Making a Connection by introducing Serving at your Church
A church deciding to use MTN as a means to organize and restructure the inner workings of their ministries have a great opportunity to change the 
culture of their church. MTN is a great tool to aid in the impact that churches and ministries have locally. There are a few steps you should take to ensure that you’re using MTN to receive maximum benefits for your church, your partners, and your members . With the launch of any type of program or new campaign you must first do research to see how you can incorporate your new idea into the current structure. This takes planning and communication within leadership to now decide what the roll out plan will be in your church.
With any church the vision flows from the senior or executive leadership down to the ministry/lay leaders, to now influence the congregation into action. Getting your senior leader to promote and become a strong advocate for your private-labeled MTN campaign is a great step towards introduction. This allows not only leaders to jump on board but also challenges followers to start serving. The Senior Pastor can even launch into a sermon series that focuses on serving not only internally but externally and offering your campaign (MTN) as a solution.
“Getting Plugged in”
Once your campaign is launched don’t let the focus disappear or just fall off the map. Incorporate your MTN campaign into the ongoing discipleship or membership process. You can have all new members go through individual registration and sign-up as a member of your organization. You can even go a step further and have a serving event be a part of a new members or leadership class. Doing this will now familiarize them with MTN and encourage them to find other avenues to serve in the community. This is a great connector tool to connect people with opportunities to use their spiritual gifts and talents.
“Shifting the Gears”
Now with your MTN campaign launched get your small /life groups involved. Have your small groups serve together on a regular basis. You can even create a small group that focuses on serving in the community. This is a great way to incorporate MTN without changing the function or dynamic of the group. This is also a great way to break the ice by launching a new small group around a serving event in order to get to know each other while making a difference.
“Promote It”
– As with anything promotion is key to making events/campaigns successful.
Make sure you print “visual reminders” to connect the campaign with an image. Bulletin boards and bullet inserts are great ways to keep your MTN campaign in everyone’s mind. Another great way to publicize MTN is by hosting a Missions’s fair. Give members the chance to see the need of the local community. This will allow them the opportunity to see what areas need the most support. All you have to do is invite all local ministries to your church and set up booths or tables for them to display their service or area of need. Now members can interact directly with representatives.
“Share your Results”
-Highlight feedback from your experiences.
As your small groups and members serve take time to have them submit testimonials or reflections of their experiences. This is a great way to appeal to others who haven’t connected with an opportunity to serve. This is also a great way to keep leadership informed of the impact that the church is having and can merit them suggesting more focus to your campaign to the church.
With the correct steps taken to fully launch and implement MTN, you will be in a position to let the system work for you with minimal upkeep. These are just a few key components to successfully launching a MTN serving campaign at your church. To see all 10 suggestions download the Top 10 Keys to Enliven You Church Through Serving document to see how you can increase your church’s efforts using MTN.
