It is often said “Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail“

This page is designed to give you ideas. It isn’t an exhaustive list, but it does share some of what we have learnt in over 30 years of making The Word for Today available in Australia and New Zealand, and as a result seeing our media ministry’s grow and flourish.

So grab yourself a fresh coffee, a notebook and pen. As you read through this page write down all the ideas that come to you. A couple of hours invested now to think through and to write down what can be done before you begin the ‘doing’, is your important first step.

1. Your Spiel

The words you use are important so…

What are you going to say as you hand someone a copy?

One word – PRACTICE!

It is important you get everyone (that includes you) to practice what they will say as they hand a copy  of The Word for Today to someone.

We recommend you role-play and actually practice out loud with a real person until you are comfortable with it and you know exactly what you want to say. This step will make a huge difference to your ministry.

Remember the 5 P’s?  Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

Well, in this case maybe it is just 4 P’s –  Practice Prevents Poor Performance. 😊

2. Names, Names, Names

Bob Gass used to say “Funds come from friends. So, if you don’t have enough funds, you don’t have enough friends.”

Continuing to develop your database of names and contact details for all the people and organisations who contact you for a copy is an important key to future success. Realistically, this process takes time to gather momentum. So don’t expect to add 20 names in today and have 20 donations tomorrow.

This is a process, and your faithful and consistent work over time is what will bring the rewards.

With each new year we should see greater traction meaning you should be about to plan and execute a contact program to let them all know it’s coming, when it is here, and solicit donations.

Where possible invite people to commit to a montly automatic gift. Even a small amount monthly soon ads up to a sizable donation, and is quite painless for the donor. Read this for more ideas and reasons.

3. Plan, Plan, Plan

Here’s a suggestion that might help with your putting your plan together. 

Involve everyone and make it fun.

Put on some treats: coffee, ice-cream, or other yummy things. And start by looking at the question… What does Success look like? Write down a list of all the things that you think would indicate that The Word for Today is successful.  It will be a diverse list and may include things like…

1. All copies distributed
2. Donations are received
3. We get feedback from readers
4. People are talking about The Word for Today
5. It is used in schools and businesses
6. Etc

Then from there identify and talk about the ones you think stand out as important, and turn them into SMART goals.

4. SMART Goals.

S M A R T stands for:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Time bound

An example of a SMART goal for All copies distributed might presented in a statement something like this:

That by the end of December 25% of copies are in the hands of readers, and by the end of January 80% of all our copies are distributed.

The more detailed you are in writing your goals the better.

5. Your ACTION Plan

Once you have written your SMART goals, you will know what you are trying to achieve. So now you can begin the process of deciding on your Action Plan to achieve those Goals. For example, and sticking with the Smart Goal example we used above, you might decide:

• Each team member will, for one week in December, take 25 copies to their church and ask for the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes.
• [number] copies will be sent to [someone] on [island]
• [someone] will write a note about The Word for Today to the Ministers Fraternal and follow it up with a phone call.
• Etc

Then as you go forward you can tick off the Goals as they are achieved and keep working on the others.

Here’s a Video we recorded with the Fiji team about how to go about using The Word for Today for maximum effect