3 Shifts To Unleash Ministry Potential: Common Frameworks, Tech, and Collective Strength

What’s most interesting? Ministry leaders report seeing a relationship between the health of their people and the health of their church. It turns out that when we focus on growing the person, church growth occurs too—as measured by indicators such as attendance and engagement.  

As leaders embrace a new, expanded scorecard for health, their ability to have more missional impact also increases. And, common frameworks make it more accessible and usable to ministry leaders everywhere. 

2. Use Technology To Increase Your Missional Impact. 

If you were around technology in the early days of the World Wide Web, you may remember the letters TCP/IP. The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) reshaped the world, because now software and hardware could communicate with a common standard, changing the world we live in from its introduction in 1983.

So, if common frameworks can release the potential energy in a community, then common technology protocols can make it scale. At Gloo, we’re passionate about shaping and using technology for good. We focus on ways to connect, deploy, and improve tech so leaders across the faith community can reach more people—and more effectively. 

Tools such as assessments, dashboards, and personalized next steps allow church leaders, congregants, parachurches, content creators, and donors to serve one another. Surveys and content make it easier for would-be lay leaders to raise their hand and help beyond-busy pastors build leadership capacity. Dashboards and reports inspire potential volunteers and donors to meet needs with their time and treasure.

As faithful leaders, we can’t ignore technology. In today’s digital environment that includes an exponentially growing digital mission field, it’s a moral imperative to discern and intentionally use the tools that can support our mission.

Take artificial intelligence as one example, for example. Pastors should educate themselves about AI and how it’s impacting their church members. AI is disrupting and transforming industries worldwide, and the faith ecosystem isn’t exempt. As technology develops at a breakneck speed, people are looking to leaders to understand how to navigate this new landscape. In fact, Barna found that over half of Gen Z Christians (57%) would like to hear from their pastor on using AI in personal communication. Meanwhile, only 14% of pastors feel this topic is a very important one to be teaching on. Here, artificial intelligence presents a near-term opportunity to disciple younger congregants in a relevant and needed way.

When it comes to using artificial intelligence for church purposes, every leader will need to discern when and how to use the tools. Barna has reported that a majority of pastors say they’d be comfortable using AI for graphic design (88%) and marketing-related tasks (78%), but only 12% are okay with using AI to write sermons. With the rise of generative AI tools that compile multiple information sources, more preachers are seeing the potential for help with research and sermon preparation. 

When it comes to using AI to strengthen discipleship and relationships, most pastors are wary of any relational uses of AI; only 6% say they’d be comfortable using AI as a counseling tool, for example.

The question isn’t whether technology like AI will be useful in ministry; instead, we need to seek out trusted, values-aligned tools to steward responsibly for ministry. Pastors are already leveraging technology in a variety of ways, such as expanding engagement beyond Sundays and communicating with community residents. And their people think they can increase their use of technology. According to recent Barna research from The State of the Church, a majority of Christians say more churches could benefit from tools like online giving (75%) and a digital resource hub (74%), as well as better social media outreach (70%) and digital communication strategies (68%).

Of course, no technology should ever replace the primacy and God-created design of face relationships. But it can make the work that people do—even in churches—easier, faster, and more effective.

3. Leverage Your Collective Strengths.

In Boulder, Colorado, where the Gloo headquarters are, we are all captivated by the power of team. Yes, our Gloo team is amazing, but I’m talking about what happened to Colorado’s football program. The program struggled for years, but Coach Prime brought a clear vision. He called his players to hard work, teamship, and faith. And, the team has caught the attention of Boulder and the world.