Have you ever worked long and hard, all day, only to discover at the end of your day you really accomplished nothing? Yes, it is true you can have activity without productivity. The more that I work with Pastors and Christian leaders, the more I see that the majority of their time is spent putting out fires instead of expanding their ministry.  If this has been your mode of operating, I encourage you to no longer operate in firefighter mode but to know that expanding your reach is your number one priority.

If your serious about expanding your ministry each day you should invest time in activities that expand your reach. The amount of time that you will need to invest depends on the goals of your organization.  I recommend that you devote 2-4 hours each day on activities that will expand your ministry.  I know that this may be hard for you to grasp at first however; this is what it takes if you’re serious. Without people to serve your ministry has no reason to exist. First, I want to list some of the tasks you absolutely should not do during your dedicated EYR time:

• Check voicemails
• Plan or book travel
• File
• Run errands
• Balance your checkbook
• Talk to staff members
• Engage in idle chat
• Plan meetings
• Respond to low-priority e-mail
• Surf the internet
• Pay bills
• Take or make personal phone calls
• Watch television
• Explore new apps

Sample EYR activities to consider focusing on, depending on your niche, your unique grace, and your expansion plan include:

• Building strategic alliances
• Teaching
• Writing (sermons, articles, newsletter, blog)
• Speaking
• Recording videos and audio spots
• Social media (if applicable)
• Website updates
• Networking
• Creating systems
• Sending out cards
• Education
• Creating products
• Business development
• Hosting events

Expanding Your Reach Assignment

1. Make a list of all the tasks that you perform in a typical week. Be specific.
2. Identify activities that do not expose new people to your mission. Prepare to eliminate or delay them.
3. Schedule 2 hours each day during which you focus on activities that expand your reach. (minimally, 10 hours a week)

Are you ready to expand your reach but not quite sure which expansion activities fit your audience or your message? Join Janice at her Road to Expansion Live Event where you will have access to one-on-one help and so much more. Click here to register today!

You’ve made up in your mind that this is THE year that your ministry is going to expand! No longer will your ministry merely exist— it’s NOW time for you to reach those you are called to serve in large numbers and consistently. So what do you do first to ramp up your ministry marketing efforts? Gather the team? Count your costs? Pray and fast? Or, do you say “forget the details, let’s just get to work”?

Many Christian leaders, just after prayer and fasting, go straight to work on building the wall, fulfilling the vision, making it happen. While this sounds admirable it is the worst thing you can do when it comes to creating consistent expansion in your ministry. While marketing your ministry is important to the growth of all Christian organizations—marketing for the sake of marketing never works.

So how do you create a ministry marketing strategy that will create significant results without going breaking-the-budget, overwhelming your team (even if it’s just you), or compromising your message? Well it’s pretty simple. Here’s what you do:

1. Set clear, tangible goals. Know “what’s good” for you and your ministry.  Too often ministry marketing efforts are dismissed as ineffective, simply because they are embarked upon without an explicitly, expressed predetermined destination.  Before starting any ministry marketing (expansion) effort be certain that you are clear on your desired outcome.(Side note: Leaders not only must we predetermine our destination, we must explicitly express it with those who serve alongside us…more on that in a future article) My work with Christian leaders around the world has led me to find that the best place to start when creating ministry marketing goals is to focus on one (if not all) of the below expansion critical areas :

1. Impact – what is the number of lives (families, communities, individuals) you want to actually connect with through/with your ministry?
2. Influence – what is the effect you want to create or have in the lives of those you are called to serve? How do you want them to see you or your ministry?
3. Income – how much the revenue would you like to generate from your efforts?

2. Increase your opportunity for success by limiting your options. I know it sounds oxymoronic, but the fewer options you have on how you are going to reach your goals the greater your chances are for achieving them. As visionaries, it is easy to get lost in the land of endless options—resist the temptation to try everything. By putting all the options on the table and narrowing them down to the top three you substantially increase your chances of reaching your destination. A good tip for narrowing down “how to get there” options is to focus on.

1. What fits for your ministry ”M.O.” – which of the options you’ve listed compliments your style and how you want to be perceived by those who encounter your ministry?
2. What works best for those on your team - which of the options is easy for my current team to implement?
3. What appeals to those you are called to serve – which of the options for reaching my audience is likely to appeal to them as they are today?

3.Focus on the simple steps. Decide today that you’re adopting the “if it ain’t simple I ain’t doing it!” way of operating. I know that’s not correct English, but that’s how my grandma would put it and she tends to make a little go a long way. As leaders we get mesmerized by the grandiose ideas or the complex concepts, but it’s in the simple steps that significance is birthed. Look at it this way, if a strategy has too many moving parts, there are too many opportunities for something to go haywire. Rule of thumb number one, when it comes to marketing your ministry keep it simple. (Note: Jesus did it and it worked well for him.)

Making a significant impact in the lives of those you are called to serve does not have to be an impossible feat. By consistently taking simple, yet strategic steps forward you will find that expanding your reach is truly a blessing—not a burden.

For more insight on ways to create simple yet significant strategies visit Expanding Your Reach Live Event. Click here to learn more.

Ready to expand your reach in 2012? Join Janice in Atlanta on January 27th at Road to Expansion Live Event. Click here to sign up!

Consider the ant. One of the tiniest creatures on planet earth; they are masters of massive expansion.  Having no ears to hear, ants rely heavily on their ability to feel the ground beneath them and the vibrations around them before making a move. No move is made suddenly, everything is carefully planned.

Ants also leverage the power of their team. Rather than offloading a heavy mass on an individual ant, ants look for every possible way to divide activities into small chunks that can be easily accomplished by a few.

As a Christian leader desirous of expanding the reach of your ministry you cannot miss this powerful positioning strategy of the ant.  Ants seek to modify the environments they inhabitat. With singleness of focus, drive, and relentless pursuit ants move toward change or they don’t move at all. Amazing!

As you plan to expand your reach, take with you these three lessons from the ant:

1. Embrace the power of “the small”. Resist the temptation to go after the giant leaps forward. Not only do they require heavy-lifting, but the bigger the project the more pieces and greater is the chance for error.  Small steps in the right direction will lead you toward your goal quicker than it seems.
2. Silence the noise. Make it a practice to not be moved by what you hear, rather feel the vibration then carefully choose your next step. When the voices of your competition, colleagues, and naysayers are a non-factor  your ability to feel what’s best for your ministry’s expansion becomes crystal clear.
3. Modify don’t blend. You are a Christian leader on an assignment to allow God to transform lives through your ministry (whatever it may be) don’t settle for being just another church, business, or leader—seek to modify every environment you occupy!   When you leave a place or when those you are called to serve leave your place everything should change.

If you're ready to reach the masses with your message but not quite sure how, click here to download your FREE Ministry Marketing Makeover Kit.

I had a major breakthrough this week! Finally, [I’m pretty sure God had been trying to get me to see this for quite some time now], I realized that the expansion of one’s ministry is truly a life-long journey of character development and spiritual maturity.  As 2011 comes to a close and I reflect on my personal expansion journey I would characterize it as nothing short of a costly roller coaster ride. The highs have been really HIGH and the lows; well let’s just say they have been baritone low.  In the midst of it all there has been but one constant—and that is God and His unrestricted availability.   He has never shunned me from His presence or denied me His guidance. Yet I haven’t always made the most of this divine access.  For some retarded reason, I thought it brave to try things my way  and mistakenly  thought it admirable to be deemed the one who “cracked the code” the one who “figured out the hard stuff”.  But, let me tell you. The expense (monetarily and spiritually) of this mode of operating can be quite daunting.  And trust me whatever the prize, it’s not worth it!

You’re probably wondering what does this have to do with expanding the reach of your ministry. As I train leaders like you and dare walk out this expansion process I realize that our ability to lead and grow a healthy ministry depends largely on our continuous commitment to our own personal and spiritual development—to this there is no end.  Many of the roadblocks and challenges we as leaders face in our public ministry are a manifestation of unaddressed private matters.  My mentor would say, “when there is struggle on the outside there almost always exists struggle on the inside”.

As you reflect on your progress in 2011 and finalize your plans for 2012 be sure your expectations are in line with your actions. No tool, strategy, or even ROCK-solid expansion plan will bring you to your destination or help you receive your desired results if God’s plan for you is to endure an exercise in character development.

Remember, expanding your reach has NOTHING to do with you, but everything to do with God working through you to reach others.  The moment you accept your ministry expansion as a journey toward spiritual maturity everything changes!

Expanding Your Reach is not optional but mandatory. If you're ready to reach the masses with your message click here to download your FREE Ministry Marketing Makeover Kit.

If you have been wrestling with exactly how you can "market" and do ministry at the same time--you must listen to this interview.  I reveal not only my three part expansion process, but I also dispel a few myths  Christian leaders face when it comes to the idea of ministry marketing check this out!

Expanding Your Reach is not optional but mandatory. If you're ready to reach the masses with your message click here to download your FREE Ministry Marketing Makeover Kit.

Are you ready to expand your reach in 2012? Click here to schedule a complimentary session with Janice Johnson.

Do you have a heart to help others expand their reach? Become a Certified Ministry Marketing Mentor ™. Click here to sign  up.

Expanding Your Reach Assignment

1. God has called you to be of service in a huge way. What is your mission?
2. What is the message that you’re sending out via online marketing, word of mouth, or print? Is it self-serving?
3. If your message is self-serving create a plan of action so that your message can be in alignment with your mission.

Expanding Your Reach is not optional but mandatory. If you're ready to reach the masses with your message click here to download your FREE Ministry Marketing Makeover Kit.

A quote that really opened my eyes was from a Christian business leader, Dani Johnson. She said that excuses were none thing more than well thought out lies. That really got me to thinking.  The more I seem to work with Christian leaders and Pastors there are 7 major excuses that I have heard why they aren’t expanding their reach.

The major excuses that Pastors and Christian Leaders tell themselves are:

1. I have no desire to be big. Expanding your reach is not for big businesses and mega churches.  It is not for those that desire for fame and fortune. Expanding is mandatory for every believer. God has blessed you with certain gifts that are to be used for his glory and to build up His kingdom.

2. “It’s a good idea, but I’m not quite ready yet.” Have you ever said that when faced with an opportunity to expand your ministry or help someone experience God through you? When you get ready for the sake of getting ready, you put yourself in a place of paralysis.  Fear sets in and others miss out on experiencing God through you.  The amazing thing about God is that he has already equipped you with everything that you need. You were born equipped and ready!

3. It costs too much! The true cost of expansion is the commitment to God. When you’re committed to God and His ways, avenues will open up. Sometimes it may cost you to expand such as purchasing business cards, getting help from others, etc. But remember we serve a God of abundance.

4. I’m not as good as….In Romans 12:6 it states that God has blessed each of us with different gifts that are to be used to impact the world. Comparing yourself, your business, and your gifts to others is time wasted. What you’re really saying is “God I don’t like who you’ve made me to be. I’m inadequate. Can you give me what you gave them?”

5. If its God will, then He will it happen. That is the most passive and lazy approach to expansion that you can ever take. The Bible teaches that the steps of a good man or woman are ordered and he delights in his way. If you’re not moving to expansion or your destiny then none thing is going to happen. You have to take action.

6. It’s too complicated. Expanding your reach is simple. It’s taking things that you already do, consistently, on purpose, and striving to a desired goal.

7. If I do dare to be great and do things in a huge way, I’m going to lose everybody I love. This lie is the biggest deception that the enemy has made us believe. If you’re a pleaser then this lie is the one that is hindering you from moving forward in a great way. The truth is that this lie is rooted in selfishness. It’s rooted in your desire to be liked and accepted by those around you. The truth is expansion has none thing to do with you. When you’re focused on you instead of those who you’re called to serve, you’re being selfish and hindering God from blessing others through you.

The truth is that there are people waiting to experience God through you. And they can’t experience Him if you continue to make excuses and stay in a place of paralysis.

Expansion in Action

1. Based on the 7 excuses, which excuses have you been given as to why you aren’t letting others experience God through you?
2. What is the underlining reason for your inaction? Fear? Not knowing what steps to take?
3. Now that you are aware of your excuses, what steps are you going to take to overcome them?

Regardless of what excuses you’ve been telling yourself and others, I want to help you overcome them. I would like to personally invite you to join me on October 2st at my live event “Road to Expansion.” Click here to learn more.

Your Video Assignment

Your assignment this week is simple and straightforward. I want you to ask yourself the following three questions. Give your answers some thought. Then write them down.

1. What are 3 goals that will really stretch you in 2012? Remember that we serve a God who can do the impossible.
2. Are you currently in a place where you are holding your tongue or procrastinating on taking any action because of the fear of offending your team? Pastor? Family?If so, how is this hindering you from serving those you are called to serve?
3. Practice the 3 P’s.  Pray consistently. Plan. Possess.

If you need help sharing your significance with the world around you join me and other Christian leaders for the Road To Expansion LIVE event here in Atlanta October 21, 2011. I will share with you the exact process I walk through with Pastors and leaders like you, who were born to change the world around them. Find out more by visiting www.RoadtoExpansion.com