RESONATE with HIS Heart: 2021 Support Raising Leaders Conference

There is no greater tuning point than aligning our vision, efforts, and hearts to Jesus’. This year’s Support Raising Leaders Conference we explored what it means to resonate with Christ.  SRLC aimed that out of our worship of Jesus we would RESONATE with HIS heart for: the nations unity in our ministries personal transformation.  441 leaders from 116 organizations representing over 100,000 great commission workers worshiped, prayed, and learned together how we can collectively send more laborers and keep more laborers on the field.  The delay that the conference experienced due to COVID served to heighten everyone’s excitement to be […]

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Millennials and MPD: What I Have Learned Coaching New Staff in Support Raising

Lysa, a young capable woman who loves Jesus and wants to serve Him overseas, joined our staff several years ago after college. She had never raised support, but was trained well. She plodded along among her college friends and home church with 3-5 appointments per week for several months, but was still only at about 10% of her goal. We had a deadline coming up in less than two weeks that required her to be at 80% of her actual (not pledged) support goal. If she did not make this, none of the rest of the team would launch and […]

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When to Say “No” to Raising Support

When I met Jessie, everything indicated he would be a star in his ministry. The ministry he was aiming for was at the center of his passions.  It was in worship and his creativity came alive in the church context. His church body loved his contribution and his family was all for it.  It wasn’t long before Jessie was avoiding me and donor phone calls; paralysis had set in.  The situation surprised me. Each coaching call increased my own sense of anxiety as I perceived the situation was eroding his well-being rather than building him for the future. Ultimately, Jessie […]

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The Price of Effectiveness: What Organizational Change Actually Costs

In 1919, Texas Baptists began a ministry for college students. Our first Baptist Student Ministries (BSM) was planted at Texas A&M and UT, but soon included most of the major campuses in Texas. God has done so much in these past 101 years within Texas BSM, so we have a lot to celebrate! While our methods of ministry have changed with the times, our model of funding (until recently) has not. The path from a traditional model of funding into a support-based model has not been easy, but because of our embrace of support raising, we are better equipped to […]

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Setting Your Focus

What to do about what you can’t control for you and your team My wife homeschooled our children for a few years. She did a great job motivating our kids. She set an end of the year reward for the kids to go to an amusement park if they hit their weekly and semester goals. The kids hit their goals and the day trip was planned. One of my children had their heart set on riding one particular ride for months.  The day came and the excitement grew as we stood in line to buy tickets. The gates opened and […]

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Stop Toilet Paper Hoarding. Start Empowering Your Donors.

Everyone has an opinion and advice on what to do about the Coronavirus Pandemic.  Even ISIS has weighed in, warning its followers to stay away from Europe so they don’t get infected. Here at The Agitator we’re focused on the effects the pandemic will have on fundraising in hopes we can offer some helpful insights, advice and additional resources.  To that end last week we issued the first of what will be a series of Agitator Updates –information over and above our scheduled posts– and we’ll continue to send them to all readers via email. Over the weekend we touched base with lots of veteran […]

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Leading Up: Navigating Organizational Change as a Mid-Level Manager

I remember having lunch a few years ago with Roger Hamilton, the Director of Ministry Partner Development for The Navigators in Colorado Springs. I asked Roger how he thought we could influence and change the MPD strategies of an established organization. He said one word, “grassroots.” His message to me was that change is often first proven in the field and then adopted by the majority. I’ve never forgotten that conversation because he was so right! A Case Study That is exactly what happened within FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) from 2012 -2019. In 7 years FCA grew their staff […]

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Three Fundraising Culs-de-sac: Extremely logical half-truths that take you in circles

Adapted from Scott’s book: Blindspots: Leading Your Team and Ministry to Full Funding Funding coaches and leaders need to be alert for three subtle fundraising “sayings.” These half-truths seem logical, but following them leads into a cul-de-sac. Let’s dive in! Cul-de-sac #1: “Money follows visibility.” Years ago a well-known Evangelical conference and radio speaker lamented: “Our funding keeps going down even though I am speaking more and sending over 1,000 newsletters.” But few people give merely because you are visible to the public eye. Your potential donors go to bed at night wondering about their text messages or how to […]

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Warning Flags in Field Staff Funding

As a leader watching over the support health of field laborers what are some warning flags that should grab our attention? We all know a major contributing factor to workers leaving the field is the area of finances and MPD. Once workers have reported to their assignment location, and we’ve supported them through the natural seasons of team and locational culture shock, adjusting to a new work and personal life, etc., we need to be watching for signs to help us determine which staff may need additional coaching with their MPD. Financial stress can be caused by any combination of […]

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Graciously Letting Underfunded Staff Go

  My friend Melissa has been homeschooling her ten-year-old son Ethan since he was five. This past school year was a rough one. Ethan is strong-willed, and he fought his mom at every turn about doing his schoolwork. Melissa, normally a calm, laid-back woman, found herself yelling at Ethan multiple times a day. The fighting wore her out, and she knew she wasn’t honoring God. She prayed, did some research, and came up with a new plan. If Ethan didn’t have all of his schoolwork done by 5pm on Friday, he would lose his screen time for the weekend. Brilliant! […]

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Support Raising Solutions
PO BOX 3556
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