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Philosophical Approach to Missions There are always guiding principles in action for how we engage the world around us.  These philosophies guide us and serve us well, especially when we identify them and draw them out to their potential.  Let’s unpack a few guiding principles to consider but you need to do the work to identify your guiding principles and how you share these with your community.     Greatest Goal We believe the greatest goal of mission work is to glorify God.  That’s our north star and the single greatest evaluation point for each and everything we do.  That clarity pivots how we evaluate things as we seek to line things up with what glorifies God vs. always trying to figure out what God might want.      Guiding People We believe that we all serve as guides to help direct people in their personal missional journey.  While it might seem that we are trying to engage them and make them advocates for our specific cause, we’re really more about the larger picture of missional living and seeing people developed for the better.  As such, our goal is to guide people well on this journey.   Giving Dignity We believe we have a responsibility to empower people well to do the work of missions and to seek to bring dignity to the work of their hands.  We desire to see those we serve and those serving with us restored and receiving dignity from the work we do.  Building a filter of dignity helps clear a lot of the fuzz around what’s the right and wrong way to do things.     Next Steps Always… and we mean always… be guiding people to their next step.  You are a guide but you are also guiding people to something.  Short term trips are never an end in themselves.  So whatever your strategy might be in this season and the next, it’s always a next step to guiding people to a deeper personal conviction, journey, and engagement.   Download full FREE ebook: Relaunching Short Term Trips Post COVID

Can't Send Short Term Trips? Tip #3 - Communicate Well Big Picture: Communicate well and often so your participants feel honored and stay well engaged... don’t allow room for doubt. Seasons of uncertainty can bring doubt and confusion and as things shift around us, we’re all wondering what’s next, how do we navigate things, and what should we be doing. That’s only natural as humans as we think about our base needs. What’s great is how this sets you up for success in being a guide for your participants to help show them the path forward. Being a guide is one of the most important things you do for your participants. They are looking to you for direction and even if you don’t have all the answers, I’m certain you have a picture of what the next few steps you’re taking might be. Great! Communicate that and be transparent about things. People don’t need to know the entire plan but they would like to know what’s the next step or two. So let’s unpack a few things you should consider in your communication strategy. Create a Plan - even not knowing how long things might be on pause, go ahead, and create a rhythm of communicating every so often. Perhaps it’s once a week or every other week. Just have some consistency. Engage Multiple Parties - remember it’s not just about your trip participants - it’s also about your team leaders, your field partners, your donors, your volunteers, and anyone else who is involved in the process. Send Prayer Needs - a great place to start in your communications is sharing key prayer needs from your partners with your participants. This is something that can always be of value. Point to Current Opportunities - international trips might be on pause, but what can you be doing in your own neighborhood now? Point your participants in a direction that allows them to use those servant-minded skills now. Remember Acts 1:8 with the intention to reach Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Create Benefit - we are all inundated with communications and emails. That said... make yours stand out. The simplest way to do that is to make your communications beneficial to your participants (focusing on their needs and not your own). Think Sequentially - this is more advanced, but consider leveraging your overall communication series to help teach something but doing that in parts. For example, you might have a 10 part teaching that’s communicated over 20 weeks. Be Creative - these can certainly be simple text emails but also think about adding videos, giving assignments, inviting into online discussions, and more. Be creative in what you communicate to make it fun and engaging. Create a Community - consider creating some online community and always point back to it so that your participants can connect with each other and see that they are never alone on this journey. Share Stories - stories are powerful means to engage our hearts and minds. Share what stories you have but also ask people to share their stories. Mix these with international experiences and local to help cast that local vision.   Download the full FREE ebook Today

Guiding Philosophies Here at ServiceReef, we believe everything starts with the foundation of WHY... or perhaps also known as your guiding philosophies. Philosophies drive 100% of our technology development which is a bit strange. Most technology companies focus first on functionality. That might work in many places but it doesn’t work well in this space. Our “end game” actually isn’t technology - it’s seeing more people mobilized into missional living. So we start with guiding philosophies that then materialize into how we design and build our technology. So let’s dive into a few for this strategy. And hey... please feel free to steal any of these and use them for your organization! After all, we’re all in this together. Creating a Culture We believe that a local engagement strategy in any organization will shift the culture and help create a fuller culture of volunteer engagement. Functionally, we’re working to get people to sign up for volunteer opportunities but bigger picture... we’re looking for life change, habit change, and a culture shift. Everyone has a Calling We believe everyone has a unique calling (and unique gifting). It’s easy to fall into a mentality of “well, someone else is going to do it” or “someone else is called to do that” but the truth is, we are all called to serve our neighbor and engage the world around us (and we don’t believe barking at each other on social media qualifies for serving the world around us!). Every single person has unique skills and is called to serve in some way. People Need a Guide & a Plan We all need a guide to show us the way at various stages of our lives. How many of us have had mentors and other key influencers in our lives. That’s your role right now in this strategy... to guide people into serving. The simplest way to be a guide is to create a clear plan for your members to engage and teaching them how to engage their unique skills. We’re going to help you build that plan here so you can be a better guide. It Takes a Catalyst Leader So buckle up... if you are reading this ebook then you already have an itch to be that catalyst leader. We’ve learned that one massive piece of this puzzle is having someone (or some organization) take the lead to build a local engagement model. These things don’t just happen. That’s why we believe this is a foundational philosophy to a movement like this... it’s takes someone like you to lead the charge and make it happen. Good news... we’re here with you every step of the way.

The Emerging Tensions Andy Stanley once said that we as leaders face tensions all the time but we have to distinguish between tensions and problems.  We are duty-bound to solve problems and manage tensions, especially in the world of missions.  So let’s unpack a few of these emerging and current tensions to glean a clearer picture of the future of missions.     Traditional Models vs. New Creative Models The first tension we are facing is managing the known history of models that have worked and those new models that we may not have even discovered yet.  I’m convinced that our Lord intentionally frustrates our models of missional engagement to keep us on our toes and to force us to be creative.  I believe that because He is a creative God and we are made in His image and work was actually part of creation before the fall.  There’s something glorious about work and especially creativity (with the known challenges that the Fall certainly makes more difficult).   The past 100 years of missions have largely been seen a similar model both in long term and short term missions.  The past decade has brought about many new philosophies and thoughts to challenge the current models and now COVID-19 has accelerated the need and calling for creativity.  We’ve been witnessing groups working to rapidly build global tele-health resources to continue meeting medical needs, we’ve seen other organizations building amazing digital teaching resources to share with global partners, and we’ve seen other organizations radially reshaping their short term trip program during this season of pause.  All I know is that we’re not called to be idle when the Lord charges us to serve.     Going vs. Teaching Many books have been written like When Helping Hurts to address a re-emerging focus on teaching indigenous leaders the skills that allow them to do the work rather than us going and doing the work.  I’m a huge advocate for this philosophy while also believing both short and long term engagement is necessary to do that well.  There’s no “throw the baby out with the bathwater” here.  But we are faced with a new challenge of considering how we might teach others to “do mission work” when we have these periods of not being able to go.  I’m certain no one reading this would assume that a global shut down in travel should ever hamper our dedication and drive to be engaged in mission work.     Physical vs. Virtual We’ve almost completely known the physical nature of mission work.  We’ve gone on trips, served people, eaten meals together, and experienced life together.  But what happens in these seasons where you can’t physically be with someone?  Obviously, being physically present or not should not hinder our engagement.  I believe this season will help us radially accelerate our virtual engagements while gearing up for more refined physical engagements.  We’ve been given a gift in this season that’s forcing our innovations and maximizing the world of digital assets.  It’s amazing to see just how creative Christians are becoming in this season.   One Time vs. Replicating The terms sustainable and scalable inundate our world today as we wrestle with how to do things better and engage the world around us better.  Now, to be clear, I’m not certain you can find either of those words or even philosophies in the Bible.  God has an uncanny ability to do His own thing, to leverage a band of misfits for His Gospel, and to seemingly win and lose throughout history all the while He never loses His Lordship.  Not to go all theological here but we do need to wrestle with principled leadership and His Lordship.  Thankfully, it’s all His dominion and we’re called to steward the specific pieces He has given us. So let’s focus on that.     As we re-approach missions in this post-COVID world we are forced to consider more intentionally our efforts and if any of our previous one-time touches in places is most effective or better yet, how we can make these one-time touch-points add up to something more sustainable.  By the way, I do believe we should build towards sustainability… it’s just not our primary calling.  Here’s an example.  One group we work with sets out with each new location creating a 2-year engagement plan.  During that team, they intentionally send a series of short term trips with educators, healthcare professionals, engineers, and other professionals to teach.  The sum of it all adds up to each community being taught a carefully created curriculum that then leaves them well equipped to take these learnings and run on their own.  This group (even before COVID-19) was filling in the gaps of time between their short term trips with weekly Skype and Zoom calls to keep the community rolling and answering key questions.  And so, they were building an amazing blend of one-time engagement and repeated engagement.   These are by no means the tensions we see in this shifting world but they do capture some of what’s happening today.  Are you curious about where things are going in missions?  You should be.  All I know is that God is up to something, He always is, and there’s no doubt that tensions will be in the middle of most of it.     Download full FREE ebook: Relaunching Short Term Trips Post COVID

Can't Send Short Term Trips? Tip #2 - Equip Your Leaders Big Picture: Your leaders are your greatest vision advocates... equip them to multiply your vision. A CEO once asked me if you were rolling out a new initiative... if the time should first be spent engaging your internal teams or making an announcement to the public. Answer... you should always first engage your internal teams. It’s a matter of respect but it’s also just a good strategy. You want your internal teams supporting whatever shifts you may have and you certainly don’t want to agitate some of your greatest advocates! Most organizations have a core team that manages all of the short term trip strategy and logistics, but you also have key leaders, team leaders, and volunteers. All of these should be engaged in this process. After all, they are already invited to your team for a reason! Invite them into more of the strategy now to help craft this new path forward. Here are some suggestions. Brainstorm with Them - invite each of these groups or representatives from each group into a brainstorming session about how you are going to engage during this season of no short term trips. This can be live or virtual but host something that asks for their options, ideas, and feedback. Pitch the Concepts - once you have a plan in place, pitch the whole idea to them, and ask for their feedback. Don’t just tell them what’s happening, invite them into what’s happening and give them a chance to shape things. Make them Advocates - call them to action by asking them to be advocates of this new strategy. You need a lot of voices out there helping to make this shift. Engage your leaders to be voices for your new strategy. Specific Communications - make sure you are including them on the “early release” of your thoughts and plans. It just builds capital with those who are key to helping you scale your message. Honor them Well - once things have all been rolled out for your new strategy, come back and honor your leaders well and give them thanks. Maybe even send them a note and a small gift of thanks. However, you build your strategy, lean into your core team to help you make it a success. You don’t need to carry the weight of all of this on your own. Truth is, you probably already have an incredible team to help bring this all to life.   Download the full FREE ebook Today

Story: Southeast | Unleashed 
 One of our long lasting partners, Southeast Christian Church, began spinning out a vision months ago to hyper launch into local engagement and mobilizing their 30,000 person congregation into local engagement. The goal was to make this an ongoing part of the church culture. And so began their journey to Unleash the full force of the church... with the simple title of Unleashed. To mobilize this many people required a few key ingredients. First, it required a large amount of serving opportunities. Southeast rallied together 50+ local organizations to post their trips to an aggregated list. Second, it required a dedicated mobile app to host this aggregated list of opportunities. Third, it took a huge initiative from the entire church to host a big launch. In March, Southeast launched the entire Unleashed initiative with over 500 serving opportunities aggregated from 50+ organizations with their dedicated mobile app (iOS and Android) for people to download and a half day virtual event to promote and educate the church about opportunities and organizations. ServiceReef was honored to be part of this project to build the aggregation tools and the mobile app for Southeast. It’s been a great journey seeing how so many have signed up and are engaging in serving locally through this Herculean effort by Southeast. This story is a great example of keeping momentum moving even during this pandemic and giving people a strong means of engagement.

Introduction to a Local Engagement Strategy We’ve already given some definition and clarity to what local engagement is and it’s results but let’s take a little more time to unpack the concept, casting its vision, and building a value proposition. The Concept The concept is simple... you have members in your audience who you want to connect to serving opportunities. You want that process to be simple and you would love for that to be as automated as possible. You would also like to keep track on their involvement and impact. The Process Alright, so no false promises here... this strategy takes work! The impact is huge but there’s also a good deal of work to make it happen. Our goal is to make the process to get there simple: • Build your Platform - design your structure, strategy, and process • Launch your Movement - kickoff your plan and infuse your new culture • Connect your People - guide your members to matched opportunities Our commitment to you through this ebook is to give you the tools you need to bring this plan to life, to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you (since we’ve already done this with others before), and to share tips/tricks to help you accelerate your success. Who is this for? ANY organization that is trying to connect their members to partner serving opportunities. Just to name a few: • Churches - churches looking to offer more serving opportunities and bring together local partners to engage their congregation. • Middle/High Schools - schools working to instill a volunteer mindset in students and needing to display opportunities from local partners in a single place. • Universities - universities working to engage their student populate in local serving. • Businesses - businesses with a corporate mindset for volunteerism and wanting to create tools to connect their employees to opportunities. • Municipalities - city groups desiring to build a city-wide strategy and structure for anyone to find an opportunity that matches their interest. • Non Profits & Conferences - non-profit groups focused on volunteerism who also partner with a number of local organizations. How does it work? 
In some ways it’s really simple and in other ways it’s really complex. The diagram below captures the basic model of what’s happening in an aggregated serving strategy. You have multiple organizations posting opportunities into a central database/list. You are the “owner” of that list and you share that with your members. The system backend does all the work to aggregate. Your role is to promote the initiative. For the member it’s simple because they have one central place to look for opportunities and sign up. For the host organization (you) it’s simple because it’s all automated once its initially setup. For the partner organizations it’s simple because they have the tools they need to manage volunteerism and it automatically aggregates to the shared list. Importance of Ownership One foundation we strongly believe at ServiceReef is the need to promote you more and ServiceReef less. That might sound strange but our goal is for your members to never even know who we are. That’s why you can brand your own subdomain on ServiceReef but also why this mobile app can be completely branded for your organization. Why is that important? Because you are who they trust and who they know. That’s why we shy away from using “the ServiceReef app”. Why confuse your members and try to “sell” them on something else. Why not make this something that is yours? That’s one of our goals in how we’ve created this tool. How does it work? 
 In some ways it’s really simple and in other ways it’s really complex. The diagram below captures the basic model of what’s happening in an aggregated serving strategy. You have multiple organizations posting opportunities into a central database/list. You are the “owner” of that list and you share that with your members. The system backend does all the work to aggregate. Your role is to promote the initiative. For the member it’s simple because they have one central place to look for opportunities and sign up. For the host organization (you) it’s simple because it’s all automated once its initially setup. For the partner organizations it’s simple because they have the tools they need to manage volunteerism and it automatically aggregates to the shared list.   Importance of Ownership One foundation we strongly believe at ServiceReef is the need to promote you more and ServiceReef less. That might sound strange but our goal is for your members to never even know who we are. That’s why you can brand your own subdomain on ServiceReef but also why this mobile app can be completely branded for your organization. Why is that important? Because you are who they trust and who they know. That’s why we shy away from using “the ServiceReef app”. Why confuse your members and try to “sell” them on something else. Why not make this something that is yours? That’s one of our goals in how we’ve created this tool. Value Proposition 
What’s your value proposition? We believe that knowing the value you bring to your team is essential and helps bring clarity. So let’s quickly unpack a few value propositions you’ll experience with an aggregated serving strategy. Your Members Encouragement to serve Means to find opportunities that match personal interests and skills Searchable list in their pocket (mobile app) Your Partners Toolset to manage all of their serving opportunities Access to a much larger group of potential volunteers Part of a larger movement Your Organization Automated workflow so you don’t have to manually create lists Reporting on partner and member engagement Custom branded mobile app to promote Your Local Community More people engaged and serving Spider network of people serving where they may never have been exposed to before Frequently Asked Questions There are always more questions to answer! This ebook will help unpack many questions you might have about this strategy so stick with it... there’s a lot of useful information in here. But still, we know there are a number of questions you might be asking so let’s unpack a few. Is this part of a church’s missions department? Well, it could be but we most often see this as part of the entire church culture or strategy. Many times the missions department will be the “owner” of the plan but will actively engage other departments in the church sense volunteerism is more than mission trips or local partners - it’s also internal serving . How do you get leadership on board? We should write an entire ebook just on that! Truth is, that’s difficult. Our suggestion is that you bring leadership stories and examples of how this has worked for others (some here in this ebook), communicate you have a clear plan (leveraging this ebook), and show the greater impact your organization could have. Keep with it and be persistent. This is a good thing to advocate for and will make a huge difference in the culture of your organization.

Relaunching Short Term Trips Post COVID The Future of Missions Let’s explore the future of missions.  Ha!  Okay, so only our Lord holds that knowledge.  But… we do have glimpses of what’s coming.  We know that the global stage is more cautious now post a significant global health crisis. We know that visa restrictions are requirements are changing.  We know that short term workers may be more cautious to engage.  Like it or not, things have changed.     Pre & Post COVID Compared Let’s start with a grid to look at how each group’s perspective may have changed.     Download full FREE ebook: Relaunching Short Term Trips Post COVID  

Can't Send Short Term Trips? Tip #1 - Focus Your Message Big Picture: Focus your message on living a missional life whenever and wherever you are. It’s a lifestyle, not just a single experience. Missions and the vision we are inviting people into is far greater than simply engaging in a short term trip. We are inviting people into a radical lifestyle shift and a challenge to how they view the world. Short term trips are an excellent way to achieve that but they are not the only means. And in a season where trips cannot be sent, there is still a need for your leadership and direction. Focus your message on the bigger picture... the vision that we are all called to serve others and that missions is a way of life, not just a trip we attend. Even reflecting on the Great Commission, Christ doesn’t say “go...”, He says, “as you go...”. And so our invitation to people who serve is both inviting them into specific opportunities to serve but also into a lifestyle of service and mission. Help unpack this for your participants. Here are a few ideas: Drip Emails - send a series of emails to your alumni and current participants to coach them on this mindset. Just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it’s okay to take your time coaching and walking people through this process. Teaching Nights - organize teaching nights of fellowship and teaching around this bigger picture. Adjust Your Website - take a look at your website and see where you can communicate this greater vision in your overall message. Train Your Leaders - make certain your key leaders and team leaders are fully “in the know” and equipped to teach others in this mindset. Create a Course - create an online or small group course specifically for your organization or church to guide people through this vision. Remember the big picture WIN... creating a movement of people who live on mission. Yes, the short term trip is a goal but it’s a stepping stone goal to a larger goal. Everything shifts to when you focus on a greater goal. Download the full FREE ebook Today

Results from this Strategy So what’s all of this going to add up to in the end?! Great question! We believe there are four primary results that will come from you leading this strategy in your organization. Let’s quickly unpack them. #1 Change Your Culture - leading a Local Engagement strategy in your organization opens the door to shift your culture so that your members are leveraging well their skills to serve their local community. Their serving may not be directly with your organization but you are the one leading them to serve and use their skills. And by leading more people to serve you are building a stronger culture of volunteerism. #2 People Mobilized - Part of that culture shift is people engaging which is the straight forward benefit of people being mobilized. Mobilization has its challenges and this strategy helps unpack tips and tricks to overcome many of those. #3 Personalized Matches - A major challenge in mobilizing people is helping to connect each individual with things that interest them... where they can see their gifts and talents being used. This strategy first helps you build a plan to catalog your opportunities based on various interests and then it helps you have the volume to present to your audience. #4 Centralized Search - the brass tacks problem many of us have had in bringing this to life has been the means to create that centralized search capability with the ability to match to person interests. This strategy will help you build the plan to create that centralized search tool that automates the vast majority of the work. There are many more benefits and results you will experience from leveraging this strategy, but there are the core ones we wish to focus on through this ebook and this strategy.

What is a Volunteer Engagement Strategy? So what really are you talking about here?   Volunteer Engagement is when you build a collective listing of serving opportunities from your local community partners and global partners so that your members can search one list to serve other organizations.   It’s essentially a fancy list of serving opportunities that are automatically aggregated from a number of other organizations into one central list.  That list becomes the easy place for your members to come and find a serving opportunity without you or them having to manually hunt down various options.  It’s automated so that the manual work of providing this list is history. We’ve seen this strategy emerge more and more as organizations desire to partner together, as we’ve learned that none of us can do all of it on our own, and as we’ve seen a stronger desire to lead our members into volunteer matches that make the most sense for them and their skills.   Picture it like this… you’re a church of several thousand or you’re a high school.  For the church, you desire to get your members out serving in the community with any number of your local partners.  For the school you require your students to complete a certain number of service hours per month.  Your aggregated list allows you a single place to point your members (to one place) where they can find volunteer opportunities (through partner organizations you approve) so that they can serve AND you can keep track of the impact they are having.   This ebook is designed to help you build that strategy for your organization and leverage tools to make it a reality.    Download the Full eBook: How to Launch & Lead a Volunteer Movement    

So what in the world is mission trip software?!  Great question.  Essentially mission trip software are tools that help you run the logistics of your short term missions trips.  But all things are not created equal.  It all starts with understanding your overall goals and then evaluating the tools that make the most sense for you.  Let’s navigate a few key tips to set you up for success on selecting the mission trip software that’s best for you.     Tip #1 - Know Your Goals Everyone has a different set of goals but we believe there are a few that we all agree on and ones that we see quite often.  Most everyone is looking for ways to do the following: Reduce Stress - there are so many logistical items for managing a short term trip - the software should help relieve some of that stress. Save Time - the average short term trip takes around 150 hours to manage - the software should greatly reduce that amount of time. Expandabilty to Grow - the reduction in both stress and time should allow for the expansion of your missions program. Keeping People Engaged - short term trips should always have a way to keep people engaged with your organization and in a life of missional living.     Tip #2 - Determine the Features that Matter You have an idea in your head about what features matter most to you.  Take a moment to write those down and talk those over with your team.  And if you need some ideas for features that you should be considering, take a look at our free Guide to Choosing the Best Technology to Grow Your Missions Program.  The best thing you can do is map out your desired features and then start evaluating which tool works best for you.    Tip #3 - Ask the Right Questions There may be a ton of questions you want to ask about any technology, as you should.  Many of these questions you can answer on your own as you look through their sales site and explore features.  But there are other questions you’ll have that might be specific to your needs or processes.  Be sure to contact the tools you’re exploring to help answer those questions.  Here are a few questions we recommend considering when looking at any new software: Does it manage online fundraising? Is it simple for our staff to use? Is it simple for our participants to use? Can it scale to our ultimate vision in missions engagement? Does it help mature our participants toward greater life engagement? Do applicants need to fill out application data from scratch each time? Can you control what each trip admin can and cannot do? Do trip members have dedicated fundraising pages? Are your trip participants notified of financial progress? Does it help you tell your organization’s missional story?   Tip #4 - Engage Others on Your Team Don’t make this decision on your own… certainly don’t feel the weight of the decision needs to be completely on your shoulders.  Consider engaging your boss, your finance department, your IT department, your communications department, your team leaders, and whoever else helps make the whole world of short term missions a reality at your organization. You will be thankful for their wisdom and insights.     Tip #5 - Build a Comparison Chart You know what you’re looking for in a mission trip software solution.  As you look through various options and solutions, create a simple comparison chart of your own that helps you see things side by side.  You know what’s important to you so, in some ways, you’re the only one who can build that chart.  Feel free to take a look at our comparison page to get an idea of how to start building your comparison chart.     Most of all… have fun!  I know, how is selecting a technology fun?  But it can be… this season of exploring is short-lived and it really is one that can help you dream of what you could be doing.  Enjoy this exploration as you investigate all the possibilities and narrow in your selection.