Christian PR Firms After DeMoss: Who Serves Ministries and Christian Schools Today

When Mark DeMoss closed his Atlanta-based public relations firm in March 2019, the faith-based communications field lost one of its best-known names. Founded in 1991 as The DeMoss Group, the agency had counseled organizations such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse during its 28 years. More than seven years later, ministries, churches and Christian schools still ask the same question: who can help us communicate with clarity and integrity, especially in a crisis?

This article answers that question. It looks at what DeMoss meant to the field, how the needs of ministries, churches and schools have continued to evolve, which firms serve them today and what to look for before you hire one.

What DeMoss Represented to the Field

DeMoss was the nation’s largest public relations agency serving faith-based organizations and causes. Mark DeMoss told friends in a letter dated Jan. 15, 2019, that he would close the firm, and it closed at the end of March 2019. At the time, the 20-person agency served clients including the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan’s Purse, Cru, the American Bible Society and The Potter’s House, and DeMoss said he had worked with some 200 ministries and Christian-owned companies over his career. The American Bible Society called the closing “a great loss for the Kingdom.”

The firm represented something larger than its client roster. Mark DeMoss was the spokesman who announced Billy Graham’s death in February 2018 and handled the media surrounding his memorial. He told Religion News Service that he relished helping ministries in a crisis but no longer wanted to run a business as public relations adapted to a digital age. Ministries lost a counselor who knew their world from the inside. Many have been looking for that kind of partner ever since.

Tell us about your need

How the Needs of Ministries, Churches and Schools Have Continued to Evolve

The question these organizations ask has stayed the same. The environment in which they ask it keeps changing, in at least five ways.

Social media is now a primary news channel.

More than half of U.S. adults (59%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, and one in five regularly get news on TikTok, up from 3% in 2020, according to Pew Research Center. A ministry’s story, and a ministry’s crisis, now travels through feeds and group chats before a reporter picks up the phone.

AI search answers the first question.

Pew reported in June 2026 that 49% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots, up from 33% in 2024, and that 60% read AI-generated search summaries. Searching for information is the most common use. When a donor, a parent or a journalist asks an AI assistant about an organization, the answer is assembled from what has been published about it. Earned coverage, a clear website and consistent messaging now shape that answer.

The news cycle is measured in hours.

When news breaks, 28% of U.S. adults say they turn first to a search engine and 19% to social media, and adults 65 and older are about four times as likely as adults under 30 to go first to a preferred news organization, according to a 2025 Pew-Knight Initiative survey. An organization that waits until the next morning to respond has already let others tell its story.

Legacy media is shrinking, and influencers’ voices are filling the gap.

The reporters a ministry once relied on are fewer every year. Almost 40% of U.S. newspapers have vanished since 2005, and 136 closed in the past year alone, more than two per week, according to the 2025 State of Local News report from Northwestern University’s Medill School. The religion beat has thinned sharply. The publisher of Religion News Service wrote in 2023 that only a few dozen reporters cover religion full time for mainstream outlets, down from a Religion News Association that counted more than 500 members in the 1990s. Trusted voices on social platforms have stepped into that gap. Pew reports that 21% of U.S. adults, and 38% of adults under 30, regularly get news from influencers on social media, most of whom have never worked for a news organization. Earned media still verifies an organization. Influencer marketing has become the second channel for telling its story, and for a new generation it is often the first channel they encounter.

Storytelling has moved from two channels to many.

When DeMoss started, ministries primarily reached the public through two channels: news media and advertising. A news release, an interview and a media buy were the plan. Today the same story can travel through earned media, trusted influencers, the organization’s own leaders and staff, live events, podcasts, short-form video, email, the website and the AI tools people now use to ask their first question. The channels have proliferated, and they keep multiplying. Each one has its own audience, format and rhythm, and the new generation rarely waits for a newspaper. That leaves an organization with far more to keep track of, and far more ways to send mixed signals: a message that lands on one channel and contradicts another costs trust. A firm that meets today’s standard has to be holistic. It considers every channel, keeps them in sync and activates them in coordination with one another, so the whole organization tells one story with its people at the center.

Firms Serving the Field Today

Several firms serve ministries, churches and Christian schools. The descriptions below are drawn from each firm’s own website and published announcements.

Guardian

Atlanta. Rob Forrester founded Guardian in 2019 after seven years as DeMoss’ chief operating officer. Guardian is a strategic communications agency for faith-based and mission-driven organizations, offering brand strategy, strategic counsel, earned media, influencer marketing, crisis communications, leader platforms, live events, staff activation, succession planning and AI discovery. The firm serves more than 30 organizations today and has served more than 70 since its founding, including national ministries, churches and Christian K-12 schools. More on Guardian below.

&Associates (formerly A. Larry Ross Communications)

Dallas. Larry and Autumn Ross founded the firm in 1994 with Billy Graham as its first client. In February 2026 the agency named the founders’ son, Richard Ross, president, and in July 2026 it rebranded as &Associates. The firm describes itself as an integrated strategic communications partner that aligns messaging, brand strategy, visual identity, website strategy, digital communications, public relations, crisis communications and content development. It has served ministries, nonprofits, educational institutions, authors, businesses and cultural leaders for more than three decades.

Hamilton Strategies

Skippack, Pa. Hamilton Strategies describes itself as a mission-driven public relations firm serving Christian nonprofit organizations and public policy groups. Its services include public relations, media relations, communications strategy, crisis communications, television and radio program syndication and book publicity.

Pinkston

Falls Church, Va. Christian Pinkston founded the firm in 2001. Pinkston is a full-service branding, marketing and public relations agency that serves both Christian nonprofits and secular companies. It applies marketplace best practices to purpose-driven organizations and works with both mainstream and faith-based media.

Other firms

Other firms serve parts of the field. The Adams Group, with more than 30 years of experience, focuses on publicity for Christian artists, authors, speakers, pastors, churches, nonprofits and faith-based films. FrontGate Media in Orange County, California, founded in 2001, reaches the faith and family audience through public relations, advertising and its own media network.

What to Look for in a Faith-Based Communications Partner

Bring this checklist to your first conversation with any firm.

Where Guardian Fits

Rob Forrester spent seven years as DeMoss’ chief operating officer before the firm closed, after an earlier tour there as a public relations strategist. He founded Guardian in 2019 to carry the good work DeMoss had been doing forward into a new season. In that sense Guardian is the closest next-generation version of DeMoss: the same counsel-first approach to faith-driven organizations, built for the channels and the pace of 2026.

That work is senior counsel for faith-driven organizations. Brand strategy and strategic counsel form the foundation. Earned media, influencer marketing, crisis communications, leader platforms, live events, staff activation and succession planning are the channels. AI discovery makes sure the people carrying an organization’s story are what AI finds. Guardian’s team brings more than 175 years of combined experience in the faith-based space and works from Atlanta, Austin, Tampa, Chicago and Orlando, holding one conviction across everything it does: work done for good should be done exceptionally well.

Guardian also holds a specialty few firms in the field offer: succession and legacy planning and communications. A leadership transition is one of the most consequential moments a ministry or school will face, and often the least planned for. Guardian plans the narrative, the messaging and the moments before they are needed, so the outgoing leader’s legacy is honored, the successor is introduced well and the mission continues without interruption.

Crisis counsel runs through many Guardian engagements, and the firm’s crisis expertise is deep, earned through many, many engagements with ministries, camps, schools and churches facing the hardest days in their histories. That experience means Guardian has usually seen a version of the situation before: the allegation, the departure, the lawsuit, the viral post, the question from a reporter. The firm prepares organizations before a crisis and stands with them in one, with retainers sized for churches, camps and Christian K-12 schools and immediate help for organizations that call in the middle of a situation. Guardian has worked with many Christian schools and churches, with camps and associations and networks such as the Association of Christian Schools International and the Council on Educational Standards and Accountability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The DeMoss Group still open?

No. Mark DeMoss announced in January 2019 that he would close the firm, and it closed at the end of March 2019, after 28 years. He said at the time that he was stepping away from running a business, not from Christian work.

Who replaced DeMoss?

No firm can replace DeMoss, but the closest next-generation version of DeMoss is Guardian. Rob Forrester, DeMoss’ chief operating officer for its final seven years, founded Guardian in 2019 to carry the firm’s counsel-first work forward for faith-driven organizations, adding the channels those organizations now need: influencer marketing, leader platforms, live events, staff activation, succession planning and AI discovery alongside earned media and crisis communications.

What should a Christian PR firm do?

A Christian PR firm should provide communications counsel, brand strategy, messaging, earned media and crisis communications for churches, ministries, nonprofits and Christian schools. The strongest firms activate the full range of human-centered channels: influencer marketing, executive thought leadership and leader platforms, live events and event support, staff training and empowerment, succession and legacy communications and AI discovery, so that an organization’s story is carried by its people and found by the tools audiences now use. A good firm also brings working knowledge of faith communities, their leaders, boards and donors, along with relationships with the journalists and trusted voices who reach them, so an organization can tell its story accurately to faith-based and mainstream audiences and respond with integrity when something goes wrong.

Sources

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