Do the Word

In Monday’s champion blueprint post, there’s a great line on organizational/champion relationships from Dare2Share‘s Spencer Cowan:

We are not pastors, friends or simply fundraisers to our adult Champions. A friendship can develop along the way but that is not our primary focus.

Transformational Giving (TG) principle #5 puts it this way:

A Transformational Giving relationship between a champion and an organization is primarily a peer-level accountability relationship, not merely a friendship or a mutual admiration society.

Ah, accountability! Other than sanctification, it may be the most nearly extinct of the core components of Christian discipleship.

Generous Mind Jon Hirst offers a great post on accountability and why it may be so scarce in contemporary Christianity.

Jon describes accountability as “our ultimate act of generosity”:

We are sharing with God, or with people in our lives, the account of what God is up to in our world and how we have responded. This type of generosity is the deepest and most significant because we are sharing about our eternal purpose.

It is one thing to share about your favorite movie (and that can be very significant if you share lessons you learned). But it is quite another to share your account of how God is using you and providing for you.

So why so scarce these days? Jon daisy chains six reasons:

Accountability is scarce because:

it requires that we give up freedom

giving up freedom requires trust

trust only grows in relationship

relationships take time

our time is doled out based on our priorities

our priorities need redeemed to be in line with God’s focus

• it requires that we give up freedom
• giving up freedom requires trust
• trust only grows in relationship
• relationships take time
• our time is doled out based on our priorities
• our priorities need redeemed to be in line with God’s focus

So why am I not generous with the account of my life and my actions? It starts with the fact that on most days I do not truly value the act of sharing what I know. My priorities are focused on entertainment, pleasure, accomplishment, and so on.

Why don’t we enter into mutual accountability relationships with our champions? Because we don’t value the act of sharing what we know. We value what we know. We want others to give money so we can keep doing it.

But sharing it to equip others to do likewise?

That’s a core component to discipleship…and it’s largely absent from the way we interact with individuals showing interest in our ministry. They’re likely showing interest in us because the cause is of interest to them. We’re likely to return that interest because we’re interested in their support as we impact the cause.

But mutual accountability changes the equation.

We build a support relationship with them, alright–a relationship where we support them as we equip them, by the grace of God, to impact the cause we both love. That’s what Ephesians 4:11-13 is all about.

“So when do they give me money?” is the most common rejoinder to that TG approach to relationship.

Answer:

They don’t give money to you. They give money through you as a part of the comprehensive discipleship process through which you guide them, in which you show them how to use all of their resources to impact the cause–including their money.

And let’s be clear: Getting them to give is not an act of carnival chicanery, where you shuck and jive in order to get them to write a support check , at which point you assure them, “Whoa! You really impacted the cause there! Thanks!”

That’s where mutual accountability comes in:

You need to ensure that their gift is not a substitute for them growing in relation to the cause but rather a result of that growth. In other words, they’re not responding to your financial need. Instead, they’re giving that particular gift because the experience, education, and equipping you’ve given them in relation to the cause has led them to discern, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (not the persuasion of your fundraising letter) that this is the way they’re called to impact the cause.

As Jon notes in his post, that kind of relationship takes time….and it goes far deeper than friendship. You’ll know that you’re in track building that kind of relationship if the champion you’re coaching begins relatively early on in the process to coach champions of their own in relation to the cause…instead of just bringing them to you to coach, too.

Yesterday we shared a blueprint for champion development from Spencer Cowan at Dare2Share Ministries.

Today Partner Development is center stage.

As we mentioned yesterday, “partner” refers to churches and organizations (essentially, formal networks) that we are coaching to full maturity in our shared cause.

One of the most exciting figures to watch in the area of partner development is World Gospel Mission‘s Todd Eckhardt.

Here’s Todd’s Partner Development Department blueprint.

Do crib liberally, dear reader; this is exceedingly good stuff.

(Note that World Gospel Mission uses the phrase “CMS”, or “Champion Migration Strategy”, as their name for the Transformational Giving process.)

Partner Development

Purpose:  To equip our partners in fulfilling their Biblical role in the Great Commission.

To achieve the stated purpose we will:

• handle the partner in the context of serving the partner’s mission goals.  We will always keep in mind how God may use us to increase the maturity of the partner and their view toward missions.  We will strive to help them define their role in the Great Commission and then do what we can to help them fulfill this role
• interact with partners at the level of transformational giving
• assist partners in overcoming barriers that prevent them from fulfilling Great Commission

The following are practical steps to be used by the Partner Development Officer (PDO) to achieve our purpose:

• Ask questions about the current partner’s mission program.

Operate in the context of serving their mission goal. (Sample questions to ask Partners)

“How can we serve you?”

“Why do you want a missionary?”

“What ministry do you need our missionary to address with your group?”

“When WGM leaves your group what would like to have seen happen?”

“What would you identify as a success as a result of our serving you?”

“Where would you like your group to be in relation to [X] discipline of missions activity?”

PRAY

• Listen to what their needs are

PRAY

• Identify needs of partner in the area of the Great Commission

• Make every touch strategic

Following the information gathering stage that you do through questions and listening, develop intentional steps that you can take in serving the partner.  Then make every touch with the partner intentional according to your plan. People have steps in mind but rarely a strategy.  Be strategic.

Did I mention the need to PRAY?

• Identify passions of partner

As you work with partners their passions will rise to the top whether they were ever stated or not in the listening stages of your information gathering. Help flesh out if their passion equals their Biblical call. Are they being obedient to the call or simply following a passion? They are not equal.

• As the PEO strategic plan unfolds for the partner the following ‘paths’ will take shape in building a strategy for the partner

Move through the PEO process

• Participation
  • Project oriented
  • Short-term high touch events/projects
  • High yield events/projects

Some Examples :

–          Concert of Prayer

–          Small project from Great Co-Mission Catalogue

–          Work team

–          Fund raising event

–          World Go Manual

–          Gospel Outreach Weekend (GOW)

• Engaged
  • The partner equips others beyond short-term projects to the cause.
  • Move beyond one regional project to causal activity

Some Examples:

–          Work team leader training

–          Partnership with national church as follow up from a short-term team

–          Use Great Co-Mission Catalogue to teach Stewardship principles

–          Duplicate international work team in local area (If team went to Honduras to help street kids, help street kids in own town or a US city)

–          Move from Concert of prayer to small group prayer times for the Great Commission

–          Teach World Go Manual

• Ownership
  • Supporting others to advance the cause
  • Provide tools to the partner and to help them partner others
  • Transfer of cause

Some Examples:

–          Nappanee Missionary Church having church members serve on the board of the AGC Baby Center

–          Pastors teaching other pastors about GOW

–          Adavance Volunteer Network service

–          Butler, GA getting other churches involved in the dump in Honduras

Commentary on migrating churches with the above guidelines in mind:

1. Everything we do is to be done in context of serving
2. Grow the partner during the process not WGM, and avoid the myth that activity equals growth.
3. Work with a goal in mind
4. Keep thinking of next steps
5. KEEP STEWARDSHIP AND GIVING AS PART OF THEIR MIGRATION.  We must not fear finances while at the same time not making them a false ultimate.
6. Keep the Biblical mandates always in the forefront and build your language around the Biblical call of service to achieve the Great Commission.
7. Every partner will enter the process at a different level, so meet them where they are.
8. Help the partner do locally what we want they want to do internationally.
9. Come as a gift to the partner.  Work to be sure they are richer when we finish than they were when we first met them.

Cautions about giving:

1. CMS does not remove presentations about getting funded.
2. Giving is great but not enough. Prayer is great but not enough.  Going is great but not enough. All three must be in place therefore it is appropriate to broach the need for giving.
3. The need for giving must come out of the Biblical call to stewardship not our need to get funds.

In Transformational Giving (TG), we use the term “champions” to describe individuals who are being coached to full maturity in Christ in relation to the cause. We use the term “partners” to refer to churches and organizations that we’re coaching along the same path.

Tomorrow we’ll have a real-life blueprint from an organization on the edge of the TG partner development frontier.

Today we’re going to take a look at a real-life champion development blueprint, from Spencer Cowan, new development manager at Dare2Share Ministries.

I’ve had the great honor of working with Spencer and D2S  on TG for the last two years, and every monthly meeting we have , in addition to being hard work on the edge of TG, is just plain fun.

Take it away, Spence!

The Purpose of the Development Department is to further THE Cause by coaching Champions to understand and carry out what Scripture calls them to do as it relates to THE Cause.

Six Foundational Principles

1. We are not pastors, friends or simply fundraisers to our adult Champions. A friendship can develop along the way but that is not our primary focus.  Our ministry is to inspire, coach and unleash Champions to fulfill their God given responsibility in the Great Commission as it relates to mobilizing Christian teenagers.  We are God’s gift to the Champion, to help them walk in their ministry as it relates to THE Cause, not to take their ministry away from them.

2. Our role is to appreciate the convictions and values that are already important to the Champion while challenging them to embrace their Biblical responsibility regarding THE Cause (even what might not be appealing to them).  As Jesus did with the rich young ruler after hearing how he ‘kept all the commands since his youth’ Jesus responded with the words, “You still lack one thing…”  If we are faithful in prayer for each conversation and effectively use Scripture with the Champion the Holy Spirit can convict them and bring them to maturity, that is His job.  Our job is to communicate the message clearly as well as to model THE Cause in our own lives.

3. We will focus on those that are being called.  Practically that means we will give ourselves more fully to those that are “of us.”  Like Jesus describes in the parable of the sower we will be faithful to scatter the seed (i.e. engage all people in conversation about THE Cause) but will seek out and focus on those that Jesus called “good soil where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  Our takeaway is to coach those who will understand THE Cause, personalize it and recruit others who will follow their example.  In finding and focusing on these people THE Cause will accelerate much quicker.

4. Our fundraising strategy will be transformational not transactional.  The end goal is not to ‘cultivate the donor so we can receive income to do ministry’ but is to see a greater number of adult Champions completely transformed by THE Cause.  When this is done right the resources will come and will be a testimony to God’s faithfulness to HIS Cause.  This attitude will help us keep the motives of our heart directed toward furthering THE Cause THROUGH Champions instead of raising the money to do it ourselves.  The example here is the way Jesus ‘coached’ His disciples knowing He would be gone and it would be in their hands (i.e. “feed my sheep”).

5. Even though the way we do fundraising is not transactional we will not be afraid to ask the Champion for a transformational gift.  Generous giving towards THE Cause is a key defining mark of a true Champion.  We will continue to work together to develop the way we communicate this.

6. Full Networking is a priority.  Over the next year we are going to attempt to understand and implement this idea.  A full network is one in which Champions are talking to each other, as well as to us.  For example, if a Champion mentions a barrier that another Champion has successfully overcame help them connect, instead of helping them yourself.

All of our communication to Champions will become more and more discipleship focused as it relates to THE Cause.  As we identify these Champions we are adding them to our ‘team’ (i.e. our notify list) and engaging them in a coaching relationship.  An easy formula to remember in personal communication are the following steps (see the Coaching Diagnostic for more detail):

1. Get behind the ‘why’ of their giving

2. Begin a dialogue on THE Cause

3. Get permission to begin a coaching relationship with them