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The arena was pitch black except for the spotlight on the man performing amazing feats 100 feet above the crowd. We gasped as he let go of one trapeze, do multiple flips, then blindly fly towards a second trapeze he believed would be there. Hoping his hands were not as sweaty as mine, he finally, at the last split second, grabbed the swinging metal bar and made it safely back to the platform. To any rational human being, this high flying spectacle appears as pure lunacy.
In the same way, newly accepted Christian workers who deliberately walk away from their safe and secure regular paycheck in order to go raise support full time (without any visible means to pay the bills) are viewed as foolish (even fanatical) by many co-workers, family, even spiritual leaders. Yes, this person feels called to ministry, but they are torn between two worlds, not wanting to let go of one source of funds before they see the other definitely coming.
As a result, most new staff recruits’ support efforts consist of trying to squeeze in a few appointments each week around their work schedule. This plan may appear to be the most “sensible”, but it has drawbacks:
1. Time to raise full support can be doubled or troubled
A full time support raiser can schedule between 20 – 30 appointments weekly, but someone who continues to devote the best 40-50 hours of their week to their secular job will not have the time or energy to make and keep even one third that number of face to face appeals. A six month full time effort can easily drag out to 18, even 24 months of part time focus.
2. No one has a sense of urgency
As the support raiser approaches people, donors are hesitant to come on the newcomer’s team until they really need support. Why? Givers want to invest in ministry, not just in support raising efforts or swelling someone’s ministry/savings account for some unknown beginning date in the future. Few will feel passionately compelled to join our team unless they sense we’re a man or woman “on a mission”, possessing a laser like focus.
Next month, we’ll share a concept whereby your new staff can “make the jump” into full time support raising and get to 100% support in as little as 100 days! We’ll be taking our cues from Nehemiah, a highly motivated support raiser (and construction engineer), who completed the rebuilding of the wall (and the people’s spirit) in just 52 days. His secret? He was able to work on it: FULL TIME.
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