What’s your name?
Justin Piercy
Where do you serve, what is your title, and how long have you served there?
I serve as the Service Programming Director at Connexus Church in Canada and have been on the team since 2009.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t go to church?
Generally, I tend to describe myself as a creative/marketing director.
What were some of the things that you experienced that shaped the way you approach your work?
As a perfectionist, I quickly had to learn the art of “good enough” so that I could keep pace and ship quickly – especially in the early days. Today, quick iteration and experimentation are core to how I move the mission forward.
What’s the one thing you wish people knew about your job?
How fun it is! Having a blank slate to constantly experiment with and make things better to reach people is exhilarating.
What is the one tool for your job that you can’t live without, and why?
Do I need to say…. the internet?! If I were to get more specific, it would be analytics. Our decisions can be initiated by guts but need to be backed up by data.
What is the biggest mistake that you see churches making when it comes to communications and marketing?
Thinking like insiders. Gravity is always pulling us into thinking like ourselves and reinforcing our confirmation biases. We need to think like and talk to the people we are trying to reach. What’s important to them? What challenges are they facing? How can we help and point them to Jesus in the process?
Who is someone that you look up to in the church communications world?
Dave Adamson – Dave is always challenging convention and measuring by results, not his intuition. Dave is a great leader who is not afraid to go against the grain, and he has always been very encouraging to me.
We share the same sentiments. It is really important to consciously consider, in every decision, what is needed by the people that we try to reach – that will make effective communication! You are one great communication leader, Justin, and we hope you spread more of that light to our community of communicators.
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