At any given time your church members are probably no more than an arm’s length from their mobile devices. Mobile technology has become an ingrained part of our culture, sometimes to a fault. So how can you cut through the distraction it causes and maximize the opportunity it presents to connect with your people?
Before you follow the crowd and mindlessly jump into the mobile pool, consider these five suggestions on how best to integrate the use of mobile into the flow of your church’s ministry:
1. Develop a process and plan for how you'll use it.
The church systems and processes you implement as a leader directly impact the behaviors and outcomes of those you lead. Effective processes set expectations, offer clarity, equip and train others for service, support people, evaluate success, and offer accountability.
2. Identify your high level goals.
- What is it you want to change? Why? What is it you hope to achieve by implementing a new process? By implementing mobile? Bottom line — you need to know where you want to go, what options there are for getting there, and what it will take to accomplish that vision. This is where an outside consultant can often help walk you through that process.
3. Get early staff buy-in.
Motivated users of the technology will take it and run with it, and you need to identify those champions early in the implementation process. You are in the process of changing the culture, and organizational experts say that culture change is dependent on creating ‘product evangelists’ out of key persons below the top level of leadership. This would include staff members and church members.
4. Encourage people to use it—and stick with it.
This may sound obvious given that it follows buy-in, but here’s the thing. There is always an initial surge when implementing technology, but inertia has killed many a good transition. Top leaders must keep motivating staff and, with the help of the tech evangelists, overcome the inertia to get to the tipping point. It is then that change becomes part of the culture.
5. Create a culture of experimentation in your ministry.
Here is a truism: The evolution of technology will continue. The good news is that if you successfully implement mobile into your church’s culture, that culture will evolve with the trends. New and useful apps will rise to the surface and be integrated, and having that culture already in place will enhance that.
"At any given time your church members are probably no more than and arm's length aways from their mobile devices."
In every technology decision we make in ministry, we need to consider not only the ‘why’ behind it but also the ‘how’ to execute it. We don’t need to be wary of technology; we just need to leverage it effectively
Are you ‘going mobile’ with purpose or just following the crowd? How can you be more focused in your approach?
There's always a next step:
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