How to Tell an Effective Story About Your Ministry

If you are a missionary serving in the field, you're having an impact. The feeling of success may be slow, or it may be sonic speed of life change. Either way, you have an overwhelming need to communicate the daily ministry to your ministry partners, who are having an impact on people's lives with you.

WHAT KIND OF STORIES SHOULD YOU TELL?

There is an opportunity to tell many different stories, and each can have impact on your ministry and financial partners. There are stories of need, illustrating the importance of your ministry in a certain field or people group. There are stories of life change, relating the impact that has been made because you and your ministry chose to invest in a certain people group. 

WHAT MAKES A GOOD STORY?

1- Introduce the person. This will be the person you are going to follow throughout your story. Tell any history or details, but be sure to only include details that relate to the life change you will communicate.

2- Focus on the barriers. There are hardships, years of investment, or possibly other life challenges this person faced in order to experience the life change you are telling about.

3- Unfold the life change. Begin to explain the life change this person experienced, and how the ministry was involved.

4- Create a powerful ending line. Be sure to end the story well, and then be willing to leave the story there. It is a great practice to be able to end a story of life change in a way that causes the other person to continue thinking about what you said.

5- Keep it short. Intentionally tell the story in a way that's brief and memorable.

Most importantly, you should be finding true stories from your ministry that illustrate the vision and values of your ministry. Taking an opportunity to tell a story to your financial, prayer, and ministry partners should be regularly scheduled in your calendar.

WHAT SHOULD YOU AVOID?

Most of the time, the only problem you might run into is the Christian ministry jargon you choose to use with partners who have no idea what you mean because they don’t live in your world. Be willing to use business-world type words to describe your ministry, rather than the descriptors you typically use with your team members serving alongside you on the field.

Incomparably, the best medium to accomplish that communication is through a story of life change.