Online Extensions for Your Ministry

You are in ministry.  You might be the pastor or a ministry leader.  You are responsible for the ministry's or the church's success.  Well, we can say at least to some degree.  We all know that Lord is the head of the church.  You know what I mean.

I believe in utilizing a variety of sources to keep Life Path Ministries & Services afloat.  Surely, I do not shun donations from supporters and friends, but I cannot rely solely on such support when hard times hit people all around America.  I have to spread out and seek other forms of support, especially online.

Here's a short list of what you can do to spread out online:

• Sell, Sell, and Sell Some More: One of my earliest online ventures was to add a merchandising storefront on Zazzle.  I love it.  One of my most successful items has been the I Love My Neighbor t-shirt.  We used this for our Love Your Neighbor Campaign as part of Operation Reach Out.  It'll be back again this year.  Maybe we'll do tie dye.  You can sell all sorts of goods.  Got volunteers? Drive them (and direct them) to your storefront's link via Facebook, Twitter and other online communities and communications, even your website.
• Start Publishing: It's a gem.  I love writing and I really love writing about ministry, especially writing about evangelism.  I write and publish books on ministry, offering them to audiences online and in print.  How? I use Lulu.  Yep.  I said: Lulu.  On Lulu, I have a storefront for e-Books and print-on-demand books.  Frustrated with some materials that only catered to churches that afford and only dream of affording various software and systems to manage everything from accounting to just plain membership, I wrote "When the Laborers are Few." This free downloadable e-Book has been downloaded by people in all sorts of ministries.  Missionaries, evangelists and prayer warriors, even a new pastor, have downloaded this e-Book and commented on how it opened their eyes to new ways to operating their church or their ministry.  Start publishing and start sharing.
• Look at Other Models: Anyone who knows me in ministry will eventually hear me mention Life Church.  I read about this church in Outreach Magazine a few years ago and got excited.  They do multi-site church like I don't know what.  I love the whole concept.  Their tech guys are constantly whipping out something new.  You have to visit their site or YouVersion.  How often do bloggers- who scramble and scrounge everywhere for subscribers- compliment and tell readers to go to someone else's blog? Well, I say check out Life Church's Swerve blog.  You'll get hooked and get hooked up, and I don't get any glory for it.  I just think that it will help you in extending your ministry online.  It is worth a look.