Why I Believe Pastor Personal Brands Will Boom by 2031

I believe pastor personal brands are going to grow dramatically over the next five years.

By 2031, I expect far more local pastors to be teaching, answering questions, and building relationships through their own public platforms. Some will reach people who would never have followed a church account or accepted an invitation to a Sunday service.

That possibility excites me. I want to help the church steward it well.

I’m the founder of Kolstad Media, and I also serve as the production lead at Westside Community Church. I care about this as someone building a filmmaking company and as someone working inside ministry. I believe we have an opportunity to help people encounter Jesus, find a church community, and grow in their faith.

We should give that opportunity serious thought before the pressure to keep up makes the decisions for us.

Why I think pastor personal brands will grow

In business, there’s a phrase I come back to often: people buy from people.

A founder can explain why a company exists, share what they believe, and answer a real question in a way that helps someone understand the people behind the organization. I’m seeing more businesses recognize the value of that personal connection.

There is research behind the value of useful expertise, although it doesn’t prove that personal accounts always outperform company accounts. In Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2024 study, 73% of business decision-makers said an organization’s thought leadership gave them a more trustworthy way to assess its capabilities than its marketing materials did. That is business research, so we should be careful about applying it directly to ministry. It does give us a reason to take substantive teaching seriously. Read Edelman’s findings.

Religious audiences already engage with individual leaders online. Pew Research Center reported in 2023 that 11% of U.S. adults followed their own religious leaders online or on social media. Twenty percent watched religious videos online outside of services, and 15% listened to religious podcasts. Read Pew’s research.

Those numbers describe an existing audience. They don’t establish a five-year growth forecast. The prediction is mine.

Here’s what I expect to change: this will become much more common among ordinary local pastors. Churches will begin making room for it in staff responsibilities and production budgets. More people will become familiar with a pastor’s teaching before they ever walk into that pastor’s church.

A church Instagram can tell someone what happens on Sunday. A pastor answering a difficult question can help someone decide whether they feel comfortable showing up with questions of their own.

That’s a different kind of introduction.

What I mean by a pastor’s personal brand

A pastor’s personal brand is the public understanding people develop of that pastor through their teaching, conduct, convictions, and communication.

The phrase can sound uncomfortable in ministry. I understand why. It can suggest a carefully manufactured personality or a plan to make someone famous.

What interests me is a pastor making their actual voice accessible. Someone can hear how they explain Scripture, how they handle disagreement, and what they care about. Over time, that can create familiarity and open a door to trust.

I would qualify the phrase “people trust people, not churches.” People can trust churches, and an individual leader can also betray trust. A familiar face alone proves very little.

But a person can make an unfamiliar church feel approachable. Their public words give someone a place to begin.

Imagine someone who hasn’t attended church in years. They watch a pastor answer a question about prayer. Later, they listen to a longer conversation about suffering. Eventually, they visit a church because they’ve heard enough to believe their questions will be taken seriously.

That’s an example of what could happen, not a guaranteed sequence. It is also the kind of opportunity I don’t want us to dismiss.

The church should help set the standard

One thing bothers me: we can speak passionately about stewardship while accepting avoidable carelessness in how we communicate.

I think faith-based organizations should be helping set the standard for thoughtful, effective communication. We have a responsibility to use what we’ve been entrusted with well.

There are churches already doing this beautifully. There are also small teams doing faithful work with very little. My frustration is with the assumption that ministry deserves a lower standard of care.

That conviction is a big part of why Kolstad Media exists. I believe faith-based organizations deserve the same seriousness, creative attention, and filmmaking craft that businesses receive.

I’m tired of the idea that “Christian” should come with lowered expectations for quality. Our stories deserve to be told well, and the people in them deserve to be treated with dignity.

Excellence looks different depending on what you have. Sometimes it means a carefully produced film. Sometimes it means a phone, a quiet room, and a pastor who has taken the time to give a clear answer. Spending beyond your means or exhausting volunteers would undermine the stewardship we’re talking about.

We can learn from businesses without adopting every practice that produces growth. The church should lead in how honestly it communicates and how well it cares for people, including when a more sensational approach might get more attention.

A biblical foundation for a public platform

Scripture doesn’t command pastors to build personal brands. This is a ministry judgment about how to use available tools. Scripture does give us principles that should govern that judgment.

Use what you’ve received to serve

In 1 Peter 4:10–11, gifts are entrusted to believers for the good of others and the glory of God. Applied here, a pastor’s ability to explain Scripture is something to steward for the people it can help. Read 1 Peter 4:10–11.

Keep Jesus central

In 2 Corinthians 4:5, Paul identifies Jesus Christ as the subject of his proclamation and himself as a servant. A pastor’s public presence should help people understand and follow Jesus. That needs to be evident in what gets taught and where people are invited next. Read 2 Corinthians 4:5.

Let visibility direct glory toward God

Matthew 5:14–16 describes a visible witness whose good works lead people to glorify the Father. Visibility can serve a faithful purpose. We still have to examine what our visibility is accomplishing. Read Matthew 5:14–16.

That answer should shape the strategy.

Personal connection and celebrity culture need different treatment

I believe it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. I’m not prescribing one leadership structure. Pastor-led churches and churches with board or elder leadership can consider this approach within their own governance and convictions.

A visible pastor doesn’t automatically create a celebrity church. The danger grows when the leader becomes too important to question, when protecting the platform takes priority over caring for people, or when everything depends on one person staying in the spotlight.

That’s why accountability needs to exist before the audience grows.

Write down who reviews the teaching, who can challenge a post, and who has authority to pause the work. Agree on account ownership, staff time, spending, and what happens if the pastor leaves. If personal income or sponsorships enter the picture, address those openly with the appropriate church leadership.

Share the platform with other trusted voices. Help people meet the congregation and its leaders. A pastor’s absence for rest should be normal and supported.

And be honest about the relationship. Watching a pastor every week can feel personal, but it doesn’t mean that pastor knows the viewer. People still need relationships where someone can listen, respond, and walk with them.

How to build a pastor’s personal brand responsibly

Start with the people you’re already called to serve

Choose a specific audience before choosing a posting schedule.

For a local church, that might be people in your community who are curious about Christianity but uncomfortable attending. It might be new believers who need help reading Scripture. A faith-based nonprofit leader might speak to people trying to understand the need their organization serves.

Write one sentence: “We want to help _____ take a step toward _____.”

Then list ten questions those people actually ask. Use recurring questions without identifying anyone or disclosing private conversations.

A national audience may eventually develop. Start by making something useful for people you understand.

Give each piece of content one useful job

Some videos introduce someone to your voice. Others need enough time to explain a passage carefully. Invitations help a person find somewhere to go next.

For example:

Keep the church’s account useful too. It can introduce the wider community and provide dependable information. The pastor’s account can carry a more personal teaching voice. They should work together.

Build a rhythm your team can sustain

Start with a 90-day trial on one primary platform. Choose it based on where the intended audience already spends time and what your team can support.

A reasonable starting experiment is two short videos a week and one longer conversation a month, if the team has capacity. Record several answers together. Reuse existing teaching where the excerpt makes sense on its own.

Budget time for editing, review, captions, publishing, and responding. The recording session is only part of the work.

Good production helps someone listen. Prioritize clear audio and accurate captions. Give the pastor room to speak naturally. If a clip needs context, include it, even when that makes the edit less punchy.

I’ve written separately about giving ministry video a useful life after it is produced. The same principle applies here: decide how a piece will serve people before making it.

Make the next step possible

A person who responds should have somewhere to go.

That could be a fuller teaching, a clear explanation of the gospel, a conversation with a ministry team member, or an invitation to a local church. Someone outside your area may need help connecting with a healthy church near them.

Assign someone to handle responses and explain what people can expect. Don’t promise personal access the pastor cannot provide. Offer an appropriate private route for sensitive questions instead of asking people to share painful details in comments.

If the team cannot care for the responses it already receives, address that before increasing the volume.

Protect the people whose stories you tell

A testimony belongs to the person who lived it. Explain where it will appear and make declining genuinely acceptable. Be particularly careful with children and people receiving support from the ministry.

Authenticity doesn’t require access to a pastor’s family or someone else’s hardest moment. Useful teaching can be honest and personal while respecting privacy.

Reject edits that distort the message. A sharp disagreement may deserve attention, but outrage should never become the weekly content plan.

A practical first 90 days

Track reach and watch time because they help you understand whether the content is being encountered and understood. Also look for substantive questions, requests for prayer, connections to church community, and participation in opportunities to grow.

Ask people, when appropriate, what helped them take that step. Be careful about crediting a video for a decision shaped by years of relationships and prayer.

Review the cost as honestly as the response. Is the pastor still present with the congregation? Is the team working sustainable hours? Are they free to say a topic needs more care or a schedule needs to slow down?

Some churches should choose a different approach

A pastor doesn’t need a public personal platform to be faithful.

This may be a poor fit when the pastor doesn’t want it, when the church lacks capacity, or when local circumstances make public visibility unwise. A church working through leadership failures may need to rebuild trust through action before expanding a leader’s public presence.

Shared teaching through the church’s account may be a better choice. So might investing that time in relationships offline.

I’m predicting wider adoption. I’m not making it a requirement for every ministry.

What I hope we do with the next five years

By 2031, I expect pastor personal brands to be a much more familiar part of local church communication. I hope churches approach that shift thoughtfully, while they still have room to choose how it fits their calling.

I want to help lead that work through Kolstad Media, and I want to bring the same care to my role at Westside. I believe we can produce excellent work, remain accountable, and help pastors communicate in ways that serve people well.

What excites me is the person who might hear the gospel, accept Jesus as Savior, and become part of a church community through a connection that began online. I want to see people grow deeper in their faith. I want to help make heaven more crowded.

This week, bring one question to your leadership team: who could we serve by making our teaching easier to find and engage with?

Start there. Listen together, and decide what faithful stewardship could look like for your church.