equip the Church

You dont publish books for nobody. So why are you distributing them to nobody?

If you’re a Christian publisher, that question deserves an honest answer. Because here’s what I’ve observed interact with Christian publishers around the world: most Christian content dies in obscurity not because it lacks quality or theological depth, but because we treat distribution as an afterthought…something that happens after the “real work” is done.

We spend months translating and editing our books. We ensure the best theological precision. We discuss cover designs and endorsements. We hit publish. And then we wait. We post once on social media with a post trying to sell the book. We send an email to our list. And then… we move on to the next project.

Meanwhile, the content we poured our hearts into reaches a fraction of the people it could serve.

Understanding the Real Battlefield

Let me be direct about something: The real competitor to your Christian books isn’t another Christian book—it’s Netflix, Instagram, and a nap. You’re competing for attention in the dopamine economy. Act like it.

I know that sounds harsh. But let’s seriously consider the reality your readers face.

They’re not sitting by their computer thinking, “I really need to read more Christian content today.” They’re juggling seventeen urgent demands, feeling perpetually behind, and genuinely exhausted. Your beautifully crafted book that you spend 2-3 years translating, maybe you even spent extra for gold guilding or an embossed feature is not on the top of their mind. Your book is competing with:

• A Netflix series engineered to auto-play the next episode before they can think;
• Instagram Reels delivering dopamine hits every 15 seconds;
• The very real temptation to just sit on the couch and do nothing after a long hard day.

This isn’t about compromising our message or cheapening the gospel. It’s about recognizing the battlefield we’re actually on. We need to understand the attention economy we’re operating in to reach the people we’re called to serve.

The Production Trap We’ve Built

Here’s the pattern I see repeatedly in Christian publishing around the world: we’re obsessed with production and terrible at distribution. In most of project management systems, the project is over when the book arrives from the printer; when the reality is, the project should be finished when we have sold our estimated number of books.

Seth Godin observed something crucial: “Everyone is not your customer.” This hits differently in Christian publishing because we operate with this underlying belief that “the gospel is for everyone” therefore “our content is for everyone.” I have sat in so many meetings where we ask who is this book for, and the answer is always “everyone”. But that’s confusing the universality of the message with the specificity of how we deliver it. If your book is for everyone, it is in reality for no one.

In publishing, success is in niches. You don’t need a million people scrolling past your posts. You need 1,000 true fans who will buy everything, share everything, and tell everyone they know about what you’re doing.

So let me ask you something: Who are you serving so well that they’d be devastated if you disappeared tomorrow?

Not “Christians” or “young mothers” or “church leaders.” Actual people whose lives you’re changing. If you can’t name them or describe them specifically, your distribution strategy is probably too generic to cut through the noise.

The Distribution Model That Changes Everything

Here’s where I want to challenge the way you think about publishing. Stop thinking about it as a one-time event. Start thinking about it as the beginning of an infinite distribution cycle.

Gary Vaynerchuk built a media empire on this principle. One piece of pillar content becomes 20, 30, 50 derivative pieces across different platforms and formats.

Consider what one 30-minute sermon or one book chapter could become:

• A podcast episode for people who listen while commuting
• Five YouTube Shorts for visual learners scrolling during lunch
• Ten Instagram quote graphics that land in someone’s feed at exactly the right moment
• A blog post that ranks in Google for years
• An email series that nurtures your relationship with subscribers
• A Twitter thread that sparks conversation
• Discussion questions that small groups use for months
• Audio clips optimized for TikTok’s algorithm

You’re not creating more content. You’re extracting more value from what you’ve already created.

The genius of this approach? The hard work is already done. The sermon has been preached. The book has been published. Now you’re simply translating that same truth into different formats for different contexts and different platforms, which in turn builds greater awareness for the original piece of content.

This is stewardship. You’ve been entrusted with a treasure. Distribution is about getting that treasure to as many people as possible in ways they can actually receive it.

The Timelessness Advantage

Here’s something Christian publishers have that most content creators don’t: Great truth has no expiration date.

Rory Sutherland, one of the most insightful minds in advertising, notes that psychological truths don’t change even when circumstances do, this is even more true with theological truths. The human heart in 2025 struggles with the same fundamental questions it struggled with in 1925. How do I find meaning? How do I deal with suffering? How do I love well? How do I pray and trust God when the world is falling apart?

Most of your content addresses these eternal human needs. That means most of your catalog isn’t expired—it’s just underdistributed.

Think about it this way: What percentage of your catalog could still be relevant in 2030?

If you’re honest, probably 70-80% of it. That’s your real asset. That’s your content goldmine sitting in your warehouse or on your website, waiting to be redistributed.

We treat last year’s books like expired milk. What if we started treating them like vintage wine that gets more valuable with proper positioning and context?

The Perception Problem Nobody Wants to Admit

Sutherland offers another uncomfortable insight: “A flower is simply a weed with an advertising budget.”

That’s provocative, but it reveals something true about how value is created in people’s minds. The difference between a bestselling Christian book and an unknown one with essentially the same message often isn’t the quality of the content. It’s the distribution and marketing or awareness.

Your content isn’t failing because it’s bad. It’s failing because it’s invisible. Nobody knows it exists.

Sutherland’s principle: we don’t value things, we value their meaning. Publishers obsess over features—”320 pages, premium hardcover, includes study guide.” But people don’t buy features. They buy transformation. They buy hope. They buy solutions to the problems keeping them up at night.

Stop promoting what your content IS. Start promoting what it MEANS to someone’s life. What is promised change?

Compare these two approaches:

“New six-week Bible study on the book of Philippians”

versus

“What if joy wasn’t dependent on your circumstances? Six weeks to rewire how you think about happiness.”

Feel the difference? Same content. Completely different perception of value.

Permission Without Attention Is Worthless

Seth Godin makes a crucial distinction that most publishers miss: permission and attention are different currencies.

You might have permission—email lists with thousands of subscribers, social media followers, website visitors. But permission without attention is worthless. Every unopened email represents permission you’ve been given but failed to activate.

The funnel works like this:

Attention (social media, podcasts, guest content) leads to Permission (email list, community membership) which enables Transaction (purchase, deep engagement).

Most Christian publishers skip straight to transaction. We post “Buy our book” and wonder why nobody does. We haven’t earned attention. We haven’t cultivated relationship. We’re asking for the sale before we’ve given people a reason to care.

Distribution is about earning attention, converting it to permission, and then serving people so well that transaction becomes natural.

The Cost of Playing It Safe

Here’s Godin again: “The cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing.”

Christian publishers are often paralyzed by the fear of getting distribution wrong. What if we look too salesy? Too worldly? Too promotional? What if people judge us? What if it doesn’t work? Ironically, in their fear, they don’t provide value and often appear salesy to their audience.

But here’s what I’ve come to believe: invisibility is a greater failure than imperfection.

If you have content that could help someone—that could comfort them in grief, strengthen their marriage, deepen their faith—and you’re keeping it hidden because you’re afraid of looking too promotional, that’s not humility. That’s a failure to steward what you’ve been given.

Godin’s “Purple Cow” principle applies here: Safe is risky. Remarkable is the only thing that works now.

What if your next distribution experiment was different enough that people actually talked about it? What if you:

• Serialized a book as daily 60-second voice messages
• Turned a theology book into a newsletter that unfolds over weeks
• “Leaked” chapters or even the whole book like Marvel leaks trailers, building anticipation
• Created an entire content universe around one core idea

I’m not saying do those exact things. I’m asking: What would you try if you knew no one would judge you for it?

The Paradox of Less

Sutherland loves paradoxes, and here’s one worth considering: “The opposite of a good idea can also be a good idea.”

Everyone in publishing thinks: “We need to create MORE content!”

What if you tried the opposite? What if you produced zero new content for six months or even one year and focused exclusively on distributing what you already have?

There’s a principle at work here: scarcity creates value. Over-production dilutes brand. When you’re constantly pushing the next thing, people learn to wait, to ignore, to scroll past because there will always be something new tomorrow.

What if publishing less but distributing more strategically made you more money and built stronger audiences and allowed your ministry to have a greater impact in serving the Church?

Making Distribution Frictionless

Sutherland’s advice: Make it incredibly easy to say yes, and incredibly interesting to pay attention.

Most publishers make both hard. Content is buried three clicks deep on websites nobody visits. Sharing requires downloading, uploading, editing. Engagement feels transactional and obligatory.

Here’s the fix:

Make it easy:

• Put your best content where people already are, not where you wish they were
• Create assets that are literally one click to share—quote cards, pre-written posts, embeddable videos
• Remove every possible barrier between discovery and consumption

Make it interesting:

• Stop being boring in how you present things
• Add personality, surprise, delight
• Treat every email, every post, every touchpoint as an opportunity to serve or entertain

You’re Not Owed an Audience

Here’s the final truth we need to accept: You’re not entitled to attention just because you published something.

Your content—no matter how theologically sound, beautifully written, or necessary for the church—is not owed an audience.

You have to earn attention. You have to fight for it. You have to distribute like your mission depends on it.

Because it does.

The world doesn’t need more Christian content. It needs the Christian content that already exists to actually reach the people who desperately need it.

Where to Start

Your next bestseller might already be in your catalog. Your next breakthrough moment might be buried in a chapter from three years ago that nobody read.

The question isn’t whether you have great content. The question is whether you have great distribution.

Here’s what I’d encourage you to do:

Pick one resource from your catalog. Not your newest. Not necessarily your best. Just one with timeless truth that could serve people today.

Identify five core truths from it. What are the main ideas, the transformative insights, the memorable principles?

Map out 30 days of distribution for just those five truths. How could you present each truth in five different formats? Where could you share it? Who needs to hear it?

Then stop creating. Start distributing.

Because great content with no distribution is a tragedy. It’s a calling unfulfilled. It’s people who could have been helped, comforted, or transformed who never got the chance.

You didn’t make something for nobody. Now it’s time to make sure somebody actually encounters it.