Outside The Box Ministry

In my prior post I said it has become much easier for churches, individuals and ministries to conduct ministry online.  While this is true it is important to put together a plan for how it will look and work for your outreach.

1. The first step you will want to take is to evaluate your community.  Questions to ask would be: Who do I want to reach?  What is the best way to connect with them?  How am I going to communicate with them once they respond?  If you would like a great overview on different demographic groups check out Chris Forbes (Ministry Marketing Coach) post here, here and here.
2. You will then need to determine how many people it will take to work with the community you’re reaching out to.  You will want to utilize volunteers as much as possible.
3. What online services and approaches are you going to use (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, My Space, personal websites, blogs, church or ministry website).
4. Create messaging and graphics that are consistent.
5. Train all your volunteers how to “minister” to people online.
6. Keep it simple.
7. Think though all the steps that you will want to lead a online contact through.  For example, if you are presenting the Gospel online and someone responds, what will be the next step you will want them to do.
8. Keep records of your work.
9. Try to connect the individual to a local contact, church or ministry for continued interaction.
10. Share your results.

In the next post, I will cover ideas for outreaches online.

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