Marketing and Ministry

Dale, our director, recently challenged us to think about our roles and how that fits into the mission of Miracle Camp - probably one of the greatest camps in Michigan (of course I'm biased). This was a great exercise to think through why I do what I do each day. Basically...our mission is to create opportunities to help people to draw close to God.

Since I work on program and marketing I see what I do in marketing as the "creating opportunities" and the programming as "helping people draw closer to God." Sometimes it feels weird to market a ministry, but I think that it's important to run Miracle Camp on good solid business principles. At the same time, I believe that we shouldn't charge people to hear the Gospel...so it's important that we have a great scholarship program and seek to give away our services to those that need Jesus or those that just can't afford a full camp fee.

Here's some of my goals for this year...

1. Developing a church partnership program and to increase our relationship with the churches that attend - I really believe we have to serve churches...we can't exist on our own. Christian camps have been called "church camps" often...and that's exactly what I want us to be - a great church camp in Michigan! We are many churches camp.
2. Grow by 1,000 guests in 2012. This is a lofty goal...but I'm going to shoot for it. The more people, the more opportunities for people to grow closer to God. Some people say numbers aren't important, but if each of those 1,000 people has a name, a face, and a spiritual journey...then I think that numbers are important.
3. Pray about everything - if we truly believe it's God who changes lives...then it doesn't matter how good of a program director I am. God does the work. May I never forget that!

Let me know your thoughts on these goals. Let me know if you think there's some other things we should work on this year! I would love to hear from you!