Coaching category
Partner Development Coaching
Raising support is not a tax on the real work. It is the work — and it has benefits no other funding option gives you.
Why partner development is worth doing well
It solidifies your mission
As you describe to others what you have been called to, you will either come away with greater resolve or you will quit and go home. Both are useful; only one is a surprise later.
It is preparation for the ask that matters
Rob Parker demonstrates how partner development and evangelism run the same play: get a vision, call people together, share it, ask them to respond. Practice one and you have practiced the other.
It is more stable than a salary
A funded partner base is harder to lose than a single job. Dozens of relationships rarely end at once; one employer can.
Obedience is contagious
When you visibly do the hard thing you were called to, other people are moved to do theirs. You stop being only a worker and become a mobilizer.
Your preparation path
Three stages, roughly 24 hours of your own work, with a coaching session between each. The hours are named so you can actually schedule them — this is the part most support training leaves vague.
- 1
Before your first session ~3 hrs
- “Coaching Commitment” (20 min)
- “PD Assessment” (10 min)
- Build a monthly budget and a launch-fund budget (1.5 hrs)
- Complete the “How Long Will It Take?” form (1 hr)
- 2
Before your second session ~11 hrs
- Read The God Ask by Steve Shadrach (5 hrs)
- Review and memorize the “PD Q & A”; run mock phone calls (2 hrs)
- Review the “Presentation Guidelines” and build your presentation (4 hrs)
- 3
Before your first ask appointment ~10 hrs
- Review “The 7 Steps Before The Ask” (1 hr)
- Namestorm: review “Contact Essentials”, then enter your contacts in a database (~5 hrs)
- Design and order a prayer postcard (1 hr)
- Review the “Newsletter Guideline”, then design and send your first newsletter (2 hrs)
- Review the “Partner Ministry Guideline” and set your partner-care strategy (1 hr)
The linked worksheets are the actual coaching documents — open them before you decide. Nothing here is withheld until you pay.
What this is not
- It is not a fundraising service. Nobody raises your support for you.
- It is not a webinar. There are sessions, and there is work between them.
- It is not a script for manipulating friends. The ask is honest or it is not worth making.