Summers for MPD…we know this could go a lot of different ways! For several years now, Cru has had concentrated coaching/resourcing cohorts for our staff raising support in the summer–MPD Reconnect. Today two Reconnect leaders, Tammy Doci and Merideth Davis, give us the whole lowdown on this program!
Summers for MPD…we know this could go a lot of different ways! For several years now, Cru has had concentrated coaching/resourcing cohorts for our staff raising support in the summer–MPD Reconnect. Today two Reconnect leaders, Tammy Doci and Merideth Davis, give us the whole lowdown on this program!
Welcome to the Cru MPD podcast with Katie Johnson and Michele Davis. We love that the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. We are driven to equip and inspire Christian workers to be Christ centered, fully funded, and financially faithful, so that missionary staff can come alongside all people to help them to know Jesus. This process is more widely known as ministry partner development, or MPD for short.
Katie Johnson:How long Hello, hello. We are so excited to have some reconnect leaders with us today. Today we have Tammy Doci, and Merideth Davis. Hi, Tammy. Hi, Merideth. Welcome to the Cru MPD podcast. Thank you for joining us. Can we just start in can you guys both each share a little bit about yourself and your role currently within Cru?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, I'll jump in. Tammy Doci here. And I am going into my 30th year on staff. I was just thinking about that. So don't put don't rank my age there with that implies. But anyway, I'm currently an MPD coordinator for the campus ministry, kind of serving some states from Alaska down to a sliver of Texas and, and then I serve nationally with NPD, reconnect, which is our focus. And then I also am part of the stewardship team, as we love to provide stewardship coaching for our staff at any age and stage. Oh, and I'm yeah, I'm married to my husband. 16 years, we just celebrated. And we live here in Colorado Springs.
Merideth Davis:Awesome. This is fun to do with you, Tammy. I'm Merideth and I serve as an MPD Coach and have now I think for about nine years. I always lose track of time. But I serve to you with the campus ministry in kind of the Kentucky and Tennessee area. And now, Indiana, Ohio, that's like we're what geography are we at now? Who knows, but nine through 12 cohorts, and then the campus ministry today anyway, right? Today, that's where we are. And primarily, I focus now on caring for our senior staff that are in MPD. Do some work with getting somebody to rally the MPD calls on every team. Call that MPD champions. So that takes up some of my time too. But love coaching. This is very fun to be here today.
Michele Davis:I really want to later get you back on here and talk about MPD champions because Oh, hey, clutch idea. And it just struck me that you you, the campuses you work with are like from Great Lakes down to the Smoky Mountains like like super different geographically.
Merideth Davis:They really are and that's a fun challenge to you.
Michele Davis:But then a Tammy also has a pretty big geography from like, Upper Great Plains into some mountains to I guess, I guess.
Tammy Doci:Alaska actually. So Merideth, Merideth and I cover the two sets of mountain ranges right? Smokies I've got the Rockies so...
Michele Davis:mountain MPD. That also sounds like another podcast episode. We can go into our topic.
Katie Johnson:Um, I love that. I don't know if I knew Tammy that you covered part of Texas. And I went that far.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, Texas. So yeah, El Paso, Texas. I don't know that we actually have a team on the ground, but that is within our scope. So.
Katie Johnson:Okay, um, that's great. So we mentioned reconnect at the beginning of this, can you guys share what is what is MPD? Reconnect?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, so it used to be called MPD boot camp. But for various reasons, we decided to rebrand. Partly, you know, who loves the idea of sweating with MPD and doing workouts and stuff. So the heart of MPD reconnect. There's kind of four sub points in terms of vision. But I first want to just share, like think of it as a summer mission for six to eight weeks, where your ministry audience is your current ministry partners, getting to reconnect with all of them, and then also those that you want to invite into the mission. And so like for 6 to 8, weeks, you get to do ministry with your ministry partners, by envisioning them with what God is doing, getting the Minister to their hearts, through prayer, reconnecting, just catching up and encouragement, and then also helping grow their heavenly accounts through their generosity. And it's usually for senior staff. I mean, it is for senior staff who need to raise around 5...1500 a month or more like in kind of a season. So but let me just read those four points. It's to reconnect with God's calling over your life and ministry. That's our this is our heart kind of as MPD leaders and coaches and then reconnect with the vision of seeing Jesus made known and all the nations reconnect with your partner, ministry partners for mutual refreshment, encouragement, and ministry, and then reconnect with God's grace, His love for you and provision for all that you need. And I think that's just something we really want, as sometimes people have had kind of a negative first MPD experience. And we want MPD reconnect, to be more redemptive, and to give a different taste.
Katie Johnson:I love that. And so you've mentioned senior staff a couple of times. So I just wanted to take a minute to clarify. here who are senior staff, so that would be anyone who has reported from their initial MPD time in our on, you know, their assignment? Is it? Do they have to be on their assignment for a certain amount of time before they can enter into reconnect or anything like that? No.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, not necessarily. It's yeah, we, you know, senior staff is such an interesting, I sometimes call people, seasoned staff, or veteran staff, but even veteran staff, can you kind of get mixed up with those terms? So I think that's good to clarify. Usually, yeah, it's after they've reported. I think after two years of kind of being on campus, not on campus, in your ministry, field or office for two years.
Michele Davis:To me, I think it's really cool how you just describe that as a summer mission. I hadn't heard it like that before. But that makes a lot of sense. And that gives me a good category, I think, for what to expect. So I'm guessing, to like, I don't maybe Meredith could speak to this, like, if it's a summer mission, then usually when I'm on a mission, I'm with a team, right? And that's not just me by myself. So what ways does reconnect, kind of bring that team or group aspect to a summer of MPD?
Merideth Davis:Yeah, that's a great question. Michele, I love that you picked up on that. Because I think that's my favorite descriptor of reconnect to is thinking about it like a summer mission. And when we start, we typically ask our participants, like, when you think of a summer mission, what are the things that you love what comes to your mind, and so frequently, what they share is the community aspect, like the I'm doing mission on a team, I'm doing mission in the context of community. So that is how the structure tends to flush out, you know, we'll have reconnect families, or reconnect mission groups, so to speak, and, you know, a ministry lane, or we'll have it for a geography or we'll have it for you know, whatever grouping would be most helpful for that summer. And we from time to time to time change that up, you know, based on need, and based on participation. So yeah, done in a family group, we have coaches assigned MPD coaches assigned to each of those groups. And then, you know, typically a group of, I don't know, anywhere from three to six, seven units, meaning household or singles, in each of those groups, offers a lot of space for processing intimate enough, but you know, also enough of variation of experience, to share the wealth in that group. So yeah, community ends up being a fun part. And interestingly enough, when we took eval at the very end of the summer, I, when I was looking back over the eval, so frequently, the words with connecting others family and community came up consistently. So that does seem to on the front end, it's what they want. And on the back end is what they loved, you know. So yeah, good, good catch on that.
Michele Davis:Well, that's a great way to say it, too. On the front end, that's what they want on the back end. That's what they love. And it strikes me because I have descriptor I often hear about MPD is that it's isolating, and that it's a time where staff, you know, you just kind of feel like the only one doing this crazy thing. And so to hear how reconnect has been so successful in really changing the type of ad experience that makes me want to sign up and do it. Come on.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, I would say just to add to what Merideth shared that, I think The secret sauce of MPD reconnect is the community. And that is, you know, just because MPD is so challenging and draining, and so to be in it with others, you know, who are kind of having to revisit their fears of initiating with someone they haven't personally connected with for, you know, 10 years or something, just some of those different scary situations that MPD. But then also the accountability, the coaching, and then the resources are also very highly valued by staff who participate.
Katie Johnson:Yeah, I feel like community and MPD is really important. I love that you guys are providing that for our staff and helping walk alongside them in MPD in every stage, and so we mentioned different groups are part of this reconnect, summer mission, or is that we're going to call it and so I'm curious this last summer, how many reconnect groups and how many staff participated? And what did that look like?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, so we had total 14 Different summer missions or reconnect groups happening in the spring in the summer, nine of those were within the campus ministry, including a very bipoc specific, as well as bridges, and then capacity staff to so those were and then some of them were according to geography. And then we had 25, or we had a non campus as well as non campus ministries, so family life and AIA, and then kind of an international for those who serve internationally, whether campus or non campus also took part. And so total, we had 104 staff units. And 147 staff involved and reconnect.
Katie Johnson:That's awesome. That's great. And so how did last summer go? What How did reconnect go last summer for staff?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, well, Merideth could probably share more some of the specifics in terms of stories and things like that. And, you know, statistics wise, you know, around 60,000, a month was raised. And over 200,000, special needs was raised, I actually think it's much higher, partly because when we collect statistics, the summer, the summer is still happening, and a lot of decisions are remaining. And then we also just didn't have full reporting from every group for some various reasons. But it's still just, you know, to think about the impact of, you know, seeing 500 a month, 800 a month, 1500 a month, some some saw 2000 A month come in. So just that impact in your monthly support, as well as the connections that are made with partners and friends. And you know, all of that is pretty, pretty amazing. Sorry,
Michele Davis:especially thinking that like when we say staff units, that's our code for cup, a couple. They support together into one staff account, and but they both receive paychecks. It's very complicated, but they have 104 units of staff raise 60,000, in monthly support in a summer. But I mean, that sounds really, really great. Like, is that? Is that what you typically expect to happen? Like, is this like, I mean, honestly, the answer either way is great. Because if you're like, yes, this happens every summer, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is the best thing we've ever done. But if this is like new, then oh, my gosh, it's new. But yeah,
Tammy Doci:yeah, I mean, I think in general, we see significant support raised and, you know, even I, you know, even going back into 2020, I remember going into that summer thinking, Oh, my gosh, what's going on in our world? Well, what will this look like, you know, in terms of, you know, support appointments, and connecting with partners, and just the pandemic and all of that, and we've just consistently seen God provide. And I think staff see their partners deepen their commitments through increased SAS, they, they enjoy inviting new people into the mission. And you know, it's just, I think the what's really special about this being a summer mission, apart from what we've already mentioned, is the fact that there's just good space to work on MPD and that's the thing that's always challenging for us is that you know, MPD kind of ends up getting put on the backburner. I know in my life, it does. And it's hard to you just need focus, you know, and so, reconnect gives both that that space and ability to focus and to go deep. And then especially with our partners, seeing the value of those relationships, you know, how valuable was that to us? To, to catch up with people of all different, you know, times and ages and life stages that are on your team. And maybe you just don't get to naturally connect with normally. So
Merideth Davis:yeah, that's great to me. I was thinking to thoughts while you were talking, to even drill it down more in terms of what I've seen in our groups over the last couple years. Yeah, first of all, I was in, reconnect leading in that deep COVID year. And let's be real, we were all kind of wondering, what are we doing? Like, we were learning on the fly, where we're normally pulling from years of experience in algorithms, you know, that year, we were like, we're just gonna throw jello at the wall and see what sticks, you know, and I don't have the numbers in front of me, Tammy might be able to dig them out by the time we get to the end, but I don't remember them being far off. I mean, it was really pretty par on course, for what we just threw out there now. So it is cool to see God provide. And there is yeah, like some special sauce in the community aspect of rallying together. I think for our reported staff, what I tend to see and working with them consistently is that there's, I think two things that can really get us off course, and are practicing our best practices. And one is either shame or distraction. Like, I'm not doing this, well, I know I'm not doing it well. And I'm wallowing in my shame over that avoidance or just distraction, like I'm called to this field role that I'm in and I'm giving it everything I've got. And I'm not really embracing the vision of NPD being part of my calling. And I think MPD ReConnect provides a space to address both of those. And then I think the other thing it addresses too, is calling back division. One of my favorite quotes from a team leader that was in my group this past summer was that she she said I saw God move me toward hopeful expectation of how he would provide rather than fearful obedience. I'm genuinely excited about raising support. And I think that's what's hard to capture. Like we can put the numbers of dollars raised out there, but what's hard to capture and quantify and qualify is the trickle down effect of staff pulling together and community and then going back out into their roles and the contagiousness of re catching vision for why we do ministry partner development, you know, and why we invite others into this calling with us, you know, so you have the numbers are crazy. But what's even more crazy is what's happening right this second in the field that will never be able to qualify.
Katie Johnson:Amen. I love that guy. I was sitting here thinking even about the numbers, which I know, like you just said there's a lot more than numbers involved. But $60,000 in monthly support. If those are $100 monthly partners is 600 new ministry partners for those 104 staff units. And that's $100 a month with there's like more like if they gave $50 a month say like a lot of my ministry partners are like less than $100 a month, which could be mean like very likely, there's a lot more than $600 600 new partners for the staff. And I think those numbers should be encouraging to our staff, the staff that have more than $1,500 in monthly support to raise and maybe feel stuck. Maybe you don't even know who to contact anymore. Like look at this summer and God provided over 600 new ministry partners for 100 staff units. That's crazy. And that's like on average, what like 60 new partners per staff unit. I mean, my mind is blown by this. And I felt
Merideth Davis:like I feel like we're recruiting Katie here. Like I know what, it's coming.
Katie Johnson:I'm gonna take sabbaticals I avoid I avoid summers, and I'm just kidding. Um, but I but certainly it's like really encouraging the numbers. But also, like you said, the heart change is really encouraging too, because what happens with that team leader whose heart has changed towards MPD it's directly going to affect the team that he leads and how they view MPD and it's gonna not just change his life and his family's life in their financial well being but it's also going to change hopefully his staff and the staff that he leads and stewards and their financial well being and so, super cool, just to hear even numbers and one quote, right and we have more coming right and we're gonna keep talking to you guys. So um Yeah. I, I want to hear I mean, we've talked about really good things, like really good things. But what were some of the challenges and struggles that staff faced during MPD? Reconnect?
Merideth Davis:Yeah, I think, oh, going back to a previous comment around shame and the idea of shame. When I work with our reported staff that get into difficult spots with MPD, there is not always but really often some element of shame that has taken over where it's like, I'm discouraged. Maybe I have tried maybe I haven't, but now I'm I'm there's some negative belief about self that's now manifested, and is affecting even my best efforts. So I think sometimes it's that it's it's a putting the elephant in the room on the table and addressing that in a community in a safe space with other staff that, you know, I'm even thinking right now of this visual, I have this whole group setting we had, and because we did a lot of our groups this last summer in a bigger pocket than we had before. And there was this moment where I asked some question in that context, and there were 20 staff on the screen, and I said, somebody had shared something really, really vulnerable. And sometimes staff are reluctant to say those kinds of things out loud. And the entire group and I do mean entire group was shaking their head. Yes. And saying, Yes, I can relate to this really vulnerable, scary thing that I'm, I'm experiencing myself. So sometimes it's just getting in a space where others say, Yeah, me too. You know, I'm in it with you. You're not alone, you're not we can bind to that belief, like, I'm the only crazy weirdo going through this. And then sometimes, it's just troubleshooting hard spots. We don't know what we don't know, until we realize we don't know it, you know, and that's the gift of having coaches around is like, this is all we do. We throw all of our energy all day, every day into this. And sometimes we don't know, either. But, you know, get around somebody, you can help troubleshoot, you know, when we're in the field, I'm going to go on the assumption that not all staff know who to contact, if they have MPD needs. I hope that's not true. But I know for me at times, it was like, if I wanted to text somebody right now, and ask them an MPD question, could could I text them? And so I think sometimes it's just getting like, it's a direct one to one connection to somebody, you can help them troubleshoot and answer some questions been? That's my first thought, Tammy, what would you add to that?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, that's great. I think I yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with just kind of all the internal kind of wrestling struggles that we, we face when we're entering a season of MPD. And so to have community speak truth to us, as we as we reflect and share those things and ask for feedback. You know, we get feedback, even, you know, not just for the internal wrestling, but also for things like how am I sharing my ministry? Is my vision, you know, is it captivating for those that I'm sharing it with, and we get to provide feedback for one another, and it's, there's a lot of sharing the wealth. And so I think that's just such a great benefit. Yeah, I, you know, sometimes the challenges are just the fact that, you know, usually reconnect happens spring summer. And so some of the turtle, the challenges are external in terms of, you know, life that's going on, you know, and, and other things that might compete for time, you know, you know, house projects, or wanting to take a IBS course, and I think that's why we really position this as a summer mission so that staff come into it with a wholehearted focus, like I get to have, you know, these six to eight weeks set aside for MPD. And the things like, you know, I get to dive into my spdx. And that takes time, let's be honest, like, MPDX. You know, I feel like I need to, you know, several days to like, actually engage with it and figure out next steps and who's who, and what am I doing? And so, you know, you have that time, that's the whole purpose, you have that time set aside, in reconnect for those types of things, all the different things, you know, so those are just a couple of initial thoughts.
Katie Johnson:Okay, so we've talked about reconnects, being kind of like a summer mission where staff can focus right on MPD for the summer. So tell me why. We would want to do reconnect instead of taking time off of our assignment during the year.
Merideth Davis:That is such a great question. Yeah, I think right Kinect offers and again, a candidly my experiences in the campus field. So I'm thinking through the the natural calendar of the campus field year. But I think this is true for most everyone that like Tammy said, undivided time and attention is such a gift, it's such a unique opportunity to try and spend a summer where you can focus on MPD I think the bulk of our reconnects do occur currently in the summer. So you want to get that community aspect, jumping in the summer, although we are I think, Tammy beginning to offer some in the spring like these short, little pockety kind of things. But, you know, one of the staff that was in one of the emails I read, one of the things that caught my attention was this person saying, you know, I didn't realize or hadn't thought that I hadn't, I had not been around updated trainings for MPD and seven years. And I thought, Oh, wow, like I'm, I'm immediately Rolodex going through which I may have just aged myself by saying Rolodex but of what has happened in seven years amount of time in our trainings, you know, and that is so true for so many staff, it's even our our best laid plans, we're just not aware of the training and the resources and the context. So in reconnect, I don't know that we've said this yet. But there is a platform of curriculum that we walk through Week by week, there are actual resources, not just video calls, but updated trainings, access to updated materials. And so but but when I think about if I was doing that, while I was trying to do that, in tandem with my field ministry, that'd be really difficult to give my full time and attention to, and depending on your role, there's an ebb and flow throughout the calendar year where that's just not even possible, even if you wanted it to, to give that amount of attention to new training and material. So I'm Team summer all the way.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, our heart is that they would go together, like, you know, kind of the MPD champions, since we've got our representative here, you know, with Meredith, we want, we want MPD, reconnect, then to flow into kind of an ongoing, what are good habits as a team and individually throughout the year. So there is kind of a year long focus. But again, reconnect is just the specialized, you know, deep dive within community, at certain times of the year, spring slash summer, typically, so yeah, so it's a it's kind of a both and maybe with that.
Katie Johnson:I think that makes sense. It seems like a good time to dive into MPD, too. So, um, do you guys have any advice for success in MPD? Reconnect?
Merideth Davis:Yeah, I say, with a loud booming voice at the beginning of every summer, you get out of this, what you put into this, you know, when we bring our full hearts, in before the Lord with open hands, I think that is the most bang for your buck, you're gonna get you know, full, complete surrender, open honesty, embracing the community that's offered you. I think that's really what's really key those staff that try in straddle, you know, two different roles over the summer, tend to not do really well. So be all in and be fully they're fully present. And all in take advantage of all the resources and material offered to you. And then I would say, we start sending out materials, just like when you think about a summer mission, some summer missions, you know, are rallying their teams, sometimes even as early as December November, trying to do some kind of planning or project team community something. So we start sending out stuff, sometimes March, April, you know, may something like that. And we're wanting not for them to spend a huge chunk of time at that time in the spring semester, as it pertains to the campus field, but from that period of the year, but to do a little bit of prep work going into the summer, like start baby steps. Don't dive in the deep end right off who wants to do that? But start some baby steps start small. So I say if you're joining, reconnect, and you get some prep packet materials, as we call them, don't avoid them. Engage them embrace them. Just baby steps a little bit of a time. Couple hours here and there each week. You know, maybe two to three hours a week going up into the summer just like you would really on a summer mission. Let's be real will go a long way.
Michele Davis:Yeah. When you say prep pack, it makes me think of school, but not in a bad way. And I think that there's something to be said about when I look back on some of my MPD habits that have ebbed and flowed over my couple decades on staff, now, sometimes I would be the kind of person who like I, I am, I am out to get an A on campus, like I really do that job well, and then I'm kind of pulling a C on MPD. Like, I just barely show up. You know, like, again, just being honest about some of the ebbs and flows. And so, an A student does the pre work packet. Right. And so, yeah, it's not, it's good to think about that. It's not just like a busy work thing. I know, it's not it's, it's really it does help you prepare to, to, to excel. In this time, when you're, when you're actually taking the class so to speak.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, I mean, a lot of the kind of initial aspects of MPD, in general, but also the MPD, reconnect is the preparation and looking at your current reality, you know, we say that reality is our friend. And so it's, we need to look at the numbers, we need to, you know, look at our, our partners, you know, and see where they're at. And a lot of that does take time. And so, and then to I would say there's kind of a spiritual preparation, kind of, you know, if someone, let's say, signs up for MPD, reconnect, or they want that as a summer assignment, like, even throughout the year, the Lord might bring people to mind that you I mean, it's not that you can, you can initiate anytime during the year with them, that would be awesome, obviously. But, you know, you might be building a list of, of new people to invite to your team and print, you know, be just begin praying over those relationships. And, you know, there's just things that you can do on the front end that make so often one of the comments we'll hear and feedback, as, you know, it takes a little bit of time to get the momentum going, you know, I mean, I think each of us and our own MPD, we could attest to that, you know, just it takes time for the momentum. And so that's where what Meredith is saying, you know, kind of starting, you know, in the spring, you know, winter spring, starting to dive into some of those things, you know, just chipping away at it can really have a huge impact then, for this for the summer, reconnect that you're doing. So, yeah.
Katie Johnson:Awesome. Yes, Prep is so good. I love all of Michele's analogies, I get them all. And I like this one, specifically, because you're right, like you want to enter into a class without doing the homework unless you expect to fail, right? Like, if you want to really succeed, you would enter in having things done and have studied and ready to go. And so I think, like PreP has to be done if you want to see success out of the summer. And we really want to see people succeed succeed, right? Like we don't give prep work, because we want you to have an extra thing to do. Like, we know people are busy
Michele Davis:Monsters!
Merideth Davis:I don't want anything extra to do.
Katie Johnson:The reality is, is the prep work is key and seeing success. And in an ideal world, right, we would see all of our staff fully funded by the end of the summer. And that can only happen if the work is put in. And so yes, I think the prep is so important. I think that's a good point. So people listening might be thinking, guys, summer just ended. So what am I supposed to do? Like, I don't I can do reconnect maybe next summer, but what about now that summer is over? What, what now? Are their options for staff? Not that we're not on summary connect that want to work on MPD? Now?
Tammy Doci:Yeah, a couple of things come to mind. I mean, one is just the fact that we are wanting to see an MPD champion on every team, someone who's kind of championing the cause of MPD. And, you know, kind of spearheading the vision for that in a team situation. And if that appeals to you, and you're interested, you can reach out but we've we've also got great resources currently with our MPD resource site. And I know that there's some senior staff coaching groups that are happening, there's a bipoc one that's happening and just for the community sake, it looks different, you know, than, say, a six to eight week set period, I will share one thing we're working on, which is kind of takes the idea of MPD reconnect, but puts it in a smaller timeframe, and is meant to be done on a local team. I mean, any local team, and actually, it was the AIA ministry that is kind of pioneering this and there's this called AAAs, MPD sprint, very appropriate for our athletes. But we're calling it MPD refuel. And so if we were to take you know if your team your your local team, wherever you're at in Orlando on campus, As you know, maybe you're serving internationally, you know, family life, whatever it is, if your whole team spent, you know, took apart two weeks, at some point during the year when it best fits your team's schedule, you're can't you're sorry, I say campus, but your your team schedule, and had two weeks to dive into, you know, 10 days of full time MPD in community, what would like what winds could come from that? And granted, it's not going to have the same sort of expectation of, you know, you're trying to raise 1500 A month or, you know, it's obviously, it's more intense in terms of the timeframe. But it's like, what, what could those two weeks really do to boost you and move you forward and just recharge you with, with energy and joy and perspective for ongoing MPD. So that's something that's in the works, hopefully, we'll be ready this fall. And we can roll out to different local teams, and they can then experience kind of a taste of reconnect, but within their local team and in community that way, and see some NPD wins, you know, what if that was just 500 a month that you saw that came in, in two weeks? Or what if it was setting up some new appointments with new partners you've been meaning to connect with, and just haven't gotten around to it? You know, and you get to have those appointments during that time. So yeah, those are a few things that I just think of on that. Not sure if there's others. You guys want
Katie Johnson:to add, Tammy, um, I mean, we just talked about prep for reconnect. And so is their prep that's involved in that two week. Re are we calling it refuel,
Tammy Doci:refuel, refuel? Yeah, kind of what refuels you. And obviously, I mean, the source is God's word and encouragement, all that stuff. But there would be it actually might be similar to reconnect in terms of but with an understanding that only so much, you know, there's, I don't know, it's still in the works. But it kind of like taking steps of faith in those two weeks, what would that look like? But yeah, there would be prep, but it would be built into those initial, say, three days of the first week. Okay. So where are you? Do you do a reality check. I mean, that's kind of the idea is it's built into that day, you might be meeting as a team, if you're, you know, some teams are virtual. So we get that you might be meeting in a virtual context. But those teams that are that can meet together, they might do it in a an environment that's motivating, encouraging conducive to that, and everybody's working kind of on the same thing, but in community. So that's kind of some of the ideas and then there would be some resourcing, as well. Yeah, so yeah, AIA, like I said, they've kind of been pioneering that and experimenting with MPD, Sprint's this summer in that two week context, so we're learning from them as well.
Katie Johnson:It kind of reminds me of for interns, there was a point where we did. Like, I don't know if this is still a thing. So forgive me, this is not a thing anymore. But we would do like blades or like a week of like it right after or right before deadlines or benchmarks. We would do like a week of really intense outreach, and you would have like, pretty intense goals. And I feel like it kind of reminds me of that of like, Oh, we're all gonna do this together. And let's just see what God does for these two weeks, and we're gonna work really hard. I love I love that option. I think that's great.
Tammy Doci:That's kind of like there is a challenge to take some steps of faith in those two weeks, you know, like, Hey, call a current partner and share your, your vision and just ask for feedback. Well, that that can feel intimidating, but you need to step into it or, you know, identify three to five partners that you're going to ask for an increase like so there are some steps of faith, you know, I know I think in the sprint, a sprint they call that the second week killing the Giants. And that used to be a common theme on our summer missions, and you know, things like that. So it's kind of that idea what what could happen if we all took two weeks to be together and NPD and just set some and then and then carry out the rest of the year as you would with MPD champions and setting that time a month or every week for MPD as a team. So
Merideth Davis:yeah, you know, when we talk about that your question Katie made me think of like, what are the what is that practically? What first steps might be when we say practically on the ground was actually look like like, um, I think I don't remember. I think to me, it may have been you that said it like reality is our friend. I'm mindful that with new staff, when we have new hires, and we send new missionaries to the field, we hand you a goal. And we tell you, this is your goal. Get out there. With with our reported staff, it's very different. We have more of a budget base needs based goal setting system and a A lot of reported staff don't know where to begin, you know, like, my wife had three kids and no one, I've never changed my goal, you know, that I encountered that really frequently? Or, you know, I don't? How do do I use my staff Expense Report? How do I go about figuring out what I have in hand on a monthly basis, like, those are the types of practical questions that I would say, get in contact with an MPD. Coach, because going back to what Tammy said, like MPD, reconnect itself is really geared toward those that need 1500 or more a month, but we do have these other offerings out in the world. So getting in contact with an IBD coach, that would walk you through hand in hand, how to get a good read on what you've gotten monthly coming in, what you actually need to raise right now for your season of life, your tenure on staff, your MPD needs, what your ministry looks like on an ongoing basis. And then based on those two pieces of information, you can kind of make a variety of decisions of where you need to head out next. So that would be probably on a practical level where I would say start there, pick up your email and type ad type connect with somebody. And And reality is your friend get some reality on the table.
Michele Davis:Yeah, I
Tammy Doci:love that. Just do a quick MPD consult with someone you know, we also have stewardship coaches that are willing to enter in if you haven't done a stewardship appointment for ages, you know, are kind of want that perspective as well, you know, there's on both sides, the NPD coach, coordinator is ready to engage, and that's our heart in the MPD world is to really see every staff fully funded with margin with space with, you know, joy and MPD, you know, wherever they're ministering, so, yeah, I love that you brought that up to
Michele Davis:agree. And if you're not sure, if you're listening, and your Cru staff, and you're not sure how to connect with an MPD coach in your ministry, there's a couple things you could do. One is we do have a resource website for our crew staff, and there is a like a option to like, connect with a coach there. You also can go to workplaces, and we have a group called MPD journey together. And I moderate that group and I check it daily, and you can just send me a DM I can look it up for you or post a question there. And we it's very, a lot of the questions end up getting answered by other staff, not necessarily MPD coaches, it's really the best of you know, the whole, like crowd, crowd sourcing of information. But, but that is a group that we in MPD actually do watch and monitor and make sure that people have their needs met. So you can reach out to us on workplace pretty easily or on the Resource website. Or like, technically, you could look up my email, I guess, and I can help you. But um, but I say the other two because they're also like bonus, some resources you should get. So please go there first.
Katie Johnson:And we'll link everything in the show notes. So if you're wondering where some of this stuff is, or links to specific things that we've talked about, we'll make sure to link all these resources in the show notes so you guys can have easy access to those as well. Um, well thank you guys, Tammy Meredith, for being here with us and sharing about reconnect and all that the Lord's done. Not just this summer, but in summers past and opportunities to see staff fully funded and financially faithful. We appreciate you guys and yeah, thanks for coming.
Merideth Davis:Yeah, great to be here.
Tammy Doci:Yeah, so fun.
Michele Davis:Thanks for listening to the Cru MPD podcast. Please help others find our show by liking, sharing and rating us on Apple, iTunes and wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find us on social media by searching for the Cru MPD podcast. Check out the show notes for more information including the various resources we mentioned in this episode. Till next time, we encourage you to be faithful and full of faith in all things, especially in MPD.