And Ends in Success [Building A Storybrand Book Club: Chapter 10]

[This post is part of a Book Club book series where we take a deep dive into Building A StoryBrand by Donald Miller. To check out all of the posts, view the table of contents here]

Imagine a story which ends with the hero failing. Okay, personally I actually quite like this brave storytelling decision nowadays. At the same time, I can’t imagine Star Wars Episode VI Ending with the empire winning rather than the rebels . It wouldn’t be the story we all love.

Likewise, in the Story Brand framework “Ending in success” is an important step. Showing the change from before the character met your guide (customer met your brand, the person joined your church) shows that success.

What does it mean to end in success?

Don lays out three main types of success,

• Winning power or position;
• Being unified with somebody or something which makes them whole;
• Experiencing some kind of self-realization which makes them whole.

In the book, he goes into more specifics of each one as well as how to show those changes. However one of his key tips is to keep it simple and tie it back round to the “story gap” you created at the start. The need you promised to fulfill should be fulfilled.

Don suggests showing visual evidence of this transformation (happy smiley faces if you promise a “good time”) as well as written evidence in testimonials.

Applying it to ChurchMag

The transformation we’re seeking is for readers to be relaxed and feel in control of the technology for their churches and lives. That will also help them use that technology more effectively and in new ways than before.

We haven’t really put evidence of this transformation on our site before we the exception of some testimonials on ChurchMag press. We could add some testimonials on our about page or on a specific page as we don’t have a landing page as our homepage.

Applying it to Churches

The Church has long known about the power of seeing success. Jesus resurrection is a great example of the final triumph after the apart loss on the cross. Likewise, I’ve heard plenty of evangelists recommend using your testimony as a tool for evangelism precisely because it shows the transformation.

As a church, it’s important to collect stories from members of success and transformation. Not just to grow your church’s numbers and encourage people to come along but to encourage church members during tough times.

Showing visual evidence with photos of your actual church and not stock photos also helps show real success and avoids the potential confusion when someone turns up to your church and realized that you don’t have a grand auditorium with smoke machines and lasers.

Share Testimonies

If there is one lesson churches should take from this chapter, it’s collect and share testimonies. They are powerful and for current and potential church members.

While you’re here. How has ChurchMag helped you? Leave a comment below.

Chris Wilson

Senior Staff writer, holder of the keys to the newsletter and writer of app reviews

I'm an English language teacher based in Krakow, Poland, writer, web designer and photographer. Get a free set of Stock bible photos here. Get "The Vital Church Website Checklist".