Mobile Ministry Magazine (MMM)

An item sitting on the plate this week is that of accepting a speaking engagement for one conference and partnership with another group. For both groups, its the unique and specalized knowledge behind MMM that’s desired. Both groups have spoken clearly their reasons for asking for MMM, yet only one has adjusted their request for participation in such a way that seems like they understand the value of what they are asking for.

While I totally understand that some groups just don’t have a budget to bring out a speaker/trainer/consultant/subject matter expert (that’s another issue of organizational management, but I digress), the very unique nature of the few folks in digital/internet/mobile ministry can’t be freely given away if folks aren’t just asking for that knowledge/wisdom, but also travel and any other expenses.

I am finding it very hard – as a person doing this as a primary endeavor – to say yes to engagements when there is literally only ego compensation (am not the only person who thinks that economy is backwards, re: Jaron Lainer). I run a site which is free, it feels very much like a slap in the face to ask for me to also put up lodging, registration, travel, setup, and (the inevitable) post-speaking activities when there’s nothing coming back this way. This puts me in a very hard position. I’ve got to spend hours looking for work/clients, as well as working current projects, and then spending the time to develop that specialized knowledge. Even if this was a multi-person operation, that would be hard (we won’t talk about folks that don’t pay in a timely manner and the 8-ball that presents).

Simply: if you would consider MMM or any uniquely gifted person or organziation is worth asking for their time, they are also worthy of being compensated for those labors. A laborer is worthy of their wages, and digital is where we labor. Yes, there needs to be some meeting halfway for many of you whom are also financially constrained. That’s one of the reasons why *everything* you see on this site is freely available. There’s too much data out there for commentary and analysis of this degree not to be. But, when you want something specialized, then you move into that space where you can’t rely on free, and have to be considerate of the time and resources that it takes to make specialized work for you.

Services like MinuteBox (see profile) I’ve started using to help faster convert some of those conversations into compensated events. I’m not sure that it is any longer (or if it ever was) fair to ask any of us in this space to give place to speaking/demonstrating our knowledge in this space without some form of compensation. There aren’t a lot of people in this space – check the list. If this is worth its value to up-skill your organization to meet their goals, then demonstrate that in your approach. Don’t let the perception of “Christian online/mobile” be that of “undervalued and under-appreciated.”

IE Day pointed to similar questions of value and our approaches in ministry in this post.

Disclaimer: Our hosting (incl. domain registration and WordPress administration) had been taken off my (Antoine’s) hands for sometime now. LW (name withheld) has managed that for us freely for years. And for as appreciated as I am that he has done so, I would love to be at the point where I could compensate him for the few times a year that there’s a request for domain/WP items. Or, remove the site completely and let MMM live completely on mobile and self-hosted servers…