
Staff Culture
At Upstate Church, the culture begins with a deep commitment to biblical truth expressed through authentic grace. Leaders are expected to be spiritually grounded, emotionally intelligent, and relentlessly focused on what matters most. Trust is high and the mission of Jesus drives everything. Collaboration outranks hierarchy. Grit is celebrated more than polish. Outcomes matter more than optics. It’s a team where you’re invited to bring your whole self and find great purpose on your own journey with Jesus.
Core behaviors include:
- Balancing truth and grace in all things
- Doing whatever it takes to help people meet and follow Jesus
- Working better as one collaborative team rather than in silos
- Prioritizing outcomes over process
- Staying rooted in God’s Word and faithful in the grind
Key Responsibilities
- Shape and lead a comprehensive communications strategy that aligns internal systems and expands external influence.
- Develop, champion, and elevate Upstate Church’s cultural voice in digital platforms such as podcasts, vlogs, livestreams, storytelling events, and social campaigns.
- Collaborate closely with the lead pastor and senior leaders to position their voices internally and externally with clarity, consistency, and conviction.
- Mentor and empower a creative team, including direct reports and contractors, to consistently produce meaningful, high-quality content.
- Maintain and refine internal systems that ensure unified messaging across campuses, ministries, and environments.
Key Qualifications
- Vision Translator: You can distill complex vision into clear, engaging messaging that resonates with identified audiences.
- Platform Architect: You bring proven experience in creating environments, such as podcasts, vlogs, events, and digital spaces, where thoughtful, biblical conversations can be heard, moving people from awareness to action. Whether your background is in ministry, nonprofits, journalism, media production, or political messaging, you know how to shape narrative with integrity and impact.
- Gospel-Rooted Diplomat: You lead with a confident humility, an intentional empathy, listening with intention, and communicating with both clarity and conviction.
- Strategic Innovator: You are a forward-thinking strategist who can build platforms and systems that grow with the church’s expanding regional influence. You’re not afraid to try new things while measuring what’s working and scale it well.
- Unifier: You create trust to bring people, platforms, and priorities together to advance a shared mission with excellence and heart.
- Other Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience (fields such as communications, journalism, public relations, political science, theology, or marketing preferred).
- Minimum 5–7 years of leadership experience in communications, content strategy, public relations, or digital media.
- Backgrounds May Include: Church communications and platform leadership in a large or multi-site setting, broadcast journalism or editorial leadership, political communications, campaign strategy, or policy public affairs, strategic consulting, or nonprofit advocacy work.
Challenges You’ll Face
- Navigating cultural complexity with clarity and courage. This role must translate biblical convictions into engaging, non-reactionary messaging that speaks to the spiritually curious and culturally cautious.
- Positioning voices to stand out in a noisy world. This person must create space for trusted, biblically grounded leaders to speak into today’s cultural conversations with courage and nuance. They need to cultivate authenticity that cuts through cynicism and invites curiosity for those seeking a more meaningful life of purpose.
- Engaging spiritually curious without compromise. Many in the region resonate with biblical values but are skeptical of church. This role must help bridge that cultural and ideological divide through language that invites, not alienates.
- Creating alignment across diverse campuses and teams. With nine locations and a decentralized structure, this person must keep messaging aligned while honoring local expressions.
Opportunities Ahead
- Develop a redemptive and compelling public voice for the church in a post-Christian world. You’ll help bring the voice of Upstate Church’s pastors into everyday digital and local spaces, offering a better way to live, love, and believe through life in Jesus.
- Create and manage platforms where honest, gospel-centered conversations can happen. Whether it’s through podcasts, live conversations, storytelling content, or curated digital experiences, you’ll design environments that welcome hard questions and point toward real hope.
- Equip the church to speak into culture with clarity and compassion. You’ll help develop language, rhythms, and tools that enable staff, volunteers, pastors, and members to disciple people well, online and in person.
First-Year Wins
- Develop and launch a consistent external platformed strategy (via media like podcasts or vlog series) that regularly features the lead and teaching pastors engaging in real-life, culturally relevant topics by applying biblical insights to issues often discussed in news, policy, and culture.
- Build on a strong communications infrastructure to implement a strategy that supports ministry initiatives, prepares for scalable growth, and expands the church’s external reach across Upstate South Carolina.
- Develop strong relational trust and creative synergy with senior leadership and the communications team, becoming a go-to leader for both strategy and cultural clarity.