end of it and to see how, like God can grow and bless that and how building relationships looks differently that way. But yeah, that's kind of why church in a way, and then like communication kind of just was my native tongue, it was what I was really good at.
10:02 - Speaker 3
So yeah, it's kind of like using my talents for that that's fascinating because even you sharing like the joys of your childhood in church, I realized, like me at 40, that predominantly I mean set aside, like my mom praying for me and saving myself, like it was really because I had so much fun and most of my good memories came from church and so like it stuck with me and now, like all I want to do is like recreate that for other people, because it was so like good and like yeah, that's just kind of like, and it's funny that you know you mentioned that too. So I really think, like for children, it's so important to create that environment right.
10:44 - Speaker 1
Yeah, for sure. And yeah, it's so interesting because, like our children's ministry, growing up mine wasn't the best right, it was the early 90s or whatever. We didn't have the coolest. There was no check-in. Yeah, there was no check-in system. And I know it's a very different time now and kids are different. But you know, all we have is like a playground outside and play-doh and building blocks like that's all I can remember, but like I can remember how much ralph ramsey and miss jean ramsey cared for me.
11:18
You know, I, I can remember, uh, you know suzanne williams buying c CDs to make us, to help, encourage us to write our books for the Bible. I can't even remember those things that are very specific, you know and Ralph Ramsey isn't with us anymore he bought in World War II and these are really great, like people have, just like getting to know people on this like really personal, intimate basis. But, yeah, the best memories I have from childhood, a lot of them are associated with church, thankfully, um, but at the same time, like they made me feel included and that I belonged and that I was loved, and I think that does look a little differently today. I I think we need to stretch more to fight for that kind of feeling for kids and teenagers.
12:10 - Speaker 3
It's one of the hardest things I had to deal with when I lost my best friend when this was almost 10 years ago and he was like close to my age and I honestly couldn't stop crying when I thought about him for like the first 10 years. But like I really see God use that in my life. So I'm just curious, like what advice would you give to people who are grieving and going through that process?
12:33 - Speaker 1
Yeah, grief is a journey and it looks different for everyone.
12:36
Like you said you crying every time you thought of him. That's perfectly normal and it's. I think it's really okay and I think everybody does it so differently. And for me, it was finding that space and the people who told me it was okay not to be okay. And because I was a perfectionist which is probably why I also thrived in church and so I didn't want to ever be seen as broken and it broke me very early on, you know, and it's okay to be broken and it's okay to grieve and cry and have to, you know, get through those things.
13:25
I think that, yeah, grieving looks so different for everyone, but for me, like the easiest, the best things I could do, is just like surround myself with the right people and and remind myself that it was okay to miss them. There's that like Winnie the Pooh quote or whatever that like how, how lucky am I to have had someone that I miss so much? And I can remember, uh, the pastor I worked for at that mega church I worked at, saying, like you know, we may have only had this person for so long, but how, how grateful we should be that we knew them for that long. And so I try to remind myself that like at least I did, you know, at least I was part of their story and I knew them and in that way, you know, they stay alive. And so I think, yeah, I think that was probably a big learning curve for me. And too, like spiritual, probably a big learning curve for me.
14:26
And to like spiritual, I think you know God had prepared me for the loss of my friend in a very unique way through Scripture. Just reminding me of this specific scripture over and over again is from first Kings 19. It says, you know, god went through the mountains and he tore across, he tore the mountains apart with wind and then fire, but then there was a gentle whisper. He's talking to Elijah and the gentle whisper in the Hebrew, I believe, really kind of means the overwhelming presence of God. Yeah, and having that like the reminder that like this is holy ground, like the grieving process is just the beginning of the next adventure, for that death is but the next great adventure. And you know it's sad because they're no longer with us, but at the same time like how grateful I am to just have had a part of their story.
15:33 - Speaker 3
Thank you. That's such a beautiful, beautiful statement. I never thought of like suffering as holy ground, but that makes so much sense now, Thank you. So how do you go from Harry Potter to churchcommunicationscom? Because in some of the podcasts you were explaining like you're just this Christian girl on the Harry Potter forums sharing the gospel. And then you created this Facebook and it blew up.
15:59 - Speaker 1
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny because I did not connect those two for a very long time. I just thought of my Harry Potter experience not being related to any of them. I really didn't even think of it. It's so funny because it was like so far in the back of my mind, right because I was a kid. Um, yeah, so I think I just kept searching after that same feeling, uh, of being connected. I felt like I really knew these people.
16:29
I love community. I think that's why I love church so much. I love community, I love creating relationships and connections. I'm good at that, and so I had created this beautiful community online that I loved when I was, you know, a kid and a teenager, and I think I've just been searching for that kind of feeling ever since.
16:52
And Facebook groups were just like on the horizon of being cool I don't know not being they weren't really being used, and I was in one group that I thought was really fun and it was like an entrepreneurship group for women and I was like this is cool. There's not really space for people who are doing what I'm doing. So at the time, I had been working at a church for about three years-ish at that time doing social media and web development. So, and I was very much, you know, at the bottom of the hierarchy chart, the organizational chart, doing this work at this mega church, and I was like, okay, but we have so many resources, have so many resources and I'm fortunate enough to be able to do this job and only do this job right, so I get to go deep with it, with my knowledge, instead of like a breadth of knowledge which I think a lot of people have as church communications directors, because they end up doing everything.
17:58
And so I was like I'm gonna group, and at the time my boss and I at the church he was also helping me do some of this and and we were courses were like a big thing, so we were thinking about doing a course or whatever, but we ended up doing a group and the group took off and we we did do some courses and the group took off and we we did do some courses and you know those are still good, but the community really, like I don't know, went on fire essentially Really quickly. We had a thousand members and then five thousand, ten thousand, and now we're at like thirty, three thousand or something like that which you know, there's like 300,000 churches in North America, so it's like 10% ish of the churches which is insane to me.
18:54
But, like you know, I think I just wanted to minister to ministers and I knew that they could help each other and that they could help me, and so I was like let's create a community strictly around communication, because we can get in debates about theology very quickly, but the one thing we all have in common is that we love Jesus and we love communications.
19:26
We love marketing and branding, and websites and social media. These are all things we have in common, regardless of our theological differences, and so which is a beautiful thing, right? So it's like a big global c church all working together, even though we might feel very differently about some things.
19:47 - Speaker 3
and so, yeah, that's kind of how it began, and it's been growing ever since I love the fact that, yeah, you found a way to create a community around a common problem, because, at the end of the day, that's what every company is and entrepreneurship. Like you have a problem, you want to solve it. Um, I'm really curious as to how you like grew it, or how it grew by its own, or like, what is the story? Because part of faithly is like we're focusing on groups and we want to create that community, but it's really hard to get it going first. So so, yeah, I would just love to hear your experience on that.
20:27 - Speaker 1
Yeah, so that is a great question. I would love to say that I had some intentional strategy. I definitely did not. I think our first thousand members came from other groups where people were tired of people talking about communications church communications in them, and so they sent them to our group because they were like, oh, this isn't the right place for you to talk about this stuff. Interesting, I think at first we were just like the, the red-headed stepchild. You know like they were, like you can send your conversations about that here.
21:03
Because there were a lot of like uh, media groups, like church media, uh, but that revolved more around audio video stuff and not necessarily like, um, communications, things like branding and websites and whatnot, and so we kind of were, we kind of became the you know place to filter your topic.
21:25
So what I loved about like forum administration is you used to have could have threads about different conversations, which I still would love, but uh, now you kind of have to have different groups for these different conversations, almost even though communications in itself has a lot of subcategories. So, um, yeah, that's kind of how we grew up. First was just people like word of mouth, telling people about it, and then, uh, from there it became more of a necessity. And also I do think we had really good SEO value, to be honest with you, like really good search engine optimization, because we're literally named Church Communications and people were searching for that because they worked in church communication and so and most of the time like at a church, as a communication team, and so I think we were just aptly named. I was lucky enough to get the domain name from some guy. Uh, well, thankfully, my boss was able to like negotiate him into giving it to us. Uh, he had had it for like 10 years. I was making vhs tapes or something off of it.
22:40
So, yeah, very interesting, yeah, trishcommunicationscom was like a bhs service, uh, but yeah, so I, yeah, I wish I could tell you it was that, but it was really. It was really that. And then also people tagging people who weren't in the group and then me telling them hey, they're not here, but you should like go and get them and add them, because and there's a lot of conversations happening with really good information, and I think people added their friends so that they could see it, because they were like, oh, this is really good. We need to know and I'd love to say that I was the one driving all this content. That's definitely not the case. Uh, it was definitely.
23:21
These were people who were creating content, who wanted people to see their content and get feedback on their content. So it was very organic and natural, which is really cool, you know. And then, like the why to why I started it it was also a little bit because I was mad it didn't exist, because I, too, was frustrated and needed a place to vent and ask questions, and so, yeah, that's why I ended up, you know, and I wrote the book, and it was because I was mad it didn't exist, not because I was passionate. I don't think like I'm the best person at this topic at all. I just think I'm the one that had the time, so I did it.
24:08 - Speaker 3
That's not because I think I'm the best at it for sure. No, that's perfect, because recently I'm realizing that because we're created in the image of God like the name, image and likeness that we all go through unique problems that are actually really common, but it's the first person that says, okay, this needs to exist. So I'm going to start it, but I'm going to get a bunch of other people to kind of grow it and then you kind of enjoy what you had in your mind, grow, but you don't need to invest all your time and energy into it. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense. So what does communicationscom do? And, like, how do you go about solving that problem?
25:07 - Speaker 1
podcasts, resources, and soon we are starting consulting and coaching as well, adding cohorts for communications directors to meet, like on a weekly basis so that they can learn from each other, like via zoom, so that they can have more in-depth conversations, because I just feel like there's a void for that and I'm I'm mad it doesn't exist, so we might as well make it exist. And yeah, and then also we we help churches, do websites and those kind of things too, and do communication audits and help them see the gaps that they have in their communication messaging and how they can build, you know, better messaging so that people understand who they are and want to come. Could you?
25:46 - Speaker 3
give me an example of what these people are talking about or what are some of the pain points that you personally experience in church with communications.
25:54 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of churches use like their mission statement as their tagline and that doesn't necessarily resonate with someone who doesn't know christ and at the end of the day, people are looking for what can benefit them and I know that's like terrible to say, but like it's true, like, yeah, we are trying to survive and so if your church isn't helping me survive and thrive, like you're, basically like not you're, you're like not what I want, right? And so I think you know churches are a perfect way to get interconnected with people who can help you get jobs, that can help you find, you know, child care that can help you do I mean, just have community and friends. Like there's so many good things about having this third place, right, that people talk about now, and it used to be church and I still think it should be. I I think that we've just created it to be such an exclusive club that it's hard to get past the words sometimes of what's on the website or what they're speaking, or because there's like this, certain way you have to act or a certain way you have to um, or certain things you just have to understand, right, and so a lot of people may not understand the phrase like saved by the blood of the lamb. That sounds weird and so we help churches understand that that might be weird and what can we do to make it more, you know, seeker friendly?
27:44
But then also like, how can we help them under like understand that? Like their websites are like 80 visited by people who are new and most of the time they build their website for the 20 of the people from their church that are visiting their website and that's not who they should be building it for. They should be building it for the community that they're in and how they can serve their community and honestly, they could be putting community resources on it, you know, and all those kind of things. Uh, but they typically don't. They don't have. Like it's interesting, google would prefer to send people to a local answer for a lot of questions, especially spiritual questions, I found, like how to pray or Jesus or whatever you know, all those things like it would prefer to like also give them a local answer, but often there is no answer for how to pray on your church's website.
28:42
Often there is no answer for how to pray on your church's website, and so we help churches understand that they should have this content available on their website so that people can find them when they're searching for those questions, because people aren't asking their pastors anymore about what happens when I die. They're asking Google. About what happens when I die. They're asking Google, and so we need to provide them with answers. Somebody is Somebody's already providing them with answers on the internet, so it might as well also be coming from your church as well, because then if they see, oh, this is a local church near me like I can go to that church and find someone to talk to about this.
29:32 - Speaker 3
So, as you're talking, an image that came to my mind was communication, that's, outward facing and inward facing. So a lot of what you were explaining makes a lot of sense when you're trying to communicate to the outside world. Hey, this is who we are in the way you understand things. But is there a split between internal communications and out-facing communication, or how do you fit that together to working with your own comm team?
29:55 - Speaker 1
There can be. It sometimes often feels like there is, and a lot of times, like for, like a company, they would say the external is marketing the internals communication, but churches don't want to work. So, uh, and to me, like this stuff that we're doing online or the way we're talking to the you know people who don't go to our church, that's evangelism to me and so, and we're communicating to them who we are and and what we come from. But too, yeah, there is a totally different set of problems that come when you're communicating internally to your church and the congregation. That is there, right, like, um, there's the ever, never-ending battle of uh bulletins and whether churches should have them or not. That's, that's a, that's a fun printed online.
30:46
People have lots of feelings about it on in our group, still to this day. Um, yeah, like, should your baptism be wrapped, maybe by the raptor? Not, I don't know. There's so many like random things that, like you're like, what does it even matter? I don't know. There's so many like random things that like you're like, but does it even matter, I don't know. And so, yeah, and then also, how do you communicate, like what's going on in your church to your people thing? I think that should be a thing where you're, it's like your front door You're, you're telling people the stories of like life change and what God is doing in your church and and what God is doing the lives of people in your church, more importantly, not just the church at large but individual people.
31:34
The more we can share that, the better, because that's what church is is the people, it's not the building. And so, but with communicating like internally about what's going on, I really recommend like emails and text, just because, and obviously the pulpit announcements on Sunday morning, I think those three things are really like to me, the heavy hitters of today of like how people are keeping up with what's going on at their church, the best. And for me, like this, social media. I mean, I think it's fine to put some of your announcements out on social media, that's fine, but it shouldn't just only be announcements, if that makes sense.
32:24 - Speaker 3
No, I totally agree with you because I see churches using social media as like a glorified bulletin or bulletin board. When it's like majority on the people on the social media space, don't go to your church and this is a perfect time to have exposure. And even as I'm going through my stories and reels of like other people, like yeah, it like captivates me, like they're telling these stories about what they're doing and I'm like, oh, more curious about the church. So, to that effect, like what advice would you give to churches to kind of be more effective on social media platforms, to be outward facing?
33:05 - Speaker 1
I think look at what's working for other things. So I love the example of Humans of New York. This is very, to me, community driven and also people centric, and they're telling stories of people where they are, how they are, and it's very vulnerable and honest, and I think the church could use some vulnerability and honesty, and so sharing those stories, I think um, is so important. Figuring out where those stories are in your church is so important. And like doing like even funny you know the on the street type videos that's great too. Like you need to show that your church is alive and, yeah, that there are people that go there and that sometimes they're funny and you know those kinds of things. I think creating like fun content is great. I think showing your staff having fun is great. Showing your graphic that's pretty sterile and like there's stock images it, I think actually showing people who go there, even if it's not polished, is is better.
34:35 - Speaker 3
Yeah, so, like part of this podcast is that I wanted people to know the people on the site and I wanted to get to talk to them and relate to them, because even if you go on like faithly or like linkedin, you see a picture and you see all their details, like you don't really get to know them personally and so it's hard to connect. You know, yeah, I love that. So how do you see AI kind of disrupt or maybe help or analyze? Because, like you said, people are going to to google for answers, but now they're just going to go to ai that is also true.
35:10 - Speaker 1
it's going to happen and I hope that ai will be as uh, what's the word? Sensitive maybe, as as google has been. Which I mean, is ai right like a search engine? Is ai in this way? Uh, as to giving people local answers, you know, I think, because there's so there's so many answers, there's so many different beliefs, even within the Christian, you know, world of for, for questions, and I think the more it can point people, especially in the world of spirituality, to a local like organization to help find those answers, the more it can point people, especially in the world of spirituality, to a local organization to help find those answers, the better. So I'm hopeful that that might happen. But two, I'm excited about AI because I think it will help us have better conversations.
36:01 - Speaker 3
In what way?
36:03 - Speaker 1
I think I personally would have loved it if, like in my group, I could pull all the data of what people have written and I know what their top pain points are. I know what's trending like what people are asking and talking about the most inside the group, and these are things that AI can do now, which they couldn't do. It couldn't do before really pulling and searching through all that data so quickly and finding and writing, like, a response that makes sense, and then creating questions based on that that data, right On what those pain points are or what is trending, and then creating questions based on that data, right On what those pain points are or what is trending, like pulling resources that can be posted. Those kinds of things, I think, is what I'm excited about when it comes to the community aspect of AI.
37:03 - Speaker 3
That's fascinating, because I never thought of that in that context, in that way, and we should definitely talk after the podcast, because now I have so many other questions. I don't want to get into a rabbit hole.
37:13 - Speaker 1
Somebody please make it.
37:17 - Speaker 3
That's the point of Faithly and why I want to talk to you, because we want to fit all that in, because we want to be very community-driven and people-centric, because, at the end of the day, to fit all that in, because we want to be very community driven and people like centric, because, at the end of the day, all people are are problem solvers, but we're really trying to solve people problems, you know, um? So you said community is what you make of it and how you show up and contribute and what is church? But a community of people who love each other. I absolutely love that quote and it made me tear up because I totally and why I love the local church. How did you come to that realization or conclusion or truth for you?
38:01 - Speaker 1
Yeah, well, I think I came to that conclusion really after studying, like friendships and relationships in general. Like friendship is you could replace the word church with friendship in that same sentence and like friendships are what you contribute, or like what you bring to it. And so, at the end, of social media is what you bring to it, you know, and so what? How can we make this world a better, a better place, and how can we make the church a better place? It's about you. Like it starts with you, it doesn't start with like necessarily your pastor's got too much to do so. Like if you see a problem, like you should solve it. And or if there's something bothering you, specifically you should solve it Because yeah, there's just there's not going to, there's not going to be a better time or a better place. And, and for me, church is this like beautiful way of having community, of having resources, of having shared resources. It's so funny. I had read when I was like 12, I had read the irresistible revolution by um shane.
39:14
She was the same shane clayborne shane clayborne, who's like very much a, um, a hippie, uh, like a hippie Christian, I guess. And it's so funny that I got my hands on this book because I was not right, like I was raised in a very legalistic version of Christianity in a way, and saw there was this different way that church is meant to be, this living organism and it's meant to be beautiful and broken and different and a family, because families are not perfect. And so I have been striving to figure out what that looks like kind of ever since.
40:08 - Speaker 3
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. A lot of my drivenness for community was or is really because I miss being part of like a very cohesive family, and it's funny how, like god uses that so that I can help other families.
40:22 - Speaker 1
Yes, I'm longing for my own yeah, right, I just want to add to the. The world is super disconnected right now. We're more connected than we've ever been, but more lonely lonelier than we've ever been. If you like search and this is how I started a lot of my like talks. Like if you search right now like who's the loneliest generation, you're gonna find headlines for gen z's the loneliest. Millennials are the loneliest. Boomers are like every generation's the loneliest generation, uh, and some kind of. I remember there's like I think the stats from my signa like one out of four people don't have someone they feel like they can intimately have a conversation with, like share something personal that's happening in their life with, and that is bad.
41:13 - Speaker 3
Yeah.
41:15 - Speaker 1
That should be something the church should feel passionately about, more so, because that's that's the love of Christ to me is being the person that you can share someone with and not feel like you're going to be chased out of town. And I think we've made it the place where you feel like, oh, I don't want to, I absolutely don't want them to know, because they're going to chase me out of town, town. And I think that we're all longing for the yeah, that sense of home, that sense of family and a sense of belonging, and the church should, should be that and so. And that's hard. It's hard because they're all broken people and you know, we've all got these ideas and these rituals that we've set up for years and years about what it should look like to be. And so I don't have like a great answer for that quite yet, but I think it starts with, like people like us at least having a conversation around it, because otherwise it's just going to keep being the same thing. It's been probably for like the last 50-ish years.
42:21
You know, I think there's been certain places, uh, pockets of families that work really well, with churches that work really well. Like you and I had good, like you know, we remember really good things about the churches that we grew up in, like when my dad died, the ladies of the church that I grew up with came to our house and cleaned it top to bottom. The day my, the day after my dad died, um made us leave and said we're going to clean this house. And I mean, and they scrubbed it hasn't been that clean since and and then also helped my mom go through my dad's belongings. Uh, and I think about that and to me that's church, like my uncles didn't do that. They didn't show up, but my church did, and so I think that's like the beauty of it, yeah yeah.
43:22 - Speaker 3
so I kind of agree with when you said, like online church is church because, again, it's about the people gathering together. But in your opinion, how do you? Also? Because, unless you're meeting in person too, I feel like you lose some of that relationalness, right? So how do you combine, you know, having people gather online as a community, but also like encourage them to meet in person?
43:49 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's, that's kind of the rub, right, that's kind of the friction of online church. I love the idea of it because, like I said, I love those friends of mine in my Harry Potter group, I love the people I have in church communications and I have not met many of them and many of them feel like they know me personally, even though I may not necessarily know them. And that's the issue, right, it's like you know, there's not enough room, and so I do think, like encourage, I think it starts online. I do think, like I would love to encourage that in-person involvement, whatever that looks like, whether the online church has a meeting a few times, four times a year, once a quarter or something in one place, or whether they set up set up like local chapters where people watch together in their homes. I think that could be an interesting innovation of it because, yeah, you're right, like, uh, online people can't necessarily they can send money, though, like that they can do different things, like you know, like it may not be exactly like it was, so that's the interesting part like they could still send us a cleaning crew, like after someone passes away, like. So it's a little, it's a little different.
45:17
Um, so I do wonder, like, what that like looks like exactly. You know, I don't know that I have that figured out either, and I think some churches are doing it really well. Like saddleback has a really great online church. Jay kranda's amazing, he oversees that and is the pastor of it, and like he flies to anywhere where somebody wants to be like baptized and, um, most of the time a lot of those places do have those like home churches where they're all watching together and they've kind of created their own little small group around it. And so I do wonder if, like, that's the future of church, because I don't know that it's big. You know, I don't know, and that's funny because I can't, I worked at an agri-church, right, and that's funny because I can't, I worked at an agriculture church, right.
46:09
I think that our generation is burnt out from that and really does seek those, the wanting to be intimately known again, and I think Gen Z sees through that. And while it's so good for resource purposes, it is like it's so good for like meeting and and like having, like that space is so awesome. It's also I don't know it's also so hard because it the bigger your space is, the more the community's like. But you could be giving that to the poor and like what are you doing like and you, you could be giving that to the poor and like what are you doing like and you, you could be serving them through that building. I don't know, you know, I don't know what that that is, but there definitely is like a balance of what that looks like. But I definitely feel like the future of the church is smaller. And also my pastor at the mega church used to say the first reformation was about giving the word back to the people, but the second reformation will be about giving the ministry back to the people.
47:12 - Speaker 3
That's good.
47:15 - Speaker 1
And I think that's where we start. So that means it might be in homes and it's going to look smaller and different I totally agree with you.
47:29 - Speaker 3
now I don't know how it's we're going to get there, because I've always said the church is supposed to reflect the home. The home is not supposed to reflect the church. And I feel like and this really comes and you'll hear me say this a lot on the podcast it really is how we started off in like the birth of the century of like an industrial mindset, of constantly scaling and building up, so like scarce of resources, but now we have too many resources. If you really think about it, we are like a glutton for information and technology and now I think, like you said, we're going to trickle back to okay, but now we need to build out relationships and you know the whole online church thing. The thing I was thinking about is like long distance relationships. Maybe we will just find a way, Because one thing I know about like two people dating that are crazy in love with each other.
48:21
And they will do anything and everything, and I think people who have that genuine heart for each other will do the same, because we're just human, yeah I told her about that.
48:31 - Speaker 1
I've said that on a podcast, I think, before too. Yeah, like online church is all like online dating, like eventually they're gonna, they're gonna see each other. Like that's just how it is. But yeah, I don't think about too how good it is to build a network that's wide. You know, that's not just local, because we're very much becoming a nomadic culture. We're not like staying in one place for 50 years like we used to. We're very much like picking up and moving, uh, especially as millennials, like most of us, don't own houses. So like we're just like yeah, well, you know, I might as well, might as well go, uh. So yeah, I think that opens up opportunity to for jobs and so many other things in different ways of life. So, yeah, I don't see it as a bad thing, I just see it as a different thing.
49:20 - Speaker 3
It just looks different yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um. So I'm gonna ask you three questions as we end this podcast. Uh, when was the last time you changed your mind about something?
49:31 - Speaker 1
that's hard. Um, I've changed my mind about a lot of things recently. I don't know if I want to share them all okay, no, just one.
49:41 - Speaker 3
Anything it could be silly, it doesn't have to be serious, or maybe communication style. You thought was like, oh, this is the way, the way. But with new information you're like, oh wait, oops.
49:52 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, I think I. Well, this wasn't really a recent one, though, like I changed my mind about Snapchat one time, okay let's talk about that.
50:02 - Speaker 3
How? How can Snapchat be used?
50:13 - Speaker 1
Because a lot of young people are on it and I don't think any church is on it. Well, I had our church on it back in 2015 and I changed my mind because you can change settings, first off, to make it more safe, but two, uh, I think the ability to have conversations with people like one-on-one that you can do in snapchat is, like maybe worth worth the risk. And then you know when things happen, which they will, regardless, like, of what platform you're using, whether it's in person or not, things are going to happen and when they do, you have a system, you have a plan for when that does happen, something that you thought was inappropriate happens. So I think, like taking the risk of making a relationship or reaching out to people, even if it's different, and I think, like I thought that about twitch, or like TikTok.
51:05
I remember at first, like when TikTok came out, I was like no TikTok, like that's a terrible idea. And now, like I spend the majority of my time on TikTok, so I can't even like say it's a bad idea anymore. And or like the idea I used to think like everything that came out of the church is like like social media needed to be from the pastor and now I don't think that at all, like I think it should not be from the pastor. Actually, I think everything from social media should be from people at your church, not not the pastor. Necessarily. I think it's fine to have him on there a few times, but, like I said, the church is the people, it's not just the pastors.
51:51 - Speaker 3
So, yeah, no, that was great, that was great. Like, when you rewatch this, you'll be like oh wow, that was a really insightful answer, Is it? No, because it's not about the thing. It's about the lesson you learned and the concepts that will apply to other, like you said, not just Snapchat, but other platforms where what I'm hearing when you say that is relationship is risk. Right, so might as well put in the effort to try to connect and if it doesn't work, you can just move off platform, you know. So there's nothing wrong with experimenting printing press was evil.
52:29 - Speaker 1
Yeah, until it wasn't and it was evil for a host of reasons that were outside of like. Like just people think people like the church thought it was evil because they, you know, and our government thought it was evil because then you know they were controlling the church and all that like there's so much more behind like why something is evil than just one thing.
52:50 - Speaker 3
So yeah, um, what are you hoping for at faithly?
52:57 - Speaker 1
like, honestly, all the jobs I've ever gotten and probably the same for you have become have been because I've known somebody. I don't think I've gotten a job yet because I know I don't think. No, I haven't gotten one yet because I just applied. So everything that has ever been open for me has been because I knew somebody who knew me, and so I think that is what I hope for faithfully is that there's just this like wide network of people who get to know each other and can help each other, especially in this, especially in this economy, um, but like can help, uh, each other grow, not only like professionally, but spiritually as well thank you, um, and how can we be praying for you?
53:45
yeah, well, we're going into the holidays. The holidays are a tough time for me, um, traditionally, but I am excited about them nevertheless. So and they're just. I think they're a hard time for a lot of people. So, yeah, I guess just like prayer for not just me during the holidays, but for a lot of people who are dealing with grief.
54:13 - Speaker 3
Thank you Well, thanks for coming. This was great. I have so many questions. I'm going to ask you afterwards, but we'll see how much time we have. That's it for the podcast, guys.
54:19 - Speaker 2
Thank you for tuning in to the Faithly Stories podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories Podcast we pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories Podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. The Faithly digital platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the front lines of ministry on the Faithly Podcast. Stay bold, stay faithful and never underestimate the power of your own story.
I think I just kept searching after that same feeling of being connected. I felt like I really knew these people. I love community. I think that's why I love church so much. I love community. I love creating relationships and connections. I'm good at that, and so I had created this beautiful community online that I loved when I was, you know, a kid and a teenager, and I think I've just been searching for that kind of feeling ever since. Hi, my name is Katie Allred and I'm the founder of churchcommunicationscom, where we help churches clarify their message and help them speak more clearly to their congregations and their communities and figure out new ways to reach them. So this is my Faithly Story.
00:53 - Speaker 2
Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders as they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life. Join us as we delve into their challenges, moments of encouragement and answered prayers. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. Learn more at faithlyco. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as we unveil the heart of faith through stories from the front lines of ministry. On the Faithly Stories podcast.
01:29 - Speaker 3
So yeah, if you could start by just telling me your faith journey.
01:33 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I would love to share. So I grew up in church. I grew up in very rural Alabama and I can remember the first time we went to church actually I mean I was four, so we weren't going really extensively before that we had just moved to a new area that was pretty rural. It was where my family on both sides actually, like came from, but my mom and dad had moved, you know, away and away and even actually my grandparents had moved away, um, so yeah, so anyways, we had a lot of family heritage in this area. So, uh, when we moved back, we started going to the church.
02:14
Actually that my church, uh, that my family helped plant, uh, back in 1818, a year before alabama became a state. So, uh, we had a lot of family history out in that graveyard. So, yeah, we started going to this church when I was really young and then I just fell in love with church. I love the community. I was a very extroverted child. I wanted to be there at all times. I love the business of church, which I thought was probably a little weird for most people Like I wanted to be at the church budget meeting on a Sunday night and like the church band would have to come pick me up because my mama wasn't taking me.
02:58
You know she was like why do you, you don't need to be there. Like why do you? You don't need to be there, and I'd be like no, I need to know how much they're spending, anyway. So, yeah, I think that played a big part in it. But like, talking spiritually, you know, I started like having the head knowledge of understanding Jesus and what he did for me, like pretty early on, understanding Jesus and what he did for me, like pretty early on. But then around 10, I started asking a lot of these questions and I don't think I fully understood then. But I, I got baptized then and which is a very Southern baptist thing to do.
03:45
I grew up in the southern baptist church, um, and I ended up like feeling like my head knowledge, my heart knowledge, caught up with my head knowledge around 16 really. Uh, but even in those years in between that I was evangelizing on the internet from 9 to 16 on a Harry Potter forum and so funny because like, yeah, I didn't like exactly know what I was talking about, but I just knew that like I love Jesus and I love church and I love following what Jesus taught and how we should love one another, and I wanted to share that with the world because that's the good news is that Jesus is for everyone and so, yeah, so that's a little bit. I mean that's like a short version. I mean I went on to lose some. Actually I lost a friend in a tornado, which is a very strange thing that happened, but it really affected me very early on with grief and but through that, god actually taught me a lot and there's there's there's not actually a story about this online. I prefer not to share the whole thing, but, like, I think God really prepared me for that, because then we ended up my my school ended up losing someone in an accident and then I ended up losing my father in 2008. So I dealt with grief myself and then I had to help my school deal with grief and then, because I was the Fellowship of Christian Students president at the time, it's a small school I went to a very small school and, uh, then, yeah, and then with losing my dad at 18, I kind of grew in my faith quite a bit, and that's when I answered called ministry and so, yeah, that's a little bit of my faith journey, of like understanding.
05:44
I don't know where I wanted to kind of fit in, because in that meantime, while I was doing it, uh, when I was doing the online community thing for harry potter, I understood like I wanted to do something with technology and jesus. I didn't know what that meant. So I studied like computer science because I thought like that was the closest thing. Like digital marketing didn't exist, and online community the idea of it just didn't exist, um, and so I studied what I thought was closest to it that would help me make it happen, and ended up studying like web development. My master's and yeah and and all that kind of led me to working at a church and then uh becoming a professor and working at meta and then uh founding church communications and it's a very strange story that's been interweaved, but it all makes sense like looking back on it.
06:43 - Speaker 3
So yeah, most of life is that weaving. And only when you look back he's like, oh, all of these interconnect and god knew exactly what he was doing, right oh yeah, 100 yeah, um. So there's a lot there that you shared, so I kind of want to unpack some of it. Um, what was it about church that like really stuck with you and like, what did you enjoy most about church as a child?
07:08 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, there's a saying it takes a village to raise a child. I actually said that. So when I graduated I like made a speech and I remember saying that in high school like it took a church to raise me. And I think I really love the aspect of having all these older adults that weren't necessarily my parents, that spoke into my life and that I could go for advice and I knew, cared and loved about me just as much as anybody else. And I love the discipleship aspect. I think you know churches, they love to build a program and do events.
07:50
Something I really loved about growing up was not that, it was the personal relationships I made with people that were not, you know, they weren't intentional, but they were.
08:03
The guy who discipled me was my sixth grade Sunday school teacher who ended up we just became really good friends and I mean, which is so funny to say, because he was like a, you know, 60 year old man and it's fine, he'll be okay with me talking about this still but yeah, he owns a furniture store, you know, um, but yeah, he owns a furniture store, you know, uh, and but he was so good at like answering my questions but then also asking me questions back and saying like, all right, but can you find it like in scripture, can you uh back up what you're saying with?
08:40
You know like some scriptural background or whatever, and so it was really good. I you know that like some scriptural background or whatever, and so it was really good. You know that was a very discipleship relationship that came very organically and I think having that really good experience early on made me love it, because not everybody grew up in a church for the same 15 years and then walked away with a good experience of it. You know, of course there are people in church that will like Bernie, but I was really grateful to have had basically the same pastor the entire time and I mean the congregation was only like 100 people, so I knew everyone and for me that was a really beautiful way to see church and then I ended up working at a mega church right out of college.
09:31
so funny because I told myself I never would. I didn't think to me that didn't feel like the expression of church, but that was the one I you know I didn't grow up in that time and so it was really neat to see the opposite end of it and to see how, like God can grow and bless that and how building relationships looks differently that way. But yeah, that's kind of why church in a way, and then like communication kind of just was my native tongue, it was what I was really good at.
10:02 - Speaker 3
So yeah, it's kind of like using my talents for that that's fascinating because even you sharing like the joys of your childhood in church, I realized, like me at 40, that predominantly I mean set aside, like my mom praying for me and saving myself, like it was really because I had so much fun and most of my good memories came from church and so like it stuck with me and now, like all I want to do is like recreate that for other people, because it was so like good and like yeah, that's just kind of like, and it's funny that you know you mentioned that too. So I really think, like for children, it's so important to create that environment right.
10:44 - Speaker 1
Yeah, for sure. And yeah, it's so interesting because, like our children's ministry, growing up mine wasn't the best right, it was the early 90s or whatever. We didn't have the coolest. There was no check-in. Yeah, there was no check-in system. And I know it's a very different time now and kids are different. But you know, all we have is like a playground outside and play-doh and building blocks like that's all I can remember, but like I can remember how much ralph ramsey and miss jean ramsey cared for me.
11:18
You know, I, I can remember, uh, you know suzanne williams buying c CDs to make us, to help, encourage us to write our books for the Bible. I can't even remember those things that are very specific, you know and Ralph Ramsey isn't with us anymore he bought in World War II and these are really great, like people have, just like getting to know people on this like really personal, intimate basis. But, yeah, the best memories I have from childhood, a lot of them are associated with church, thankfully, um, but at the same time, like they made me feel included and that I belonged and that I was loved, and I think that does look a little differently today. I I think we need to stretch more to fight for that kind of feeling for kids and teenagers.
12:10 - Speaker 3
It's one of the hardest things I had to deal with when I lost my best friend when this was almost 10 years ago and he was like close to my age and I honestly couldn't stop crying when I thought about him for like the first 10 years. But like I really see God use that in my life. So I'm just curious, like what advice would you give to people who are grieving and going through that process?
12:33 - Speaker 1
Yeah, grief is a journey and it looks different for everyone.
12:36
Like you said you crying every time you thought of him. That's perfectly normal and it's. I think it's really okay and I think everybody does it so differently. And for me, it was finding that space and the people who told me it was okay not to be okay. And because I was a perfectionist which is probably why I also thrived in church and so I didn't want to ever be seen as broken and it broke me very early on, you know, and it's okay to be broken and it's okay to grieve and cry and have to, you know, get through those things.
13:25
I think that, yeah, grieving looks so different for everyone, but for me, like the easiest, the best things I could do, is just like surround myself with the right people and and remind myself that it was okay to miss them. There's that like Winnie the Pooh quote or whatever that like how, how lucky am I to have had someone that I miss so much? And I can remember, uh, the pastor I worked for at that mega church I worked at, saying, like you know, we may have only had this person for so long, but how, how grateful we should be that we knew them for that long. And so I try to remind myself that like at least I did, you know, at least I was part of their story and I knew them and in that way, you know, they stay alive. And so I think, yeah, I think that was probably a big learning curve for me. And too, like spiritual, probably a big learning curve for me.
14:26
And to like spiritual, I think you know God had prepared me for the loss of my friend in a very unique way through Scripture. Just reminding me of this specific scripture over and over again is from first Kings 19. It says, you know, god went through the mountains and he tore across, he tore the mountains apart with wind and then fire, but then there was a gentle whisper. He's talking to Elijah and the gentle whisper in the Hebrew, I believe, really kind of means the overwhelming presence of God. Yeah, and having that like the reminder that like this is holy ground, like the grieving process is just the beginning of the next adventure, for that death is but the next great adventure. And you know it's sad because they're no longer with us, but at the same time like how grateful I am to just have had a part of their story.
15:33 - Speaker 3
Thank you. That's such a beautiful, beautiful statement. I never thought of like suffering as holy ground, but that makes so much sense now, Thank you. So how do you go from Harry Potter to churchcommunicationscom? Because in some of the podcasts you were explaining like you're just this Christian girl on the Harry Potter forums sharing the gospel. And then you created this Facebook and it blew up.
15:59 - Speaker 1
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny because I did not connect those two for a very long time. I just thought of my Harry Potter experience not being related to any of them. I really didn't even think of it. It's so funny because it was like so far in the back of my mind, right because I was a kid. Um, yeah, so I think I just kept searching after that same feeling, uh, of being connected. I felt like I really knew these people.
16:29
I love community. I think that's why I love church so much. I love community, I love creating relationships and connections. I'm good at that, and so I had created this beautiful community online that I loved when I was, you know, a kid and a teenager, and I think I've just been searching for that kind of feeling ever since.
16:52
And Facebook groups were just like on the horizon of being cool I don't know not being they weren't really being used, and I was in one group that I thought was really fun and it was like an entrepreneurship group for women and I was like this is cool. There's not really space for people who are doing what I'm doing. So at the time, I had been working at a church for about three years-ish at that time doing social media and web development. So, and I was very much, you know, at the bottom of the hierarchy chart, the organizational chart, doing this work at this mega church, and I was like, okay, but we have so many resources, have so many resources and I'm fortunate enough to be able to do this job and only do this job right, so I get to go deep with it, with my knowledge, instead of like a breadth of knowledge which I think a lot of people have as church communications directors, because they end up doing everything.
17:58
And so I was like I'm gonna group, and at the time my boss and I at the church he was also helping me do some of this and and we were courses were like a big thing, so we were thinking about doing a course or whatever, but we ended up doing a group and the group took off and we we did do some courses and the group took off and we we did do some courses and you know those are still good, but the community really, like I don't know, went on fire essentially Really quickly. We had a thousand members and then five thousand, ten thousand, and now we're at like thirty, three thousand or something like that which you know, there's like 300,000 churches in North America, so it's like 10% ish of the churches which is insane to me.
18:54
But, like you know, I think I just wanted to minister to ministers and I knew that they could help each other and that they could help me, and so I was like let's create a community strictly around communication, because we can get in debates about theology very quickly, but the one thing we all have in common is that we love Jesus and we love communications.
19:26
We love marketing and branding, and websites and social media. These are all things we have in common, regardless of our theological differences, and so which is a beautiful thing, right? So it's like a big global c church all working together, even though we might feel very differently about some things.
19:47 - Speaker 3
and so, yeah, that's kind of how it began, and it's been growing ever since I love the fact that, yeah, you found a way to create a community around a common problem, because, at the end of the day, that's what every company is and entrepreneurship. Like you have a problem, you want to solve it. Um, I'm really curious as to how you like grew it, or how it grew by its own, or like, what is the story? Because part of faithly is like we're focusing on groups and we want to create that community, but it's really hard to get it going first. So so, yeah, I would just love to hear your experience on that.
20:27 - Speaker 1
Yeah, so that is a great question. I would love to say that I had some intentional strategy. I definitely did not. I think our first thousand members came from other groups where people were tired of people talking about communications church communications in them, and so they sent them to our group because they were like, oh, this isn't the right place for you to talk about this stuff. Interesting, I think at first we were just like the, the red-headed stepchild. You know like they were, like you can send your conversations about that here.
21:03
Because there were a lot of like uh, media groups, like church media, uh, but that revolved more around audio video stuff and not necessarily like, um, communications, things like branding and websites and whatnot, and so we kind of were, we kind of became the you know place to filter your topic.
21:25
So what I loved about like forum administration is you used to have could have threads about different conversations, which I still would love, but uh, now you kind of have to have different groups for these different conversations, almost even though communications in itself has a lot of subcategories. So, um, yeah, that's kind of how we grew up. First was just people like word of mouth, telling people about it, and then, uh, from there it became more of a necessity. And also I do think we had really good SEO value, to be honest with you, like really good search engine optimization, because we're literally named Church Communications and people were searching for that because they worked in church communication and so and most of the time like at a church, as a communication team, and so I think we were just aptly named. I was lucky enough to get the domain name from some guy. Uh, well, thankfully, my boss was able to like negotiate him into giving it to us. Uh, he had had it for like 10 years. I was making vhs tapes or something off of it.
22:40
So, yeah, very interesting, yeah, trishcommunicationscom was like a bhs service, uh, but yeah, so I, yeah, I wish I could tell you it was that, but it was really. It was really that. And then also people tagging people who weren't in the group and then me telling them hey, they're not here, but you should like go and get them and add them, because and there's a lot of conversations happening with really good information, and I think people added their friends so that they could see it, because they were like, oh, this is really good. We need to know and I'd love to say that I was the one driving all this content. That's definitely not the case. Uh, it was definitely.
23:21
These were people who were creating content, who wanted people to see their content and get feedback on their content. So it was very organic and natural, which is really cool, you know. And then, like the why to why I started it it was also a little bit because I was mad it didn't exist, because I, too, was frustrated and needed a place to vent and ask questions, and so, yeah, that's why I ended up, you know, and I wrote the book, and it was because I was mad it didn't exist, not because I was passionate. I don't think like I'm the best person at this topic at all. I just think I'm the one that had the time, so I did it.
24:08 - Speaker 3
That's not because I think I'm the best at it for sure. No, that's perfect, because recently I'm realizing that because we're created in the image of God like the name, image and likeness that we all go through unique problems that are actually really common, but it's the first person that says, okay, this needs to exist. So I'm going to start it, but I'm going to get a bunch of other people to kind of grow it and then you kind of enjoy what you had in your mind, grow, but you don't need to invest all your time and energy into it. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense. So what does communicationscom do? And, like, how do you go about solving that problem?
25:07 - Speaker 1
podcasts, resources, and soon we are starting consulting and coaching as well, adding cohorts for communications directors to meet, like on a weekly basis so that they can learn from each other, like via zoom, so that they can have more in-depth conversations, because I just feel like there's a void for that and I'm I'm mad it doesn't exist, so we might as well make it exist. And yeah, and then also we we help churches, do websites and those kind of things too, and do communication audits and help them see the gaps that they have in their communication messaging and how they can build, you know, better messaging so that people understand who they are and want to come. Could you?
25:46 - Speaker 3
give me an example of what these people are talking about or what are some of the pain points that you personally experience in church with communications.
25:54 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of churches use like their mission statement as their tagline and that doesn't necessarily resonate with someone who doesn't know christ and at the end of the day, people are looking for what can benefit them and I know that's like terrible to say, but like it's true, like, yeah, we are trying to survive and so if your church isn't helping me survive and thrive, like you're, basically like not you're, you're like not what I want, right? And so I think you know churches are a perfect way to get interconnected with people who can help you get jobs, that can help you find, you know, child care that can help you do I mean, just have community and friends. Like there's so many good things about having this third place, right, that people talk about now, and it used to be church and I still think it should be. I I think that we've just created it to be such an exclusive club that it's hard to get past the words sometimes of what's on the website or what they're speaking, or because there's like this, certain way you have to act or a certain way you have to um, or certain things you just have to understand, right, and so a lot of people may not understand the phrase like saved by the blood of the lamb. That sounds weird and so we help churches understand that that might be weird and what can we do to make it more, you know, seeker friendly?
27:44
But then also like, how can we help them under like understand that? Like their websites are like 80 visited by people who are new and most of the time they build their website for the 20 of the people from their church that are visiting their website and that's not who they should be building it for. They should be building it for the community that they're in and how they can serve their community and honestly, they could be putting community resources on it, you know, and all those kind of things. Uh, but they typically don't. They don't have. Like it's interesting, google would prefer to send people to a local answer for a lot of questions, especially spiritual questions, I found, like how to pray or Jesus or whatever you know, all those things like it would prefer to like also give them a local answer, but often there is no answer for how to pray on your church's website.
28:42
Often there is no answer for how to pray on your church's website, and so we help churches understand that they should have this content available on their website so that people can find them when they're searching for those questions, because people aren't asking their pastors anymore about what happens when I die. They're asking Google. About what happens when I die. They're asking Google, and so we need to provide them with answers. Somebody is Somebody's already providing them with answers on the internet, so it might as well also be coming from your church as well, because then if they see, oh, this is a local church near me like I can go to that church and find someone to talk to about this.
29:32 - Speaker 3
So, as you're talking, an image that came to my mind was communication, that's, outward facing and inward facing. So a lot of what you were explaining makes a lot of sense when you're trying to communicate to the outside world. Hey, this is who we are in the way you understand things. But is there a split between internal communications and out-facing communication, or how do you fit that together to working with your own comm team?
29:55 - Speaker 1
There can be. It sometimes often feels like there is, and a lot of times, like for, like a company, they would say the external is marketing the internals communication, but churches don't want to work. So, uh, and to me, like this stuff that we're doing online or the way we're talking to the you know people who don't go to our church, that's evangelism to me and so, and we're communicating to them who we are and and what we come from. But too, yeah, there is a totally different set of problems that come when you're communicating internally to your church and the congregation. That is there, right, like, um, there's the ever, never-ending battle of uh bulletins and whether churches should have them or not. That's, that's a, that's a fun printed online.
30:46
People have lots of feelings about it on in our group, still to this day. Um, yeah, like, should your baptism be wrapped, maybe by the raptor? Not, I don't know. There's so many like random things that, like you're like, what does it even matter? I don't know. There's so many like random things that like you're like, but does it even matter, I don't know. And so, yeah, and then also, how do you communicate, like what's going on in your church to your people thing? I think that should be a thing where you're, it's like your front door You're, you're telling people the stories of like life change and what God is doing in your church and and what God is doing the lives of people in your church, more importantly, not just the church at large but individual people.
31:34
The more we can share that, the better, because that's what church is is the people, it's not the building. And so, but with communicating like internally about what's going on, I really recommend like emails and text, just because, and obviously the pulpit announcements on Sunday morning, I think those three things are really like to me, the heavy hitters of today of like how people are keeping up with what's going on at their church, the best. And for me, like this, social media. I mean, I think it's fine to put some of your announcements out on social media, that's fine, but it shouldn't just only be announcements, if that makes sense.
32:24 - Speaker 3
No, I totally agree with you because I see churches using social media as like a glorified bulletin or bulletin board. When it's like majority on the people on the social media space, don't go to your church and this is a perfect time to have exposure. And even as I'm going through my stories and reels of like other people, like yeah, it like captivates me, like they're telling these stories about what they're doing and I'm like, oh, more curious about the church. So, to that effect, like what advice would you give to churches to kind of be more effective on social media platforms, to be outward facing?
33:05 - Speaker 1
I think look at what's working for other things. So I love the example of Humans of New York. This is very, to me, community driven and also people centric, and they're telling stories of people where they are, how they are, and it's very vulnerable and honest, and I think the church could use some vulnerability and honesty, and so sharing those stories, I think um, is so important. Figuring out where those stories are in your church is so important. And like doing like even funny you know the on the street type videos that's great too. Like you need to show that your church is alive and, yeah, that there are people that go there and that sometimes they're funny and you know those kinds of things. I think creating like fun content is great. I think showing your staff having fun is great. Showing your graphic that's pretty sterile and like there's stock images it, I think actually showing people who go there, even if it's not polished, is is better.
34:35 - Speaker 3
Yeah, so, like part of this podcast is that I wanted people to know the people on the site and I wanted to get to talk to them and relate to them, because even if you go on like faithly or like linkedin, you see a picture and you see all their details, like you don't really get to know them personally and so it's hard to connect. You know, yeah, I love that. So how do you see AI kind of disrupt or maybe help or analyze? Because, like you said, people are going to to google for answers, but now they're just going to go to ai that is also true.
35:10 - Speaker 1
it's going to happen and I hope that ai will be as uh, what's the word? Sensitive maybe, as as google has been. Which I mean, is ai right like a search engine? Is ai in this way? Uh, as to giving people local answers, you know, I think, because there's so there's so many answers, there's so many different beliefs, even within the Christian, you know, world of for, for questions, and I think the more it can point people, especially in the world of spirituality, to a local like organization to help find those answers, the more it can point people, especially in the world of spirituality, to a local organization to help find those answers, the better. So I'm hopeful that that might happen. But two, I'm excited about AI because I think it will help us have better conversations.
36:01 - Speaker 3
In what way?
36:03 - Speaker 1
I think I personally would have loved it if, like in my group, I could pull all the data of what people have written and I know what their top pain points are. I know what's trending like what people are asking and talking about the most inside the group, and these are things that AI can do now, which they couldn't do. It couldn't do before really pulling and searching through all that data so quickly and finding and writing, like, a response that makes sense, and then creating questions based on that that data, right On what those pain points are or what is trending, and then creating questions based on that data, right On what those pain points are or what is trending, like pulling resources that can be posted. Those kinds of things, I think, is what I'm excited about when it comes to the community aspect of AI.
37:03 - Speaker 3
That's fascinating, because I never thought of that in that context, in that way, and we should definitely talk after the podcast, because now I have so many other questions. I don't want to get into a rabbit hole.
37:13 - Speaker 1
Somebody please make it.
37:17 - Speaker 3
That's the point of Faithly and why I want to talk to you, because we want to fit all that in, because we want to be very community-driven and people-centric, because, at the end of the day, to fit all that in, because we want to be very community driven and people like centric, because, at the end of the day, all people are are problem solvers, but we're really trying to solve people problems, you know, um? So you said community is what you make of it and how you show up and contribute and what is church? But a community of people who love each other. I absolutely love that quote and it made me tear up because I totally and why I love the local church. How did you come to that realization or conclusion or truth for you?
38:01 - Speaker 1
Yeah, well, I think I came to that conclusion really after studying, like friendships and relationships in general. Like friendship is you could replace the word church with friendship in that same sentence and like friendships are what you contribute, or like what you bring to it. And so, at the end, of social media is what you bring to it, you know, and so what? How can we make this world a better, a better place, and how can we make the church a better place? It's about you. Like it starts with you, it doesn't start with like necessarily your pastor's got too much to do so. Like if you see a problem, like you should solve it. And or if there's something bothering you, specifically you should solve it Because yeah, there's just there's not going to, there's not going to be a better time or a better place. And, and for me, church is this like beautiful way of having community, of having resources, of having shared resources. It's so funny. I had read when I was like 12, I had read the irresistible revolution by um shane.
39:14
She was the same shane clayborne shane clayborne, who's like very much a, um, a hippie, uh, like a hippie Christian, I guess. And it's so funny that I got my hands on this book because I was not right, like I was raised in a very legalistic version of Christianity in a way, and saw there was this different way that church is meant to be, this living organism and it's meant to be beautiful and broken and different and a family, because families are not perfect. And so I have been striving to figure out what that looks like kind of ever since.
40:08 - Speaker 3
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. A lot of my drivenness for community was or is really because I miss being part of like a very cohesive family, and it's funny how, like god uses that so that I can help other families.
40:22 - Speaker 1
Yes, I'm longing for my own yeah, right, I just want to add to the. The world is super disconnected right now. We're more connected than we've ever been, but more lonely lonelier than we've ever been. If you like search and this is how I started a lot of my like talks. Like if you search right now like who's the loneliest generation, you're gonna find headlines for gen z's the loneliest. Millennials are the loneliest. Boomers are like every generation's the loneliest generation, uh, and some kind of. I remember there's like I think the stats from my signa like one out of four people don't have someone they feel like they can intimately have a conversation with, like share something personal that's happening in their life with, and that is bad.
41:13 - Speaker 3
Yeah.
41:15 - Speaker 1
That should be something the church should feel passionately about, more so, because that's that's the love of Christ to me is being the person that you can share someone with and not feel like you're going to be chased out of town. And I think we've made it the place where you feel like, oh, I don't want to, I absolutely don't want them to know, because they're going to chase me out of town, town. And I think that we're all longing for the yeah, that sense of home, that sense of family and a sense of belonging, and the church should, should be that and so. And that's hard. It's hard because they're all broken people and you know, we've all got these ideas and these rituals that we've set up for years and years about what it should look like to be. And so I don't have like a great answer for that quite yet, but I think it starts with, like people like us at least having a conversation around it, because otherwise it's just going to keep being the same thing. It's been probably for like the last 50-ish years.
42:21
You know, I think there's been certain places, uh, pockets of families that work really well, with churches that work really well. Like you and I had good, like you know, we remember really good things about the churches that we grew up in, like when my dad died, the ladies of the church that I grew up with came to our house and cleaned it top to bottom. The day my, the day after my dad died, um made us leave and said we're going to clean this house. And I mean, and they scrubbed it hasn't been that clean since and and then also helped my mom go through my dad's belongings. Uh, and I think about that and to me that's church, like my uncles didn't do that. They didn't show up, but my church did, and so I think that's like the beauty of it, yeah yeah.
43:22 - Speaker 3
so I kind of agree with when you said, like online church is church because, again, it's about the people gathering together. But in your opinion, how do you? Also? Because, unless you're meeting in person too, I feel like you lose some of that relationalness, right? So how do you combine, you know, having people gather online as a community, but also like encourage them to meet in person?
43:49 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's, that's kind of the rub, right, that's kind of the friction of online church. I love the idea of it because, like I said, I love those friends of mine in my Harry Potter group, I love the people I have in church communications and I have not met many of them and many of them feel like they know me personally, even though I may not necessarily know them. And that's the issue, right, it's like you know, there's not enough room, and so I do think, like encourage, I think it starts online. I do think, like I would love to encourage that in-person involvement, whatever that looks like, whether the online church has a meeting a few times, four times a year, once a quarter or something in one place, or whether they set up set up like local chapters where people watch together in their homes. I think that could be an interesting innovation of it because, yeah, you're right, like, uh, online people can't necessarily they can send money, though, like that they can do different things, like you know, like it may not be exactly like it was, so that's the interesting part like they could still send us a cleaning crew, like after someone passes away, like. So it's a little, it's a little different.
45:17
Um, so I do wonder, like, what that like looks like exactly. You know, I don't know that I have that figured out either, and I think some churches are doing it really well. Like saddleback has a really great online church. Jay kranda's amazing, he oversees that and is the pastor of it, and like he flies to anywhere where somebody wants to be like baptized and, um, most of the time a lot of those places do have those like home churches where they're all watching together and they've kind of created their own little small group around it. And so I do wonder if, like, that's the future of church, because I don't know that it's big. You know, I don't know, and that's funny because I can't, I worked at an agri-church, right, and that's funny because I can't, I worked at an agriculture church, right.
46:09
I think that our generation is burnt out from that and really does seek those, the wanting to be intimately known again, and I think Gen Z sees through that. And while it's so good for resource purposes, it is like it's so good for like meeting and and like having, like that space is so awesome. It's also I don't know it's also so hard because it the bigger your space is, the more the community's like. But you could be giving that to the poor and like what are you doing like and you, you could be giving that to the poor and like what are you doing like and you, you could be serving them through that building. I don't know, you know, I don't know what that that is, but there definitely is like a balance of what that looks like. But I definitely feel like the future of the church is smaller. And also my pastor at the mega church used to say the first reformation was about giving the word back to the people, but the second reformation will be about giving the ministry back to the people.
47:12 - Speaker 3
That's good.
47:15 - Speaker 1
And I think that's where we start. So that means it might be in homes and it's going to look smaller and different I totally agree with you.
47:29 - Speaker 3
now I don't know how it's we're going to get there, because I've always said the church is supposed to reflect the home. The home is not supposed to reflect the church. And I feel like and this really comes and you'll hear me say this a lot on the podcast it really is how we started off in like the birth of the century of like an industrial mindset, of constantly scaling and building up, so like scarce of resources, but now we have too many resources. If you really think about it, we are like a glutton for information and technology and now I think, like you said, we're going to trickle back to okay, but now we need to build out relationships and you know the whole online church thing. The thing I was thinking about is like long distance relationships. Maybe we will just find a way, Because one thing I know about like two people dating that are crazy in love with each other.
48:21
And they will do anything and everything, and I think people who have that genuine heart for each other will do the same, because we're just human, yeah I told her about that.
48:31 - Speaker 1
I've said that on a podcast, I think, before too. Yeah, like online church is all like online dating, like eventually they're gonna, they're gonna see each other. Like that's just how it is. But yeah, I don't think about too how good it is to build a network that's wide. You know, that's not just local, because we're very much becoming a nomadic culture. We're not like staying in one place for 50 years like we used to. We're very much like picking up and moving, uh, especially as millennials, like most of us, don't own houses. So like we're just like yeah, well, you know, I might as well, might as well go, uh. So yeah, I think that opens up opportunity to for jobs and so many other things in different ways of life. So, yeah, I don't see it as a bad thing, I just see it as a different thing.
49:20 - Speaker 3
It just looks different yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, um. So I'm gonna ask you three questions as we end this podcast. Uh, when was the last time you changed your mind about something?
49:31 - Speaker 1
that's hard. Um, I've changed my mind about a lot of things recently. I don't know if I want to share them all okay, no, just one.
49:41 - Speaker 3
Anything it could be silly, it doesn't have to be serious, or maybe communication style. You thought was like, oh, this is the way, the way. But with new information you're like, oh wait, oops.
49:52 - Speaker 1
Yeah, you know, I think I. Well, this wasn't really a recent one, though, like I changed my mind about Snapchat one time, okay let's talk about that.
50:02 - Speaker 3
How? How can Snapchat be used?
50:13 - Speaker 1
Because a lot of young people are on it and I don't think any church is on it. Well, I had our church on it back in 2015 and I changed my mind because you can change settings, first off, to make it more safe, but two, uh, I think the ability to have conversations with people like one-on-one that you can do in snapchat is, like maybe worth worth the risk. And then you know when things happen, which they will, regardless, like, of what platform you're using, whether it's in person or not, things are going to happen and when they do, you have a system, you have a plan for when that does happen, something that you thought was inappropriate happens. So I think, like taking the risk of making a relationship or reaching out to people, even if it's different, and I think, like I thought that about twitch, or like TikTok.
51:05
I remember at first, like when TikTok came out, I was like no TikTok, like that's a terrible idea. And now, like I spend the majority of my time on TikTok, so I can't even like say it's a bad idea anymore. And or like the idea I used to think like everything that came out of the church is like like social media needed to be from the pastor and now I don't think that at all, like I think it should not be from the pastor. Actually, I think everything from social media should be from people at your church, not not the pastor. Necessarily. I think it's fine to have him on there a few times, but, like I said, the church is the people, it's not just the pastors.
51:51 - Speaker 3
So, yeah, no, that was great, that was great. Like, when you rewatch this, you'll be like oh wow, that was a really insightful answer, Is it? No, because it's not about the thing. It's about the lesson you learned and the concepts that will apply to other, like you said, not just Snapchat, but other platforms where what I'm hearing when you say that is relationship is risk. Right, so might as well put in the effort to try to connect and if it doesn't work, you can just move off platform, you know. So there's nothing wrong with experimenting printing press was evil.
52:29 - Speaker 1
Yeah, until it wasn't and it was evil for a host of reasons that were outside of like. Like just people think people like the church thought it was evil because they, you know, and our government thought it was evil because then you know they were controlling the church and all that like there's so much more behind like why something is evil than just one thing.
52:50 - Speaker 3
So yeah, um, what are you hoping for at faithly?
52:57 - Speaker 1
like, honestly, all the jobs I've ever gotten and probably the same for you have become have been because I've known somebody. I don't think I've gotten a job yet because I know I don't think. No, I haven't gotten one yet because I just applied. So everything that has ever been open for me has been because I knew somebody who knew me, and so I think that is what I hope for faithfully is that there's just this like wide network of people who get to know each other and can help each other, especially in this, especially in this economy, um, but like can help, uh, each other grow, not only like professionally, but spiritually as well thank you, um, and how can we be praying for you?
53:45
yeah, well, we're going into the holidays. The holidays are a tough time for me, um, traditionally, but I am excited about them nevertheless. So and they're just. I think they're a hard time for a lot of people. So, yeah, I guess just like prayer for not just me during the holidays, but for a lot of people who are dealing with grief.
54:13 - Speaker 3
Thank you Well, thanks for coming. This was great. I have so many questions. I'm going to ask you afterwards, but we'll see how much time we have. That's it for the podcast, guys.
54:19 - Speaker 2
Thank you for tuning in to the Faithly Stories podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories Podcast we pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories Podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. The Faithly digital platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the front lines of ministry on the Faithly Podcast. Stay bold, stay faithful and never underestimate the power of your own story.
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