01
Target Audience
- Who is our most important target audience? Which sub-groups exist?
- What role do faith and spirituality play in their lives?
- What alternatives do people already use for the needs, values and interests that connect us?
Context · calling · practice
What really is the good news
in our context?
A missional identity canvas for work that keeps listening, discerning and adapting as the world around it changes.
The church version follows the recovered 2024 canvas. The Christian nonprofit and business versions are draft adaptations for review.
Print all three canvases · A3 landscape PDF · Recovered original church canvas
The same place, a changing context
Keep listening to the place around us.
A café opens in a worn corner building. The house is restored, then retail and offices change its use. The church stays in place while its neighborhood changes.
What really is good news here—for longstanding neighbors and newer arrivals? The canvas gives us a reason to listen again.
Your working canvas
Make space for discernment.
Start anywhere. Leave questions open. Return as your context changes.
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Section 01 of 09
Target Audience
Section 02 of 09
Connecting Factor
Section 03 of 09
Missional Identity
Let the people affected by your work help you discern what good news could mean here.
Section 04 of 09
Relationships
Section 05 of 09
Key Activities
Section 06 of 09
Channels
Section 07 of 09
Resources
Section 08 of 09
Budget
Section 09 of 09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
Section 01 of 09
Target Audience
Section 02 of 09
Connecting Factor
Section 03 of 09
Missional Identity
Let the people affected by your work help you discern what good news could mean here.
Section 04 of 09
Relationships
Section 05 of 09
Key Activities
Section 06 of 09
Channels
Section 07 of 09
Resources
Section 08 of 09
Budget
Section 09 of 09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
Section 01 of 09
Target Audience
Section 02 of 09
Connecting Factor
Section 03 of 09
Missional Identity
Let the people affected by your work help you discern what good news could mean here.
Section 04 of 09
Relationships
Section 05 of 09
Key Activities
Section 06 of 09
Channels
Section 07 of 09
Resources
Section 08 of 09
Budget
Section 09 of 09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
A working expression, open to revision
Take it into the conversation.
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Church
Recovered baseline; wording lightly edited for clarity
The whole canvas · choose a block to explore its questions.
01Target AudienceAudience02Connecting FactorConnection03Missional IdentityIdentity04RelationshipsRelationships05Key ActivitiesActivities06ChannelsChannels07ResourcesResources08BudgetBudget09Assessing Missional EffectivenessAssessment
02
Connecting Factor
- What are the three most important connecting factors: problems, values, needs or interests?
- Which interest-based activities align with our ministry’s values and people’s interests?
- Which existing relationships or networks can help us connect?
03
Missional Identity
- What really is the good news in our context?
- How does our church reflect God’s mission in the world?
- What aspects of our ministry are particularly compelling to people in this context?
04
Relationships
- What type of relationship do people expect from us: community, co-creation, accountability, self-service or another form?
- How can our relational offerings be accessible and welcoming to people new to faith?
05
Key Activities
- Which activities are required to connect with and serve people effectively?
- Which activities sustain this work over time: worship, communication, events or training?
06
Channels
- Where and how will we meet the people we are called to serve?
- Which relationships already exist, and which need to be established with people, the city and partner organizations?
07
Resources
- What do we need: finances, volunteers, staff, partnerships, equipment, technology, materials and space?
08
Budget
- What are the costs: rent, salaries, utilities, communication, technology and materials?
09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
- How will we cultivate prayerful discernment and openness to the Holy Spirit as we assess our church’s missional effectiveness?
- Which SMART criteria align with our God-given mission and help us understand impact and areas for growth?
Christian nonprofit
Draft adaptation for review
The whole canvas · choose a block to explore its questions.
01Target AudienceAudience02Connecting FactorConnection03Missional IdentityIdentity04RelationshipsRelationships05Key ActivitiesActivities06ChannelsChannels07ResourcesResources08BudgetBudget09Assessing Missional EffectivenessAssessment
01
Target Audience
- Whom are we called to serve, and who is affected by our work?
- How do people describe their own hopes, needs, faith and context?
- Who is absent from our current understanding?
02
Connecting Factor
- Where do our calling and people’s lived needs meet?
- Which local strengths, interests and trusted relationships can we build on?
- What support already exists, and where should we partner?
03
Missional Identity
- What really is the good news in our context?
- How does our work participate in God’s mission through the hope of Jesus Christ, service, justice and reconciliation?
- How will this take a concrete form that people recognize as good—not merely our intention?
04
Relationships
- How will people shape the work, exercise agency and hold us accountable?
- What support can someone receive without joining, donating, or participating in religious activity?
- How do we build trust across differences of belief and power?
05
Key Activities
- Which services, advocacy or community practices make our missional identity tangible?
- What must we sustain, change, partner on or stop?
06
Channels
- Where do people already seek help or gather?
- How will trusted partners, physical presence and digital access work together?
- Which barriers must we remove?
07
Resources
- Which people, skills, partnerships, safeguarding, space and technology does the work require?
- What strengths do the communities we serve bring, and how will their contribution be recognized?
08
Budget
- What does this work cost, and how will grants, gifts or earned income sustain it?
- What conditions do funders attach, and could they distort our mission?
- How will we account transparently for resources and protect access to help?
09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
- What do prayer, Scripture and the people we serve reveal about our faithfulness?
- What evidence of improved lives and unintended harm will we examine alongside financial sustainability?
- Who can challenge our interpretation, and what would lead us to change or stop?
Christian business
Draft adaptation for review
The whole canvas · choose a block to explore its questions.
01Target AudienceAudience02Connecting FactorConnection03Missional IdentityIdentity04RelationshipsRelationships05Key ActivitiesActivities06ChannelsChannels07ResourcesResources08BudgetBudget09Assessing Missional EffectivenessAssessment
01
Target Audience
- Who uses, pays for, produces and is affected by our product or service?
- What are their lived needs and contexts, including employees, suppliers and neighbors?
- Who bears costs without being represented in purchasing decisions?
02
Connecting Factor
- Which real needs, hopes or shared concerns connect our calling to this work?
- What do people already do, and what would serve them better?
- Which relationships and capabilities give us a responsible place to contribute?
03
Missional Identity
- What really is the good news in our context?
- How does our vocation participate in God’s mission through the hope of Jesus Christ and the goods of honest work, justice, service and reconciliation?
- What does that calling require of our product, employment and ownership decisions? A commercial offer cannot stand in for the gospel.
04
Relationships
- What should customers, employees and partners be able to expect from us?
- How will we protect freedom, privacy, fair treatment and honest relationships across beliefs?
- How can people question, decline or leave without pressure or penalty disguised as spiritual obligation?
05
Key Activities
- What must we design, make, deliver and maintain to embody this calling?
- How will sourcing, employment and the product’s use express the same commitments?
- Which profitable activities would we refuse or stop?
06
Channels
- Where and how will people encounter, obtain and receive support for our work?
- How will sales and marketing tell the truth without exploiting vulnerability?
- Which distribution partners reinforce or undermine our commitments?
07
Resources
- Which people, skills, capital, partnerships, materials and technology are entrusted to us?
- How will ownership, governance and incentives protect the mission as we grow?
08
Budget
- What costs, wages, prices and revenue model can sustain useful work fairly?
- Who carries financial risk and receives the value created?
- Which revenue opportunities conflict with our calling, and how will we fund the cost of refusing them?
09
Assessing Missional Effectiveness
- What does faithful participation in God’s mission look like here, alongside a sustainable business?
- What evidence will we examine about usefulness, work, justice, relationships and unintended harm—not only growth or profit?
- How will prayerful discernment, independent challenge and changed context inform what we continue, revise or end?
Listen. Discern. Act. Revisit.
Our context can change without us crossing a border. Invite the people affected by our work to correct our assumptions; read Scripture and pray together; make one concrete change; then review its faithfulness, effects and unintended costs. Set a review date—and return sooner when the context changes.
A commercial offer cannot stand in for the gospel. Neither impact metrics nor financial success can replace prayerful discernment and accountable relationships.
Adapted from Tobias Treppmann / Oratio&Co, Ministry Model Canvas for churches (2024), in turn adapted from the Business Model Canvas. Draft nonprofit/business wording and review rhythm: Missional by Design, 2026. Shared under CC BY-SA 3.0. Earlier canvas and workshop background.