A strong foundation for your ministry or business starts with you!
Once those are in order you are ready to build your ministry or your business, but not before.
Jesus defines a strong foundation with a parable in Luke 6:47 – 49 (ESV)
Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
A strong spiritual foundation is hearing and doing His Word.
We must apply this Kingdom principle to every area of life, especially when we consider how to grow our ministry or business.
How do we build an online presence for our business or ministry that cannot be shaken?
For starters, your web presence must be centered on your own website. Anything less is prone to being shaken.
Michael Hyatt and Russ Henneberry both use the term ‘Home Base’ to describe the role of your website. It is not the only place your audience will find you, but it is where you start.
Home Base.
This is a digital property you own and control.
It is where your loyal fans gather.
It can be as simple as a blog or a website or as complex as a self-hosted community.
Regardless, it is where you direct all Internet traffic.
Why?
Because this is where you can sell your best ideas of products.
You control the borders and determine who has access.”
– Michael Hyatt
A blog is an excellent starting point for your website. With tools like WordPress, it is very easy to build and maintain a great Home Base.
You may think that you don’t need a blog for your ministry or business, but Russ Henneberry (at DigitalMarketer.com) claims that “almost any business type can benefit from a blog and social media updates.”
I agree, primarily because:
All social media channels ought be considered ‘outposts’. They are an excellent supplement to your website, but should not replace it.
Many ministries are producing excellent videos and publishing them on YouTube or Facebook – these are both ‘outpost’ channels. But what will happen if the decision-makers at these organizations decide that the Bible is hate speech? Or that you can’t talk about Jesus? [Answer: Your account may be suspended or deleted.] You do not own that property, so you cannot control access to your content there.
I am not exaggerating when I claim that censorship is already occurring on social media platforms.
In January, Twitter employees were caught on camera boasting about discriminating against pro-Trump, conservative accounts. One employee discussed shadowbanning political accounts, a practice that Twitter has continually denied using, while another claimed that accounts that expressed an interest in “god, guns, and America” were likely to be flagged as “bots.” Another employee, Mo Norai, explained that Twitter moderators regularly discriminated against accounts deemed to be pro-Trump.”
– excerpt from the ZeroHedge article, Death of Free Speech
This video by Melissa Dykes explains how social media giants like Facebook and YouTube are limiting access to content created by alternative media journalists.
If you have a Christian ministry or Christian business, then you need to be preparing now for an environment that may consider your message to be ‘hate speech’.
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
Proverbs 22:3 (NLT)
There is another problem with relying solely on video ‘outpost’ channels. Videos are not searchable – only metadata (title, description, thumbnail and tags) and subtitles are searchable.
It’s great to publish on popular channels like YouTube and Facebook. But for optimal impact, you should post these videos in a searchable format on your own website as well.
If you are wondering what types of content to publish on your blog or website, I’ll discuss that at length in an upcoming article in this series: Content Marketing done right = the Kingdom Law of Sowing & Reaping.
But first, I need to define the Kingdom Law of Sowing and Reaping. Look for that next week.
And finally – you are blessed to be a blessing! You can further the Kingdom by reaching people online – Stay tuned and we’ll show you how!
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