1. Using Social Media Like It’s a Newsstand
If your church’s Instagram feed is just a bulletin board—event posts, service times, and Scripture copy-paste quotes—you’re missing the point.
People don’t scroll to be informed. They scroll to connect.
If your content doesn’t inspire, engage, or spark curiosity, it’s probably getting swiped past.
Solution: Start telling stories. Show life-change. Capture moments of community. Create content that speaks to people’s everyday questions, not just your Sunday announcements. Educate, entertain, encourage—then inform.
2. Running Ads Without a Target or Strategy
“Reach the city!” sounds good. But boosting a post to “everyone within 25 miles” isn’t strategy—it’s wishful thinking. You can’t disciple people you don’t understand. And you can’t reach people you haven’t defined.
Solution: Start with who. Who are you actually trying to reach? Parents with young kids? De-churched millennials? Empty nesters rediscovering faith? Dial in your audience, then craft messaging that speaks directly to their story.
Targeted message → aligned creative → real connection.
3. Chasing Trends Instead of Discipling People
Trends are easy. Discipleship is slow. And if you’re not careful, you’ll end up building a church full of consumers instead of followers of Jesus.
Solution: Root your content in your mission. Don’t just chase what’s working for everyone else. Ask: how does this serve our vision to make disciples? People don’t need more noise, they need meaning.
4. Expecting Results Without Investment
You can’t reach thousands with a half-baked Canva post, no budget, and no plan. Too many churches pray for impact but don’t plan and invest for it.
Solution: Invest in your message. That means time, budget, and training. Equip your team. Build a system. Make digital ministry an actual ministry—not an afterthought. Your message deserves better than just “winging it.”
5. Copying Other Churches Without Context
Another churches strategy might work in their city. That doesn’t mean it’ll translate in yours. Your context matters. Your people matter. Your voice matters.
Solution: Start building from your assignment not someone else’s aesthetic. Be inspired, sure. But filter it through your culture, your calling, and your communities needs. God gave you a voice, use it.
You aren’t called to be a copy of another church down the street. You’re called to build the church that God has called you to build —with clarity, conviction, and the kind of creativity that points people to Jesus. It’s not about being trendy. It’s about being faithful.
