Fave Five: PR Matters by Justin Dean

Mike Weston
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

2400 miles.

That’s how far our team travelled over five days to get from Rochester, NY to Tulsa, OK (and back) for this week’s Seeds Conference hosted by Church on the Move.

This week was full of opportunities to learn from some of my favorite church leaders like Carey Nieuwhof and Jud Wilhite as they dove deep on the topic of pastoral leadership. It was also a great chance to meet and sit in on practical breakout sessions lead by the COTM staffer stephen posey, who heads up communication and social media. With all those positive experiences, I was most excited to have met Justin Dean.

Justin is a co-founder of ThatChurchConference, an organization that specializes in helping church communicators tell the best story each church has to tell. Be sure to check ’em out and even hop in their Online Summit taking place this next week (not paid for this mention).

As soon as I took over my church’s social accounts last fall, I began to devour the resources found on their site, especially since they’re specialists for the best practices that Gary Vaynerchuk didn’t specifically cover — churches.

So when Justin, started tweeting that he would be at Seeds with copies of his new book, I began scouting (stalking perhaps) his account to see if I could snag an early copy. Sure enough, on night one: I found him, posed for a pic…

…and waited patiently for Willie George to finish his talk so I could get back the hotel and start reading PR Matters.

As I pull back into Rochester after 19 hours on the road, I wrapped up this enjoyable and insightful read challenging church communication specialists to manage people’s perceptions of the church by being proactive to develop a strategy to build trust and by planning ahead for communication emergencies for when that trust is lost.

Though specifically directed at Communication Directors, this book should be read by Lead Pastors, especially of small to mid size churches, as the community’s perception of the churches they lead are likely squarely on their shoulders.

Here are my favorite lines from the book:

  1. “Everything you do or say is public relations…anything you don’t do and don’t say is also public relations. (16)
  2. What gets repeated and posted on social media, and told to their friends, is what they think you said — not necessarily what you actually said or meant.” (16)
  3. “The reason we want to manage people’s perceptions is so that we can align it with reality, and earn their trust. That trust leads to conversations about Jesus.” (17)
  4. “God commanded us to ‘go and tell’ but so much of what we do as a church is ‘come and see.’ Be active in your community and engage people where they are.” (85)
  5. “These are real people, not just anonymous commenters. It can be hard, but don’t take hateful comments personally…Praying for them gives us the perspective we need to be long suffering and patient before responding or action out of anger or retaliation.” (157)

While two other solid books related to church communication have been published this year by Kem Meyer and Mark MacDonald, by reading one, you have not read them all. Justin’s book has unique insight and tools for managing your church’s reputation within the community that sets it apart from the others.

From discussing how to build relationships with your local media to providing the tools to create an emergency communication plan, Dean’s book finds its unique value for the church communicator in it’s challenge to strategically manage your org’s reputation before it’s too late.

THANKS for reading! How do these five ideas connect with you? I’d love to go deeper with you on why I chose these five, so if you have any questions or comments, DROP A LINE. IF you enjoyed this story, please click the heart so that others can find this piece.

Mike Weston

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Periodically putting my thoughts online. Interests include: ministry & theology, food & coffee, reading & sports.

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