Blog / Fear and Perspective

If you’ve attended an SRS Bootcamp, you may remember the story contrasting Lisa, an introverted woman who successfully raised and maintained her support, with Lenny, an extroverted “life of the party” guy who was unable to sustain his team. Well, I’m Lisa, and I want to share from my perspective the role and influence of personality has on support raising. When I first considered raising support, I was tempted to believe I would be unable to do so. I privately compared myself with Steve Shadrach, who was leading the Bootcamp I attended back in 2004, and I knew I was […]

“The Greatest Walk-On in the History of College Football”. That is the way Brandon Burlsworth is described in GREATER, a movie produced about his life and death. Brandon was a very slow and overweight freshman who had a lifelong dream of playing for the Arkansas Razorbacks, but instead he was relegated to be the proverbial tackling dummy at practices. In spite of the mocking and derision, he refused to give up. Over the course of three years he out-worked, out-studied, and out-improved all others, moving his way up the depth chart. He won a scholarship, started at offensive tackle, and gained […]

You may just be starting your full-time support raising ministry journey, stalled out, or have years of experience living under God’s provision through a support team. No matter where you’re at, there are four crucial questions to ask yourself on the way to being fully funded for your ministry work. How you answer these questions could determine the longevity and fruitfulness of your support development, and dare I say, the legacy of your ministry too. It is not okay to drag along underfunded. It hinders your work, hurts your family, and can defame the Lord. In the midst of my […]

Aaron Babyar, President of Exago, was interviewed by the brilliant minds over at EngagingMissions.com. It’s easy to let our status as a support raiser affect our self-identity, but Aaron encourages us to find our identity in Christ, rather than solely identifying ourselves by the work we do. Also in this podcast, Aaron refutes some misconceptions about raising support and shows how important it actually is to the Kingdom of God. The weekly podcast from Engaging Missions focuses on sharing stories of those engaging the world with the mission of God. You can listen to Aaron’s interview in full by clicking the […]

In the summer of 1982, my mother and I boarded the biggest plane I’ve ever seen: a 747 jumbo jet, bound for a place known as “Beautiful Country”, the literal translation of the word “America” in Mandarin Chinese. As a 12-year-old boy, I had no idea what God had in store for my life. Fourteen years later, and after much spiritual growth, I joined The Navigators ministry to reach college students for Christ. I still remember my staff orientation and how daunting it sounded to go out and raise my entire support. For the next 10 years, I struggled immensely with […]

They (whoever “they” is!) say that “necessity is the mother of invention”. And when you feel so burdened by a ministry calling God has given you, you will do whatever it takes to find the resources to get fully funded and launch into that ministry assignment. In other words: Vision begets urgency, urgency begets creativity, and creativity begets breakthroughs. To affirm that, we used to say, “That’ll preach!” Now we say, “That’ll tweet!” I am in the process of helping my three-year-old grandson move from babyhood (i.e. diapers) to boyhood (i.e. pants) and it can be a tedious, frustrating experience. […]