About Author
Brett's writing has been featured by outlets like Outreach Magazine, Church Tech Today, and the Unstuck Church Group. Brett's courses on church marketing have over 10,000 students in 143 countries. Brett is also the author of The Digital Ministry: Reaching the ends of the earth without leaving home and is the marketing director at Clickmill.co. Brett has consulted with ministry leaders internationally, helping them create custom marketing strategies that get results. After four years of Christian college, Brett worked at Christian discipleship schools, Christian camps, and was a Youth Ministry Directory at the Salvation Army. He later spent six years in sales and marketing. Through Clickmill, Brett helps ministry leaders implement effective digital marketing strategies so they can reach more people, more effectively. Brett and his wife Siomara live in Honolulu, HI.
Why You Don’t Need Money
Most ministry leaders believe that in order to get the attention of their audience they need lots of money.
Forget about money. You don’t need a single dime to create the value that will draw people toward your ministry!
It’s true that money is a store of value, but MONEY IS NOT VALUE.
Money = Store Of Value
Money ≠Value
It’s true that money (like any other resource) can be used and invested to create more value faster. But money itself isn’t creating value any more than investing in a pharmaceutical stock creates value.
The proper allocation of financial resources (and other resources) within the pharmaceutical company to create a life-saving medicine is what creates value.
Hint Hint… life-saving means the medicine meets a deeply felt need.
Meeting Needs → Value
There are plenty of well-funded ministries that have no idea how to wisely use their financial resources to create value by meeting the needs of their audience.
Alternatively, all big ministries started with a small budget. They accumulated large donor bases by meeting deeply felt needs.
All that is required to create value is Biblical (agape) love.
Consider this passage:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18
Love that meets needs is what we are called to in Scripture.
Love like this doesn’t cost any money.
Here is a three-step breakdown of this entire course for you to think through. Notice that money isn’t required, only the ability to meet needs (which is a skill you develop through practice).
- Ministry Strategy & Startup: Love + Resources (Time/Energy/Effort/Attention) = Meeting Needs → Value
- Ministry Sustainability: Value Reciprocated = More Resources (Including Money)
- Ministry Growth: Love + Resources (Money/Time/Energy/Effort/Attention) = Meeting More Needs → More Value
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