In this episode, we talk with Rev. Anna Lee, the Executive Pastor at Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville, TN. Anna shows us how Cokesbury is living out the Great Commission by inviting people to take their next step because everyone has one! Next steps look different for everybody and are not limited to individuals, churches have next steps too.Anna shares …

A few episodes back when we were talking with our friend Pastor Kristin about her journey embedding a Discipleship Pathway culture in her church over the past 7 years, she mentioned speaking to “spectators” in the congregation. We all have different labels for this group, but every preacher out there is picturing people in their congregation right …

In Episode 47, we continue our conversation with Dr. Leonard Sweet about his most recent book, Designer Jesus. Len shares with us his thoughts on how we are designed to be like Jesus. Our human identity comes from Jesus as he shows us how we are to be “fully human.” As followers of Jesus we have to be like trackers looking for fresh footprints to f…

In this episode, we are privileged to talk with one of the great Christian minds of our generation, Dr. Leonard Sweet. Len’s two most recent books, Jesus Human and Designer Jesus combine to paint a picture for Christians how we are to be faithful humans and disciples. Jesus Human - Primer for a Common Humanity, explores how Jesus, in showing us the…

We are continuing my conversation with Rev. Kristin Clark-Banks and her work embedding a discipleship culture at her church. In this episode, we are going to talk about how we keep bridging the discipleship communication and perception gap in the congregation, 7 years into the process. Plus, we know the saying “what gets measured, get’s done.'' How…

I am so excited about our guest today, Rev. Kristin Clark-Banks, Sr. Pastor of Forest Hills UMC in Brentwood, TN. Soon after Kristin was appointed to Forest Hills 7 years ago, she began implementing a new discipleship culture called the Discipleship Pathway. In this episode, we are going to discuss how that culture has grown and how she has bridged…

In our last couple of episodes, we talked about what discipleship looks like from the pew, or from the perspective of members, attenders, and visitors. In today’s episode, we will look at 4 ways that we can embed a discipleship culture in the local church and not only bridge the perception gap, but get people walking over the bridge!ChurchCMO.comPr…

Today, I would like to build on the conversation we started in Episode 40 and talk about ways to bridge the perception gap between the laity and the church about what is discipleship. We roughly estimate 10-20 per cent have a clear view of discipleship and are actively engaged in discipleship. It would be an interesting exercise for a pastor or lay…

Starting in this episode, Charla and I want to spend the next few episodes looking at discipleship from the pew, so to speak, from the perspectives of the member, attender, and even a visitor.It’s a fuzzy view. It’s a concept more than a Jesus directive that impacts our daily lives in what we say and do. It’s not like we don’t want to engage in dis…

Today we are going to talk about why we as church congregants should be investing in our own, proactive discipleship journey. The Church is full of people who came to know Jesus as Savior, yet were never taught what it means to actually follow Him. So I think we should start with what Jesus tells us about how we benefit from following in his path.…

In today's episode we continue talking about how Jesus used his encounters with people to make disciples and those outcomes. And we segue to the Apostle Paul's conversion and his process for making disciples on his journeys. What was Paul's strategy that helped the Gospel message spread throughout the world? Charla and I will talk about the key par…

In today's episode, Charla and I want to explore Jesus’ disciple making process which was very proactive. We will look at the how, where, and when of Jesus' disciple making as well as the outcomes. Some examples we will discuss are Jesus calling Simon Peter, interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well, and with the Pharisee Nicodemus.…

In today's episode, Charla and I discuss the obstacles that pastors and churches face when it comes to making more disciples. Charla shares her perspective as a retired UMC Pastor as well as a new perspective on two familiar New Testament stories.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

In today's episode we talk to retired UMC Pastor Charla Shebakoff about life/career transitions. We extrapolate her experience to the challenges our congregants face in traversing their own transitions. We discuss the questions: what are the challenges you face? Where do I belong? Has my purpose that gives meaning to life changed or am I supposed t…

Today’s episode is a little different from our normal show. I had the honor and privilege of sharing a message with a client church, Second United Methodist in Knoxville. The pastor, a dear friend, was retiring and asked me to fill in a Sunday before the new pastor started. So, I spoke on what I know best, football, err no, discipleship in the chur…

In today’s episode we will meet a new colleague and friend of mine, Jessie Cruickshank. Jessie is a Harvard educated, neuroscientist, theologian, and outdoor adventurist. Our paths have crossed because she has spent two decades applying neuroeducation research to discipleship, ministry training, experiential education, and organization development.…

So, we have talked about what Proactive Disciple Making is, and we have discussed the three components of the strategy - connecting, engaging, and guiding. In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how we begin to implement this strategy in real life. In the show notes, I have included a link to get one of our free resources. It’s called the C…

The third component of the Proactive Disciple Making strategy is Guiding. I feel it is the most important part of the process. Because let’s face it, when faced with a little adversity or difficulty, we humans are wired to quit and go in another direction, usually backwards.Disciple Making Guides in the proactive strategy are relationship builders,…

In this episode, we are talking about the second phase of our Proactive Disciple Making Strategy. The Engaging phase has two primary objectives. First, it is identifying how best to help the newly connected disciples formulate their growth and fulfillment plan and take their logical, first step on that journey.The second objective of our Engaging p…

How do we connect with people inside and outside our churches to develop a deeper relationship? The answer goes back to the myth the church has been telling its people for years that we discussed last episode - we will meet you where you are? How do I know this is a myth, you ask...Go to BreakingThrutheNoise.com/episodes for show notes and links!…

Today's episode is the first of a series of episodes that will define and describe the Proactive Disciple Making Process. This first episode is an introduction to the process and will give you an insight to why being proactive in our disciple making is critical to church vitality and growth.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Today’s episode is a conversation I had recently with a former client of mine that is making a major paradigm shift in her church. Kristen Clark-Banks is the Senior Pastor of Forest Hills UMC in Brentwood, TN, a suburb of Nashville. She and I, along with her Director of Discipleship, Sarah Wheatly talk about shifting from a membership driven church…

Today’s episode is a conversation I had recently on Knoxville radio station, Joy620AM with the Church Mechanic. My old friend, Rev. Pat Polis hosts the show and we talked about proactive disciple making in the local church and how we live into the Great Commision.Pat and I will talk about the challenges pastors face in their churches today and how …

Today, Mark and Laurel discuss a book written just before the pandemic called Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins. Mark was immediately struck by the fact that the concepts and ideas the author presents speak directly to the local church and its capability to be the most human company. How does this rebellion impact the church you ask?…

"How should we be using social media in the church?" is a question Laurel and I are asked regularly! We church folk, or at least us old ones, like a good, catchy formula to simplify strategies. One way to encapsulate the strategy for using social media in our vernacular is to call it an iStrategy: inform, interpret, and invite. Here is that iStrate…

Are you struggling to produce impactful videos for your church? Testimonials are most effective videos you can use to engage and impact the lives of your congregation and community. They aren't difficult to create, but there are some tips you need to know to produce quality testimonials. Join me as I interview Terrie Winkle of Cokesbury Church abou…

Pastors are always asking us how can we get more people to engage with our content which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the first thing we tell them is to start creating more videos. But that’s when their eyes glaze over, because they aren’t really sure how to even start creating videos, much less making them engaging.That is why today’s episod…

The past two years of the pandemic have really accelerated our media consumption online and in my opinion, the church needs to adapt to new ways to present its message to a digital culture. The main media that is driving this content consumption is video. Do you know what the fastest growing social media channel is right now...TikTok statistics and…

Why do I hear from pastors regularly that they are struggling to get viewers of their YouTube videos?The explosion of video represents a huge opportunity for churches. If you want to connect with more people, expand your reach into the community, and ultimately generate real growth, you should be using video marketing. But churches are struggling t…

The Pandemic of 2020 was really difficult for churches to navigate. But imagine trying to build a core following for a church plant in the middle of Atlanta, GA. That is exactly what my friend Daniel Ogle and his team did at the Westside Table. Hear how Daniel and his team not only kept their group in tact, but actually grew it to a critical mass s…

Scaling is one of those buzzwords that you may have heard frequently over the past 18 months. It's a fancy way of saying it's how we grow our business by leveraging resources exponentially. Or, its getting max production from a minimal addition of resources. In today's episode we will break down ways to look at and approach scaling in your business…

Have you heard the word leverage being thrown around by business experts lately? But you weren't sure how it applied to your small business or side gig? In today's episode Mark and Laurel offer you some practical ideas for using leverage to grow your business.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

"The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated!" This might be the utterance of Email Marketing if it could talk. Email is not dead, as a matter of fact it still plays a vital role in connecting with people. Listen to Mark and Laurel discuss the vitality of email and how to be effective using it in your marketing.…

Social media is a necessity for growing your business, even if you have a brick and mortar location. If used strategically, you can not only reach more people but connect with two-way conversations. And Laurel shares some tips and a great resource in our That One Thing segment.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

We've discussed marketing and sales funnels to grow sales for a business, but can churches use funnels to reach more people? Absolutely! Hear Mark and Laurel walk you through attract and connect funnels for churches and non-profits.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Steve Fogg is a Certified Google Ads Specialist based in Melbourne, Australia. Steve gives us a ton of great information to consider about Google Ads and the keys to being successful using them to grow your business. And for our non-profit friends, Steve shares how you can leverage $10k in ads on Google' dime.…

Last episode we introduced marketing funnels, but we didn’t really get into what are the ways we use funnels to grow our businesses. In this episode, we will talk about strategies where we employ marketing funnels and then our tip segment will talk about the 5 emails you need in a funnel’s follow up email sequence…

If you want to increase your sales, you have to get more leads, get them qualified, present them with a clarified sales message, and then provide them with a mechanism to buy now. In today’s episode we will discuss a simple way to do this using a process called a marketing funnel…Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

If you have a business that helps clients solve a problem with a product or service, you need to know how to share that with people so their brain can process it easily without burning a lot of calories/tuning you out! Most elevator pitches don't work because they are all about you and not about solving the problem of the person in front of you. On…

The content of our episode is more content from our friend Richard Butler who is talking about content. Try to say that 3 times fast! Seriously, today we are going to talk with Richard about how to use our content to connect with more people and also how we can use and benefit from Private Label content. Here is more from our conversation with Rich…

If you want to create community or just better serve your client base or constituency, then today's episode is just for you. April Sunshine Hawkins and Suzanne Kelly of StoryBrand talk with us about how they manage the Certified Guide Community, a global community of hundreds of marketers.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Today on Breaking Thru the Noise we talk with Richard Butler of PLR.me. Richard talks with us about why content is still king, and some easy ways to create more content for your business.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

In our last conversation today on our overview series about Social Media Marketing, we are going to talk about how to use social media to connect with more people.Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Our topic of conversation for the next few minutes will be building a content calendar to guide your social media posting and strategy. What are the tools to help you plan and how do you arrange your content for publishing? Take a listen and learn how...Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Today’s episode is the second in a series of four episodes that we started to give you some guidance and tips for building up your social media marketing and writing your social profile. We are going to talk for a few minutes about why to focus on a single social media platform and how to determine which one is best to connect with your target audi…

In this episode we will talk a lot about using story and inviting people into your story but it’s not about how to toot your own horn or tell tall tales… It's about getting to know your customer's story!Por Mark Wilson & Laurel Wright

Today’s episode will kick off a series of episodes on the subject of Social Media Marketing. Today we will look at an overview of the process of getting started or jump starting your use of social media as part of your marketing strategy. Over the next few weeks we will look at each section in more detail and share some helpful resources too.…

In our inaugural episode for the newly branded podcast, we get to meet our co-host Laurel Wright. Laurel is one half of the country music duo, The Young Fables, and is one of Nashville’s young darlings. Laurel is not only gifted with an amazing musical talent, but she has worked diligently to market The Young Fables and build a national fan followi…