12 | Ministry Storytelling Made Simple: A Framework to Engage Donors

You know stories are impactful, but you don't really know how to tell a story well. Or maybe you’re given just a few minutes to share an update and felt unsure how to tell a story that's short but engaging and effective.

In this episode, I share another simple story framework—a tool you can use to tell ministry stories with confidence, even when time is short. Storytelling doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or complicated. With the right structure, you can share what God is doing in a way that engages hearts, builds trust, and draws donors closer to the mission.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How to follow the main character of your story so listeners connect immediately
• The anchors of a strong story that keep it clear and compelling
• The plot points many ministries skip—and why they’re essential for impact
• A simple framework you can apply to every testimony or ministry update

Similar Episodes: 

05 | 7 steps to engage Your donor: The Story Structure

08 | 3 Steps to Build a Ministry Story Bank that Engages Donors

Ready to clarify your ministry’s message and engage donors? Schedule a free call: https://irisstorytelling.com/getstarted

👉 Grab your free Ministry Newsletter Guide to easily write those updates that your donors want to read: https://irisstorytelling.com/guide

Connect w/ me:
lisa@irisstorytelling.com
https://irisstorytelling.com

Transcript

1:00:00

say, I'm not really a storyteller. We kind of just go for it or I don't have any sort of process. I just, you know, get the story and tell the story. or we feel like I don't know how to tell this in the best way. Or I only have a few minutes and I don't know how to tell a story, the whole story in just a few minutes.(Upbeat Music) to the story driven ministry. So thankful for you. So thankful that you continue to tune in. Ready to learn. And I'm thankful to the Lord that he is speaking through me. I have prayed that the Lord will just take over my tongue and speak what he wants you guys to hear in this episode. I'm actually really excited about this because I have another story framework to share with you. I know that a lot of you understand that storytelling is so effective and it's so impacting. And I know that you guys love to listen to the stories of impact the stories from your ministry or even other ministries of what God is doing. They're they just are encouraging. They build your faith. They get you excited. You're like, yeah, I want to be part of that too. And that's the same way for our donors, right? I think the problem is that maybe you feel like you just don't know how you say, I'm not really a storyteller. We kind of just go for it or I don't have any sort of process. I just, you know, get the story and tell the story. And a lot of times God can use that God can use anything. But sometimes we might get stuck or we feel like I don't know how to tell this in the best way. Or I only have a few minutes and I don't know how to tell a story, the whole story in just a few minutes. So this is what I'm here to help you with today. And I am going to try my very best to make it concise so that it fits into, you know, around 20 ish minutes. Okay. This is the story framework I use for all of my stories, So if you don't know, I've been a filmmaker for the past 15 years and storytelling has been at the very core of it. Always story driven, always trying to find one character to follow, follow their journey from their struggle to the resolution. And it's been just an amazing journey. I have seen the power that story has in such an incredible way. It's so effective to really engage your donors. It's so effective to build faith. The Lord uses our stories to continue his miracles. When I've seen where someone shares their story of healing and then someone else hears that story and they get healed and someone else hears that story. And they get healed. There is so much power in storytelling and I am just so grateful that has kind of opened my eyes to this. And I want to share with you that you can actually have a specific framework, a story formula. It's something that you can repeat over and over to create your stories, to build your stories or hone them in so that you can take a long story and condense it to the length that you need. It's so that it stays on track and you don't have all these tangents and it gets the audience all confused. It stays on point and it brings God glory through it. So, your notepads if you can, if you can't come back to this episode and listen when you can take some notes so that you can apply the story framework to your stories. Okay. This type of story framework is different than the framework that I use for brand messaging. the framework that I talked about in episode five, that's specific to your brand messaging for a donor funded ministry. This framework is more of a generic framework that I use for trying to get any type of story that is based on one main character. Um, so as we go through it, you will see that it's different. And I, and I use this framework for most stories, but I use the brand story framework specifically for your brand message. Okay. Just to just want to clarify that before we continue. All right. Let's get into it. number one, before you actually start figuring out the story, the first step I want you to do is figure out the purpose of the story. sort of project you want to start with. What is the purpose of this? That just helps you keep on track and make sure that the end goal is met. Okay. So what is the purpose of your story? It could be that you want to share an impact story, right? You want to share the impact of the ministry. You want to share with others that God is actually working. God is doing something amazing through the ministry and you want to share that. You want to share it well so people really get it. That could be one of the reasons, one of the purposes. Another purpose would be if you want to share kind of where your ministry came from, you know, what, how did it come to be? How did it originate? What are you about? What does, where has God been leading you? That kind of story. So that would be more like a brand story. This is a story about the ministry, how it came to be, how God led us to where we are, that kind of thing. Okay. you could also have a donor story. I think donor stories are incredibly powerful but we're not sharing them as much. so maybe the purpose is to share the power or the, the transformation that a donor had by partnering with your ministry and partnering with the Lord through your ministry. But it's the donor story of their life being transformed with that connection. Also so incredibly powerful. I think we overall need to be telling more donor stories, but that could be another purpose. Okay. So step number one, you want to find the purpose of the story. Um, so depending on where you're sharing the story, this might help you figure out what the purpose is. Step number two, you need to pick a character. Yes, I said a one, one single character. Um, in some rare exceptions, this won't work, but overall, whenever I'm doing a story, I try to pick one main character to follow one main character for your audience to engage with, to relate to, to have an emotional connection to this one character who they will follow throughout the story. They'll follow the journey from the beginning to the throughout the middle and to the end. now in some rare cases, depending on the story you're telling, it might not work to only have one character. I will say, try as hard as you can to pick one main character to follow. It's going to make things a lot simpler. You're going to be able to engage your donor much more effectively if you can pick one character and follow their story. you want this character to be likable. You want this character to have some uniqueness to them. If you're doing a film, if you're videoing them, you definitely want them to have a good presence in front of the camera. If you find yourself with a character who is maybe just not very open, they're more closed off. They're more quiet. They're, um, or they're, it's hard to find something truly unique and interesting about them. I'm not saying that there isn't that everyone isn't unique. I'm saying that some people, it's hard to find like what is different and unique about them enough to pull it and like let it shine in the story. it? If you can't find a character that really has that unique, the uniqueness, the likability, the strong motivation, then your story isn't going to be as strong. You definitely want your character to be strong in the sense of, they have a strong desire to overcome their hardship. We're going to get to what the hardship is, but you want a strong character so that your audience can really engage with them well. Imagine, you know, your favorite book or your favorite movie and or your favorite character, right? From a movie or a book. there's something likable about them. There's something unique. Imagine replacing that favorite character with someone bland, boring, um, uninteresting, right? They wouldn't really capture your interest. So, and I know I'm talking about real people and real people are beautiful and made in the likeness of the Lord. But with your storytelling hat on, you want to find someone that really can be someone that can capture the hearts of the audience.(Upbeat Music) You are going to figure out the conflict and resolution to the story. So sometimes it works better to work backwards. So if you don't know exactly what the conflict is, then you find the resolution first and work backwards. For example, um, so you you're working on an impact story. And the impact is the resolution would be kind of like what happened in that character's life because of your ministry. How was their life transformed because of your ministry, because of the work of the Lord in their life? What happened that changed them, that transformed them? And what did that look like? That would be the resolution. So you take that and you work backwards. You think what is the opposite? What is the opposite of the resolution? Something they had to overcome to get to this resolution. So you think, well, without the work of the Lord and without our ministry where they were was this. you could start with some sort of, um, material need. Like maybe they were homeless or something, right? That's kind of like a physical need, but I would strongly encourage you to find the emotional need because that's so much more, that's much stronger and it will really help the audience relate. And it'll just be a much deeper story than, you know, going from homeless to having a home. Maybe when they were homeless, what was their emotional need? Loneliness? Rejection? Like what, what were they feeling about that circumstance? What was their emotional reaction about the physical need? And that is the real conflict. That's the conflict that you want to resolve. So you say, well, they felt lonely and rejected. And then you go back to the resolution and you're like, oh, it wasn't the resolution. Wasn't that they finally had a safe home. It was that they didn't feel alone anymore. They felt loved and valued and God showed them their worth. That is the real conflict resolution. So you can start with the physical need, but dig deeper. What is the emotional need that was meant? So that's really where you're going to find your conflict and resolution. All right. Once you have that, you have the biggest parts of your story, the anchors of your story. Your conflict starts at the beginning and your resolution goes at the end. Now you have to fill in the story. Sometimes I see stories and videos where this part is a little bit skipped and it's to the detriment of the story. Most stories do not go from conflict right to resolution, but some of the stories that we're telling are all of a sudden, you know, you tell the conflict and they're homeless, but all of a sudden because of our ministry and God and now they have a home. Well, that was easy, right? When you go right, when you jump from conflict right to the resolution, it feels too easy. This is not real. It's not relatable. This is not most of our stories. We don't go through life having a hurdle and then all of a sudden it, there's a resolution right away. Especially when we're following the Lord because he loves to work in us and stretch us through the journey. So that's step number four. You need to fill in the journey points. This is the points from the conflict to the resolution. Now let's say your story, you know, let's think of your story timeline. The very beginning of your story, you're going to introduce the conflict very quickly. Right away or very shortly after you start, you're going to introduce the conflict. That creates the story that creates this. Challenge to overcome. And that story is not done and finished until the resolution and the resolution goes at the almost very end of your story. So in between, which will be 50% of your story should be the in between the journey. What happens between the conflict and resolution? You're following a main character. What do they go through to try to overcome this conflict until finally they do? There could be chronological events. There could be other hurdles, you know, they might see a little bit of hope and then it crashes down again. There could be a lot of different things. Usually the journey is bumpy, right? It goes up and down and it's bumpy. okay, what are the important events? That lead this character from their conflict to finally the resolution. you know, so you think of, okay, well, this happened and then this happened and then this happened and because of this, finally, and it leads to the resolution. But remember, do not skip this journey part. This journey part is so incredibly important to the story. Step number five, you are going to bookend the story. So you're going to figure out the very beginning and the very end. The very beginning is called your hook. probably familiar with this term. The hook is what grabs your audience and pulls them into the story and they're engaged, right? It's something that is enticing, interesting, captivating. Any of these things that can really bring your audience into the story so they will listen. the hook can be part of the conflict. So you could say something about the conflict that really engages people and pulls them in. Sometimes the hook can be, you know, just a small little like part of the story later on that you bring into the beginning. Something interesting. Sometimes the hook could be setting up who your character is like and something that's very likable and unique about them. Maybe it's a quote from them that is just causes the audience to say like, "What? What is this about? I need to learn more." Okay. So that's your hook. And the reason this is the last step, even though it's the beginning of your story, it's the last step because the body of your story can give you insight and ideas on how to start the story because the beginning of a story is very important. You don't want to start with,"Hi, my name is Lisa and I'm from that." No, that's not interesting. I'm sorry if you've started stories like that, but that is not interesting. You really want to grab people's interest. What could be something that would be like, "Whoa, that's so interesting or captivating." So once you have the hook, then you also want to find out how to end the story. This would be your jab. This is the end of the story that needs to end powerfully. You don't want a story to kind of trail off. And to like, "Dot, dot, dot what happens?" You need to end the story strong. So this could be leaving the audience with something to think about, a challenge. with a call to action. Go here to learn more. Scan this QR code to do this. Some sort of call to action. It needs to end strong. so those are the five steps. First, find the purpose of your story. Second, pick a character, one single character to follow through the journey. Third, you're going to figure out the conflict and resolution. Fourth, you're going to fill in the journey points between the conflict and resolution. Remember, this is like 50% give or take of your story. Lastly, you're going to figure out the hook, the very beginning of your story, and the jab, the very end of your story So you have strong bookends. really wanted to share an example of walking through this with your ministry and an actual potential story, but for the sake of time, I'm going to have to cut it off here. Maybe there will be another episode where I can walk through an example. And if you would like to be that example, please reach out, email me at lisa at irisstorytelling.com. I would love to use you as an example and walk through this story process and how to build an impact story to be able to share at a fundraiser or in a window at church, or if you're filming the story, whatever way that you're sharing that story. to walk through that and just give you a tangible example of it. So if you want to be that example, email me at lisa at irisstorytelling.com. this framework will really help you build those stories of impact to share what God is doing through your ministry. I would love to see what stories you come up with. Please share them with me. I would love to hear them. much as stories are so engaging and so incredibly effective, if your messaging overall is not clear, then stories can only do so much. If your messaging is still not connecting with donors, it's still not engaging, and it's not story driven where you're inviting donors into a story of their transformation, then that's really the missing link. It's going to be more effective to hone in on your messaging overall and creating a brand story that you can then apply to all your messaging than just coming up with more and more impact stories. And I'm not saying the impact stories are amazing and wonderful, but you got to start with the root, right? You got to start with your messaging, making sure that it's clear and it's simple and it's really inviting donors into a story. And then your brand's messaging is right on point, those other impact stories and the origin stories and the donor stories, and it will just build the strength of your messaging so much more. impact stories are not a replacement for brand messaging. If your messaging is not clear and it's not working, work together. Go to irastoretelling.com slash get started. We'll work together one on one over the course of four weeks. So we'll do first, we're going to identify your ideal donor. So you're talking to a very clear target. You're not trying to win everyone over. You're talking talking to a very clear target. And then step by step, we're going to build your brand story. So that's intentional and it's engaging and it's inviting the donors in as their story of transformation to partner with the Lord through your ministry. And so it's going to be so much more effective. It's going to simplify all of your messaging across platforms for a long time, for years to come. irastoretelling.com slash get started. Or you can go to irastoretelling.com slash workshop to learn more about the brand messaging workshop, the cost details, everything. excited for you. I know that you're only a few steps away having clarity and simplicity in your messaging. And it's going to be so effective and inviting so many people into what the Lord is doing through your ministry. All glory to the Lord, all glory to him. praying for you guys. I hope you have a great day. See you next time.