How Christ Fellowship Church successfully reconnected after Covid

Johanna Bates, a Project Broadcast (PB) Customer Success Specialist, helps people engage and build relationships with their customers and team members. Prior to working at Project Broadcast, Johanna was a Virtual Assistant for four years, bringing strategy and feature training to all her clients. Her hobbies include spending time with her husband, Kris, their two little girls, and their super fluffy Saint Bernard, Magnus. You can reach her by text at (254) 545-9626.

February 28 • 3 min read

Jan Touchberry is a wife and mom of four and LaLa (grandma) to two. Currently, by day, she serves as the Production Director and Digital Ministry Champion at Christ Fellowship Church in McKinney Texas (just north of Dallas). They are a church of around 1700-2000 people per weekend. She has been on staff for 19 years. By night, she puts on her entrepreneur hat and helps (mostly) faith-based entrepreneurs simplify technology, systematize, and automate their businesses so they are free to use their own genius to maximize their income potential.

This was the first time we have gotten the results we truly desire.

Walk me through the step-by-step process that you went through to get to where you are today in your organization?. What was the first thing you did? Next? I have been the online campus Pastor at Christ Fellowship since 2010. Over the years we have tried A LOT of things to engage our online congregation and help them feel like they are a part of what is happening in the physical building. None with much success.

One of our primary uses is for our annual Thanksgiving service where we have an open mic and allow people to give testimonies about what they are grateful for this year. Up until 2022 – we have very little engagement from our online people. Enter Project Broadcast…

In my personal business I have been using Project Broadcast since 2019 and have had a lot of success connecting with my clients. So, I decided to try using it for our Thanksgiving service as an easy way to connect people. It was a HUGE success!

We saw more people send in texts both from our online congregation AND in the room. It was truly a hybrid experience. The person on stage was able to “vet” the texts coming in and read them to everyone. I feel like for the first time in 13 years of being online – this was the first time we have gotten the results we truly desire.

Project Broadcast has allowed us to reconnect and truly hear from them

How has Project Broadcast directly impacted your organization? We have always had a good sized online participation, but since Covid, that has grown exponentially and we have felt more and more disconnected with them. Project Broadcast has allowed us to reconnect and truly hear from them – even when they can’t be with us in person and we are just scratching the surface!!

In 2023, my hope is to explore using PB as a first point of contact with people who come to the church or want to connect in some way.

What is your favorite way to use Project Broadcast? We haven’t started this yet, but I am very excited about using PB as a way to pray for people on a weekly basis. They will receive a text asking what we as a staff can pray for that week. Our hope is it will help people feel more connected and cared for. With a large congregation (2000+ people) it is hard for a staff of 50 to care for everyone and know their needs, but PB will shrink that gap immensely.

What is your favorite Project Broadcast Feature? Oh that’s hard. I love them all. If I have to pick one, I would say templates. We can customize them for each ministry and answer questions super easily. Again, allowing for a fast and personalized level of care and connection.

***If someone wants to reach out and chat with you about your success, how can they reach you? jtouchberry@cfhome.org OR they can text CHURCH to my PB number 469-459-3210.