3 Ministry Engagement TOols You May Have MISSED
From The PErspective of a Missionary
I was a long-term missionary in Uganda from 2005-2007. Since then, I've been a ministry leader at my own church, as well as a "long-term" ministry software advisor here Grinning Winking Face
When I look at both roles, there's a tremendous amount of overlap - especially when it comes to the core of accomplishing your ministry's unique mission.
With that as my perspective, here's three simple tips and tools that can make significant minsitry impact.
SHARING YOUR VISION: NOTHING TOPS IN-PERSON CONVERSATIONS
As a support-based missionary, in-person conversations were far and away more effective than anything else. For ministry, that most likely equates to your in-person or live-streamed services.
quote-left Whatever your goal, there’s simply nothing more effective than being able to clearly articulate your mission, vision, or ministry impact in-person, right in your service. quote-right
Problem: By the end of your service...people tend to get busy and forget.
Solution: Use KEYWORD TEXTING to give your audience an opportunity to immediately respond!
For example, when you share that VBS is open for registration, ask everyone to text "VBS" and receive a link to your Registration form.
Pro-Tip: even if people aren’t sure if they want to ‘join,’ ask them to text your keyword anyway. This way, they will always have the link to your response form in their text-message history.
A CORE Base of Regular Donors KEeps The MISSION IN FOCUS
Before I could leave, I had to raise at least 90% of my funding. Focusing my "ask" on regular monthly pledges helped me plan and stay for the long-term better than anything else. By the time I left, over 50% of my financial support was through regular pledged gifts (and this was before the era of electronic donations). Never once did I need to re-focus on finances.
The parallel to your church & ministry is obvious. Donors who setup a recurring gift allow you to plan in advance for ministry and stay focused on the mission - rather than "keeping the lights on."
Here's 2 simple ways your giving form can help organically build your core base of regular givers.
(1) LOAD THE RECURRING TAB FIRST
Prompt recurring donations by simply loading the Regurring Giving tab first. Ministries who do so tend to see an organic increase in recurring giving.
(2) SETUP RECURRING GIFT REMINDERS
After someone donates, your giving form can display a customizable reminder message (below). You can customize the message content and the frequency these reminders appear.
KEEP YOUR MOMENTUM WITH REGULAR ENGAGING UPDATES
As a missionary, financial support is important, prayer is importanter. The same can be said for your ministry. Whatever your need, it's critical to have effective way to share important updates.
Today, a regular cadence text-messages would be part of my communication strategy. Why? Unlike email where a 30-40% open rate is considered good, an astounding 90% of text messages are opened in 3 minutes - and 98% are opened overall!
To improve engagement, take advantage of our built-in link-shortner (min.link) - similar to bitly. Add any URL to your message, highlight it, then click the "Shorten Links" button.
Here's just 3 simple ideas where a link is tremendously handy:
Pro-Tips For First-Time Texters:
