How to Encourage Your Church Members Without Gamification

It’s no secret that the Bible commands church leaders (and members) to encourage one another on their discipleship journey. (I Thessalonians 5:11) But how do you encourage your church members to strive for mastery over their fleshly desires without turning discipleship into a competition?

As St. Paul points out, the discipleship journey is akin to a race (Philippians 3:14). But it’s a race with oneself, not with fellow Christians. So how do you help your church’s members to check their progress along their journey?

Use Virtual Badges to Engage and Encourage Church Members

At The StudioC, we’ve found that our clients have a better church membership engagement rate when they use badges — we call them “icons” — to encourage their members along their discipleship journey. These badges then become the milestones along your members’ roadmap to a renewed life.

We’ve discovered that members are more than 67% more likely to take the next step along their discipleship journey when a church uses Icons than if they received standard messages from their church home. Visual reminders elevate the importance of taking the next step, directing your church members on a spiritual path that you and others on the pastoral team lay out.

Image via The StudioC

The StudioC icons can include activities like getting baptized, attending regularly, joining a small group, tithing, serving in the church or local community, sharing their faith, going on a short-term mission trip, or leading a small group or service team. Each church can define the requirements for each icon, modifying them to meet their specific ministry goals.

These icons, then, provide the persistent encouragement your church members need to broaden their walk in Christ, their ministry in the world, and help your church fulfill its mission.

On a personal level, these icons allow you and your pastoral staff to interact with them more effectively.

For instance, if you are meeting with one of your members, you can see which icons they have, giving you the opportunity to encourage them to take the next step. For example, if the member you’re meeting with doesn’t have the “Attend” icon, you can reach out with compassion to see if there is a barrier to their attendance, like not having a ride. If so, you can help them address that issue so they may realize the benefits of attending church regularly.

Member Involvement and Engagement Drive Spiritual Transformation

Your church’s activities themselves aren’t the point. While there’s no magic pill to increase your members’ faith, we do know that their involvement in certain activities increases the likelihood of cultivating a deeper relationship with Christ and His church.

Having milestones to gauge their path toward deepening that relationship helps them better engage with your church and its mission. By motivating them to cultivate their relationship with Christ, you will help them to become more authentic, spiritually healthy Christians.

With The StudioC’s church member engagement software, you can add personalized spiritual milestones to inspire your members to work toward the changes that will help them connect on a deeper level at every stage of their discipleship journey. And you can change these milestones as you need to keep them relevant to each of your members.From a member’s initial engagement with your congregation to their becoming more involved in your church’s ministries, these icons will help your members mature as Christians. To discover even more ways The StudioC can help your members grow both in number and in their walk with Christ, schedule your free consultation today!