From Road Trips to Deeper Connections: How Immersive Storytelling Transforms Church Community Engagement
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In this episode
Let's embark on a virtual "road trip" with the creative team from First United Methodist Church Richardson in Texas. Joined by Creative Director Rohini Drake, Engagement Coordinator Mallory Pickering, and Technical Director Tyler Payne, the group shares insights from their summer worship series, "Road Trip," where they traveled to places of spiritual connection—like Hot Springs, Arkansas and the Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville—capturing prayer moments, stories, and immersive worship content along the way. Together, they discuss the power of taking church outside its physical walls, forging new connections, and using digital storytelling to engage both local and online faith communities. Buckle up as we dive into inspirational stories, practical content creation tips, and the heart behind connecting congregations in fresh, meaningful ways.
Key Insights:
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Creative strategies for blending storytelling and digital ministry
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Tips for building community using multimedia and travel stories
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Techniques for connecting with congregation members no matter where they are
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Practical applications for church videos, prayers, and online worship assets
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Real-life examples of content repurposing and collaborative production
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro: Virtual Road Trip Begins
00:53 - The Power of Stillness and Spiritual Listening
03:41 - Meet the FUMCR Team & Their Roles
05:26 - Origin of the Road Trip Concept
07:13 - Capturing Prayer & Reflection in Hot Springs
09:57 - Planning vs. Spontaneity in Content Creation
12:29 - How Road Trip Content Fuels Online & In-Person Worship
14:27 - Repurposing Content Across Church Platforms
17:01 - Helping People Open Up On Camera
17:35 - How Storytelling Shapes Church Identity
20:42 - Keeping Congregation Connected—No Matter Where
22:02 - Most Inspiring Road Trip Moments
24:00 - Where to Watch the Road Trip Series
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Sponsored by:
Episode transcript
Ryan Dunn:
We'Re going on a road trip on this episode of the MYCOM Church Communications and Marketing Podcast. My name is Ryan Dutton. Actually, I didn't go anywhere for this episode, but we're able to join in a virtual kind of pilgrimage with a production and storytelling team from First United Methodist Church in Richardson, Texas. When a team from their congregation went on a service trip to North Carolina, this production team hopped in a van to meet up with them. And along their journey, they stopped at various places of spiritual significance or institutional significance, or places that offered a chance to reflect on God's presence outside of life's normal confines. Let's take a listen or a look at what I mean welcome to First.
Rohini Drake:
United Methodist Church, Richardson Online. I'm Rohini Drake, Creative Director at fumcr, and I want you to know that whether you're joining from near or far, we're so glad that you're here today. I'm worshiping with you from a cozy cabin, a quiet place that invites rest and listening, two things I personally don't often make space for. But the stillness and quiet is sometimes a way to hear God's voice more clearly. We sometimes imagine God's voice as thunder, loud and unmistakable. But Scripture tells us that sometimes God speaks in a whisper, a still, small voice. That's how the prophet Elijah encountered God. Not in the wind or the fire or the earthquake, but in the silence that followed.
Rohini Drake:
So today, as we worship together, we listen not just with our ears, but with our hearts. Maybe God has something quiet to say to you today. Something gentle, something personal.
Ryan Dunn:
They went to lots of places like Hot Springs, Arkansas, the Skerritt Bennett center in Tennessee, and of course, the United Methodist Communication Studios, Nashville. Because who wouldn't want to stop there? That's where I got to sit down with them and ask them all kinds of questions about what their trip was about and how it might bring value and spiritual connection to their congregation. Now, this was recorded in May of 2025 in the midst of their road trip, as they have now returned to Richardson and are working on releasing their videos through first unc's online worship portal. It's really fascinating to see how digital storytelling like this provides an immersive experience for the online participant, and I think that's incredibly valuable for us to learn more about as communicators and evangelists for our faith communities. This episode of My Comm is in part made possible by Rooted Good, Rooted Good, Rooted in faith, leading the way in church property Innovation. Learn [email protected] that's R O O T E D g o o d.org rooted good.org all right, let's jump into the road trip and learn about storytelling, community engagement, and practical applications of content in this conversation with the Rohini drink, Tyler Payne and Mallory Pickering. Oh, and by the way, video producer Ben Chamness was also in studio for this interview, but he was hanging out with our UMCOM producer AJ Thurman while recording. And also one more note, AJ does a ton of production in support of this podcast and really in support of all my multimedia projects.
Ryan Dunn:
And AJ did the video editing for this interview. All right, enough notes. Let's go on this trip.
Ryan Dunn:
Well, thanks for joining us on the mycom podcast, everybody. I'm a little nervous because I've never had this many people in the room before. Like 99% of the time it's me by myself in my home studio talking to somebody on a screen. So it's amazing to to have you all here. Let's start with this though, so we can kind of navigate some of the different trajectories of how we put so many people in a room like this. Would you all just introduce yourselves and what your role is at First United Methodist Church in Richardson?
Mallory Pickering:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm Mallory Pickering. I'm the engagement coordinator at fumcr. And so I focus a lot on our people and how we can stay connected and grow in our relationship together on our journey in faith.
Tyler Payne:
Awesome. And I'm Tyler Payne and I'm the technical director at fumcr. And you know, in that sense, I love to take the technology and make it work for all of our ministries, whatever they need, mostly whenever they need it. You know, just being there to support. To support them with the technology. Yeah.
Rohini Drake:
I'm Rohini Drake. I'm the creative director at fumcr and I get to play all day and come up with fun ideas that hopefully connect people more to our mission and help them grow in their faith in ways that sometimes have been thought of, sometimes haven't been, but kind of infuse some, you know, creative worship elements when we can. And I'm part of the media and online team at the church.
Ryan Dunn:
Y' all are from Richardson, Texas. We're sitting in Nashville, Tennessee. This isn't your final destination. You're on this road trip. Whose idea was this?
Rohini Drake:
Well, so for online ministry at fumcr, we do a pre produced worship service. And about three years ago during the summer, there was a theme that kind of had to do with camp. So we kind of pitched the idea like, wouldn't it be cool if we took kind of our studio outside and we did some elements that were on location that felt like outdoors, felt like camp, and that was the first time we tried it. First time we did it, and it went really well and kind of infused the worship series with some new elements that we hadn't seen before, like stepping outside of our studio and on location. On the road. Did it again last year for another worship series. And this summer's worship series is called Road Trip. So what better way to capture, you know, an actual worship series called Road Trip besides going on an actual road trip together? And so we kind of conceived about.
Rohini Drake:
Conceived of it once we saw the title of the worship series, and we're like, I know exactly what we're going to do this summer. And it's a road trip to film not only assets and content for our online worship service, but to also collect stories from places and people that we wouldn't normally meet being in Richardson, Texas. So Nashville is a stop. We've been to Hot Springs here in Nashville. We visited Scarrett Bennett center, which none of us knew anything about, but can't believe we didn't know anything about since it's existed for over 100 years. And then our final destination will be Asheville or around Asheville, North Carolina, where a mission team from our church will be helping with some of the flood recovery in that area. And we'll get to meet with them and they'll share some of their stories about what it's like to go from Richardson to North Carolina to serve people in a different location.
Ryan Dunn:
So what'd y' all film in Hot Springs?
Tyler Payne:
Well, in Hot Springs, we did. We just got a couple of assets we did. We really focused on a couple of prayer moments, and it was cool about that, was just reflecting on, you know. So one was focused on the hot springs and the water. And Mallory, you did that one, and that was awesome. We also did a prayer that was sort of like at the lookout tower, I think that it was. And it was really cool. I did that one, and I liked that because I think it sort of let people know that, like, you can have prayer sort of anywhere.
Tyler Payne:
Even if you're on a road trip, even if you're not in a church, like, it doesn't matter. You're on the side of the road. You know, it's beautiful scenery and you. You can pray, you can reflect there, too. And so I just. I thought that was really cool from that perspective. So that. I think that's what we did in Hot Springs.
Tyler Payne:
Anything else?
Rohini Drake:
These are the two main assets in Hot Springs. But I think another great reflection, like you're saying, was that it's that reminder. Like a lot of times you're sitting in a church building and someone's sharing a prayer, a devotion with you and you're like talking about, you know, as we go out, as we meet people, let's be the church, let's be the hands and feet. But when you're actually out there and you see people walking behind you, as you're filming, as you're talking, as you're sharing these moments, you're like, this is what it is. We are out here. We are. It is that, like, real reminder of, like, this is where we get to be the church when we're outside of the actual church building.
Ryan Dunn:
So you're showing up to places. You're not necessarily staging everything right. You're just kind of capturing what's going on. Is there a sense of awkwardness or unease about offering your own presentation in.
Ryan Dunn:
The midst of everybody else who's there.
Ryan Dunn:
For a completely different purpose?
Mallory Pickering:
I feel like we've done it so much that at this point.
Ryan Dunn:
We bring.
Rohini Drake:
Awkward into the room naturally.
Ryan Dunn:
I think a lot of ministers can kind of get behind that.
Rohini Drake:
Yeah.
Mallory Pickering:
I think especially well when we were in Hot Springs and on our way to Hot Springs, it was raining so much. So we were kind of concerned, like, how are we going to film this? Because the whole point is to be outside and like in nature and on this road trip, how are we going to do this? But I feel like it worked out even better than we could have expected because it, it made the mood of like, some of the prayers that are more somber and more thoughtful. We had this rain element. And when we were at the hot spring and seeing the steam and like the mist coming off of the flowing waters, I feel like it just really added to like the whole atmosphere and ambiance of like, what. The tone of what we're trying to say and help people feel in that moment.
Rohini Drake:
Yeah. Something that we don't get in Richardson, Texas. Right. That ambiance of a hot springs. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn:
Well, did you have a vision in mind for. We seem to be concentrating on hot springs. So before you even got there, where you're like, we are definitely going to this specific location. We're going to record these words in this setting, or has it been more organic than that?
Rohini Drake:
We kind of like set out best laid plans. We got the giant spreadsheet of here are the places that we're hoping to potentially stop. And some of it is just capturing the experience. Even when we cross the state line from Texas going into Arkansas, we're like, let's stop and take a picture there. And one of the elements of our worship series for in person and online is this element of gratitude. I don't have one with me. It's this cute little green toad and. And it's just a reminder for us as we travel outside of maybe our spaces this summer to like be grateful and to take, you know, this connection we have with our church community wherever we go.
Rohini Drake:
So people are sending photos of themselves with their gratitodes and we're leaving gratitoads everywhere that we go with friends that we meet along the way. And so we took pictures with our gratitude and then yeah, we kind of identify we're in hot springs. Like what elements about our worship series make sense here at a hot springs. And so like Mallory mentioned, you know, we talked about, you know, God's presence being with us and the way that we can, you know, be the church and be with others like wherever we are, you know, flowing waters and abundance and things like that that are just reminders. Like sometimes you need to, it's helpful to see it and hear it and remember that that's, you know, something that comes from inside of us and comes from what we want to do and be in the world. So we have these best laid plans of like, the logistics of like here are the four stops that we're going to make and here's some written prayers or notes about like maybe we could talk about this here. And we do our best to capture all the content that we set out to do. But we also know that if we get 75% of it, we're doing great.
Rohini Drake:
If we get 50% of it, we're doing great. But because it doesn't always happen according to plan.
Ryan Dunn:
Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about the. I don't want to say the practicality, like it's all practical, but the actual application of some of the content that you're capturing, like is it just gonna live in a space for the online community or are you bringing it over into your kind of in person worship services?
Rohini Drake:
Yeah, absolutely. Anything can live in online, obviously, because there's not a lot of restrictions or limitations. Like we want to share prayer, we want to share, hey, this was a cool thing we saw. Let's make it into a video asset that could be compelling to people. But then we make it in a way that like, if we wanted to showcase like, hey guys, hey church, your team, you sent us out to meet new people. Here's something we learned that we didn't know. We thought it'd be cool for you to know and we can share it, video, in worship, in person, with people. And then the great thing is that those things are so easy to share online via email, via newsletters, through YouTube, through social media.
Rohini Drake:
So people who may be traveling, may not be connected to the church, still have an opportunity to see who we are through, you know, the stories and things that we share.
Ryan Dunn:
Hey there.
Ryan Dunn:
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Ryan Dunn:
Journey to equip yourself, inspire others and make meaningful impact. Now back to our conversation about FUMC's summer road trip.
Ryan Dunn:
I want to talk a little bit about the, the practicality of the content that you are capturing, that it's not just something that is maybe one key piece, but you are developing one key piece and then figuring out ways to I guess, splinter that off into several different pieces of subsequent contact. Is that right?
Mallory Pickering:
I think we have an idea for how that generally will go, but kind of how it evolves and like what kind of resonates with us, like after we've done it, what we see, like what it looks like, how it affects us. Because sometimes like we'll do something and then we watch it back and it just like it just hits in a different way and we think and that just spurs you to think, hey, I think this group of people would be interested in seeing this or this would really help them or make them think. And so then we figure out how do we share that, whether it's through emails or through social media or what other through worship services, and just kind of go from there, just staying flexible basically with the media and content that we create.
Rohini Drake:
You know, for example, when we went to Scarrett Bennett Center. We didn't really know what content we were going to capture. We knew that we were going to meet one of our online congregants who lives in Tennessee. She was going to meet us there and show us around and just that meeting and being able to sit down there and talk to her about her experience with worshiping online from a completely different state and how that's been meaningful to her and what she's taken away from it. And then her being able to share her meaningful experiences at Skirri Bennett center and kind of involving us in that and educating us and giving us this insight into the history that feels like a package that we could expand on and take some of the B roll that we shot and make something that could be educational for our, our friends back in Richardson who may not know about the work in the history of Scarrett Bennett Center. So sometimes you, you, you go in with a plan and you see it happening. This can be bigger than it is and we will bring it all back and see, sit around a table and figure out what that might look like.
Ryan Dunn:
You know, sometimes you show up in a space like that with a camera and people have wonderful stories to share, but they tend to clam up a little bit. And Rahini, as a podcast host, you've probably had some experience this with this as well. Are there particular techniques or strategies you might employ to help people relax a little bit and open up and share their stories?
Rohini Drake:
I think it's keep talking. I think, you know, the more you just sit around with somebody and share something personal and keep asking questions, I think eventually you hit those spots where people are, you hit their passion and then they can't help but share what they're interested in and what they want you to hear and what they, the point that they want to get across. And I think you just keep, keep asking questions to get there and maybe, maybe it works. Usually it works, but sometimes it doesn't. And you just go from there, see what you can get out of it.
Ryan Dunn:
How do you hope that these stories.
Ryan Dunn:
Are going to shape the way that your church community sees itself or starts to engage in the community around it?
Mallory Pickering:
That's a great question.
Tyler Payne:
I think what, and especially from what Rohini just said, the scare Bennett, the whole campus wasn't something that we even knew. I mean, we'd seen the pictures, like we had done our homework. But actually being there, I think as long as we can translate that sense of, like, sense of excitement and a little bit of wonder about, like yes. This is, like, this is in our system. This is in our. This is in our Methodist system. And there's so much history and so much cool stuff here that we think that they didn't know. We hope that.
Tyler Payne:
That I would hope that that would even break down a little bit of, like, oh, wait, you know, we don't. You know, there is more. And so, like, again, bring. Just. Just bringing that in can hopefully create a little bit of excitement about something else that maybe they didn't know. I think that alone is. Is worth it and worth going.
Rohini Drake:
Oh, for sure.
Tyler Payne:
Yeah.
Rohini Drake:
And I think just like hearing some of the stories that you're not exposed to in your home geography necessarily can give you some kind of, what Tyler said, excitement or pride in the history of your faith or in the work that you're also passionate about, that you can hear People are doing that work in Nashville or in Asheville or in a. In Hot Springs in all these different places across the country and kind of excite you or give you some inspiration to either continue the work that you're doing or get involved in a way that, you know, maybe you haven't seen done in your geographic location, but the work is being done somewhere else. And that can inspire you to say, like, well, if it's being done there, I can. I can do it here. Or this is a way to get involved, or this is a way to reach out into my community that I haven't seen here, but maybe I can take some of that inspiration from somewhere else. So just, you know, the more exposure you have to stuff, the more you hear about diversity and all the different ways it's expressed, hopefully, is an inspiring way to connect with our local congregation.
Mallory Pickering:
I think it also helps people just stay connected in general. Like, for our people who worship in person with us, if for whatever reason they're ill or they suddenly aren't able to come to church for any amount of time, maybe indefinitely, through our online ministry, you can still stay connected. You can worship with us. You can see what's happening in the room and chat with people who are also worshiping with you, whether they're in the same city or halfway around the world if they happen to be awake at that time of night. But it just helps people stay engaged and connected, even if their circumstances might change. Or it's fun when people in our online chat are like, hey, I'm in the car. We're traveling to visit our grandbabies in Houston. But, like, we're watching online.
Mallory Pickering:
So it's just a great way for people to stay engaged and connected and growing together in those relationships.
Rohini Drake:
Okay.
Ryan Dunn:
All right.
Ryan Dunn:
Well, you're about halfway through your road trip. What has been the most inspiring thing that you've seen so far?
Rohini Drake:
Can I say, the United Methodist communications student. I mean, you know, we have a small studio space on our campus we're very proud of. We are grateful for it, and we love every minute that we get to spend in there and create and work together. And then coming to Nashville and seeing everything here in your studios that just keeps going and going and going. And there's a downstairs and an upstairs and a prop room and all of the beautiful things that are here, to me at least, is inspiring and motivating to think that, you know, we do this work in Texas. Y' all are doing work in Tennessee. There are people all over the place moving in the same direction to share this message of love, of hope, of community, and reaching out to each other wherever we are. And it feels like, you know, I only feel more inspired to see the work that everybody else is doing.
Rohini Drake:
That feels very related to me. Even if we don't see each other all the time or hear from each other all the time, we can know in the back of our minds this work is happening. We're not. We're not alone. We're not on an island. We're all doing. We're rowing in the same direction.
Mallory Pickering:
That moment of when we found this spot, we were kind of struggling to figure out where we were going to film for this prayer, and we found.
Rohini Drake:
This spot in the pouring rain.
Mallory Pickering:
In the pouring rain, My flip flops almost floated away. But then we found this perfect place. Like, God provides. You know, he's like, just keep going, and I'm going to show you the place where you need to be. And, like, it was this magical, beautiful place that I was just like, oh, my gosh, I can't wait for our people to, like, get to experience this with us. So, like, that was one thing, but then meeting somebody in person who's part of our online worship congregation and having that person be so excited to meet us and, like, share with us all the things that, like, she's learned or that she's engaged in, so then we're a part of it, too. That just, like, is a huge inspiration. Like, that's the whole point.
Mallory Pickering:
This is why we're doing it. It's to love one another, to know one another, and to keep knowing each other.
Tyler Payne:
And even out of that meeting a bunch of organically, we met a bunch of more people at the Scarab Bennett center as well. And just being able to. We heard some really, really incredible history about that space and again, that we just didn't know existed. But just again, being able to connect with those people. Super cool. They weren't even on our. Like, we had no idea who they were before we met them. And I think that's what's cool about what we're doing in this road trip, is just meeting the people organically, meeting them where they are, finding out what they've been doing, especially at that center.
Tyler Payne:
That was super cool. That was really inspiring. Yeah.
Ryan Dunn:
Well, for the person who's listening, who likes what they hear, but it's like, well, I'm not quite gonna grasp it.
Ryan Dunn:
Until I see it.
Ryan Dunn:
Where is a location where they might be able to take a look at some of the things that are coming out of this road trip?
Rohini Drake:
They can go to YouTube.com fumcr and that is where our YouTube channel is. We've got all of our worship services, all of our music assets. Everything from Road Trip will find its way there. So starting June 1st.
Ryan Dunn:
All right, I have got several links for you to explore in regards to FUMC's road trip series. But let me ask you this. What if you could use your church buildings and land to further your mission and ministry in your neighborhood and to generate new forms of income? Rooted Goods Good Futures Accelerator can help Rooted Good Rooted in faith Leading the way in church property innovation. Learn more at RootedGood.org r o o t e d g o o d.org Rooted Good.org now if you want to learn more about Richardson Fumc's road trip series, you can check out their website at F U m c r.com roadtrip and you'll probably want to check out Shop Notes for this page as well, since I'll link up to their YouTube videos. That page is resourceumc.org mycom podcast my name is Ryan Dunn. Thanks again to Rohini, Mallory, Tyler and Ben for stopping by on their voyage cruise. Thanks to AJ Thurman and the rest of the production team at United Methodist Communications for pulling this episode together and for giving us a space to record in person.
Ryan Dunn:
It was.
Ryan Dunn:
It was fun to get back to that. Hadn't done it in a while. Also thanks to Renee McNeil and Patty Delabovie for promotional support on the MYCOM podcast. We're all going to be back in a month with a new episode. Till then, peace.