Do you communicate missions enough in your church? As Southern Baptists, missions is important to us. But is it to each person who attends your church? Perhaps you think you’re communicating it properly, but there are four crucial tips to communicate missions better in your local church:
1. Make it personal.
Missions can’t primarily be about you as a leader or as a church ministry as a whole. It must be communicated from an individual’s perspective. A member must feel they’re making a difference and empowering change. The best way to do this? Communicate ways for each member to participate in local, regional and global opportunities. Making it clear that participation is going, giving and/or praying. And when telling mission stories, be sure to communicate personal stories: life-changing stories in individuals who received the mission work but also those doing the mission work (including those who give and pray too). Making it about “them” will lead “them” to participate more.
2. Make it a group effort.
The Southern Baptist Cooperative Program (CP) is an incredible pooling of funds to accomplish more than an individual effort could. So be sure to communicate missions on a group level too. Talk about the CP as something that each individual participates in through local church offerings. It matters not how much your church gives to CP, but how much impact each person provides when partnered with the thousands of others wanting challenging mission projects completed. When was the last time you even mentioned the CP in your church? People often give to a large vision and the CP allows a member to have a huge impact on a world stage.
3. Make it regular.
Many churches have mission seasons by way of a communication emphasis at certain times of the year. Communicating missions at other times is rare. A church needs to be known for missions all the time! When stories are regularly told about the impact your church is making in their neighborhood, region, country or around the world; and it’s directly tied to them, there’s a feeling of accomplishment. The International Mission Board (IMB) and North American Mission Board (NAMB) makes this easy by supplying well-constructed stories that can be shared. Check out their websites! But as the local pastor, you must make it about your members enabling the God-sized missions each time they give in the church offering.
4. Make it menu-worthy.
Your church website should be the center of your digital communication. Take a look at your website’s main menu: is it only about things that happen in your building? A great church website needs to have a “Serve” or “Missions” button. If you bury it under a main menu, missions feel like secondary buried treasure. Instead, create a page or section that communicates missions in a fresh way with stories of how your members are impacting local, regional and global missions by being part of your church. Give ways to pray, give and go! Repurpose IMB and NAMB stories to make them your own (add a testimonial from a member who participated!). Then write local missions success stories so members understand the greater need outside of what happens in your building.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Mark MacDonald is communication pastor, speaker, consultant, bestselling author, church branding strategist for BeKnownforSomething.com.)
