Phil Cooke is a PhD, author, speaker, and longtime production director in Hollywood, broadcast television and the local church. He's passionate about church production leaders figuring out the message they're trying to tell. And in this Church Production Podcast episode, he talks with Joseph Cottle about all of that, alongside some great advice for young and veteran production leaders alike.

Cooke has just returned from Athens, Greece where he was speaking to around 500 pastors and business leaders from 52 countries. He was invited to talk about his book, Church on Trial, and how to protect your congregation, mission and reputation during a crisis.

“I had people coming up to me for hours just saying, ‘Wow, my pastor opened up for the first time about this crisis situation in our church,’” Cooke says. “And it's not just sexual stuff, it's embezzlement, it's financial, it could be legal issues. The city encroaching and some of the countries these pastors came from, the government is trying to pressure the church into shutting down their message. And so it's a lot of issues. It's very complex. So, I was thrilled. It was a great opportunity.”

Cooke says you never know when you're going to find yourself in between a team and a bad situation and how you communicate to your team in that time is super important because you might be the one person they trust, the person that keeps them in their church community.

“27% of the people that leave the church leave because of a crisis at their church or how poorly the church handled it. Now, that's not 27% of people going to another church. That's 27% of people that are walking away from God completely. So, it's how we handle ourselves during a crisis is absolutely important for a leader, whether you're a media leader, a communications director at your church, whatever you do, it's really important that you know how to step up and communicate clearly during something like that.”

To hear more about Phil Cooke’s book, Church on Trial, and learn all about his production background and how he broke into film and television - both Christian and secular, listen to this podcast!