Christian Creative Agency – Prayer
For the last couple of weeks I have been addressing all of the pieces that go into our brand development process. Today I’m going to take a break from talking about the services we offer and talk about something that will take your ministry to places you can’t imagine. The exciting part is that it’s absolutely free, and not like the type of free we’ve all seen that comes with a catch or is followed up by some type of sales pitch. It’s no secret, based on the title of this post, that I’m referring to prayer. Prayer is more powerful, and we believe will have a far greater impact on your ministry, than anything else you can do, service you can find, or product you can buy. That’s coming from a Christian creative agency offering services to help your ministry grow.
Prayer is Powerful
1 Chronicles 16:11 – “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” Matthew 7:7 – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you.” There are seemingly endless verses regarding prayer throughout scripture, but these verses are my favorites. They are so simple and applicable to running a ministry. “Seek his face always.” “Ask, and it will be given to you.” As Christian ministries, and specifically ministry owner’s, prayer must be an integral part of our organizations, whether ministry or church. If we want our ministries to be as affective as possible for the Kingdom of God, then we’ve got to pray. Prayer is communication with the Lord and the best way to keep our ministries in line with His direction is continually seeking God’s guidance. After all, it was God that lead us to start our ministries in the first place, right? I believe prayer to be the single most important thing we can do to grow our ministries.
As a Christian creative agency, Reliant Creative is designed and built to help other ministries grow and reach their target audiences more affectively through great storytelling and brand development. If you never used any of our services, or any other creative agency services; if you never took your ministry brand and storytelling seriously, but you dedicated your ministry to consistent and constant prayer, it would be far more beneficial than anything we could ever do for your ministry. That’s not to say we don’t believe what we can do for ministry works, on the contrary, we strongly believe we can help you grow in considerable ways, but prayer is a far more affective tool than anything we can do for you. Pray continually!
Prayer within your Ministry.
Daniel is one of my favorite men in scripture. The bible says that Daniel got on his knees in prayer 3 times a day. Daniel was faithful in prayer and he found himself in leadership roles throughout multiple regime changes in his life. Now, please don’t hear me wrong. I’m not saying you should use prayer as some bargaining chip to get what you want from God. Our motivation for prayer should be founded on a simple desire to know God more intimately. This analogy has been used a million times before, but I can’t build a strong, intimate relationship with my wife if I don’t talk with her. The same is true for our relationship with Christ. Assuming our motivations are in line, prayer is an essential tool for growing our ministries and making sure we are in line with what God wants from the ministries He has called us to build. The exciting part about prayer is that it’s not just something an executive director can do for a ministry, but everyone within the ministry can participate.
Most likely God is going to speak to and guide the person he has called to lead the direction of the ministry, but we can lead our teams in praying on behalf of our ministry’s. We pray in community all the time in our bible studies and churches. Why should our ministries be any different? In 2 Corinthians 1:11, Paul asks the church to help his work through prayer, so we know that Paul believed that multiple people praying for something specific had the power to move God’s hand. We believe that multiple voices asking God for the same thing can cause him to answer those prayers. Now, there are other factors like faith that affect the effectiveness of prayer as well, but this post is not meant to be a doctrinal look into prayer. We simply want to encourage prayer in your ministry because we believe it has power. Lead your ministry team in prayer, and don’t be surprised when God starts moving in amazing ways. But, let’s not stop at praying individually, or praying with our team for our ministries. We also have supporters and a donor base that can help our ministries in prayer as well.
Supporter and Donor Prayer
As ministries, we rely on supporters and donors for our ministries to run. I have referred to your donor base as your target audience in most posts. These are the people who invest in your ministry, who believe in what you are doing so much that they invest money, and possibly time into your work. I’ve talked a lot about creating a great brand experience for your supporters and donors. We believe prayer is the single best way to create that great brand experience. Yes, you need to tell your story well, but inviting your supporter and donor base into prayer for your ministry creates ownership and intimacy with your brand. Prayer is an incredibly intimate act. When we pray, we are going before the throne of God. We are building a deep and intimate relationship with Christ. Praying for something creates a deep desire for that something to happen. When we invite our supporters into prayer for our ministry, it creates ownership and deep investment in our ministry. Supporters desire for those prayers to be answered. When they are answered it creates even more investment and support because they see their prayers being answered. If you only use one tool to create a brand experience for your audience, let it be prayer.
A Simple Equation
Let your supporter’s know what you need prayer for, and be honest. When those prayers are answered, make sure you update your supporters on those answered prayers. Share what God is doing through your ministry, and through your supporters prayers. This is all part of your storytelling process. We want to share what God is doing through our ministries for his glory. When you do that your supporters will get excited that they got to be a part of God’s work. They will have ownership and feel as if they’ve been a part of something bigger than themselves, and rightfully so. Pray continually. Pray for your ministry. Lead your team in prayer, and ask for prayer from your supporters. When those prayers are answered, share that story for God’s glory. Ask God to move. This simple equation will make a world of difference for your ministry.
