My Go-To Ministry Tools

What do you need to be effective in your ministry today? Prayer of course. And a certain openness to the Spirit helps. All of us need support of a pastor or other ministry colleagues to avoid isolation and burnout. And a desire to continue to follow our callings and a belief that what we’re doing is fueled by our deep purpose helps us move through unimaginable obstacles.

I don’t want to minimize any of these foundational necessities, but I also believe we need tools—tangible tools—that we can rely on to infuse efficiency in our jobs. Practically speaking, we need tools. So, what are the tools you have come to depend on in recent years?

Most of my “go to” tools are digital. Much of what I do—webinars, presentations with PowerPoints, newsletters, and so on—are visual. That’s why I rely on these everyday tools: Canva, Unsplash, Pocket, and Zoom (of course).

• Canva.com — Canva is my design tool of choice for presentations, flyers, newsletters, images for social media, invitations to events—everything! Nearly a decade ago, the makers “launched Canva with the dream of empowering the world to design.” Canva makes it easy. This would feel like I was sharing by best design secret, except it’s not a secret anymore. Canva recently reached the milestone of 100 million users and boasts “200 designs being created every single second—from engaging videos to interactive pitch decks, inspiring classroom presentations, captivating personal websites, collaborative whiteboards… and a whole lot more.” Anyone can create gorgeous designs with Canva, with an incredible array of templates across a series of categories. It is an intuitive tool. You can choose the free, professional, or team account.
• Unsplash.com — To make Canva all the more powerful I use images from Unsplash, described by the company as: “The internet’s source for visuals. Powered by creators everywhere.” Unsplash makes it easy to search for beautiful images for any ministry need. Simply type a word into the search box—family, mom, dad, children, prayer, friendship, lent, advent, and so on—and choose from a variety of artists’ works. Unsplash photos are made to be used freely. They provide a license that allows photos to be downloaded and used for free, for commercial and non-commercial purposes, no extra permissions are needed, though they do say “attribution is appreciated!” (See their licensing description for specific non-uses.) I used to spend way too much time looking for just the right photo (hours). Now Unsplash has made that work easy. And it’s free.
• GetPocket.com — Pocket is a great way to create a library of resources. I discovered this tool years ago when a colleague bemoaned that she already had way too many folders of saved articles that she would never get to because she didn’t have time to go back and organize. And so often she would not print an article because it would just become more of a reminder of her already crowded “must read” files on her computer, taking up space. I searched and found this tool does the organizing for you. When I come across an article that might be helpful, whether for a bulletin blog, a letter to parents, a presentation, a paper for school, whatever – I can save it to my Pocket. Then I can tag it for helpful descriptions. In doing this I am creating a library of research and resources. I have tags for parents, for children’s faith formation, for parent formation, for church seasons, for church issues, everything. When I want to find something, it is at the tip of my fingers if I saved it to my Pocket. This tool was also created about 10 years ago and I use it almost daily. The makers describe this tool as “Your own private corner of the web to spend quality time with great articles.” Their advice: “Stop sending yourself links. When you come across a long read, interview, think piece, even a recipe, save it to your personal Pocket…” Then tag it to make it easy to find. Pocket also has free and professional accounts to choose from.
• Zoom.com — I probably don’t need to say much about Zoom. We all used this or some similar tool during the pandemic, and probably still do to at least some degree. Zoom’s tagline is: “In this together. Keeping you securely connected wherever you are.” Many of us stayed connected this way throughout Covid, whether connecting with children in faith formation programs, with families in an effort to keep them engaged, or members of the church to support them in whatever way we could. I know I also used Zoom to stay in touch with friends or family I didn’t see for what seemed like forever. Zoom made it possible to continue some type of programming, to provide webinars, to have breakout sessions, and to allow classes to be interactive. There are also apps that integrate with Zoom to help increase that interactivity--PollEverywhere and Mentimeter are two. These apps allow participants to weigh in on issues or questions brought up by the leader/presenter. As much as we’ve all suffered Zoom fatigue, this tool has been beneficial to so many ministries these last few years.

These are not the only tools that I use in my ministry, but these are my “day in and day out” helps that make me more efficient, and hopefully help me reach more people for the mission. I am sure there are many more tools I have yet to discover, so please share your tools with all of us. Ministry is an “us” effort. We do more for the Kingdom of God together than we could ever do alone.

Originally published on October 17, 2022 for Vibrant Faith’s Online Community - https://vibrant-faith-catalyst.mn.co/