Resources
Below you’ll find a curated collection of practical templates, strategy worksheets, apps and tools that will enable you to implement your digital strategy.
What resources are you searching for?
These resources will help you plan and document your digital ministry efforts.
These globally available ministry products are designed to help you engage your audiences on their spiritual journeys.
GDS provides trusted, secure, right-sized tools that serve national ministries and help you focus on your audience.
The Global Operation team of Campus Crusade for Christ International provides and manages this selection of tools, used for organizational and personal ministry.
Have a question about a resource or tool? Contact us here.
Strategic planning resources
These resources will help you plan and document your digital ministry efforts.
Ministry Canvas
A comprehensive worksheet that walks you and your team through the planning process from start to finish. This worksheet can also be used for planning hybrid or offline ministry strategies.
Guide to Understanding Your Audience
Using three activities, this worksheet helps you narrow your target audience, understand their spiritual background via the Audience Map, and design a user journey based on their perspective. This worksheet ensures you’re focusing on your audience and empathizing with them before you start creating your content.
SMART Goals Worksheet
This worksheet helps you set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Voice and Tone Guide
This document guides you through setting the voice and tone for your content so that you can maintain a welcoming, trustworthy and relatable online presence for your audience.
User Journey Template
This essential template guides you in mapping out the steps that your audience will take on the user journey you’re creating. This activity helps you storyboard the user journey and includes a place to document the platform, constraints, call-to-action and content description for each step of your user journey.
Content Creation Guide
This resource helps you define the specific requirements, topics and visual needs of any piece of content for your user journey.
Content Calendar Template
This monthly editorial calendar template helps you and your team plan your content creation and when you’ll publish the content. It’s also relevant for social media content planning.
Follow-Up Plan Worksheet
If you implement a great user journey, you’ll hopefully have people responding as a result. This tool helps teams determine who will handle responses, what the target reply time is and how to organize contact data.
Key Ministry Platforms and Tools
These globally available ministry products are designed to help you engage your audiences on their spiritual journeys.
The Audience Map
The Audience Map is a foundational tool, built on global research, that helps you understand where people are on their spiritual journeys, so that you can design your content to meet them where they are. Available in seven languages, the Audience Map can be the starting point for building a user journey or digital strategy. This tool can help you:
- Love people more fully like Jesus
- Understand your audience’s assumptions, expectations and previous context
- Create common language for your team
- Become better listeners and learners
- Get inspired for innovation in places where you feel stuck
GodTools
GodTools is a mobile app designed to help you and those you lead have conversations about Jesus with the people you care about. Key features include:
- 120+ languages and the ability to toggle between languages while sharing the gospel.
- A screen-sharing feature that allows you to have gospel conversations at a distance or train a group of people.
- Lessons to help you overcome barriers that prevent you from having effective spiritual conversations.
- Gospel presentation tools to fit your contextualized needs.
- Offline capabilities so you can use the app without an internet connection.
NextSteps
NextSteps is a web-based tool that allows ministries to create interactive, shareable micro-experiences (invites, follow-ups, gospel stories, prayer, etc.) to move people toward Jesus. This tool utilizes the Content Strategy Framework and provides the functionality for building your customized user journey. Key features include the ability to:
- Share your journey anywhere via a short link or QR code designed for text/DMs, social media, flyers and posters.
- Give people a few thoughtful next steps (video/cards/buttons/forms) to invite interaction.
- See analytics for your user journey that will help you improve.
- Collect contact details, making reminders and follow-up easier.
The Mentor Ministry (TMM)
TMM is a secure mentoring platform — created and managed by Power to Change Ministries™ in Canada — that connects audiences with live mentors through email, app or chat. Follow the link to learn more and see if this platform may be a good fit for your digital strategy.
The Amazing Question Strategy
Created by Global Church Movements Digital (GCM), this social media strategy has been used effectively all over the world to start meaningful conversations and relationships with those who are open to Jesus. Use it to engage with non-Christians online in a meaningful way. This short course, available in several languages, will take you from start to finish with how to utilize this strategy.
The Jesus Film Project (JFP) App
With the JFP app, you can watch, download and share from a growing library of videos in more than 2,000 languages, produced to help the world know Jesus better.
Can’t find what you are looking for?
If you’re looking for a ministry app and don’t see it on this list, the app may be managed by a national ministry. Email us, and we’ll connect you to the right person.
Tools for Content Strategy
Content strategy is how we do the work of winning, building and sending in digital space. It’s the framework we use to build audience-centered user journeys that help people take their next steps toward Jesus.
Our Content Strategy Toolset serves national ministries by providing trusted, secure, right-sized tools that help you focus on people — not on technology decisions. Each tool can be used individually or stacked together to build increasingly integrated, audience-centered strategies.
These tools help you:
- Reach your scope.
- Understand your audiences.
- Capture missional impact through meaningful data.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) – Web Analytics
Google Analytics 4 helps you understand what is happening on your website. It shows where your audience is coming from, what content they are engaging with and what next steps they usually take. Analytics is not about numbers — it’s about people and stories. Analytics is the way that you, as a digital practitioner, can hear the voice of your audience telling you what parts of the user journey and content are relevant to them, and what parts are not.
Use GA4 when:
- You have a website or landing page.
- You want to measure conversions, next steps or engagement.
- You need data to inform national ministry decisions.
WordPress – Website Platform
WordPress is a user-friendly, template-based website platform. It works well for most national ministries because it’s flexible, scalable and relatively easy to manage. As a global ministry, we can host your website and manage the WordPress environment and plugins for you, providing you (and national ministries) with a secure website-hosting infrastructure at no direct cost.
Use WordPress when:
- Launching a national website.
- Building campaign landing pages.
- Hosting blog content or ministry resources.
- Creating a platform that integrates with LearnDash (LMS).
Metricool – Social Media Management & Analytics
Metricool is our global platform for social media management. It allows you to schedule posts, manage multiple channels and analyze engagement across platforms — all in one place. It’s intuitive, simple and cost-effective, helping DS teams focus on ministry rather than deal with complexity.
Use Metricool when:
- Managing multiple social platforms.
- Planning and scheduling content in advance.
- Collaborating across a team to post social media content.
Start by creating a free account at metricool.com using your ministry email. Then request access to the GDS account by clicking the button below.
Gnowbe – Learning Management System (LMS)
If you are creating discipleship pathways, leadership development or digital training, we offer two LMS options: Gnowbe and LearnDash.
Gnowbe is a mobile-first, interactive platform that works well for leadership training, volunteer equipping, and cohort-based learning. It’s simple to use and designed for engagement. Gnowbe is the best solution if you want an interactive, mobile experience for training.
Best for:
- Mobile learning experiences.
- Interactive modules.
- Volunteer or staff development.
- Growth experiences in which your audience already knows who you are.
LearnDash – Learning Management System (LMS)
If you are creating discipleship pathways, leadership development or digital training, we offer two LMS options: Gnowbe and LearnDash.
LearnDash is a WordPress-based LMS plugin that allows you to build structured online courses within your website. LearnDash is the best solution if you want to host your training courses on an existing website.
Best for:
- Multi-module courses.
- Training embedded directly on your WordPress site.
- Formal courses in which participants receive certification.
Global Operations Tools
Project Management Software
Global Digital Strategies offers Basecamp for teams to track and manage projects together.
Email digitalacademy@ccci.org for access.
Other Recommended Tools
While we don’t offer any globally-managed enterprise plans, we’ve reviewed the following tools and recommend them based on our organizational guidance and governance around technology:
- Mailchimp — recommended for email campaign management.
- Canva — recommended for design (although you may find less-expensive options).
- AI Tools — based on Global Policy.
*Check with your national ministry to see if they offer any paid-for or subsidized plans. This is a country-by-country decision.
Glossary of Digital Strategies Terms
This reference document defines key digital terms, such as: content strategy, digital ecosystem, KPI and SEO.
Other Support
Looking for IT support for your devices? Email help@cru.org.
The following tools are managed by Global Operations. If you need support for any of these tools, we recommend you visit Workvivo or helpducks.org.
- MPDX
- Okta
- NetSuite
- Google Suite
- PowerBI
- Zoom
- Global VPN
- Event Registration Tool
Get in touch.
Not sure where to start with these tools or resources? Have a question about a resource listed here? Looking for something else but can’t find it?
Connect with us.