As a team working for church leaders, our goals are to inspire the leader, make sermon prep faster and give your church creative ways to receive your message. We plant the seeds. Preaching leaders and teams develop the message to completion in a way that connects with their personal style and the church they are leading.
Founder | Content Developer
John grew up a church-planting Preacher’s Kid in a small town outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. Always a fan of music and writing, he became involved with worship leading and writing for church services throughout high school and college. Like songwriters scribble verses on napkins and in their Notes App, John remembers writing sermons in his head while he mowed yards in college, while he rocked his children to sleep and when he goes for runs. It’s just in him, and he’s excited to keep doing it with Brightly.
John graduated with a B.A. in Religion from Carson Newman University and with an M.Div. from Emmanuel Christian Seminary. He has served in large and small churches as Worship Leader, Welcome Team Leader and Lead Pastor. He currently serves at First Christian Church in Johnson City, TN. He and his wife Brooke have three children.
“I know firsthand the pressure preaching leaders feel to wear many hats, be an incredible communicator and be present in their homes. My prayer is that Brightly can help.”
Content Developer
Molly Kate has two great loves: words and the Church—not necessarily in that order. She grew up saturated with church talk. Hailing from a family of ministers, elders, and lay leaders in the church, she remembers sitting around the kitchen table, fascinated, as she listened to the grown-ups talk shop. She grew up, too, entrenched in words and language. An avid reader and compulsive writer, Molly Kate has been spinning stories, poems, and speeches since she could hold something to write them with.
“The story of Scripture is beautiful, resonant, otherworldly, deeply human, and utterly life-changing—but it’s almost impossible draw all that out of a 2000+ year old text, for a modern audience, in 25 minutes on a Sunday morning without significant preparation. I’m excited to do some of the heavy-lifting on the front end, so leaders can have the joy of bringing that message to their churches—without feeling the stress of letting other things go.””
What We Stand On
We believe God is one, yet three – God, Spirit, Jesus.
We believe in Jesus, the only Son of God, fully human and fully divine.
We believe the death and resurrection of Jesus were literal events of history.
We believe Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished forgiveness of sins and victory over sin, death and all evil.
Once you submit your email address below, you will be shared a link to our 2025 Preaching Calendar of a sermon outline, graphics, and discussion questions. You’ll also receive a “How To Use Brightly” guide.
We all need allies in ministry who understand our calling, care about our context and bring needed tools to the table…John Emmert is on my speed dial for preaching and ministry advice when I need a consultation with a creative ally who has the ministry experience to back up what they say.
Ethan Magness, Senior Minister, First Christian Church, Johnson City, TN
865-471-8751 | brooke@planbrightly.com