Do the Word

When Jesus (in Mark 9:35) said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all”, do you think he meant that we should be very, very humble as we ask our fellow Christians to donate money to support us to do the work of ministry (typically while showing them a really sharp PowerPoint presentation with embedded video about “our” ministry)?

Probably not, eh?

If we’re going to take the Bible literally, we probably better make good on Mark 9:35 as part of that package.

Taken literally, Mark 9:35 makes a point quite a bit like Ephesians 4:11-13, namely, that if you’re a Christian nonprofit leader, your purpose is to serve and support ordinary Christians, equipping them to grow into the fullness of Christ in relation to the cause God has put on your heart.

Like Angelo Dundee to Mohammed Ali.

But this is so very different than the self-identity that we breed into our Christian nonprofit leaders. We teach them that they are Mohammed Ali, and we seminar leaders are Angelo Dundee.

That would make ordinary Christians the fans (and major donors the people who pay the really good money for a ringside seat).

What a far cry from the self-identity of the Apostle Paul in relation to his churches.

We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

It’s not that the Apostle Paul experienced all this while carrying out the full ministry of God while being supported by ordinary Christians. It’s that the Apostle Paul experienced all this  for the purpose of training ordinary Christians to carry out the full ministry of God.

It’s time for the director of the homeless shelter to reconsider his ministry.

Instead of saying, “Look, my calling is to care for the homeless people of Phoenix; please send money so I can do this,” let him follow in the path of the Apostle Paul and say, “Look, my calling is to equip the Christians of Phoenix to care for the homeless people of Phoenix; let me serve you by equipping you, creating a platform where your giving in every way–your time, your finances, your spiritual gifts–can join with the comprehensive giving of others to accomplish what God commands.”

As I mentioned in a blog post last month,

Larry Lloyd at the Memphis Leadership Foundation told me the other day, “Transformational Giving first requires a change in the self-identity of the nonprofit leader. TG leaders have to be fundamentally committed to mentoring their champions to do the ministry. Absent that self-identity change, TG can never take root in an organization.”

Be Angelo Dundee, friend. Not Mohammed Ali. 

Enter the first nascent heresy of the nascent Transformational Giving age.

Be very on your guard. Even as it traditional/transactional fundraising (ttf) begins to publicly hemorrhage and die, here begins to emerge the next battleground for Christian development.

Roger from The Agitator cites, approvingly, a post by Seth Godin about clout which posits that in a world of equal opportunity Tweeting, some Tweeters may be more equal than others by virtue of their extensive use of social networking and thus the size of their networks.

In other words, just as for years we’ve paid special attention to major donors because they have more money than anyone else, we’re now entering an age where we will be encouraged to pay special attention to major social networkers because they have more influence than anyone else.

Writes Godin:

If you knew which of your followers had clout, you could invest more time and energy in personal attention.

Adds Roger from The Agitator:

I’m happy to report that at DonorTrends we’ve taken an important first step in helping you find the most “cloutful” among your donors, activists and volunteers. It’s our new identification and screening service called SociaLeaders ™ and it gives you an inexpensive way of spotting those folks who are the  heaviest users of social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

I say, “an important first step” because as Seth noted in an exchange of emails, quantity of friends is not the only, or even most important, factor that yields clout.

Of course, Seth’s right, and what SociaLeaders ™ does provide is an important starting point for zeroing in on likely “missionaries,”  “recruiters” and potential “super donors” who warrant  further communication and investment in cultivation.

As we’ve reported before, our DonorTrends surveys of donors and what we call “donor superstars” — the category where we find missionaries and recruiters — show a disproportionately high use of social networks.

To encourage Agitator readers to begin finding out who your social network leaders are, DonorTrends is offering a FREE 500 name test.  Just click here to get the ball rolling.

But ye have not so learned Transformational Giving.

Let me be emphatic:

TG is not compatible with the substitution of influence for wealth as a criterion by which we determine how we categorize our champions and how we allocate our time for coaching.

TG Principle 10 currently states:

Champions categorize themselves not according to the amount of their giving but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.

I see now it needs to be formally augmented as follows:

Champions categorize themselves not according to the amount of their giving or influence but by the degree of comprehensive personal ownership they are exhibiting in the cause.

Why do we spend more time coaching some people than others in TG? Is it because they have more money? Because they have a larger network of influence?

By no means.

We spend more time coaching some people than others in TG because some people are more ready to own the cause in their sphere of influence, regardless of the size of that sphere.

Never, ever lose sight of the fact that our goal is neither the growth of our ministry nor even the spreading of our cause. Our goal is that those within our sphere of influence might be brought to the likeness of Christ in relationship to the cause Christ has given us to champion.

That means that we are not to find the most influential people and train them but rather we are to train the people we influence the most.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. (Eph 4:25. KJV even.)

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

May you always coach the lowly and despised of this world. May you always speak truth with your neighbor.

May you never chase Tweets.

Had a great meeting this morning with Mission Increase Foundation National Senior Giving and Training Officer (SGTO) Tracy Nordyke and Colorado SGTO Suzanne Dubois to stake out new Transformational Giving (TG) territory in preparation for January/February’s workshop/lab series on Engagement.

The question:

How can ministries coach champions to move from participating in ministry projects to being comprehensively engaged with the cause?

Or, in TG vernacular:

How can you coach champions from P to E?

One of the realizations we had today was just how much Engagement in TG is like engagement in man-woman relationships and marriage and, you know, such.

Consider two possible paths a relationship might take:

A couple goes out on a date. They like each other. They go out again. They still like each other. They think, “Hmm… What more can we do?” So they decide to sleep together. They still like each other. They think, “Hmm… What more can we do?” So they move in together.

In TG parlance, we have an expression for this:

P + P + P + P ≠ E

In other words, no number of Participation projects combined together can ever equal Engagement.

Now, consider a second relationship path:

A man and a woman go out on a date. They like each other. They go out again. They still like each other. They go out on four or five more dates. They really like each other. The man begins to think, “This woman really is becoming a major part of my life. I want her being in my life to be the way my life normally is from now on.”

So they get engaged.

Notice what happens in this “P to E move” known as engagement:

There is a conscious, explicit, intentional moment at which the man moves beyond a series of dates and encounters and recognizes that there is a gradual change in his identity that is developing due to his relationship with this woman, and he desires to formalize this into a state where his normative identity is no longer singular but as a couple.

No different in Transformational Giving. No different at all.

Most ministries, sadly, prefer to sleep with their donors. They fear making a commitment–after all, that may cost more than it generates in revenue! So they reduce everything to a series of Participation activities: banquets, fundraising letters, emails, newsletters…solicitations. Even when they “do lunch” with a donor, it’s really foreplay for an ask. Seriously. They’re looking for the least they can give in order to generate the most in return. Interestingly, they find themselves attracted to donors who think the same way.

And when the relationship doesn’t work for one or the other party, they do just what cohabiting couples do in real life: They split up, move out, and look for another partner who really cares and really understands their needs.

But in TG the move from P to E is an explicit, covenantal move. The champion has touched the cause through the synecdochic, E-in-P core of the Signature Participation Project. Something touched them that won’t leave them alone, and now they want to go deeper.

So what’s a ministry to do?

Most ministries see no alternative to leading the champion through another project, and another one after that, each designed to bring the champion one step closer to that form of charitable whoopie known as writing a check.

But there’s an alternative, you know:

An explicit covenantal relationship with a champion (an engagement!) in which we pledge to support the champion–to equip them via experiences and education to grow in the likeness of Christ in relation to the cause.

Like an engagement, it’s important to enter into it at least a little starry-eyed, believing that this champion the Lord has given us can do greater things than we have done, by the grace of God. Heck, that’s even biblical.

Interesting what happens when you get engaged to somebody. You stop thinking, “What’s our next date going to be?” You stop thinking in discrete chunks of time. You recognize that not every encounter between the two of you is going to be positive. You even fight sometimes, and then you make up. You start dreaming together about changing the world even.

And you make an exclusive commitment to each other.

In charitable terms, that doesn’t mean that you become the only nonprofit the champion gives to. But it does mean that it’s wholly appropriate to say, for example, “Look–if you’re serious about wanting to make a difference in ministry to North Korea, you’re going to need to stop spreading your giving around to four or five different NK ministries. And it’s not about the money. It’s about you making a commitment to let us coach and train you in a particular way of thinking about this cause so that you learn, first, to think like us, and then, next, you take our thinking to the next level with the next generation of champions in this ministry.”

And–by the way– can you see where this precious engagement is leading?

Love. Marriage.

Then lots and lots of babies, otherwise known as moving from Engagement to Ownership.