In 2023, Seeker Communications worked to broaden their audience reach through new content delivery methods, leveraging the power of search engine optimization and AI-influenced content descriptions and meta information to improve content discoverability.

To connect with seekers in places where they already spend time online, the team focused on creating content for popular platforms like TikTok, YouTube and other social media channels. This strategy resulted in 6.4 million impressions on The United Methodist Church TikTok channel and a 44% increase in engagement.

The team produced 25 episodes of Compass Podcast, with corresponding YouTube videos, generating a 17% increase in the median number of downloads per episode over 30 days. Overall, Seeker Communications' videos generated over 22,000 views on YouTube.

The new outreach strategy successfully drove more traffic to UMC.org, with 30-day views for articles on the Rethink Church portion of the website up by 30%. The team's elevated understanding of search engine optimization and use of artificial intelligence applications to generate SEO-friendly article titles, keywords and meta descriptions contributed to this rise.

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UM News produced 774 news stories in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean, including in-depth feature reports on the growing church in Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan; mission work in Angola; the 70th anniversary of the Thai edition of the Upper Room; the launch of a Samoan congregation in Alaska; a series of video interviews on Black women trailblazers in the church; and other topics.

The news team covered the major breaking news of the church throughout the year, including an unprecedented church trial, which was one of the biggest stories of 2023. The team also provided authoritative coverage of disaffiliations, with stories on the legal battles, “lighthouse congregations” and new church starts springing forth.

For the year, UM News had 3,221,166 total page views.

Ask The UMC handled 12,890 queries by email and live chat in 2023. The team also produced FAQ series focusing on what United Methodists believe about the environment (“Our Living World”); explaining the topic of regionalization (“Regionalization”); and addressing questions related to the disaffiliation process and the state of the church (“Is The UMC Really …?”).

In collaboration with other teams, the News and Information Team provided training in Kyrgyzstan, assisted with global communications technology trainings and organized a pre-General Conference orientation at the United Methodist Association of Communicators' annual gathering.

The Local Church Services team served 2,098 local churches in 2023, up from 1,700 in 2022. Services offered included branding and logo development, social media strategy, promotional outreach items, website services and coaching church leaders.

The team instituted monthly “coaching communities” where 10-20 church leaders meet three times a month and learned how to be more effective in their marketing efforts. They also identified churches affected by disaffiliation and worked with them to reach new people through marketing and promotional outreach.

For example, Brinkley First United Methodist Church received promotional items to reach their community. The West Ohio Annual Conference got 200 yard signs to place outside churches committed to remaining United Methodist. Directional signage was provided for the very first United Methodist church in Madagascar, where the bishop oversaw the inauguration of the signage before a group of church members, sister church members, local chiefs and authorities.

Pocket maps highlighted 10 local United Methodist churches and a #BeUMC morning prayer location for the Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Nine-foot outdoor flag banners were given to 417 local churches to increase brand awareness and share a message of God's love and invitation.

In 2023, the Training Team provided 2,015 church leaders with training to improve their communication skills, connect with their audiences and grow their churches. Nearly 15,000 church leaders have participated in training over the past five years.

The second annual Communications Learning Week virtual event drew 210 attendees in 2023, covering topics such as connecting with multilingual communities, navigating the digital landscape, repurposing sermons with artificial intelligence and hospitality tips.

A new course offering launched this year was Revitalizing Your Church's Social Media, which was the top online course in 2023, followed by Developing A Strategy for Communications Planning and Developing A Strategy for Communications Planning.

United Methodist Communications provided training on a number of topics including: news and feature writing, photography, videography, social media, church marketing, communications strategy, mapping and UMConnect text messaging services.

2023 saw the largest gathering of communicators from across the Philippines in years, with 144 trainees – 49 AC communicators and 95 District Superintendents and episcopal staff in attendance. Participants met in Manila and took part in publicity tactic training and troubleshooting, writing for readability lessons and strategic social media marketing, in addition to the overall communication training offerings.

Burundi and Uganda (with trainees from Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda) in East Africa and Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo each served as host cities for the training of communicators within the regions. Whereas, specialized Lusophone training was held in Maputo — the largest city of Mozambique, and focused mapping techniques were taught in Angola.

The team utilized the UMConnect text messaging platform to help curb the spread of a measles outbreak in Central Congo, respond to a deadly cholera crisis in East Congo, create awareness of a reemergence of diphtheria in Nigeria and foster peace and unity in Zimbabwe and Côte d'Ivoire during election time.

Providing and maintaining internet connectivity to Central Conference episcopal offices continued to be a priority, with work taking place in Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Central Congo, East Congo, Western Angola and Nigeria.

The mapping of churches in the Philippines is almost complete, and work is underway in South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire. As mapping is completed and information becomes available, churches outside the U.S. are added to the Find-A-Church online directory of United Methodist churches.

A number of grants were provided to aid episcopal areas in building their capacity to communicate through the purchase or upgrade of equipment or other needs. A broadcast grant provided for the provision of a third station location for Voix de l'Esperance Radio in Côte d'Ivoire. An equipment grand supported web streaming capacity in the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area and the Eurasia Episcopal Area was given a web conferencing equipment grant.

National advertisements targeted around Easter, summer, fall and Advent resulted in a total of 417,997,852 impressions across a mix of mediums including billboards, social media, paid search, display ads and TV.

Promotion of the #BeUMC campaign reached 1.6 million people and created approximately 3.5 million social media impressions. Awareness of #BeUMC was also boosted with a presence at events with a total attendance of 4,000 and workshop presentations.

The Promotion and Advertising Team's efforts helped create 10.7 million total web sessions in 2023 and an 8.6% increase in newsletter subscriptions. The team partnered with several Central Conference episcopal areas to provide billboards, t-shirts and event resources.

The Connectional Giving Team increased awareness and participation in The United Methodist Church's special giving structure. Designated giving reached $47 million and apportionment giving reached $106 million.

The Public Information Team worked to create positive media coverage and provide a voice for the UMC in major media outlets and local news. Efforts included pitching nearly 50 stories and providing 36 media assists, with coverage including NewsNation Now, New York Times, Associated Press, Religion News Service, The Christian Post, USA Today network papers and local newspapers, TV affiliates and websites. The agency offered public relations expertise for 35 projects, publishing 38 press releases and 14 feature stories and collaborating with church entities on crisis prevention and response strategies and media training. The team created 2.9 million social media engagements and garnered more than 90,000 new fans.

The Creative Strategy Team provides strategic thinking, creative direction and creative execution for internal and external clients, completing 157 projects and delivering 1,425 assets in 2023. The team tracked 3,895 hours, a 93% increase from the previous year and generated almost $23,000 in revenue.

In the first quarter of 2023, the Web Development Team launched the updated Find-A-Church web app, which featured greatly improved search functionality, the ability to filter results by ethnicity, language, accessibility services and online worship among other facets, and the ability to view individual churches' ongoing services and events. Since the update, Find-A-Church has received between 12,000-20,000 pageviews per week.

The agency partnered with and supported 1,546 local churches with web hosting services, supported 11 Central Conference websites and relaunched LiberiaUMC.org. Upgrades were also made to UMCChurches.org to help UMC organizations quickly connect to website, domain and/or hosting offerings.

Continued improvements were made to ensure the best SEO and site performance and a new initiative was launched to maximize web accessibility to accommodate the greatest number of visitors possible. The Web and IT teams sunset an old content management system (CMS) and legacy sites and functionality were migrated to new systems. This enabled a reduction in costs while ensuring that website visitors are provided greater security and performance. An upgrade to the Sitecore CMS laid the groundwork for future website improvements and ensures a stable and supported platform through 2028. Likewise, updates were made to streamline newsletter subcriptions.

UMCom continues to provide a web platform for other UMC agencies. In 2023, all of John Wesley's sermons were uploaded, GBGM's Methodist Bicentennial Celebration site was imported and significant progress was made in migrating the Connectional Table website. Additionally, the framework has been put into place for other agencies to bring their websites under the ResourceUMC.org umbrella.

The Customer Experience (CX) Team sustained their work to support critical UMC communications platforms and provided data and reports to teams across agencies. UMCom also contributed user experience expertise to key conversations around adoption of new technologies.

In 2023, the Production Services Team produced a variety of internal and external projects in the studio, on-location, including livestream events, interviews, presentations, Bible studies, book recordings, virtual meetings, features, how-to videos, promos and more.

The team supported the production needs of other teams at United Methodist Communications, as well as a host of church entities – including the Council of Bishops, the Connectional Table, United Methodist Publishing House, the General Commission on Religion and Race, the General Commission on Archives and History, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, The Upper Room and more.

Through Kingswood Productions, the team provided production services to 20+ clients, generating $137K in additional revenue to be used for communication ministry.