In my time doing Millennial Ministry to both Youth and Young Adults over the last decade, I’ve learned the importance of building a thriving system that promotes both numeric and spiritual growth. Over the years I’ve seen and celebrated lots of individual “one off” events and services until I began to see the power or creating consistent success. As we began to learn how to string together multiple victories, we started to see the “BIG MO” come into play, and from that we watched God bless the ministry greatly. Some people treat ministry momentum as if it is something that prayer alone will bring. But I honestly feel that if we added a plan as we pray, God will move on what we are doing in a much greater way.
Here are 10 ways to build Millennial Ministry Momentum that I taught at The International Pastors and Leaders Conference 2016:
(1) Scheduled meetings with the core leaders and volunteers
I’ve found that when my team knows the details of my plans as a leader, they can support it much better. Most good leaders like a sense of being informed before the masses know what’s happening. The quickest way to kill momentum is to not inform the muscles behind the machine, especially when you are expecting them to flex.
(2) Echoing the vision early and often
Most Millennial’s have major long-term commitment issues. Reminding them of where you are heading and why will go a long way in ensuring the level of focus needed to finish strong and for them to stay engaged. This also weeds out any rabbit trail ideas brought to the table. If it doesn't line up with the vision that you are echoing, it makes it much easier to stay focused on your goals. Nothing can slow momentum like broken focus.
(3) Treat base hits like home runs
I go crazy over the smallest victories. Waiting to see home runs before you choose to celebrate could take too long. Find something that has gone well… ANYTHING… then take it before your group and go crazy about it. Someone got saved , go crazy! Someone gets a promotion or a new job, celebrate it! This conditions the mind of the people following you that not only are you as a leader a winner, but so are they. And tell me one person who doesn't want to follow a ministry with a winning spirit that makes them feel like a winner too. Everyone loves to win.
(4) Make every big event point to the next big event
This might just be the single most important key to building the “BIG MO”. Being able to get a large crowd is pretty tough to do all by it’s self, getting that crowd back into the build again could be even harder to do. When planning your events, be sure to contemplate where you would like to go next. Then with whats next in mind, plan marketing around pointing to the next big event/service coming up. Even if it’s months away, you can’t afford NOT to cash in on the room full of people and the fact that you have their attention to get them excited about what’s next.
(5) Over hype/sale everything
When trying to build momentum, marketing is such a key component. Building the content is good, but making sure that the content is pushed out to the masses is such a critical step. The more content the better, the more post, the better. And the sooner you can get the marketing out on the event the better. I have found that sometimes people may not like the amount of marketing that we push at times, but one thing is for certain. They will KNOW when and where our ext event will be because we over sale/hype everything.
(6) Hosting Social Media Parties
Send out a group message to your entire team. Let them know that you would like all of them to post to social media all at the same time with the same content. This creates a buzz on social media, not only with your followers, but with the followers of all of your leadership team.
(7) Propitiate all big wins
If and when you have a sizable victory, find a way to ride the wave as long as you can. This could mean spending an extra week or so on the current series. Maybe adding an extra day to what was a successful event. And most important, talk about the win as much as possible… EVERYWHERE you have an audience.
(8) Celebrate your team members
Your team has to be just as much of a priority as the dream. Keeping them happy and feeling appreciated is a key component to them not checking out on your vision. Most people leave our teams, not because they no longer have time or they are burned out. They leave for the lack of appreciation and celebration. Schedule times where you make it your business to celebrate your team members. Send an occasional personal message telling them what you appreciate about them, believe me, it goes a long way. Otherwise, they will find someone else to help build ministry momentum with.
(9) Spend more time celebrating the wins and less time crying over the loses
Nothing wrong with talking about what went wrong, but there is something wrong with “dwelling and retelling” what went wrong. Let’s just go ahead and establish the fact that there will be some failures along the road to building ministry momentum, but the worst thing you could do is to spend too much time focusing on the negatives. It has a way of spreading to your entire team and also your followers. Find a way to keep the attention on the positives and not the negatives.
(10) Pray and prophesy over your leaders
Pay very close attention to leaders who follow you that will not allow you to speak into their lives or pray over them. It usually will not be with their words, but with their actions or emotional dispositions. This is usually an indicator of a loss of respect orWhen building momentum, It is vital that you and your team are all on one accord. If you sense a disconnect from one of your team members, address it quickly before it spreads to any of the other team members. A Good rhythm of prayer with your team will usually be enough to keep the team grounded.