The Story to Be Told

For some reason I’ve been invited to many places over the past couple of years to talk to groups about social media, online communication, and grassroots marketing. The groups of people are always different, but the challenges seem to be the same. Folks not knowing where to begin or are hesitant to start because it means one more thing to take on or learn. 

On Monday night I spoke to a group of 25 or so ministry partners of Grace Community Church in Noblesville, IN. They do five sessions a year for their partners to help increase the capacity of these organizations through relevant training, and they asked me to lead an introductory session on social media. You can look through the slides here if you’d like.

I’m not an expert on these subjects at all. Why I think I get asked most of the time is because I’ve realized that there is always a story to be told and one to be invited into. In general, it doesn’t matter what communication avenue you choose as long as you realize you need to choose the best channel for the message that must be shared. 

If our ministries and nonprofits haven’t realized the power of telling our stories yet, what are we waiting for? It’s our gold. We are in the transformation business and what greater opportunity do we have than telling those stories? If we haven’t figured out yet that no one has to support us or even participate in what we’re doing, then we need to. Stories captivate us.

I’m learning that the ability to communicate well is one of the most important leadership traits of the modern leader. The demands to communicate both internally and externally are increasing due to the immediacy our current media climate has been creating in us. Leaders that aren’t embracing this truth by working on it themselves or pulling in someone to help them are going to really struggle leading well. 

As I write this, I am thinking about my own need to communicate better. We’re all a work in progress and as long as we all acknowledge that, we’ll be heading in the right direction.

I send out a tweet last week as I was preparing for the presentation and a pastor from Orlando, FL responding with a reminder that I really need to be reminded.