Back in May I got to speak at the Healthy Church Summit. My breakout was called "Fueling the Mission." Free event, fully online, built for pastors and the teams who keep a church running.
I've been doing product marketing for a long time. Meta, AudioEye, now Ministry Brands. I did not expect a three-hour virtual summit to teach me much about my own job. It did.
The next one is this Tuesday, September 22. I'm not speaking this time. I've been helping behind the scenes instead, and I am ridiculously excited about it. More on that at the end. First, the lessons.
Help first. Sell later. Actually mean it.
The spring summit was three hours on one question: how do you lead a church for the long haul without burning out?
Dr. Jason Young talked about building a ministry people don't want to leave. Arthur James talked about keeping your pilot lit. A mental health clinician spoke. So did accounting and stewardship folks. Software showed up, but it was never the headline.
That order is everything. A pastor who just heard someone name what exhaustion in ministry looks like is ready to hear how better systems give them their Mondays back. The tool answers a problem they now have words for. It doesn't interrupt.
Here's the gut check for anyone running events: if you cut every product mention, would people still show up? If not, you built a webinar with extra steps.
Your customers are handing you your messaging. Take notes.
Church leaders don't say "workflow automation." They say "our volunteers are stretched thin." They say "I spend Monday doing paperwork instead of pastoring."
The chat window at a summit is a goldmine. It's the cheapest customer research you will ever get. Sales gets the leads. Product marketing should get the transcript.
Pull the exact phrases people use for their pain, their urgency, their version of "better." Put them in your headlines. Put them in your onboarding emails. Put them in your sales talk tracks. Bonus: it's what your buyers type into Google, too.
What "Fueling the Mission" was really about
My session was about the unglamorous stuff. The financial and operational habits that let a church keep doing what God called it to do. [Add two or three of your actual points here.]
Why is a product marketer teaching that instead of a CPA? Because we sit right between what the customer is living and what the company can build. Understand both well enough and you can teach something useful without it turning into a pitch. That's the job. That's the whole job.
Free isn't a discount. It's a strategy.
The summit costs nothing. Anyone in ministry can come. Some marketers hear "free" and think "leaving money on the table." I think "lowering the cost of trust."
When your audience is careful with money, wary of vendors, and deeply mission-driven, a free, high-quality event says something a paid one never can: we're here to help before we're here to sell.
Is there a trade-off? Yes. Free pulls in a wider, less qualified crowd, so your follow-up has to work harder. Segment by what people actually watched, not just whether they registered.
Why I can't stop talking about September 22
This fall's summit, Together We Can, is the biggest one yet. A full day. 10 AM to 4 PM ET. Three keynotes, six breakouts, and something brand new that I love: networking sessions by role. Pastors with pastors. Ministry team leads with ministry team leads. Ops and executive leaders with each other.
The keynotes are stacked:
Mac Lake, author and leadership development expert, on developing leaders who carry the mission beyond you.
Sallie Guillory, leadership coach and church consultant, on building a healthy team culture when ministry is demanding everything from you.
Mark Lebrun, digital strategist and ministry consultant, on multiplying your influence beyond the church walls.
The breakouts are practical from minute one. Guest follow-up. Giving that doesn't feel transactional. Practical AI for ministry. Volunteer systems for better Sundays. Financial clarity beyond the budget. Connected communications. And if you show up live, you're entered to win prizes all day.
Here's what got me, watching this come together from the inside. So much of this agenda came straight from questions church leaders asked at past summits. Everyone says "listen to your customer." This team built a whole day out of it.
Come to the Healthy Church Summit. It's free.
If you lead or serve in a church, this is worth your Tuesday. Bring your whole team.
Register for the Healthy Church Summit: Together We Can →
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 · 10 AM to 4 PM ET · Free · On demand afterward
Can't make it live? Register anyway. You'll get the sessions on demand.
And if you're a product marketer
If you run product marketing for a mission-driven or vertical SaaS company and want to talk through events, messaging, or positioning, I do that with a handful of companies as a fractional advisor.
No pitch. Just a working session on whatever you're stuck on.