Anna Burns answers this week's question — "What works best when asking for donations, sending out a fundraising letter or meeting with the potential donor face-to-face?"

Anna Burns is with The Great Commission Foundation.

Click here for the "Ask Anna" article she referred to in this episode.

Click here to subscribe to Anna's Fundraising Tips newsletter.

Click here for the InCourage Journal for Christian Service Workers.       

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGCFandFriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCommissionFoundation  

   The background music featured on this podcast is by Christian musician Steve Bell and his producer and recording engineer Dave Zeglinski. It's called “O Love“ and is from their Landscape disc in the Pilgrimage boxed set.

Check him out at http://stevebell.com/.

Steve Bell is a songwriter, storyteller, and troubadour for...

Dr. Joel Thiessen again shares insights on the dominant trends of religion in North America.

Europe and North America are moving in a progressive and increasingly secular direction. Secularization is a dominant narrative.   Click the green play button to listen to Dr. Joel Thiessen: The rise of people who say they have no religion represents one in three teenagers, one in four  adults. It's the fastest growing "religious" group in the modern western world. For example in Canada:

...one in two Canadian teenagers never attend religious services today. One in three Canadian teenagers say they have no religion. If you want to know where a religious group is going, you look to your young people. It is very rare that people convert later on in life. It doesn't mean it's impossible and we would all think of anecdotal stories where that's happened. On the whole, you look to your young people. Another trend pertains to Christian identification. Christianity is the lead religion in...

In this special episode you will learn some YouTube worship music video creation tips.  

David Wesley of Basement Praise and YouTube fame shares with us the story of how he got started making his music videos and his process for creating his multi harmony praise and worship music tracks. From time to time we will be bringing you these special episodes with Christian Creatives, such as musicians, authors, and other artists who create as a ministry.

David is a Canadian musician who describes himself as a "self-producing artist creating multi-track magic in my basement to share the gospel and have a little fun on the side :)...." And he brings a lot of enjoyment to us!

In this podcast episode he tells the story of how he started making his music videos. And, he explains how he put three songs together in his "Amazing Grace" medley. You can enjoy the full version of David Wesley’s "Amazing Grace" medley here:...

In this fourth episode we hear insights on Short Term Missions. Are they worth the cost and effort?

Mark Crocker is Executive Director of STMleader.com

Mark shares with us his insights on Short Term Missions, having trained tens of thousands of volunteers to head overseas and make a difference. Mark served as the chair for short term missions at the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Global Mission round table. He now consults and trains for faith-based and secular NGOs. He heads of STMleader.com and Stopover.ca.  His training courses are practically geared for  STM beginners and masters level college courses. Mark leverages his extensive experience in the field, which includes leading multi-million dollar development projects in Congo and Haiti.

You can read about Mark’s STM leadership training and certification at the website STMleader.com.  He can also be reached through Stopover.ca where he provides diversity...

Dr. Joel Thiessen shares his insights about what makes congregations thrive.

Joel is the Director of the Flourishing Congregations Institute at Ambrose University in Calgary.

In this episode Dr. Joel Thiessen outlines five growth enhancers that are emerging in his study of "flourishing congregations".

1. Congregations that have a clear self-identity. They know who they are, they know what it is they're trying to do, and where they're going.
2. They have a committed leadership. They equip and empower leaders, they have leaders who stick around for the long haul, and leadership is a central part of how and why congregations flourish.
3. They have a desire to grow numerically, but they also desire to grow spiritually and organizationally. They measure. They count. They are accountable in various ways for the kinds of things they're doing at a congregational level.
4. They are a hospitable community. These are places that receive people well, that are warm places that people feel...

Anna Burns shows you how to get your newsletters and emails read by supporters.

Jenny, a ministry worker in Québec, sent us this voicemail:

My question is: “how do I get people to read my ministry reporting emails and requests for donations?   It seems that my donors don’t often open my emails. What do I do?" 

Anna asks "Would you want to read your own newsletter?" She gives us tips for getting supporters to open and engage with our communications.

Anna Burns is with The Great Commission Foundation.

Click here for the "Ask Anna" article she referred to in this episode.

Click here to subscribe to Anna's Fundraising Tips newsletter.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TGCFandFriends Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCommissionFoundation  

   The background music featured on this podcast is by Christian musician Steve Bell and his producer and recording engineer Dave Zeglinski....

This introductory episode of the Quick Tips for Christian Ministry podcast which provides background to our intent and the desire to give value to our audience.

The QT4CM podcast is a peer knowledge sharing initiative for personal and professional development of Christian ministry workers.   

This is your place. Your ministry peers will be presenting quick pragmatic insights and best practices to you — that will help solve real problems and constraints you face and that can help you grow your ministry.

If you have a tip or advice you would like to contribute to your peers, we would like to add your voice to the conversation.  Do you know the definition of Maven? That is what you are, and we would love to highlight your expertise on this channel.

We like the Wikipedia definition of Maven. “A maven is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from...