How do you find asymmetric ministry opportunities?

The easiest way to find the most impactful ministry opportunities is to do an 80/20 analysis on every area of your ministry.

The 80/20 rule, otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, states the following:

80% of your ministry’s fruit is generated by 20% of your ministry resources (time, energy, attention, finances).

If you have 10 outreach ministries, you will discover that only 2 of them are bringing in 80% of your new visitors.

If you work 40 hours a week, you will find that just 8 of those hours (20% of your time) are responsible for 80% of the fruit you are currently seeing in your ministry.

At one point Clickmill saw a dramatic drop in new potential clients. We had 0 new leads in four months. Wondering what went wrong, I reviewed the process that every ministry client had gone through to sign with us.

I discovered that they did just 3 things.

1. They clicked on a Google Ad
2. They downloaded an ebook
3. They booked a strategy session

As it turned out, I had quit doing 2 of those 3 things exactly four months prior. I replaced the ebook with a course and began working on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and 7 other things instead of running Google Ads. I thought I would get more results by doing more things, but instead, all 10 of my new tasks were producing ZERO fruit.

Upon discovering this, I ruthlessly eliminated every single task that wasn’t producing fruit.

I spent a full week writing a 100+ page ebook that was better than the first one, and launched it on our website.

I updated my Google Ads so they were even more sophisticated than before, and re-enabled them.

Within 48 hours, Clickmill generated over 30 new leads. Even better, I had quit doing the 10 things that were absorbing my entire life, in favor of doing the 2 things that took me almost no time to maintain. I took all the time and energy I was saving, and reinvested it into more fruitful endeavors.

Like me, you’ll find that 20% of things you do generate 80% of your ministry fruit. Eliminate the 80% of unproductive effort, and reinvest it into the activities that produce the most fruit. When you do these things, you will begin to see your ministry grow like you never thought possible.

Take some time with your ministry leaders to do the following:

• 80/20 Time Audit: For 72 hours, track all the things you spend time on as you are doing them – then break these activities into categories and see which percentage of those activities produce the most fruit in your ministry (and your life).
  
• 80/20 Attention Audit: For 72 hours, track all the things you give attention to – then break these activities into categories and see which percentage of those activities produce the most fruit in your ministry (and your life).
  
• 80/20 Energy Audit: For 72 hours, track all the things you put physical energy into – then break these activities into categories and see which percentage of those activities produce the most fruit in your ministry (and your life).
  
• 80/20 Decision Audit: For 72 hours, track which decisions you are making – then break these decisions down into categories and see which percentage of those decisions produce the most fruit in your ministry (and your life).
  
• 80/20 Finance Audit: For 30 days, track all the things you spend money on – then break these activities into categories and see which percentage of those expenses produce the most fruit in your ministry (and your life).

Personal Examples:

I discovered that my wife and I spent 2-3 hours a day deciding what to eat, cooking the food, then cleaning up. That’s 14 hours a week. When we ran the numbers, we discovered it was less expensive to hire someone to pre-make all of our meals and free up this time.

I discovered I had about over an hour each day of unused time brushing my teeth, doing dishes, driving, etc. I began listening to educational videos during this time to learn the skills I needed to further grow Clickmill. If I had to learn it anyway, why not optimize the time I was already using instead of taking more time out of my schedule?

When my wife and I got married, I discovered I was spending $300 per month on Starbucks. She bought me a $300 espresso machine and saved us $3,600 per year. (It also saved time because a trip to Starbucks always took longer than just making it myself.)

In just these three examples, I increased my monthly cash by $300 and got back 82 hours a month that would have otherwise been wasted. That’s fruit. And I have done this process hundreds of times over the years.