30 Years in Marketing. Now He Says the Church Measures Wrong | unScripted EP 31

Years ago Shawn Boonstra signed the guest book at a church that wasn't his own, just to see what would happen. They called him back in 32 hours. Meanwhile, interest cards from his own television broadcast were sitting in a filing cabinet for three months. Tim McTernan spent 30 years in marketing before he brought it into the church — supermarket brands, telecommunications, a million pieces of direct mail a week. Now he leads innovation and marketing for the South Pacific Division, and he says the Adventist Church is leaving people on the table who already raised their hand. This one gets uncomfortable: what a baptism costs, whether it's obscene to measure it, why 46% of Gen Z open TikTok looking for spiritual truth, and what $200 can actually do for a local church. And at the very end, the story of a 45-minute car ride in Sydney that no marketing budget could have bought. CHAPTERS 0:00 — A car ride in Sydney 1:45 — 30 years in marketing, and the moment it became ministry 3:23 — The Google party, and the creator who changed his mind 8:17 — What the church could steal from the business world 11:26 — They called him back in 32 hours. Ours took three months. 14:44 — "Make the case for digital ministry" 22:16 — 46% of Gen Z are searching TikTok for spiritual truth 25:16 — $200, 10,000 people: how one church actually did it 41:19 — Clicks or souls? The vanity metrics trap 45:28 — What churches should be measuring instead 56:34 — "Tim, pray for me." Which is it — is measuring ministry good stewardship, or does it turn people into numbers? Tell us in the comments. Shawn and Tim genuinely disagree on where the line sits. Subscribe for new episodes of unScripted every week — real questions, real answers, no script. unScripted is produced by the Adventist Review. #unScripted #AdventistReview #DigitalMinistry #Evangelism #SDA #ChurchGrowth #TimMcTernan #ShawnBoonstra