Death is defeated.
Jesus is alive.
One place for everyone working on this record — what it is, where we stand, what we're going for, who owns what, and what still has to be decided. A working document, updated as decisions land. Points of contact: Tara McWhirter, Joel Gerdis, Alex McWhirter.
Updated Sep 16, 2026Every change to the plan lands here first, newest on top, and goes out by email to the team the same day. If you only read one section, read this one.
How this works: changes go to Stephen, Tara, Joel, or Alex. The page is updated, the change is logged here, and an email goes to everyone on the team with what changed and this link. Reply to that email with decisions — they get locked into Open Questions.
From meth addict to worship leader — this album is Stephen's story, but it's not just his. It's the story of anyone who has ever known times so hard they didn't know if they could keep going. Death loses. Life through Jesus wins. That's not a lyric — it's the truth behind every song on this record.
When you see what the cross and empty grave actually accomplished, your whole perspective shifts to one that is eternal. You stop measuring your life by what broke you and start measuring it by what He did for you. You see the fullness of God's love and grace over your story — however messy that story is. And you find yourself standing on the unshakable truth: in Jesus, you are fully alive, and death is fully dead.
Track order as of Sep 8 · Singles as of Sep 16 · Focus track: Dead Ain't Dead or the title track
A Grammy-winning song, 2.3 million followers, and about 2.1 million streams a month across the three big platforms — every one of them up in the last 28 days. The campaign's job is to point all of that at one record.
The biggest push of my career. A release that behaves like a major label priority: one song on radio, one song seeded to the church, a fresh focus track on album day, mainstream press telling the story, churches singing it on Sunday, and a full room at the Palace.
Turn 2.3 million followers into an audience we own, and give churches a song they sing.
Everything below ladders to that. Pre-saves and the email list are the owned audience. The Palace is that audience showing up in person. YouTube is the top of the funnel. Covered By The Blood and All Of The Praise in setlists is what keeps paying after June 12. Radio and mainstream press are how new people find the funnel — means, not the goal.
Stephen's targets as of Sep 16. TBD lines get set with Re:Think and Kirk. Then this becomes the scoreboard.
Christian AC stations won't add two songs from one artist at once, so radio gets one song. The others feed the algorithm, the editorial pitch, and the worship-leader network. An audience of 2.3M with little familiarity with the originals needs repetition over time, not one big week — two singles, then the album with a fresh focus track, is three chances for a song to catch.
The one song pushed at radio. 55 Promotion + Ingle Promo work every Christian format — to stations Nov 9, adds Jan 4, projected peak May–June. howbadsong.com.
The Easter song. Worship Together called it a hit for the church and asked for it around Easter (Apr 4) — four weeks for worship leaders to learn it before Holy Week. Charts, MultiTracks, Loop Community, CCLI, Worship Together acoustic videos and mailing-list send. No radio spend; clear air while How Bad runs.
Every release gets its own editorial pitch — Spotify, Apple, Amazon — two to three weeks ahead, with Re:Think pitching label-side on top. The focus track must be unreleased so playlist editors have something new on album day — the title track or Dead Ain't Dead. Palace ticket holders stream the full album four weeks early from a gated page on deathneverstoodachance.com — ticket + email, no downloads. Two weeks later, the show.
The campaign budget for January through June — decided Sep 8. Album production isn't counted here. Kirk PR starts September 8, 2026 and radio starts November 9, 2026 — both paid directly until the plan adds them in, so the Sept–Dec PR months and the Nov–Dec radio months sit outside this number.
Digital at $40K, reserve drops. Competitive, not dominant.
Every layer funded at a level built to work. This is the number.
Second radio push after the album, influencer tier, real contingency.
Cash floor is roughly $140K. Below that something gets cut, not trimmed. Radio and PR scale by month, so they're the easiest lines to shorten without breaking the structure.
Five church songs — Covered By The Blood (seeding focus), High Above, Perfect Father, Home That Waits, All Of The Praise — each filmed as a live acoustic session with a small audience of about 200. This is the bridge between "here's a chart" and "our team can lead this Sunday." Worship leaders are asking one question, and a room singing along answers it on screen.
Singable key, congregational arrangement, a clear lead vocal, the room visibly singing. Not a performance piece. One night, one room, one setup for all five songs — the 200 seats are also 200 emails, and local worship leaders get a direct invite.
Full-song video for Worship Together's YouTube and ours · chord-chart overlay version · "how we play it" walkthrough with the band · 30–60 second verticals for Shorts and Reels · the audio as the acoustic version for MultiTracks and Loop Community.
Filmed and out ahead of Mar 5 so it's in worship leaders' hands four weeks before Easter. The other four staggered toward May 14 so the church push doesn't go quiet between Easter and the album.
We have 2.3 million followers, and most of them have never heard an original Stephen McWhirter song. This isn't an awareness campaign. It's a conversion campaign against an audience that already knows the face and doesn't yet know the catalog.
$60K across January–June — about $10K a month on average, not flat. Heavier in release months (January, early March, May: roughly $14–16K) and lighter in the gaps (February, April: $6–7K), because paid social only pays when there's something new to send people to. Always-on retargeting runs underneath the whole time.
Custom audiences from IG/FB engagers (365-day), 50%+ video viewers, and the 25K email list. Roughly 300–400K genuinely warm people at the lowest CPMs we'll ever see. The ask is small: listen, save, follow on Spotify.
Built off high-intent seeds — the email list and streaming saves — not off total follower count. Geo-weighted toward our actual strongholds: Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Atlanta, San Antonio.
Christian music, worship, recovery communities. Kept lean until the first two layers prove out.
Story-first, talking to camera, song underneath. 15–30 seconds. Stephen's testimony stops the scroll at scale, and we have the footage to prove it. Six to eight variants minimum per flight; spend follows the winners. Polished music-video cuts underperform story-led creative every time.
Warm traffic goes to Spotify follows and listens, and a portion to email capture built around meeting someone in a hard season — not album news. From January, when the link exists, the pre-save becomes the ask for the sweepstakes push. That's how followers we rent become an audience we own.
Cost per Spotify follow. Cost per email captured. Release-day streams from captured audiences (Feature.fm). Not reach, not impressions, not engagement rate.
Front-loaded around the January 29 single and the album release, with always-on retargeting running steadily in between.
To resolve: the brief sends warm traffic to Spotify follows, not pre-saves — but the 15K pre-save goal and the sweepstakes run on pre-saves. Sequenced above as follow + email first, pre-save from January. Confirm or change.
A full national Christian radio campaign run by two independent promoters working together — 55 Promotion and Ingle Promo — so the master stays ours. The song is sent to stations November 9, 2026 — two months for programmers to live with it — and goes for adds January 4, 2027. Josh projects the peak late May into June, landing on the album and the Palace. Charts targeted: Billboard Christian Airplay, Billboard Christian AC Monitored, Mediabase Christian Audience, Mediabase Christian AC.
Josh Lauritch · 5 months, $12,500
Matt Ingle · 5 months, $10,000 · billed directly
One-time digital delivery to stations
Term continues at the same monthly rate past March while the song develops. Budget for 7 months — about $32K.
Per milestone, paid to each team
Per milestone, paid to each team
Per milestone, paid to each team
Due on receipt, each month
Josh Lauritch · President, 55 Promotionjosh@55promotion.com · 615-496-2063 · 55promotion.com
Matt Ingle · President, Ingle Promomatt@inglepromo.com · 615-714-8430 · mattinglepromotions.com
SupportBrian Curee + KB Digital · social / marketing (55)
Sophie Buma · social / marketing (Ingle)
Tiffany Rockhold · executive assistant (both)
Owner: home team · works back from Nov 9 — the master and the video are the long poles.
A label is a set of departments pointed at one release. This is ours. Each card says what the partner owns, what they bring, and what we're asking of them — the third line is the conversation.
Ashlyn Rudy · Keke Carter · Jeff Gunkel · Libby Shorman · Lindsey Weber
Colleen Kirk · Chelsea Camacho · Em Wittmann
Josh Lauritch (55) · Matt Ingle (Ingle) · Brian Curee, KB Digital, Sophie Buma, Tiffany Rockhold
Drew Foster · Shannon Bright · Joe Priver · Matt Roberts · Johnny Downs (Live Nation, Palace)
Colby Wedgeworth & Luke Johns · producers · Doug Weir · mix · Sam Moses · mastering
Stephen McWhirter · Nicholas Romes · Alex McWhirter
Stephen McWhirter · Tara McWhirter · Joel Gerdis · Alex McWhirter
Points of contact · taramcwhirter711@gmail.com · joelgerdis@gmail.com · alexmcwhirter27@gmail.com
This is the agenda. Check a question off when it's answered and write the decision next to it — everyone who opens this page sees the same list.
Checks and notes save in your browser only. Reply to the update email, or send decisions to Tara, Joel, or Alex, to lock them into the page for everyone.
A lot was captured at Ocean Way, and more gets shot through the campaign. What's left is cutting it, writing it, and the few things only a dedicated shoot gives you.