A Social Media Case Study

Scaling Church Engagement in Three Months

After three months on FaithMesh's Growth Plan, Congregational Church of Cumberland saw:

10K+

Total reach on Social Media

2.1K

Video plays on Facebook

2.6K

Reel views on Instagram

Where They Started

Cumberland had an active Facebook page. Their church admin was doing her best to keep content flowing, but the reality is that managing social media on top of everything else a small church staff handles becomes a lot. Most of their posts were promotional: upcoming events, service times, announcements. Good information, necessary information, but not the kind of content that builds engagement.

Their Instagram account existed but had been sitting dormant for a while. They knew video content could work for them. They just didn't have the bandwidth to make it happen week after week.

This is where we came in.

What We Did

Cumberland signed up for our Growth Plan: two posts per week for three months. They uploaded their Sunday sermon video to our portal Sundays after their main service. We handled everything else.

Here's how the posts broke down:

Post 1: The Sermon Clip

Every week, one of our editors watches the full sermon. We're looking for the moment that captures the heart of the message. The part that makes you lean in. We turn that into a short-form video (under 3 minutes to work as an Instagram Reel).

We use AI to generate a transcript and draft a caption using the pastor's own words from the sermon. Then a human editor goes through and polishes it. The goal is to make sure the clip still feels like the pastor's voice and the message stays intact. Every post goes through an approval process where Cumberland's pastor can request changes (up to two revisions per post).

Post 2: Their Choice

We started by giving Cumberland a seven-slide carousel graphic that broke down each sermon's key points. About halfway through, we realized we should let them choose what worked best for their goals that week. So we adjusted: they could pick between an additional video clip or a custom graphic. Video content tends to reach new people. Graphics do a better job engaging your existing community. Over three months, the mix helped them do both.

We also started cross-posting between Facebook and Instagram. Same content, more reach, no extra work for their team.

What Changed

The promotional posts didn't go away. Cumberland still posted about upcoming events and service times. But now those posts lived alongside consistent value content. When someone landed on their page, they saw a feed that reflected both what was happening and why it mattered.

Their Facebook reach held steady at 10.5K, even as engagement jumped 227%. Video views hit 2.1K across the quarter (up 550%). On Instagram, where they'd barely been active before, they reached over 2,000 people through Reels. Most of those were new eyes, people who weren't already following the church.

That matters. When someone searches for your church online or stumbles across your Instagram, what they see tells them whether you're active, whether you're welcoming, whether there's anything happening worth showing up for. Consistent content answers all of those questions before someone ever walks through your doors.

The Setup

The process is straightforward:

• Cumberland uploads their sermon video every Sunday or Monday

• We edit and deliver posts on their agreed schedule (Tuesday and Thursday mornings for Cumberland)

• Pastor reviews and approves each post before it goes live

• Posts go out automatically

For their first three months, Cumberland paid a reduced rate of $100/month before moving to a legacy plan at $300/month. Our current Growth Plan is $350/month.

Why It Worked

Cumberland was already doing good work. They had an active Facebook presence and sermons worth sharing. What they needed was someone to take what they already had and optimize it. We didn't reinvent their ministry. We gave them the tools to show up consistently in the places their community was already spending time.

Social media growth takes time. You're not going to go viral in week two. But if you show up every week with content that reflects who you are as a church, the numbers start to move. And more importantly, you build a presence that makes it easier for new people to find you and for your existing community to stay connected.

That's what happened for Cumberland. And that's what we can help your church do too.

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Ready to see what consistent content can do for your church?

Learn more about FaithMesh or schedule a call to talk through what a plan might look like for your community.