REACHRIGHT Podcast

There’s one video format outperforming almost everything else on social media right now, and most churches have never tried it. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who want their content to reach more people without a big budget or production team. We break down why a pastor talking straight to a phone camera, with animated captions, works so well, why churches are naturally built for it, and how to turn any sermon moment into a standalone clip. If you’ve ever thought your church needed better production to compete online, this conversation might change your mind. 

Thomas and Shiloh sits down with Mike Signorelli, lead pastor of V1 Church and #4 on the ReachRight Pastor Influence 100 list, whose online teaching now reaches millions every month. This episode is for pastors who want their online reach to turn into real people in the room. They talk about what most pastors misunderstand about fast-growing churches, the challenges that come with rapid growth, and one practical step a church of 150 could take this month without a big budget. Mike also shares about his new book, The Unoffendable Heart, and what it means for leaders who want to shepherd wisely. 

The person visiting your church for the first time in 2026 isn’t the same person who visited twenty years ago. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who want to understand who’s really walking through their doors now. We talk about why so many new visitors are coming out of loneliness and spiritual curiosity rather than tradition, how most of them research your church online before Sunday, and why they need a clear next step and real community to stay. If your church assumes it already knows who’s visiting, this conversation might change your mind. 

Church tech is a crowded space, and everyone has something to sell you. This episode is for pastors and church leaders trying to figure out which tools deserve their time and budget. We rank the biggest church tech trends of 2026 with a green, yellow and red light system, from website chatbots and hybrid livestreaming to church apps, AI-generated worship music and automated visitor follow-up. Along the way, we draw a clear line between tech that strengthens community and tech that quietly replaces it. 

Every year, Outreach Magazine publishes a list of the fastest-growing churches in America, and buried in that data are clear patterns most pastors never notice. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who want to know what growing churches are actually doing differently. We break down why they invest heavily in kids and students, how they mobilize volunteers instead of only hiring staff, and why home groups and a clear discipleship pathway matter so much. We also wrestle honestly with what's correlation and what's causation, and which strategies fit every church versus only some. 

AI has changed the rules of church marketing again, and this time the shift is moving faster than most churches can keep up with. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who know AI matters but aren't sure what it actually changes for their church. We talk through why content creation is no longer the bottleneck and how small churches can now personalize communication at scale. We also cover how AI search is changing the way people find a church, and why the bar for authenticity went up, not down. AI didn't change what good church marketing looks like; it changed who can afford to do it. 

Most churches are active on social media, but almost none of them are reaching anyone beyond their own congregation, because 95% of the people who see their content don't attend their church. In this episode, we break down the single biggest mistake churches make online, creating content for members instead of strangers, and run through the rest of the list, from broadcasting instead of engaging to avoiding video to spreading thin across too many platforms. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who want their social media to actually reach new people instead of just reinforcing what current members already know. We also unpack why chasing followers is the wrong goal, why consistency between Sundays matters, and why even a small amount of paid promotion can change everything about who sees your content. 

Most churches pour nearly all their energy into attracting new visitors while ignoring the fact that only 10 to 20 percent of first-time guests ever come back a second time. In this episode, we make the case that retention, not acquisition, is the fastest and cheapest path to a growing church, and we break down what a real connection sequence looks like in the critical first 30 days after someone visits. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who want to grow but feel like they're constantly refilling a leaky bucket instead of building something lasting. We also dig into why much of today's church growth is really just redistribution between churches rather than new conversions, and why small churches often have a quiet advantage when it comes to relational depth and follow-through. 

https://www.chmeetings.com/ With 93% of pastors now using or exploring AI, the question for churches is no longer whether to use it, but where the line actually is. In this episode, Thomas goes through a long list of real AI use cases happening in churches right now, from sermon research and discipleship chatbots to pasting giving records into ChatGPT and posting AI-generated prayers without disclosure, and calls each one in bounds or out of bounds. This episode is for pastors and church leaders who know AI is already showing up in their ministry, whether or not they've officially addressed it. Along the way, Thomas and the team unpack why intent and transparency matter more than the tool itself, and why only 5% of churches currently have a written AI policy even though most leaders say they need one.

Every pastor has been handed a book, framework, or five-step plan promising to fix their church's growth problem, and most of the time it wasn't built for their context. In this episode, we rank the most common church growth advice out there, from genuinely effective to advice that should probably be retired for good. We look at real numbers behind kids and student ministry investment, home-based small groups, the attractional preaching model, multi-site campuses, and whether strong leadership is really the deciding factor in growth.This episode is for pastors and church leaders who are tired of copying what worked somewhere else and want to figure out what actually fits their own church and community. Along the way we talk honestly about the strategies that get oversold, the ones that quietly work, and the mindset shift that matters more than any single tactic.