Church growth marketing & communications
WE HELP CHURCHES WITH STEP ONE OF GROWTH: A MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY THAT WORKS
Church marketing and communication is not just running ads, posting announcements, or making things look good. It's moving real people from isolation to community, helping them make life-changing decisions.
Ugly Monk gives your team the strategy, training, and resources to do the work that actually moves people, while serving as a marketing partner invested in helping your church GROW.
Pretty good to seriously great
You can't seem to bring in visitors even though you're getting contacts from ads?
You have some growth but when you try to scale your communications, momentum disappears?
You're trapped in a cycle of creating social media content but don't know if it's even doing anything?
You know lives will be changed if you can get people in the door, but don't know where to start?
Church marketing and communications may not be your strength because you're busy doing the actual work of ministry. That's exactly why the Great Commission in this era demands a communications strategy as sharp as your mission. The people you're called to reach are scrolling, searching, and deciding online before they ever step through your doors. Running generic ads to get visitors is no longer enough. Your ads have to be combined with a comprehensive system that includes creative that converts and next-level follow up. Getting better at moving people to make transformational decisions is absolutely essential.
Get started→The Great Commission / 001
Start here, free
A blunt, 3-minute assessment that answers a simple question: how good is your church at marketing? It scores the real strength of your church marketing and communications — brand, content, church social media, advertising, email & text, next steps, and tools. You get a score, your weakest links, and the first three moves to fix it.
Yep, it's absolutely free
Only takes 3 minutes
Scored across 7 categories
Instant scorecard with action steps
Takes less than 3 minutes
Hard work + smart strategy = church growth
Most churches are handing their advertising to the same handful of large church marketing agencies. And when we talk to church leaders, we keep hearing the same story: “We feel like just another account and we aren't getting the visitors we were hoping for.” Limited attention. Generic church marketing strategies. Results that never quite match the promise.
That’s why I built this differently. I work with a limited number of churches as a boutique church marketing agency and consultant, alongside a small team of experts, giving each one the strategy, attention, and hands-on support that actually results in church growth. Church advertising, organic content, church website design, follow-up, and guest experience — handled as one system. And honestly, we feel called to help churches grow — this work is ministry to us, not just marketing.
Before you spend another dollar or hour on marketing, you need to know why people aren't taking the next step — and exactly what to fix first in your brand, messaging, and follow-up.
Most church ads look the same, sound the same, and get ignored; the right creative, ad structure, and qualifying follow-up turns attention into actual visitors.
You can't get people to visit, and when they do, they don't come back. The complete church growth system — we find the gaps and hand you the strategies and tools that move people from attention to attendance.
Who we are
Pastors and vocational ministers are doing the work of relational ministry. But behind every effective pastor is an Ugly Monk — the operational architect executing campaigns, workflows, automations, and systems that move people through the next step process.
Without the monk, the systems grind to a halt. Announcements go nowhere. Emails get missed. Social posts flop. Ads burn budget. And the people who need to hear your message never take the next step.
Preaching, counseling, discipling, leading. The relational work of ministry happens face-to-face — and it’s beautiful.
Behind the pastor is the operational architect: the campaigns, workflows, automations, and systems that move people from one next step to the next.
When monks get better, pastors get louder, churches grow stronger, and the Kingdom moves further. That’s why we train, resource, and support church marketers and communicators.
Being an Ugly Monk means embracing the sometimes non-glamorous marketing and communications tasks that make the work of ministry possible. It's showing up when no one is watching. Building the funnel. Writing the email. Editing the reel. Testing the subject line. Making sure the right message reaches the right person at the right time.
Our heart is to help train, resource, and support church marketers and communicators — the Movers inside your church — so you become the best monks possible. Because when the monk gets better, the church grows.
Free resources
Practical tools for the people moving real people from isolation to community. Free, no strings.
Available now — 12 pages
Hooks, storytelling, titles and thumbnails, short-form, posting rhythm, the analytics that matter, and the staffing it takes to keep it running every week.
Coming soon — free
The modern guide to church communications, marketing, social media, advertising, email, text, and AI — built for the Movers inside your church.
Who's behind it
Jesse LaBauve has spent over a decade serving on staff at some of the largest churches in the nation, as a worship pastor, creative pastor, and executive communications pastor. He's also spent a decade as a corporate marketing executive for multiple agencies based in California, helping scale businesses that drove half a billion in revenue.
Jesse's heart is to see churches grow and the Kingdom expand through no-nonsense strategies that deliver serious growth for churches and non-profits. He brings a rare combination of ministry instinct, a theological education, and marketing rigor to every partnership. That's why he built Ugly Monk as a boutique agency - so churches get direct strategy from Jesse and a small team of experts and real attention instead of being lost in a giant agency roster.
Weekly resources
