For the last several decades churches have been trying to figure out how to reach the members of their community that are in their 20’s and 30’s. Years ago these groups were called the Singles Group, which later became the College and Career Group, which became more succinct when shifted to Young Adults. Now, the groups have all kinds of clever names, but they goal of each one is to…
…REACH THE MILLENNIALS.
This current group of young adults seem to be giving churches all over the country trouble as ministry leaders try to figure out how in the world to engage them, get them to attend services, be involved in serving, and ultimately become active members of their faith communities.
There is a load of information about how to understand Millennials, how to engage them, and how to appeal to their worldview that we will be discussing in the weeks to come. But, before we dive into all of that, I wanted to give you a tool that will help you visualize how you can be effective engaging Millennials.
In conversations with ministry leaders about this Millennial dilemma, I hear their frustration because what they often hear is that they need more contemporary worship, more dynamic technology, or a better online presence but they feel trapped between this knowledge and their limited budgets. Too often the response is, “we just aren’t able to reach Millennials”.
Though I will agree that the way to the way to capture a Millennials attention is to increase your use, awareness, and utilization of technology, Millennials are much deeper than that.
Ultimately, they want opportunity, relationships, and a cause to get behind.
So, I encourage ministry leaders to look at what they are already doing and either adjust it or redirect it in such a way to meet the needs of Millennials. This is why I designed the Ministry Value Canvas.
The Ministry Value Canvas is just a part of the Ministry Model Canvas, which we will discuss more in the weeks to come as well. What this canvas provides is a tool for ministry leaders to visualize what they already have and how it can reach a particular demographic. Or it can be used to brainstorm innovative ministry approaches that are not already being used and test whether or not they will be effective.
There are two sides of the canvas: the demographic you are trying to reach on the right and the value you potentially add to that demographic.
On the right side, take your observations about your chosen demographic and place them in the proper areas.
What are their activities?
What benefits are they looking for?
What pains are they looking to avoid?
On the left side, you are going to want to design a way to address what you have observed on the right side.
What ministry do you offer or do you want to offer?
How does this ministry create a way to achieve the desired benefits observed on the right side for your demographic?
How does this ministry address or avoid the pains observed on the right side for your demographic?
When you have designed a ministry that creates value by offering the benefits and avoiding the pains your desired demographic is looking for, then you have a starting point on how to reach them.
Going back to the beginning, if you are trying to reach Millennials like so many other ministry leaders are, this is a tool to start exploring how to do that in your community with what you already have at your disposal. But…
…you can use this for any demographic.
Whether it is Millennials, single moms, 50somethings, or teenagers, you can use this canvas as many times as you need to test your ministry effectiveness and reach new demographics you are not already reaching.
As I mentioned, this is just the beginning. There is a whole Church Model Canvas that these two pieces fit into, and as we explore this further in the coming weeks, you will be able to use this Church Value Canvas to assess your own ministries.
Be sure to get your Ministry Value Canvas today and start playing around with your existing ministries or exploring ministries you aren’t even using right now. The nice thing is that you can experiment with the canvas and not upset anyone in the process.
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