When I talk with churches that are actively using social media for ministry online, this is what they want: more people in their community seeing and engaging with the message of Jesus online. And inevitably, the next question is, “But Brady, how do we beat the algorithm?”
Here’s the truth – you don’t beat the algorithm. You work with it. And when you understand how it actually works, and how churches are uniquely positioned compared to influencers or businesses, you can stop wasting time chasing trends and start building a sustainable social presence that truly reaches people with the hope of the gospel.
I’ve distilled more than a decade of social media experience with churches into a simple framework in the form of a pyramid. (It’s not a mountain, it’s a pyramid.)
Think of it like the blueprint for how your church can make momentum online.
Let’s get into it.
But first, why might I be qualified to talk about this?
First, I’m a social media creator myself. My content on Instagram receives on average more than a million views every month. But more importantly, my team and I work directly, 1-on-1, with 100+ churches every single week. We create social content for them and then analyze the data and performance.
On average, churches see a 32X jump in engagement in the first 12 months of working with us.
That is a byproduct of understanding how social algorithms work. Now, let me show you our proven path to working with the algorithms.
Step 1: No Weeks Off
The bottom of the pyramid is the most important piece. We’re talking about consistency.
And for you, this is the singular non-negotiable of social media. This is the publishing cadence we need to commit to.
For churches, this doesn’t mean posting every single day or chasing the “no days off” hustle of influencers. There’s no merit to burning out your team by exhausting your creative muscles. But you do need to commit to a sustainable, weekly publishing rhythm – and then stick to it.
Here’s why: without consistency, any momentum you build is undone the moment you stop posting. It’s like starting a fire and then pouring water on it every few weeks. The right action in the wrong amount still fails.
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, just recently affirmed this.
"It is true – and we're trying to make it not so – that if you don't post for a month or two, coming back in can be rough,” he recently said in a Q&A session. “And that is not intentional. It is a byproduct of the fact that we have less data after you've been gone for a month or two.”
So, decide on a posting cadence your team can maintain indefinitely, start with 2 sermon reels a week, and then don’t take any weeks off.
Step 2: Stop The Scroll
Now you’re posting regularly on social. How do you get folks to actually watch what you’re creating?
On social, attention is won or lost in the first three seconds of a post. That’s where your hook comes in. (Mosseri has something to say about this, too)
I saw a post on Threads recently that puts it perfectly.
Said differently, attention is the most valuable commodity your church can possess. Both in-person and online.
On social, the mechanism for achieving that attention is the hook of your post. That’s how we stop the scroll. What does this actually look like?
Well, it differs based on the creative format of a post. For a sermon clip, that might look like: “Confused by weird Bible passages? Try this approach.”
On a carousel post, it could look like this.
A single bold statement on the first slide that stops the scroll and then makes people swipe through the substance of the post comes in the remaining slides with a call-to-action at the end.
The key is to craft hooks at the intersection of faith and culture. Where does the wisdom of Scripture overlap with the real, everyday struggles people are facing? That’s where you’ll find hooks that resonate not just with your congregation, but with people who don’t even go to church.
Step 3: Respect The "No Promo" Code
To round out the foundation of this pyramid, we need to avoid this mistake at all costs. Respect the No Promo Code.
No one opens Instagram or TikTok to see advertisements or your announcements. And if your feed becomes a steady stream of promos, the algorithm will punish you for it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t promote events – it just means you need to sprinkle those promos into a broader mix of meaningful content. Think of promos as seasoning, not the main dish 🤌
Step 4: Unlock Personalized Insights
Once you’ve been consistent for a few months, you unlock something special. You earn a wealth of valuable data to help you make better informed decisions in the future.
And not just any data – these are personalizedinsights about what’s working with your church’s unique audience, and what’s not.
Use this formula:
Sort your last 90 days of posts by best and worst performers. (In terms of metrics, I’d focus on Reach, Likes/Reactions, and Shares)
Look for patterns – what kinds of content stops the scroll? Which falls flat?
Repeat the best, forget the rest, and keep testing.
This is exactly how you signal to the algorithm that you understand the needs of your audience, and that you care about meeting those needs. As you continue to publish content that more and more predictably performs well, those positive signals translate to more reach, creating a positive flywheel effect.
Step 5: Track The Metrics That Actually Matter
If I were to ask you what the most important positive metric on social is, what would you say?
If you’re thinking it’s likes, consider this:
On Instagram, the real signal is sends – how often people share your post with someone else. From Instagram itself, sends are the strongest indicator that your content has value.
So start tracking your “send percentage” (sends ÷ reach).
Identify the posts with the highest percentage and look for common traits. Then, don’t be afraid to repost those winners in the future. About 20% of my own social content every year is reposted.
I prefer a lag of between 6-12 months before reposting a post, but don’t be shy with it. Play the hits.
Step 6: Embrace Familiar Frameworks
Finally, let’s highlight a universal truth: people crave familiarity.
Most of what you see in your feed is from accounts you don’t know. Which is why a recognizable face, voice, or design pattern stands out.
For churches, this is why sermon clips are gold. They feature familiar faces, familiar spaces (your stage), and can be packaged in consistent, recognizable designs.
You don’t need a brand-new look for every post. In fact, changing too often works against you.
You’ll see this is evident on my Instagram account. Go to my page, scroll back for years, and you’ll see the same simple design over and over and over again. Why is this not boring people? Because it’s a familiar design. And in this era of social, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
For churches, this is just one of the reasons why sermon clips should continue to be a cornerstone of your social media strategy. And I know this can be counterintuitive, you might think you need to come up with new designs every single time because that was the standard practice in the early to mid 2010s, but it hasn’t been the case now for the past 5+ years.
Familiar frameworks are good. That doesn’t mean you don’t continue to test of course, but if you’re trying to do something new with every single post, not only are you working against the algorithms, you’re also creating a lot more work for yourself.
Lean into familiarity – it’s your friend.
No At War After All?
The social media algorithm isn’t your enemy. In fact, it’s one of the greatest opportunities the church has ever had.
There’s free distribution at scale to be had if we ride the wave instead of swimming against it.
When you build a consistent rhythm, craft compelling hooks, avoid promo overload, learn from your data, track the right metrics, and embrace familiarity, you’re not just playing nice with the algorithm – you’re harnessing it to introduce more people in your community to Jesus.
That’s the real secret.
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Hey, It's Nice To Meet You
Hey there, I'm Brady Shearer. It's possible that some form of artificial intelligence brought you to this article, and if you made this far, I'll assume you're invested in this conversation.
I've been resourcing the church through Pro Church Tools for well over a decade, helping churches of every size navigate the communication shift of our time.
We publish weekly free resources on YouTube, our podcast, and Instagram, and we serve the church through our software called Nucleus.
