A Christmas Letter from Larry
“Larry, it really works!” That was what a pastor told me when I asked how his social media videos had done. “We had almost a dozen guests at opening night who met me through our YouTube ads. They came because of the parasocial relationships they had built with me.”
For decades, there’s been a debate among pastors: proclamational evangelism versus relational evangelism. Most Sunday churches in North America have largely abandoned proclamational methods, but the data show that today most of the fastest growing Seventh-day Adventist churches employ elements of both.
But what happens if neither approach works for emerging generations? Social anxiety is at an all-time high, meaning there are large numbers of people who would never set foot in a strange church. And they certainly won’t interact with people outside of work or school.
How do we reach them?
Welcome to my annual Christmas letter, where I document the current state of SermonView and reflect on the ministry environment in which we operate. I write this mostly for myself, but you’re welcome to listen in.In my 2021 letter, I shared about a really tough year for me personally, and last year I talked about the digital transformation underway in society. This year, I want to share what we’ve learned from the field about digital evangelism.
But first, let’s review 2024.
2024 Highlights
It’s been another incredible year of growth for the SermonView crew. Over the last 12 months:
Marketing for Local Churches
We ran 421 marketing campaigns, for both evangelistic events and to find Bible study interests for local churches.
We reached 8.9 million people through social media advertising and direct mail, with ads for our churches seen nearly 20 million times.
In InterestTracker, 45,667 new interests were added this year. Over 1,850 churches are now managing nearly 192,000 interests.
The Propel Conference
In April, we held our second Propel Conference, offering inspiration and innovation for church growth. We saw a little growth from the first year, to 125 attendees. In addition, we’ve now published 56 episodes of the Propel Podcast, featuring content from the event.
Registration for next year is now open and we already have dozens of registrations. By God’s grace we hope to double last year’s attendance when we bring the Propel Conference to Puyallup, WA, coming April 27-30, 2025.
Pastor Connections
We love connecting with you in person, and our team has been out in the field attending a number of events this year. These included It Is Written ReCharge, Texas Conference pastors’ retreat, NAD eHuddle, Hyve, Georgia-Cumberland Conference personal ministries training, Southern Union RISE pastors’ conference, Society of Adventist Communicators, Pastoral Evangelism Leadership Council (PELC), and, of course, the Propel Conference.
As we head into 2025, we’re thrilled to partner with many of the 4,100 churches participating in Pentecost 2025. God is going to do even bigger things next year!
ReelFaith Video Ministry
Today, Americans spend nearly half their waking hours in the digital space, and for young adults that number is even higher. That makes is so much harder to reach them through either proclamational evangelism or relational evangelism methods. During all their time online, many build the illusion of a relationship—a parasocial bond—with social media influencers and others. And if we want to reach them, we need to be present in the digital world, too. Our presence will lead to parasocial relationships with us, too.
At first it was all theory, driven by my PhD studies. But this year we saw real results from pastors posting selfie-style videos on social media. Hailey* is a 22-year-old woman in Anchorage who watched video ads of a pastor, got to know them online, and decided to attend the evangelistic meetings held in a nearby church. Today she’s a baptized member, actively involved in ministry in that church. This is just one story from the dozens of pastors we’ve helped get online this year.
That’s why we’re putting resources into helping pastors do this. Our new ReelFaith social video program coaches pastors on how to create selfie-style videos, specifically designed to foster the formation of parasocial relationships. We have a 6-week Boot Camp to help a pastor get started, and then we provide ongoing assistance with editing and social media management.
This year, we helped 62 pastors get started with social media videos, and we’re humbled by the results we’re seeing. Some of you can easily transition from behind the pulpit to in front of the camera, while others have responded really well to coaching. But we’ve seen marked improvement by every pastor we’ve worked with, and it’s fun to see the impact on them personally—and on their churches.
Ministry Insights
With all this talk about helping pastors get online with social video, we realized that we need to eat our own dog food, as they say. So in August we launched Ministry Insights, a weekly podcast and YouTube program offering inspiration, education, and affirmation for pastors. Each episode is 4-6 minutes long and focuses on some tip or tactic for ministry. More importantly, each episode ends with an affirmation for the pastor on their calling and placement in their church.
One of my favorite episodes was on going your own pace in ministry, and not comparing yourself to others. We have also been clipping segments of each episode for social media, and our most popular YouTube short so far is on how pride can hold you back in ministry.
Check out the latest episode of Ministry Insights and let me know what you think.
Doctoral Studies
Let me close by talking about school. For the last 3 years, I’ve been working on a PhD in strategic media at Liberty University, finishing classes and passing the qualifying exam last May. I’m currently working on my dissertation about how pastors can cultivate and harvest parasocial relationships for evangelism, and, God willing, I’ll graduate in May 2025.
I’ve been amazed at how much direct application my doctoral studies have had to the needs of our churches. In my research, for example, I’d looked at how to make church websites more effective at reaching people in the community and studied how different marketing communication channels impact attendance at evangelistic meetings. And my dissertation, of course, is specifically about how to improve digital evangelism. As I’ve gone on this PhD journey, I’ve been blessed by the support of the entire SermonView crew as well as the pastors we serve.
I love my job! It’s been wonderful to connect with many of you at events this year, because I love seeing you and hearing your stories. I’m incredibly blessed by the support you’ve given the SermonView crew over the years, and for allowing God to use you to reach your community for Jesus. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in your church in 2025.
Thank you for letting us be part of your journey!
Merry Christmas,
P.S. What are your big dreams for 2025? I’d love to hear what God is doing in your church!
*Not her real name.
Next-generation digital advertising to reach this generation.
At SermonView, we take a multi-touch marketing approach as often as we can when helping churches reach their communities. There are several key ways a multi-touch digital marketing approach can have a positive impact on reaching more people and building trust with your ministry.
We have helped churches with over 6,000 outreach events. We’ve sent over 30 million mailers into communities and reached over 8 million social media users. So we know how to help you plan an effective campaign.