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.
How creative are you in sharing the gospel? Missions have changed in the digital age. Being creative and using innovative strategies can help us reach more people more effectively!
While our Influence Lab team was in Ghana, West Africa,they visited a remote village to see outreach in action using a media strategy that was unique for this people group. In this video, you’ll see a Bible Listening Group facilitated by TheoVision International that offers illiterate villagers an opportunity to hear the Bible in their own language, discuss what they’ve heard, and then explore ways to practically apply scripture to their daily lives.
Watch Phil’s report and consider a new way of thinking about missions!
The need truly is great in countries like Ghana and other nations around the world for media training. What we take for granted in the United States in the way of teaching and training on current media and digital strategies, the pastors and Christian communicators in other countries hunger and thirst for.
That’s where the Influence Lab steps in. We bring the training and inspiration that these leaders need to reach their nations for Christ in current and effective ways. And that’s where YOU step in.
When you support The Influence Lab, you support the mission to train pastors, leaders and Christian communicators in emerging media and digital strategies to effectively communicate the gospel. Want to help?Click here to give your gift today!
SPECIAL OFFER!Give a gift today and get Phil’s new book, “Church on Trial” as our thank you. Partner with the Influence Lab here.
Thank you, Influence Lab Partners!Together, we are transforming cultures through media.
Influence Lab co-founders Phil and Kathleen Cooke and a team of media experts traveled to Ghana in August to conduct 3-days of intensive media training in the capital city. The media summit was attended by leaders from across West Africa.
At The Influence Lab, we believe it’s possible to transform culture through media! Our team of media experts just got back from a whirlwind trip to Ghana.
It was a non-stop schedule, packed with TV and radio interviews, training sessions with church and ministry media teams from TheoVision International and Perez Dome (one of the largest churches in Ghana), and visiting a remote village to view Bible translation work in action, with a focus on the main event: an intensive three-day Church Media Summit held in Ghana’s capital, Accra.
Each attendee was awarded a certificate of participation, which will propel them forward in their media ministries and careers.
The first of its kind in Ghana, almost 300 pastors, media teams, communications directors, and TV/Film producers attended the Summit from multiple nations across Africa. At the end of the Summit, each attendee was awarded a certificate of participation, which will propel them forward in their media ministries and careers.
Here’s a sampling of thegood reports pouring in from the Summit: “I’m writing to express my heartfelt gratitude and that of my team from Daystar Christian Center, Lagos, Nigeria, for the incredible impact you made at the Ghana Church Media Summit….
The experience was truly transformative, and we’re confident that the takeaways will be instrumental in transforming cultures. Thank you for being vessels of change!” —Benjamin Abejide Adeniran
“I’m very much privileged to be part of this historic event. May God bless our God-fearing and dedicated facilitators led by Phil Cooke.” —Kwabena Gyan
“It was indeed amazing. We are grateful for pouring out so much knowledge into us.” —Godfred Twamasi-Ankrah
Team member John Ondo captures a “selfie” as attendees gather.
“Thank you for the great impact of wisdom. Church summit in Ghana was amazing.” —@klufio
Also, one media director confided he felt so alone and depressed in his work that he had written his resignation letter. After attending the summit, he was so inspired that he has decided he is not quitting! Instead, he plans to build his media team with the tools he gained in the summit workshops.
TheoVision International, the organizer and host of the summit, adds, “The knowledge gained here is set to empower and revolutionize church media work across Africa.”
Content Creators Seek Learning Opportunities Part of the Influence Lab team, John Ondo (President/Founder, Ondo Media) taught on video production with interactive sessions on camera, as well as editing demonstrations. He shares, “We have a world of content creators hungry to learn the techniques to share the Gospel, and they want us back.”
Dan Wathen, John Ondo, and Phil Cooke meet with the media team at Perez Church.
More and more African nations are requiring ministry leaders to show proof of education. “It puts a smile on my face to see several hundred attendees walk out with certificates,” shares Dan Wathen (Executive Producer, Cooke Media Group), another Influence Lab team member who led the training on church live streaming and documentary filmmaking.
Phil Cooke (Co-Founder, Influence Lab/Cooke Media Group) led the Influence Lab team, chosen for their areas of expertise. In addition to John Ondo and Dan Wathen mentioned above:
Kathleen Cooke (Co-Founder, Influence Lab/Cooke Media Group) taught on acting for the camera and directing;
Laura Woodworth (Development Executive, Cooke Media Group) taught on writing, strategic content development in the digital age and screenwriting;
Falonee Naidoo (Content Manager, CV Africa & Middle East) from South Africa taught on the strategic use of social media.
Kathleen shares:
Kathleen inspired attendees to gain as much as they could from the Summit.
“I was overwhelmed with the need for training and encouragement from the sold-out event audience that attended. Our team went above and beyond to meet the needs that were asked of them. The Ghana team is already asking if we can come back again.”
For our Influence Lab partners she adds, “The Bible reminds us that ‘the harvest is ripe and the workers are few.’ We are so grateful for the support that many of you gave and for your prayers for protection and provision.”
A Highlight for Our Team One of the highlights of the trip for the Influence Lab team members, outside of the Summit, was a visit to a remote village to experience a Bible Listening Group. In an area where there is no written language, TheoVision International is reaching out with Bible translations in oral languages.
The experience of a Bible Learning Group in a remote village was a highlight for the team.
After a 2 ½ drive through rugged terrain, it was impactful to see a village of 30+ men, women and children gathered to listen to a chapter of the Bible and then discuss it in their mother tongue. (If you’d like to find out more, visit TheoVision International here.)
The International Need for Media Training The need truly is great in countries like Ghana and other nations around the world for media training. What we take for granted in the United States in the way of teaching and training on current media and digital strategies, the pastors and Christian communicators in other countries hunger and thirst for.
That’s where the Influence Lab steps in. We bring the training and inspiration that these leaders need to reach their nations for Christ in current and effective ways.
And that’s where YOU, our Influence Lab partners, step in. You make trips like this possible. Thank you.
A bird’s eye view of attendees at the first Church Media Summit in Ghana.
PLEASE PRAY: Also, we ask you to pray for those who attended the Church Media Summit in Ghana that God continues to grow them as a community of media professionals who can influence Africa and the culture.
PLEASE GIVE: It’s only with your financial support that we can continue this work. If you’d like to add your support, give your gift here.
Excitement is growing for the Church Media Summit, August 15-17, 2024 in Ghana! Pastors, media teams, communications teams and independent filmmakers from across Africa are excited about the upcoming media training opportunity offered by TheoVision International and The Influence Lab.
Registrants from Ghana as well as surrounding nations including Rwanda, Nigeria, Malawi, Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia will gather in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, for three days of intensive training in media and digital strategies to share the gospel. Influence Lab co-founder Phil Cooke shares more in this video.
With anti-Christian tension rising in countries across the continent, pastors are desperate to strengthen their churches and reach their nations for Christ. They’re eager to gain the knowledge and expertise they need to tell stories thatinspire faith, confront social issues and stir people’s hearts for the gospel.
Imagine the impact – not just within Ghana, but across Africa! Let’s help these pastors and their media teams get the training they need to strategically reach their nations with the gospel.
Partner with The Influence Lab now to send a team to Ghana this August 2024. Give your generous gift here.
“In countries where so few people are professing Christians, media may be the key to mission growth in that part of the world.” —Phil Cooke, Co-Founder, The Influence Lab
Find out more details about this Africa impact opportunity here.
Live in Africa? Register for the Church Media Summit 2024 here.
