What is church ministry, and how can you improve the ministry at your church to engage more members and keep up with the modern trends? Read this article to have these questions answered with detailed insights.
We use the word “ministry” to mean a lot of different things these days. You might be wondering, what is a ministry? What does the Bible say?
If that’s what you’re thinking, this is the article for you. We’ll define church ministry, talk about the different types of ministry your church should have, and provide 9 tips to improve church ministry, especially considering some modern trends.
Church ministry refers to any action taken on behalf of the church that serves its mission in some way. Ministry might look like preaching, volunteering, going on mission trips, or any small actions that make your church a better place.
Church ministry is important because it helps develop relationships between God’s people and the church. Plus, it strengthens your mission!
Several passages in the Bible point to the importance of ministry and define it as a willing act of service to God. For example, this section from Matt 28:19-20 states:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”
Ministry is an important duty for churchgoers to share and work for the word of God.
Donorbox started a dedicated pillar called Donorbox MinistryMatters to develop and offer giving tools, features, and services that specifically help churches and their ministries. Learn more in the below video.
Sign Up for Donorbox MinistryMatters
Now that we have a better idea that ministry is an action, let’s talk about the five types of ministries churches have.
This is the most obvious type of ministry, where someone serves by worshiping God. This service helps your church, too, with activities like leading worship and collecting prayers.
Outreach ministry includes efforts to share the gospel with people outside of your church. These actions look like serving in the community, hosting Bible study groups, and recruiting more people to join your church.
Teaching as a form of ministry is just what it sounds like! Whether in your church or your community, it is an important act of ministry since it helps educate others about the Bible and your religious teachings.
Guest services ministry plays an important role in building your church’s community. These are the people stationed around your church to answer questions and make people feel welcome. They also help plan and execute welcome mixers after services and other social gatherings.
This ministry helps guide the children at your church and in your community. Actions in children’s ministry include teaching Sunday school, planning outings for kids, and serving as a youth group leader.
Use these tips for a stronger sense of ministry in your church. To learn about current trends for your church, check out this list of 10 major church trends to watch in 2023.
Hybrid church, with both virtual and in-person offerings, is a big trend these days. More and more people are interested in being able to connect with their church virtually.
Offering hybrid opportunities for your church members to perform their ministry will help improve your church ministry overall. For example, they can assist with virtual services or lead an online discussion board to engage new online members.
While having in-person offerings is a great way to encourage people to come to the church, the online option seems to be more popular with the younger generation. Millennials are more comfortable committing to church when they can do it from home.
Check out our guide to hybrid church to learn more about this practice.
A youth ministry does a lot for your church. In addition to providing meaningful connections to the young people in your congregation, it also creates opportunities for more ministry in your church.
Youth ministries or youth groups often do a lot of outreach, too. It is said that doing good in the community is the key to Gen Z. 69% of them are looking for churches that provide them with such opportunities. Your church can encourage the youth group to take up community service work. This will build up your church ministry with thoughtful, consistent action.
You will be able to involve and engage more young members in your church and have ardent supporters for volunteering and fundraising work.
Building a culture of involvement is the key to strengthening your ministry and stewarding more action. Start with these actions –
Encouraging more involvement starts with you!
A great way to improve your church ministry is to understand what the members of your church are interested in doing.
You can collect this information in a few ways –
Once you have that information, you have a list of people interested in specific types of ministry and can target your communications better. This is a more modern way to build up your ministry!
When you build a fully-customized church donation form on Donorbox, you can add a designation option to it that gives your church givers the power to select which ministry they want to support. This information is saved in the Donorbox database for you to track and make the most of the data for targeted communications.
Fundraising to support your ministry means you have the resources necessary to support valuable ministry work and the people doing it!
Donorbox MinistryMatters enables thousands of churches to fundraise for their ministries with powerful tools to collect online tithes and offerings. You can set up as many different campaigns as you’d like to support different areas of your ministry.
Here are some powerful Donorbox products and features that help churches boost giving –
And there are more. Explore all features and integrations of Donorbox on the website.
Tithing is a large part of worship and ministry, so it’s vital to have an efficient way to collect donated funds to support your church! Check out how Abide Ministries embeds the Donorbox recurring donation form on their website donation page to accept online tithes and offerings from their supporters.
Fundraise for Your Church Ministry!
Asking more people to partake in your church ministry sounds simple, but can be difficult to execute. That’s where your call to ministry comes in. People are more likely to participate in the church when they feel inspired to do so.
This inspiration comes from your sermons that should include a call to ministry – like a call to action – that encourages them to step up and participate in your church to fulfill their spiritual duty.
Need inspiration? Check out our guide to writing a great sermon.
Church volunteering is down overall, so it’s especially important to put some more effort into reimagining and reigniting your volunteer program.
Using donor management can help you rebuild your volunteer program with targeted, personalized outreach to your top supporters. With Donorbox Donor Management, you can sort your supporters by a variety of filters so you know exactly who you should reach out to.
Donors are automatically added when they donate through Donorbox, or you can manually add offline donors and volunteers to track their involvement with your church. You can also add communication notes to donor profiles on Donorbox (as shown below) that help keep track of which kind of ministry they’re interested in.
A big trend these days is that people are looking for unique experiences. Finding a community outreach opportunity that’s unique and fun is a great way to get people who otherwise wouldn’t participate in your ministry to roll up their sleeves and get started.
And once they get started, they’re more likely to come back again!
Think about unique issues in your area and come up with an experience-based outreach day that can attract a wide variety of churchgoers.
Pro tip: To determine attendance for your outreach day, you can have people sign up for tickets through Donorbox Events. This way, they get any specific information they need via an automated email with a receipt and their ticket. Plus, they have the option to make an additional donation as they check out with their tickets.
Bringing more people into the church is an important act of ministry. It also helps increase attendance and grow your church.
Ask your church members to bring a friend, colleague, neighbor, or family member to a special service. Connecting with these new people improves your church ministry while sticking with the modern trend of churches being as welcoming to the community as possible.
Pro tip: Ask visitors to fill out a connection card or sign a guest book so you can keep in touch and encourage them to return on their own.
We’ve learned that “ministry” isn’t only a noun – it’s also a verb. Church ministry means acting in a way that helps spread the word of God, whether that’s preaching, serving in the community, or teaching Sunday school.
These tips will improve your church ministry while keeping the latest church trends in mind.
Donorbox MinistryMatters is our dedicated pillar for all things church fundraising. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to revamp a stale fundraising strategy, we have the tools you need to succeed in your church ministry. Sign up to start fundraising for your church today.
Plus, we have tons of resources on our Nonprofit Blog, in Donorbox Library, through classes in Donorbox Academy, and more! Subscribe to our blog newsletter to receive a curated list of Donorbox’s best resources in your inbox every month.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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Lindsey Baker Bower