Episode1

Plan your work, then work your plan!

Aaron interviews Steve Shadrach on the best practices of pre-planning your support raising journey. This week’s planning work is crucial to your success!

Article1

Lay your foundation, then build on it

Congratulations on completing the Support Raising Solutions Bootcamp. You are on your way! Over the course of the next 100 days, we will provide support and encouragement through weekly emails and podcasts to help coach you as you build a strong foundation for your ministry partnership team. Why? Because our goal is to help you become a spiritually healthy, vision-driven, and fully funded Great Commission worker for years to come.

This week, we want to reinforce the importance of getting organized, making your plan, and then working that plan.

“Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.” –Proverbs 24:27 [ESV]

Pray, pray, pray

First, you will want to be spending regular time in prayer for this process. Pray about every aspect, from the items on your calendar that may need to be moved to maximize your capacity, to the names of the people with whom you will schedule appointments, to that person you will ask to hold you accountable during this phase of ministry. Leave nothing out as you and the Lord build the foundation. If you didn’t complete, or need to review the Bible studies, teaching videos, and other preparation for Bootcamp, now is the perfect time to boost your confidence and competence with that material. Go do it!

Set those priorities

Pull out your Bootcamp workbook and review your to-do list. Revise and update according to your prayer and feedback. Schedule three days right away for this prep work. During these days you will want to:

• Meet with your accountability partner to review the Covenant (Session 28 in your workbook) and go over your to-do list.
• Set up your system for managing your contacts, appointments, and follow up. There are a number of software applications that can help you stay on track. Do this at the beginning, and it will take less time to document and track your progress when your appointment schedule fills. We highly suggest using a software.
• Gather and review your to-do lists and tools.
• Practice and refine your scripts that you began during Bootcamp.
• Prepare your schedule, blocking out times for appointments with potential ministry partners, intentional time to make phone calls to set new appointments, and your next appointment with your accountability partner.

Now that you are organized for success, it’s time to get started!

May God bless you in building your team of ministry partners,

The SRS Team

This Week’s Self-Improvement Challenge

When life and ministry get full, it is all too easy to skimp on (or skip!) your prayer and devotional time. As you launch out into this new season of ministry, make it a scheduled priority to have a daily focused time of prayer for your support raising process. If you are married, perhaps include your spouse in this important aspect of your mutual ministry life. It will encourage and enrich your relationship in this season.

To help you get started, you can download our guide, 100 Days of Quiet Times.