Clearly Describe Your Ministry
Courtesy of David Locke/Creative Commons A few months ago I had a youth minister from a local church visit me to discuss student ministry. He wanted...
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| Courtesy of robinsonsmay/Creative Commons License |
How good is your elevator speech? If you aren’t familiar with that term, it’s when you have to get your point across, or make your pitch to someone as if you were riding an elevator. The goal is not to speak quickly but to say more by speaking less. It can be an exhausting exercise if you like to take your time explaining concepts, using analogies and specific examples. Chances are you’ve never really been in a situation where you had to get your point across in two minutes, and then again maybe you’ve never realized you’ve been in that situation. You thought you had the time, you thought you had their focus, but all they needed was a quick answer.
For example the time:
- A parent called you on the phone with questions about your program.
- The friend of a teen who’s never been to church
- A potential minister who is unsure whether or not he/she can make the commitment.
Believe it or not you’ve been in that situation, you just didn’t realize it and rambled on for too long without
CLEARLY COMMUNICATING THE BOTTOM LINE.
To get to that point takes more than just practice, because you want to make sure you say the right thing. To put together the best elevator speech you should figure out:
- What It Is You Want Them To Know: At the end of your spiel the person listening should be able to repeat back to you the bottom line. If there is one thing they must know what is it? Should they know that small groups create big change? Or, connecting in an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ comes through connecting in authentic relationships with Christ followers? What’s that one thing?
- What It Is You Want Them To Do: What’s the purpose to your spiel? How should they react to your statement? Should they join your ministry? Sign their kid up for the camp? What direction are you trying to send them in? Know where it is you want to send them before you tell them anything.
- How To Put It In One Sentence: In an elevator ride chances are you only have a few minutes. If you can explain your ministry, event or opportunity in a sentence or two you won’t lose them in the details. Condensing your pitch into a sentence will force you to be clear and concrete because you won’t waste a word.
- How To Make It Memorable: When you take your time to explain everything you sometimes explain too much. The goal is to make it attractive enough so that they want more. If you make it memorable they’ll have questions, and that’s when you can fill in the blanks. Get them interested by making your message compelling.
Again, it’s not the most attractive exercise; however, if you can lay down in a sentence or two your vision, mission, purpose or general ministry then people will begin to listen and then pursue. We live in a noisy world, and to get your message out there you need to make sure you craft it, tweak it and practice. It’s through clear communication that people begin to invest and pour into your ministry.
What other steps do you take to clearly communicate the bottom line?