Tactical Recon: Kingdom Promotion

Once you have a clear understanding of the issues that face your community you can begin to promote yourself within your community. Promotion is one of the tactics that will position you in your community as a knowledgeable and influential individual. At the outset it is important that you understand that when we speak of seeking self-promotion, we are actually seeking to promote Christ and a Biblical world view and not ourselves. 

Consider yourself the vehicle, or tool, for the Kingdom’s promotion. And so by promoting yourself you are actually promoting the Kingdom.

The Ultimate Goal

Your goal is to bring the knowledge of Scripture in an applicable form to bear upon the issues and policies of the day. This begins by situating ourselves so as to be visible. We promote ourselves only so we can gain access to areas and people in the community for the reorientation of the culture God-ward.  Whether we are seeking to position ourselves as family advocates, legislative critics or political activists, our goal must always be Kingdom focused.

A Delicate Balance

The promotion of one’s self can be a very tricky endeavor. On the one hand, you do not want to shy away from self-promotion in order to engage others in conversation for the purpose of Biblical discussion. On the other hand, you should never seek to promote yourself in an arrogant, proud or boisterous fashion just to get your point of view across. You must always maintain a Christian demeanor showing yourself as responsible and resourceful person tempered with kindness and patience. Integrity is the key, as is honesty, kindness and a sincere consideration for others. If you use Christ to promote your own personal agenda rather than the Kingdom’s you will quickly be found out as a hypocrite and your witness will soon be destroyed. Once that happens it’s almost impossible to recover. As soon as the hypocrite is revealed he or she will no longer be trusted.

Passion

Enthusiasm is another key component to promoting anything. If you are not enthusiastic you will never be able to engage others in your cause. Passion is essential to any endeavor.

Author of the “Shameless Self-Promoter” and marketing expert Debbie Allen explains,

Your mood affects your beliefs…Staying positive and enthusiastic is essential…A positive attitude along with a contagious enthusiasm will support your groundwork…

Introduce, Integrate, Initiate

In order to really make an impact in your community, you should look at every day as another opportunity to meet someone new. Introduce yourself to someone that you haven’t met previously. We tend to stay in our comfort zones of relationships. Sadly, that will never broaden our sphere of influence and it certainly will not have any positive effect on our work for the Kingdom. 

Once the proper introductions are made you can begin to integrate yourself into their life through either general conversation or perhaps later on in a more intimate discussion of ideas and philosophies. 

Once a deeper relationship is developed, which may take some time, you can proceed to initiate a 

discussion on how the Kingdom of God can be advanced. Be patient. Don’t rush into offering your ideas until you have listened to their ideas. Listening to others is one of the best ways to gain trust and respect. You cannot expect anyone to care about what you are saying until they know that you care about what they are saying.

Author Larry James puts it this way,

“You call attention to yourself by paying attention to others.”