Who's Responsible for Helping Leverage Testimonies & Technology for Growth? Hint: You.

I'm writing to folks in the business world who support a ministry or church with your time, talent, and/or treasure. On behalf of that ministry or church, THANK YOU.

Were you aware most ministries struggle mightily to leverage stories of life change and technology to unlock greater levels of ministry growth and impact? Yup. Even the mega-church with all the technology and production volunteers. This is usually because no one is directly responsible for it. It tends to slip through the cracks between typical ministry roles and responsibilities. It's rarely measured or reported, and therefore rarely makes the agenda of a leadership or board meeting.

As a result, ministries can be somewhere between anemic and flat-out impotent in this area, leaving them to have to work harder to raise and exert more resources to carry out their mission. I refer to this as story poverty. This seems both tragic and unnecessary, as almost everyone, especially those of us with a business background knows the effectiveness and efficiency of word-of-mouth testimony and social networks, either firsthand, or by observing brands and causes that do this extremely well.

Let's not be unrealistic and expect ministries to suddenly create a scorecard and report metrics as to how they are doing to leverage testimonies and technology. But maybe we invite stakeholders to start by giving themselves a simple letter grade (A through F) or a number on a scale of 1 to 10. Until there is a baseline and bring it to the table, how can we ever expect to improve upon it?

But whose responsibility is it to initiate or suggest a baseline letter grade or numeric rating be given in this area of the ministry? ALL OF US. EACH OF US. From this perspective, we all have an ability to respond, whether we are a ministry leader, donor, board member, volunteer, employee, or simply a friend.

It's easy to say we are all too busy, or not qualified, or we haven't been asked or given the authority to help in this area. But we're just talking about posing the question: "If a letter grade were given out for how well we're leveraging testimonies and technology to achieve growth, how would you say we're currently doing?" Until that question is posed, it will likely never be answered :)

We've been entrusted with the power of testimonies and the technology to share them with those we aim to serve and impact. And it's never in the history of the world been cheaper, or easier to capture and share word-of-mouth testimonies of changed lives. Let's challenge and help each other be good stewards in this area, which starts with simply asking how we're currently doing without judgment or condemnation. Asking and answering this potentially trajectory-changing question just may be a breakthrough moment for a ministry you hold near and dear in your heart.

What's a church or ministry that's doing an awesome job in this area? Let's celebrate and recognize them and seek to learn from their experience and examples.

What's a ministry or church you love that you'd love to see excel in this area?

These thoughts and musings are part of an ongoing conversation around stewarding stories www.stewadingstories.com and story poverty www.storypoverty.com