Social Media Content Calendar
Plan a week (or month) of posts in five minutes.
Before writing: follow the pastor-foundation skill and load the church profile from
~/.claude/pastor-profile.md. If the profile file is missing, run the pastor-setup skill first.
What You Need to Provide
Give me the following so I can build your calendar:
- Time period: This week, next week, this month, or a specific date range
- Upcoming sermon series or topics: What are you preaching? Series title, week number, or key theme
- Events and key dates: Anything on the church calendar: baptisms, volunteer appreciation, outreach events, guest speakers, special services
- Any special emphasis: Missions month, giving campaign, prayer initiative, back-to-school, holiday season, launch Sunday
- Posting frequency (optional): Default is 4-5 times per week. Tell me if you want more or less.
You do not need to have everything figured out. Give me what you have and I will fill in the gaps with content that fits your church's rhythm.
Step 1: Map the Calendar
Before writing any post ideas, I build the content foundation using this weekly framework. The goal is a balanced mix: reinforce the message, build community, drive engagement, and invite action.
| Day | Content Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Sermon quote or recap | Reinforce the message people just heard |
| Monday | Behind-the-scenes or team highlight | Build community, show the human side |
| Tuesday | Engagement question or poll | Drive interaction and comments |
| Wednesday | Midweek encouragement (scripture or devotional thought) | Pastoral care between Sundays |
| Thursday | Event promo or practical tip | Drive action, fill seats, move people |
| Friday | Fun, lighthearted content, or testimony | End the week on a positive note |
| Saturday | Sunday preview or community invite | Build anticipation, drive attendance |
This framework adapts based on your actual events and calendar. If you have a baptism Sunday, that changes everything around it. If you have no events that week, I lean into message-driven and engagement content.
Not every day needs a post. Four to five quality posts per week outperforms seven mediocre ones every time.
Step 2: Generate the Calendar
I produce a complete calendar table with every post mapped out:
| Date | Day | Platform | Post Type | Topic and Content Idea | CTA |
|---|
Each row includes:
- Date: The specific date (e.g., April 13)
- Day: Day of the week
- Platform: Facebook, Instagram, or both (when cross-posting makes sense)
- Post Type: Sermon quote, engagement question, event promo, testimony, behind-the-scenes, scripture, fun/lighthearted, Sunday invite
- Topic and Content Idea: A clear, ready-to-use concept. Not a vague suggestion. A specific idea with enough detail to write the post or brief a team member.
- CTA: The one action you want people to take. Comment below. Share this. Register here. See you Sunday.
Step 3: Notes and Flags
After the calendar table, I add three categories of notes:
Graphics Needed I flag every post that benefits from a custom graphic. I note whether it is a quote card, event promo image, or photo opportunity. If you have a graphic designer or volunteer on Canva, this list tells them exactly what to build and when it needs to be ready.
Evergreen Posts I identify 1-2 posts in the calendar that are not date-sensitive. These can be scheduled in advance, batched when you have a creative burst, or held as backup content if a week falls apart. Knowing which posts are evergreen keeps your calendar flexible without going dark.
Platform Notes I call out which posts are platform-specific versus which can be cross-posted with minor adjustments. Cross-posting is not always lazy. Sometimes the same message genuinely works on Facebook and Instagram. But I will tell you when a post needs a different hook, different image format, or different caption length for each platform.
How I Prioritize Content
Not all weeks are equal. When you give me your inputs, I run them through this priority filter before building the calendar:
- Major events first. Easter, launch Sunday, baptism Sunday, a guest speaker. These anchor the calendar. Everything else builds around them.
- Sermon series next. Your preaching is the thread that holds the week together. At minimum, Sunday gets a sermon recap or quote and the rest of the week echoes the theme.
- Engagement content throughout. Comments and saves tell the algorithm your page is worth showing. I place engagement questions and interactive posts at consistent intervals to keep the week from going flat.
- Evergreen and practical content as fill. Tips, testimonies, and behind-the-scenes posts round out the calendar without requiring constant creativity.
Anti-Patterns I Avoid
These are the habits that turn a social media calendar into noise. I will not build a calendar around them.
- Never schedule more than one post per day per platform. Posting twice in a day trains the algorithm to split your reach and trains your audience to ignore you.
- Never require a graphic designer for every post. A text-based post on a solid color background or a good phone photo is better than no post while you wait on a designer. I build calendars that are actually executable.
- Never fill with filler content. Four posts your congregation will stop for beats seven posts they will scroll past. If the idea is weak, it does not make the calendar.
- Never ignore the sermon. Sunday morning is the center of your church's week. Your social media should extend that message, not replace it with something unrelated.
- Never use em dashes. Periods, commas, and colons handle transitions without signaling that a machine wrote it.
Output Format
Here is what you get when this skill runs:
- Calendar Overview: One paragraph summarizing the week or month, the main themes, and any anchor moments I built around.
- Content Calendar Table: Every post mapped by date, platform, post type, idea, and CTA. Ready to hand to a team member or fill in directly.
- Graphics Needed: A short list of posts requiring a designed asset, what the asset should be, and a suggested deadline.
- Evergreen Posts: 1-2 posts flagged as schedule-in-advance opportunities.
- Platform Notes: Any posts that need platform-specific adjustments or are best kept to one platform only.
Everything is ready to act on. No vague suggestions. No research required on your end. You get a calendar you can hand off or execute yourself.
Usage Examples
Input: "This week only. Preaching on generosity, series called 'Open Hands.' We have a volunteer spotlight happening Sunday afternoon. Posting 4 times this week."
Input: "Build me April's calendar. Series is 'Rooted' through the book of John. We have baptisms on April 27 and a community cleanup event on April 19. Missions emphasis all month."
Input: "Next week. No series yet, in between series. Back Sunday with a standalone message on anxiety. Nothing special on the calendar."
Input: "Two weeks. We just launched a new kids ministry called Basecamp. Big push to get families to check it out. Preaching through Ephesians."
Give me what you have. The more context, the sharper the calendar. But even a single sentence gets us started.
