Enabling Ministries through Stories

We are often asked how to financially resource ministries and a large part of the answer is to tell your story. Jesus patterned his ministry through telling stories of relationships and lives changed. As leaders we search for ways to gain resources to accomplish our ministries and finding measurements of success. We produce metrics to connect with the goals of the team and organization in order to measure and celebrate that success. Often lost in organizations is the sharing and celebrating of stories as a measure of success. These shared stories help shape the organizations and create an environment that sustains success for longer periods of time. The stories also form the reason for the invitation to contribute to the success of the ministry - a story of lives changed.

Let me share some thoughts on telling your story through the lens of a ministry we, here at Assurance UMC, are looking for support to accomplish our God given dream in the area of recreational ministries focused on youth in the streets on our Connections Campus called Peace on the Streets.

A good story has these elements which we will walk through together using the Peace on the Street ministry. Think about the ministry your church wants to enable as we take a journey together:

Why?

Find your God reason for the Ministry. Here is ours as an example: The Assurance faith community is committed to make the mystery of God's presence, peace, and power real in the lives of his people. We recognize that all Christians are called to minister in word and deed wherever Christ would have them serve: healing the broken, setting free those in captivity, clothing the naked and giving drink to the thirsty. We are committed to the inclusiveness of all people. Inclusiveness refers to the openness, acceptance, and support enabling all persons to participate in the community of faith. As such, we are called to be faithful to the example of Jesus ministry to all people. We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. Therefore, we work toward societies in which each person's value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. 

How?

Find your heart for the ministry and path to meeting the need. For Connections one of those ministries is to the youth of the community and here is our example as you think about your how: Peace on the Streets is a recreational ministry partnership between Assurance and the community which focuses on youth growing in Christ. Peace on the Street is a component of the recreational ministries including a summer league for youth on the streets, a competitive church league in the winter, and skill building camps in the Spring.

Who?

Find like minded people, including individuals, faith communities, and corporate sponsors to participate in the journey to reach the youth of the community with you and here is our example: Created TC1C - two churches one cause with a neighborhood church called Zion Wounded Lamb along with a faith partner and community members interested in reaching youth on the streets. 

Where?

Find the community leaders and members of the community to work with you by walking the community and spreading the vision. Create a specific place for the ministry. Name the people to be reached in the community with the ministry. Our example, walking the streets and doing church for a couple years, starting a community gym night for the youth we were targeting, and finding through that community presence a partner to come alongside us on the journey. The church gym became that community place for this ministry.

When?

Create a specific scope of when the ministry takes place. Our vision is a year around six day a week recreational ministry where we meet the needs of the youth in the community and help them to know they are loved and valued so they find Christ's love for them. The specific scope for Peace on the Streets started with a summer basketball league and grew from there.

What?

Create a specific ask of how to become involved in the ministry. Tell the vision and then tell the stories of success over and over again to anyone who will listen. Our ask was for coaches and adults to be involved in the life of the youth, money for uniforms and referees, and prayers for the ministry. It has grown into a winter church league ask and most recently a ask to contribute through donating money to a piece of a new gym floor to build the ministry.

Tell the Story?

Gather and tell stories of lives changed. People whose lives were changed by Jesus through participation in the ministry. In our case, youth gaining respect and discipline, a place to go that was safe, and a concept of team rather than self. 

Ask?

Be specific about the ask and what the need is whether it is in volunteer time or dollars. Break the cost down to manageable chunks and most importantly tell the story of lives changed to balance the costs with the impact of the benefits. We told our story and received our initial funds, now we plan to share our story to put down a new floor to the gym.

To whom?

Tell the story to everyone and often. Lives changed should be celebrated not for what we did individually and collectively rather for what God is doing in people's lives. We start every meeting with: How has God blessed this ministry since the last time we met?

Visuals?

Use pictures and images to share the stories. Impact brings liked minded people to participate in your journey with you.

Stories can have a tremendous influence on people's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors within an organization. Storytelling goes hand in hand with good active listening skills in a leader. Leaders listen to stories from their supervisors, employees, customers, and vendors to construct what is strong and good about the organization. Stories connect people with the processes of the organization and allow long lasting positive changes to be implemented.

Stories can make sense of complex situations, connecting them together for a common purpose and goal, inspire action, and invoke powerful images of success that improves organizations. Howard Gardner, in his book Leading Minds, says: "Stories are the most powerful weapon in a leader's arsenal." Create a positive organizational culture, one of inquiry and positive stories.