What Is the Minimum Training Needed to Be Effective at Support Raising?

By on August 16, 2022   /   Leaders, Training   /   Leave a comment

What can I get by with? This is a question worth asking. Maybe a better rewording: what is the minimum needed to still be effective?  This is the question I want to ask and re-ask when looking at the various support raising training needs of my staff. If you have a robust partnership development training, such as SRS Bootcamp or something similar, then it’s tempting to use that one training for every situation. You know it’s effective!  But what about the small needs? I’m thinking about semester interns instead of career salary. Maybe it’s staff that will have supplemental income […]

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I won’t come down…

By on August 17, 2021   /   Coaching, Culture, Infrastructure, Leaders, Training   /   Leave a comment

This is part two of a two part article series. The first article shares the support raisers experience and can be found here. This article shares a bigger vision and perspective from that of a coach. What would you do to see all your staff fully funded tomorrow, next week, this summer? Would you do whatever it takes? Would you stop your movement for a moment?  As non profits and missions organizations we want to be movements of God. We want to join Him in his work and to faithfully move for God’s kingdom to come and for the Great […]

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How We Train Our People for Ministry Partnership Matters

By on June 14, 2021   /   Leaders, Training   /   Leave a comment

As we seek to help our new and veteran ministry workers become and remain spiritually healthy, vision-driven, and fully funded, how we train our people for ministry partnership matters. Every year, organizations of all kinds spend millions of dollars on training experiences for their personnel. Sadly, research suggests that the results of much of that training fail to live up to what was hoped for from the investment of such time and money. So what makes for effective training? Carissa Potter’s blog article, Learning that Connects, from March 15th makes three important points about adult learning: Adult Learners are motivated […]

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Learning that Connects

By on March 15, 2021   /   Communication and Relationships, Training   /   Leave a comment

As children, we are expected to learn. Our parents, teachers, and coaches dictate the things we need to know, often with a “you’ll need this in the future” caveat. We observed and listened. After all, learning was our primary responsibility as children.  All of that changes in adulthood. Learning becomes a choice, and with that choice comes the authority to dictate what we will learn, when we will learn it, and whom we want to learn it from. Adult education includes unique factors that impact the learning experience.  As support-raising trainers, we want to effectively equip staff within our organization […]

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Five Essential Anchors for MPD

By on February 15, 2021   /   Culture, Infrastructure, Leaders, Training   /   Leave a comment

My father was a ship fitter at the US’s first Naval Shipyard, that included everything for the fabrication and repairs for our country’s fleet of ships. At its height during World War II, 40,000 people worked there. During that time they built 53 ships and repaired 574. While I never got to see the complexity of what my father did at work, I did see his creativity and his amazing abilities at home. He could make or fix anything. He could visualize, draw what he envisioned and then craft it. Later in life he left the Navy Yard, went into […]

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How Getting to Full Support Changed Me as a Coach

By on January 19, 2021   /   Coaching, Leaders, Preparation and Tools, Training   /   Leave a comment

Ready for a challenge? It is stated in three simple words – get fully funded. You are a leader, a coach, a trainer, and, as such, you are an example for the supported staff in your organization. Yes, you’ve been at your role for many years, and you are good at what you do. Once upon a time, you were fully funded. You know what it’s like to raise support; you just haven’t done it for a while. Let me share how taking time out to make this a priority not only helped us reach full support but changed me […]

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Ethnic Minority Support Raising is an Untapped Goldmine for Your MPD!

By on October 20, 2020   /   Communication and Relationships, Ethnic and Gender, Fear and Perspective, Non-Westerners, Training   /   Leave a comment

Support Raising for ethnic minorities usually conjures up words like shame and honor. But no longer are these terms relegated to ethnic minorities. Honor and shame categories are more relevant than ever and apply to all missionaries regardless of ethnic or cultural background. Consider the shame dynamics brought on by the onslaught of social media, articles like Christianity Today’s “The Return of Shame” and the popularity of best-selling author and shame researcher Brené Brown. Smartphones and Facebook have put honor-shame dynamics into everyone’s pocket, especially Gen Z, the first digitally native generation and the incoming missionary force. This current pandemic […]

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Learned Helplessness

By on July 21, 2020   /   Coaching, Culture, Fear and Perspective, Training   /   Leave a comment

Dread. That’s what I felt before my weekly check-in as an MPD coach with this staff. The litany of excuses, hopelessness, and futility I felt each meeting sucked me right into their vortex of despair, transforming a great day into a dreary one. I worked hard as a coach, asking reflective questions designed to help them arrive at a new insight or behavior change that would move them to some measure of success. Nearly every time my questions were answered with some form of “I have tried it all and people just don’t want to support me. I don’t even […]

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5 Things to Look for in an MPD Coach

By on June 2, 2020   /   Basics, Coaching, Preparation and Tools, Strategy and Planning, Training   /   Leave a comment

In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (NIV).” It is interesting that Paul does not say, “Follow Christ’s example, as I follow the example of Christ.” I believe what Paul is trying to convey in this passage is the principle of mentorship in our walk with God. In whatever skill we are trying to develop, we all need a mentor or a coach to get better. Even the most highly accomplished, professional athletes still need a coach. How much more important is a good coach when it comes to raising support, […]

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Wanna Go For a Sprint?

By on March 17, 2020   /   Leaders, Training   /   Leave a comment

What is a “sprint”? An MPD Sprint is a 30-45 day period in which full-time staff spend part-time (20 hours a week) in a support raising season supported by a coach and in community with fellow staff. These sprints create an environment of camaraderie, excitement, and activity focused goal setting. Why a sprint? It’s no secret that support raising is one of the most difficult aspects of being a missionary. If left unchecked, staff may creatively avoid their support raising until it slowly becomes a problem so big that it not only affects their ministries, but their entire lives. But […]

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