Known for its Mediterranean climate, beautiful coastlands and rich ancient history, Athens, Greece will be the meeting place for Kingdom-minded leaders this March as pastors and marketplace leaders gather for an invitation-only global conference. Phil Cooke has been asked to speak at this influential gathering.
As we’ve seen in the news with recent scandals, a crisis can destroy a ministry or organization. Phil’s book offers these international pastors and business leaders the insight and information they need to create a culture within their organization to avoid a crisis – and if one does occur – the wisdom and tools to navigate through it appropriately and positively.
As Phil is oft-quoted, “A crisis does not have to break your church. Rather, it can be an opportunity to strengthen your church or organization to weather the storms.”
Although we can’t share the names of the businesses and ministries that will be represented at the meetings in Greece, these are names you know and high-profile businesses you would be familiar with. As Christian leaders, they have a long-standing track record of integrity and positive impact; many of them are on first-name basis with Phil and Kathleen Cooke from years of interaction and relationship.
“A crisis does not have to break your church…” -Phil Cooke
Can you help cover the expenses of this trip? You can have a far-reaching impact when you support the mission of The Influence Lab and particularly this unique opportunity to strengthen pastors and marketplace leaders.
Your partnership makes a difference! Give your generous gift here.
What leaders are saying about Phil’s book “Church on Trial” (and why it’s so important to share his message with pastors and marketplace leaders in Greece): “We live in a time of increased confusion and chaos, and Phil Cooke’s latest playbook is an excellent guide to navigating a crisis.” —Caltha Seymour, Global Business Development Leader, Eaton Corporation
“Every church, ministry, and believer must read this—particularly in light of the times we are in, as we seek to live lives worthy of the Lord’s calling.” —Jacinta Tegman, CEO – The Crista Family of Ministries
“Anyone who’s committed to fulfilling the Great Commission should have this book.” —Commissioners Ken and Jolene Hodder, USA National Leaders, The Salvation Army
“This book will make you think and save your life and those of other leaders you love.” —Sam Chand, Leadership Consultant, Avail Leadership
Join us in this unique opportunity. Partner with The Influence Lab here.
P.S. The 2025 calendar is filling up with invitations to Peru, London and Russia. Your gifts have a worldwide impact. Give your gift today! Special offer: Partner with The Influence Lab today and we’ll send you one of Phil’s book as a special “thank you.” Find out more here.
Did you know The Influence Lab is celebrating over a decade of ministry! Over ten years of “empowering the church to transform culture through media” in countries including Egypt, India, Russia, South Africa, Ghana, Spain, and so many more… while also creating a pathway for Christian influence in media and entertainment through Influence Women.
As we close out 2024, it’s AMAZING to see what God has done! Here’s a very quick recap… with VERY BIG THANKS to our Influence Lab Partners.
Pastors and leaders in other countries appreciate the training in media and digital strategies that will help them share the gospel effectively.
Eastern Europe Media Trainings – Spain The year started off with meetings in Madrid, gathering with over 300 influential Christian and marketplace leaders from around the world. Then, Phil and Kathleen traveled to Valencia to conduct three days of meetings and teachings.
The attendees were from countries that included France, Spain, Finland, Romania, and Albania, with influential leaders from Christian radio networks, TV stations, and relief organizations working in Ukraine. Read the full report here.
Cyprus – Christian Media Outreach in the Muslim World “The place where the Apostle Paul and Barnabas preached 2,000 years ago is becoming a launching pad for reaching the Middle East and North Africa with the gospel.” —Phil Cooke, Co-Founder – The Influence Lab
In April, Phil and Kathleen Cooke met with media leaders working in the Muslim world in a confidential gathering. Representing countries like Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt and Morocco, the invitation-only gathering included leaders from SAT-7, a satellite network focused on the Middle East and North Africa, along with program producers, animators, and Christian educators from other nations – all producing Christian programming and resources for Arab and Persian audiences. Read the full report here.
West Africa – Church Media Summit 2024
Pastors and media professionals from across West Africa attended the 3-day summit in Accra, Ghana.
Almost 300 pastors, media teams, communications directors and TV/Film producers attended the 3-day summit from multiple nations across West Africa. Hosted by TheoVision International in Accra, Ghana, the summit was geared “to sharpen the skills of Christian content producers in Africa so they can creatively use new media forms to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” explains Philip Asare, the executive vice president of the ministry. Read the report here.
Translations Impact Russia from Within Now in Russian! Ideas on a Deadline The Russian translation of Phil Cooke’s book Ideas on a Deadline is strengthening churches in Russia by sparking creative ways to share the gospel, no matter government restrictions or limitations. Read more here.
Sergey shares news of continuing impact of the Russian translation.
Sergey, our friend and publisher in Russia reports, “For two years we give them your book and the feedback we get is fantastic. Thank you for your contribution.”
But wait… there’s more!
Online Masterclasses from The Influence Lab In an effort to reach pastors and leaders worldwide, The Influence Lab is now offering online masterclasses. Available in the U.S. and internationally, the classes offer yet another way to equip pastors and leaders with digital and media strategies to be most effective where they are at.
New masterclasses extend the reach of The Influence Lab online.
New! Ideas on a Deadline Masterclass with Phil Cooke Based on Phil’s book, Ideas on a Deadline—How to Be Creative When the Clock is Ticking, this masterclass with help you break through in your creativity to deliver great ideas when you need them most. Start your creative journey here.
Influence Women 2024 – A Year of Expansion and Impact in Media 2024 has been a monumental year for Influence Women! With chapter groups in Hollywood, Orange County, California; Atlanta, and Nashville, Influence Women expanded this past year, adding three more national chapter groups in Baton Rouge, Houston, and Dallas.
Each chapter group has cultivated close relationships with media and leadership professionals— exponentially increasing the impact of Influence Women across the nation. Read the full 2024 report here.
The Lord has created new opportunities for 2025!
2025 and New Opportunities for The Influence Lab The Lord continues to create opportunities as we look to 2025. What we take for granted in the United States in the way of teaching and training on current media and digital strategies, pastors and Christian communicators in other nations hunger and thirst for.
The invitations are already coming in. Greece, Peru, London, and Russia are penciled in on our schedules for 2025, and we are asking friends and partners to consider a special year-end gift towards these training opportunities.
Your generous gift impacts NATIONS and CULTURES as we train pastors and Christian communicators in digital strategies that transcend limitations faced by government or geographical challenges.
Give your year-end gift today. It’s a powerful way to sow into the new year!
Thank you for your partnership! Special offer: Give your generous gift today and receive one of Phil’s books as our “ thank you” for your support. Get details here.
2024 has been a monumental year for Influence Women! With chapter groups in Hollywood, Orange County, California; Atlanta, and Nashville, Influence Women expanded this past year, adding three more national chapter groups in Baton Rouge, Houston, and Dallas. Each chapter group has cultivated close relationships with media and leadership professionals— exponentially increasing the impact of Influence Women across the nation.
Influence Women hosted 25 in-person and online events in 2024!
Through the combined efforts of the chapter groups, Influence Women hosted 25 events in 2024, both online and in-person. The Influence Women weekly journal and monthly webinars
and podcasts continue to bring professional instruction and inspiration, enabling a global community of women to Connect, Collaborate, and Create for Christ’s Kingdom (The 4C’s).
To help accommodate the growing needs of the organization, the Influence Women Advisory Board shifted Kathleen Cooke’s leadership position from Hollywood Chapter Director to Global Director. She now oversees the expanding global need and mission of Influence Women: uniting and supporting women to change culture through the effective use of media, entertainment, music, art, and leadership.
Looking Ahead to 2025 With the ongoing surge of AI, Influence Women believes that supporting women who create artistic endeavors focused on a biblical worldview is essential to populating what is and will be seen and heard on our screens in the future. We believe a diverse and empowered community of women in the creative industry fields will positively influence the narratives and perspectives shaping our society.
The Hollywood Chapter of Influence Women is going strong!
“The harvest is ripe!” states Kathleen Cooke. As we look to the new year, the focus of Influence Women is to continue to grow, unite professionals online and in their local chapters, and establish new chapter groups in the United States and abroad as we…
* Provide dynamic professional speakers, educators, and tools for connection and empowerment for artistic endeavors. * Provide collaborative opportunities for creative media, entertainment, music, art, and leadership endeavors in communities and global cities. * Establish an ongoing global community of diverse ages and ethnicities with a biblical worldview to influence culture with creative projects and productions.
Your partnership with The Influence Lab and Influence Women is significant! Your generous gift today impacts generations to come as we work to change culture through media.
Founded by media experts Phil and Kathleen Cooke, The Influence Lab mobilizes a powerful strategy to teach the global Church how to use media to share the gospel in today’s digital age, with Influence Women creating a pathway for Christian influence in entertainment and media. Find out more about Influence Women here.
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 LiliesPodcast. 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.
Barbara is an author, sought-out Bible teacher, and national speaker. She is the author of the bestselling books “I’m Not Every Woman” and “The Promises of Milk and Honey: Rediscover the One Who Keeps His Word.” She is also the founder of the “Not Every Woman National Conference” and her passion is to see followers of Christ transformed and equipped for success in careers and life.
Kathleen Cooke: You are constantly on the go, just as I am—we all are. How do you know when to say “yes” and when to say “no” when you have a caring heart and want to serve and help everyone?
Barbara Bryant: Entrust ministry to others. You are not called to be everything and do everything. In ministry, it’s important to let people help you and to encourage others to do the same. Ministry, in its simplest form, is serving God in front of others, planting seeds of hope in those around us, and letting people know there is a place in God’s kingdom for them.
Kathleen:Those who work in the media, entertainment, arts, and music industries are driven. We are ambitious. We push hard, often forgetting that God has His perfect timing. What have you learned about letting ambition take control instead of God?
Barbara: If I can control a matter, I push. When only God can control a situation, I back off. Experience has taught me how to cease being involved in a situation or step back when it is out of my hands.
Kathleen: We live in challenging times when we all want to do the right things, be in the right places, and … be right. Until we aren’t. We find ourselves needing to forgive ourselves and others for our failings. What has God taught you about forgiveness?
Barbara: I have learned that people who have a hard time forgiving others usually have a hard time forgiving themselves. Forgiving someone who has hurt you can feel like you are ignoring the pain they caused, but forgiving will ensure you are left with only a scar and not an open wound that can never heal.
Kathleen: I have found that when we are unwilling to forgive ourselves and others, it hurts us more than the other person, steals our joy and robs the influence we might have on others’ lives who see our choice to forgive. What have you learned about choosing joy in difficult situations?
Barbara: Joy does not always come easily to people. I have a responsibility to ignite the joy of the Lord in others and allow my life to demonstrate God’s goodness. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” This means I should live a life of integrity and inspire and influence others to do the same.
