News
Make this a summer of learning! Are you a pastor, ministry leader or nonprofit executive? Phil Cooke’s Church on Trial – Crisis Management will give you the training you need to manage a crisis well. Creative leader or creative artist? Phil’s Ideas on a Deadline Masterclass will unleash your creativity this summer.
Best of all, Phil Cooke’s Masterclasses have moved to a new, upgraded platform designed to give you a smoother, more powerful learning experience. Use the Promo Code SUMMERSAVE and save $50 off either class! Enroll today!
Church on Trial – Crisis Management Masterclass
Ideas on a Deadline Masterclass
Enter promo code at checkout: SUMMERSAVE
(Offer extended! Enjoy these savings through Labor Day. Offer ends September 1, 2025.)
Phil Cooke Masterclasses are an online educational opportunity provided by The Influence Lab.
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Church on Trial – Crisis Management Masterclass
In today’s digital age, it’s not IF your church or ministry will have a crisis; it’s WHEN. Are you prepared?
Taught by media expert and crisis management consultant Phil Cooke, this masterclass will equip you with the tools to create a transparent culture as a defense against crisis—and the wisdom and skills to respond quickly, appropriately and positively should a crisis happen.
What you’ll get: 12 Video Lessons – Downloadable Resources – Bonus Study Guide.
A crisis does not have to break your church! Sign up today with code SUMMERSAVE here.
Ideas on a Deadline Masterclass
Unleash your creativity in powerful ways with Phil’s Ideas on a Deadline Masterclass. You don’t have to wait for a once-in-a-lifetime eureka moment. This masterclass is about making breakthrough ideas happen under the pressure of a deadline.
In it, you’ll gain proven techniques to “prime the pump” of your creativity so you can deliver great ideas when you need them most. Features over three hours of content that will help your creativity soar. Sign up today with code SUMMERSAVE here.
Turn your pool time into “cool” time this summer! Elevate your creative leadership skills with Masterclasses by Phil Cooke.
Phil Cooke, Ph.D has been called “one of the most innovative communicators of our generation.” As a media producer, writer, speaker, and consultant, his client list includes major film studios and TV networks as well as major Christian organizations like Voice of the Martyrs, The Museum of the Bible, The Salvation Army, and others. CEO and co-founder of Cooke Media Group and The Influence Lab, Phil has coached and consulted with many of the most influential churches and nonprofit organizations in the world, helping them use media to tell their story.
About the Influence Lab: A nonprofit organization founded by Phil and Kathleen Cooke, The Influence Lab trains Christian pastors and leaders around the world in media and digital strategies to share the gospel more effectively.
Inner Views
Bio
Megan is an Artist Manager for Long Run Media and Management. She hails from Lancaster, PA, and has been a Nashville native for almost 4 years. Along with being an artist manager in the music industry, you can catch Megan as the host of two podcasts! The This Day Podcast and the Consider the Lilies Podcast. Both encourage individuals to go and pursue all that God has called them to do! When Megan is not working, she leads a small group, spends time with her family, or plans her next trip (her goal is to see the world).
INNER VIEW
Kathleen Cooke: You are juggling lots of work in PR and marketing of musical artists – growing their careers. What’s the one thing God has been teaching you and growing you in right now?
Megan Feveryear: God has taught me so much lately about trusting His timing, believing for the impossible, and remembering He is God. Between all those truths, I have been knocked to my knees several times, reminded of who God is and who I am not. So often in the career space, I feel like I need to be the one with the death grip of control on the wheel, and if I don’t have control, then something must be wrong. But after a recent major career shift, God has been telling me to look forward to Him without looking at everyone around me. It’s such an important concept when we genuinely think about it.
We are all in a race – the race of life. Many times, people will be running faster than us. In the music industry, I continually see artists wanting to be like this person or that person because they have more followers on social media when the truth of the matter is that having followers and a platform is great, but as you go deeper with people, you find they are just people. Their 100K followers mean nothing if, underneath the surface, they are struggling with the same thing you are struggling with. It becomes up to us to determine if we will strive and strain to keep up or fix our eyes and look toward the goal of Christ in our careers.
Kathleen: What do you wish you’d learned early in your career that you now know?
Megan: Take what people say with a grain of salt. So many people want to offer you what they believe is good advice. And some advice is wise and filled with truth. But ultimately, words can hurt if not appropriately stewarded. While working in the music industry, I have had life-giving words spoken into my story, and then I have had more hurtful words spoken to me than I could have ever imagined. I have come to understand what Proverbs 18:21 says, “our tongue has the power of life and death.” It holds more power than we truly know. I wish I had learned sooner that what people say does not have power over me. I am who I am because God has called me and commissioned me to do his work, not because someone down the road called me, but because the One who created me called me. The moment you “shake the hate” of damaging words is when you truly live in the complete freedom that Christ has set apart for you. That is the lesson I wish I had grasped sooner. It is something that I am still working always to remember. When people say words that hurt you, remember that we live in a fallen world broken thousands of years ago. As believers, we must carry the light and be the difference for others to see.
Kathleen: What do you do when it seems God is silent and you can’t connect to Him?
Megan: This is a big one for me. Even as I was writing this and thinking about participating in this project, God was particularly silent. My career was at an all-time high, and I was riding the wave of getting to know everyone I could meet. It felt like I was living my best life, but in my heart, God was so far away. I have a prayer closet in my actual closet in my home. During that season, I could not even pray in that closet because I could cut the fissure in my relationship with God like a knife. I could feel it with my entire spirit. That’s when I heard a song that broke me one night, “Better” by Pat Barrett, which says, “All the money that the world could hold, God, you are better than anything.” I knew God’s silence was partly on me. So, I started doing the next right thing. I started reading a Psalm each night, journaling my prayers, asking questions of God, and taking one step after another. One night, I went back into my prayer closet, read a Psalm of David out loud, and shouted it to God – literally yelling at God and asking, “Why He was so silent.” That night, God broke me. And the silence broke. So, when God seems silent, I find it is our time to ask Him difficult questions. He wants our “whys.” He wants our questions. Bring them to Him. Yell if you must!
Kathleen: Has there been someone in your life who has influenced you and changed the direction you were going?
Megan: High school was a pivotal time for me. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life before and after college. I had two significant influences in my life. My youth pastor, Darin Parry, and a Christian artist and musician friend I looked up to named Greg Ritchie. During my high school senior year, I was an intern at my small-town church. Pastor Darin was helping me navigate decision after decision. I had registered and signed on with Liberty University to become a ministry major and a youth pastor with a women’s ministry minor when Greg Ritchie entered my life. He was a good family friend, and we had started talking about the music industry. I assisted on a few tour dates selling “merch” for the Gaither Tour and found that I loved it. So, two months before I left for college, I sent a rogue email to Greg and said, “I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I feel in my spirit that God wants me to do something in the music industry, but I can’t sing. I think He wants me to do what you do.” I got zero response. We were at an event together two weeks after that email, and he pulled me aside and talked for an hour. That was Memorial Day weekend in 2017. I changed my major from ministry to marketing, all because of a guy named Greg and seeing how he loved and lived on tour. Darin has continued to be a constant influence in my corner, reminding me often that even on my darkest days, the same God who changed my major at the last minute is the same God who has BIG things in store for me and that my future is yet to come.
News
Available now! It’s been a whirlwind year for The Influence Lab as we impact culture through media… but there’s more on the horizon in 2024! Launching today, October 8, 2024, Phil Cooke presents a new online masterclass.
Church on Trial – Crisis Management Masterclass with Phil Cooke
The digital age, and especially social media has put extra pressure on churches around the world. It’s not if a crisis will happen—it’s when—and the way a crisis is managed can make or break a church or ministry organization.
Announcing Phil Cooke’s new masterclass! Church on Trial – Crisis Management Masterclass with Phil Cooke is a new online course that offers pastors and leaders the insight they need to avoid a crisis plus equips them with the skills to navigate a crisis if it comes.
Phil shares, “I never imagined being involved in ‘crisis communication,’ but as the years went by, I saw the importance of helping churches and organizations survive a crisis—particularly when the crisis wasn’t their fault.”
The new masterclass puts the opportunity to gain crisis management skills in the hands of pastors, board members, elders, and ministry leaders in the U.S. and around the world.
“For the most part, seminaries, bible schools, and universities don’t train church or nonprofit leaders in crisis communication or media strategy,” Phil adds. “While we all hope that we never have to face a crisis—if one does happen, this masterclass will equip pastors and leadership teams to respond to a crisis thoughtfully, appropriately, and positively.”
This is something Phil has never done before and we’re excited about the opportunity for uplifting pastors and leaders in this new way. Available now! Get more information and sign up today at PhilCooke.com/Masterclass.
GROUP RATES AVAILABLE! Is your team prepared for a crisis? The more people you have on board, the better off you will be to weather the storm of any crisis. Contact us at masterclass@philcooke.com to find out about group rates and special group perks!
In the meantime… do you have a copy of Phil’s new book? Does your pastor?
As a special offer, Phil is offering Church on Trial – How to Protect Your Congregation, Ministry, and Reputation During a Crisis to say “thank you” for your generous support of The Influence Lab.
Get details and give your generous gift here.
*Special bulk pricing! Many pastors and denominational leaders are buying in bulk to share Church on Trial with their teams. Contact us to find out about special pricing for a case of 32 books for your staff, elders, and other key leaders.
“A crisis does not have to break your church. Rather, it can be an opportunity to strengthen your church to weather the storms.” —Phil Cooke
