I’ve never been a Church-planter but I know more than a handful who are and have been a part of a few new ministries as well.
What I have done is a handful of startups and technology ventures, most of which have tanked so hard that I’m not ashamed (if that makes sense), but there have been a few good ones that survived a bit. I’d rather fail hard than not try I suppose.
I’ve come to see that the ones that have done well are the ones that have a legitimate plan and course of action; a roadmap. There’s a lot of other factors involved of course, but planning is crucial.
What I’m also beginning to see is that, truly, Church-planting is like creating a startup business, and planning is so crucial. When one goes to plant they do your homework on where they’re going to plant, how they’re going to reach people, who their staff will be, financials from every angle, etc. All these things have to be accounted for to ensure maximum effectiveness and success.
It makes me wonder, then, why a lot of ministries don’t even put an ounce of time into their Social Networking/Social Media Ministry strategy because launching into the online “world” is, to a certain degree, much like starting a new ministry and planting a church.
Now, it’s not completely 1:1, and so I won’t take it too far, but the point is that most ministries and churches just go do it without thinking about a plan (and the resulting consequences of not having one).
Perhaps it’s because it’s just so easy to start. Registration is all it takes, right? Perhaps we need to take one step back and take a look at the “bigger” picture, do some thinking and strategizing, and then move forward with a well-laid plan?
Here are 5 Tips and Critical Questions (from a startup perspective) that might help you:
1. Distribution?
How will you get your message out there? What avenues are attractive and the most effective? What tools will you employ for your ministry initiative?
Remember, you only have so much time in a given day to dedicate to your social networking efforts, so doing everything just won’t work.
2. Cost?
What’s this going to take to get started? What are the costs associated with starting up a robust ministry initiative? Overhead? Head count and staffing? Do you need to buy some hardware, license some software, hire any developers?
Remember, there are a lot of open source products out there that may suit your needs but open source does not equal “free.”
3. What Makes You Unique?
From a pure startup perspective, this is commonly termed “value proposition.” What is going to make your initiative and engagement special and unique?
It doesn’t have to be unique for it’s own sake, but to grow a groundswell there’s wisdom in doing it differently. Although your message, at its core, is the same as every other ministry, your application, vision, and mission is different, which means you’ll do it a bit differently from everyone else.
4. Metrics?
How are you going to gauge and determine effectiveness? What is your “return on investment”? Do you even know what “success” looks like in terms of your strategy? These are some good questions to think about because it’ll help guide you as to whether you’re making the best use of your time.
5. Timeline?
What does your rollout look like? When are you going to start and “finish”? Is there a “win” scenario that needs to be met in a certain time frame to help provide metrics for success? Essentially, when are you going to start having to “pay” for all of this?
[Images from JohnJoh, RichardLowkes, and TanakaWho]
Dewitt says
Great ideas! It is so easy to get in the mindset of just doing social media because many ministries are incorporating it into their marketing efforts.
Here's another thought…Nearly every ministry that I've seen is using social media to connect with adults as opposed to how they might use SM to enhance their chidren's ministry, youth ministry, marriage minitrry, etc.
human3rror says
Dewitt,
Love it. we need to look at every potential avenue… thanks for bringing that up.
Josh Wagner says
Great stuff here. Very valuable for starting up anything, if you ask me.
human3rror says
thanks josh!
pass it around!
Phillip Gibb says
brilliant, I have already forwarded this to stake holders in the re branding and relaunching of our church.
Daniel_Berman says
Good advice, even with ministries that aren't 100% social media; many of the same questions are still valuable to ask like you said.
human3rror says
😉 thanks daniel!
Jim says
i've been thinking about this stuff after listening to Potential Podcast w/Ben Arment
David says
You are right, most churches don't plan it t all and then it fails. One of the big reasons I have seen church social media attempts fail is that they do not appoint a "leader". If someone is not responsible for starting and maintaining the "community" within a given social media platform, it will ultimately die because no one is leading the conversation and moving it forward.