Transparent Christian Magazine

Some good friends of mine recently started a business focused on training Christian Leaders.  They are offering video of great speakers and trainers through a website that can be utilized easily and inexpensively by church staff members! I had a chance to sit down with them recently and talk about their business, their goals and their launch!  (Oh, and the nice discount they are offering Transparent Christian Magazine Readers!) – Thanks Team IML!!

Transparent: What is Innovative Ministry Leader, and what is it all about?
IML: Innovative Ministry Leader is a web based training platform for today’s leaders. Our mission is to provide information and insight to help leaders effectively deliver the message of Christ to today’s culture. Each month we provide training in five specific areas, Leadership, Worship, Marketing, and Technology. Each message is released on a giving date and time each month. Upon broadcast, their is a chat application that is located right below the video where users can network and share best practice tips with each other. Users that can not make live broadcasts can view messages in the archive section of our site for up to one year from broadcast date. We also offer many incentives for users that will save them money and help them choose the best available resources for their ministry. You can watch an overview here!

Transparent: Why did you start IML?
IML: We started Innovative Ministry Leader to offer cost effective information to Leaders worldwide. About four years ago we noticed that many leaders across the globe, could not afford to go to conferences and training events, due to high prices and travel costs. We wanted to make a platform that was accessible worldwide, and would connect leaders as one. IML was designed for leaders to gain insight from influential speakers around the world, to help strengthen their ministries.

Transparent: How are you attracting these excellent speakers? I just noticed you signed up Jon Acuff, and he writes one of my favorite blogs called “Stuff Christians Like”. I wanted to go see him at Catalyst last year but was unable to attend.
IML: We have been really blessed to be able to work with great speakers like Jon. Most speakers love the fact that we travel directly to them and save them time on travel. As an added benefit, they can train others worldwide, all while not having to leave their families.

Transparent: What are your hopes for the website?
IML: Our hope for the website is to impact as many leaders as possible. We do not license and charge by the user, rather we focus on charging by the church. We don’t want cost to be a burden for great training and insight. We also want to create an environment where leaders can learn from each other and network to reach more people for Christ.

Transparent: How has God been blowing your mind lately?
IML: God has really taken hold of us in a unique way lately.  At first when we launched this platform we wanted to find the most innovative and technologically advanced ways to influence leaders.   But as we started to meet some of the greatest communicators in the world, God started to show us a different journey.   We realized that the technology needs to be the tool to connect people, and not a distraction.  We feel that we are meeting that goal by focusing on great speakers and content, and allowing our users to
view this content in a relaxed, inexpensive manner.

Transparent: Talk to me about the process of getting this site launched. All smooth sailing and roses?
IML: It has been a long journey. We started the process of the site about four years ago. We met with many investors of other conferences and training events. One thing we had on our hearts when we came up with the idea, is to give a large percentage of profits from the site to missions. However many of these investors did not want to contribute at the level to mission that we envisioned. But we did not change the vision that God had put in our hearts. We persevered for a long time and finally found a private investor that believed in the vision. There have been many challenges in building the site, since a lot of what we were creating was so new we had to create the model, but we have a great team that works so hard.

Transparent:
You mention some initial memberships get a special deal. Can you talk to me about that? What about Transparent Magazine readers, how do they sign up?
IML: Yes, we have a great partnership with Zondervan, who will be giving 8 books from their Leadership Network Innovation Series, to the first 150 people that sign up for a 6 or 12 month membership. All they have to do is go to www.innovativeministryleader.com and click on the Join Now tab. Also for Transparent Magazine Readers, enter the code “transparent” in the discount box, and receive an additional 10% of the monthly fee.

Transparent: What are your goals this year?
IML: Our goals for this year is to impact as many leaders as possible with the best training available. We want to equip leaders around the world that never dreamed of having insight and training from the leaders on our platform.

Transparent: How has this site been received so far?
IML: We officially launched IML several weeks ago for pre-registration. We have had an amazing response and great feedback. Many people are shocked with the lineup that we have, especially since we are an entirely new platform.

Transparent: Do you have anything else to declare?
IML: We love hearing from leaders around the world. We want to be a platform that helps churches of all sizes. Our users can send questions and topic ideas that they would love to have us cover from key communicators. Feel free to send your emails here.

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So, if you are in ministry, and want an excellent way to stay connected with the leaders in your field, sign up for IML’s service.  For the cost of ONE weekend conference, you will have access to an ever growing supply of excellent speakers.

Innovative Ministry Blog

Innovative Ministry Leader Website

Excellent Anne Jackson Sample Video From IML