You’ve made up in your mind that this is THE year that your ministry is going to expand! No longer will your ministry merely exist— it’s NOW time for you to reach those you are called to serve in large numbers and consistently. So what do you do first to ramp up your ministry marketing efforts? Gather the team? Count your costs? Pray and fast? Or, do you say “forget the details, let’s just get to work”?
Many Christian leaders, just after prayer and fasting, go straight to work on building the wall, fulfilling the vision, making it happen. While this sounds admirable it is the worst thing you can do when it comes to creating consistent expansion in your ministry. While marketing your ministry is important to the growth of all Christian organizations—marketing for the sake of marketing never works.
So how do you create a ministry marketing strategy that will create significant results without going breaking-the-budget, overwhelming your team (even if it’s just you), or compromising your message? Well it’s pretty simple. Here’s what you do:
1. Set clear, tangible goals. Know “what’s good” for you and your ministry. Too often ministry marketing efforts are dismissed as ineffective, simply because they are embarked upon without an explicitly, expressed predetermined destination. Before starting any ministry marketing (expansion) effort be certain that you are clear on your desired outcome.(Side note: Leaders not only must we predetermine our destination, we must explicitly express it with those who serve alongside us…more on that in a future article) My work with Christian leaders around the world has led me to find that the best place to start when creating ministry marketing goals is to focus on one (if not all) of the below expansion critical areas :
- Impact – what is the number of lives (families, communities, individuals) you want to actually connect with through/with your ministry?
- Influence – what is the effect you want to create or have in the lives of those you are called to serve? How do you want them to see you or your ministry?
- Income – how much the revenue would you like to generate from your efforts?
2. Increase your opportunity for success by limiting your options. I know it sounds oxymoronic, but the fewer options you have on how you are going to reach your goals the greater your chances are for achieving them. As visionaries, it is easy to get lost in the land of endless options—resist the temptation to try everything. By putting all the options on the table and narrowing them down to the top three you substantially increase your chances of reaching your destination. A good tip for narrowing down “how to get there” options is to focus on.
- What fits for your ministry “M.O.” – which of the options you’ve listed compliments your style and how you want to be perceived by those who encounter your ministry?
- What works best for those on your team – which of the options is easy for my current team to implement?
- What appeals to those you are called to serve – which of the options for reaching my audience is likely to appeal to them as they are today?
3.Focus on the simple steps. Decide today that you’re adopting the “if it ain’t simple I ain’t doing it!” way of operating. I know that’s not correct English, but that’s how my grandma would put it and she tends to make a little go a long way. As leaders we get mesmerized by the grandiose ideas or the complex concepts, but it’s in the simple steps that significance is birthed. Look at it this way, if a strategy has too many moving parts, there are too many opportunities for something to go haywire. Rule of thumb number one, when it comes to marketing your ministry keep it simple. (Note: Jesus did it and it worked well for him.)
Making a significant impact in the lives of those you are called to serve does not have to be an impossible feat. By consistently taking simple, yet strategic steps forward you will find that expanding your reach is truly a blessing—not a burden.
For more insight on ways to create simple yet significant strategies visit Expanding Your Reach Live Event. Click here to learn more.