Ep. 44 Highs and Lows with a Coach: Josh Ferguson

Continuing our series interviewing Cru MPD Coaches: This week, Josh Ferguson talks to Michele about the Highs and Lows of ministry and MPD.

Moody grad Josh Ferguson’s staff career first led him to minister to the military before finding his current place of service in MPD. Josh shares with us the highs, the lows, and all the in between as we continue our series Highs and Lows with MPD Coaches.

Transcript

Michele Davis: 0:22

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. welcome Josh Ferguson to the Cru MPD podcast.

Josh Ferguson: 1:01

Hello, I'm super excited to be here.

Michele Davis: 1:03

We're excited to have you here too. Josh has been in the MPD world and leading in the MPD world for quite a while now for at least as long as I've known you. And but you have a new role. So why don't you tell us about your new role?

Josh Ferguson: 1:17

Yeah, so I will be working with what has been titled collaborative ministries. And so I will be working with several ministries within Cru sort of filling in gaps where it's needed in terms of MPD. So sometimes they might not have coaches, and they might not have a coordinator. And so really just filling in gaps, helping to resource them so that their staff have everything that they need.

Michele Davis: 1:41

You used to before that work with crew military, which is another it's another ministry that people may not realize that Cru has is that we do have, like a ministry to the military. So I actually know that part of your role that you have there is also connected to your story of how you join staff. So I want to like ask you that next about tell us a bit about how you decided to join staff with Cru. What did that look like for you?

Josh Ferguson: 2:07

Yeah, my introduction to Cru was when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. And every student has a weekly ministry that they're a part of is an ongoing kind of practicum and my sophomore year, I was looking for something new. And at the time, so moody works with like 300 ministries across Chicago, it's a ton and they used to just have them in like a three ring binder. And so I flipped looking for something and for some reason or ministry popped out to me, so I did the Sundays. So drove all the way up to Great Lakes, which is about a half hour and of the Chicago and we would pray with Recruits after chapel. We would do Bible studies with them after chapel. And yeah, I really fell in love with the way that crew really takes evangelism seriously, but also has a really great attitude towards collaboration with people outside the ministry. There was such an emphasis on what are the chaplains need and how can we help them with that, that I really loved? And so one of the things that we did while I was there was the chaplains were really busy trying to talk with recruits that were wanting to be baptized. And so what they did was they really liked how comprehensive our Gospel class was. And so they put the baptism shine signup sheet into that classroom. So to sign up for baptism, you had to go through our alpha class. And so then the chaplain that would talk with them knew they've heard a very clear presentation of the gospel. And so it just made their time more efficient.

Michele Davis: 3:59

That makes sense.

Josh Ferguson: 4:01

Yeah, so I did that for three semesters. And then when I graduated, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with myself. Then I ended up joining crew and I was pretty hesitant about it just and I had actually never raised support before, even though I'd been on a few mission trips. My first experience of having to do any sort of fundraising was when I first joined staff to go to new staff orientation. That was it.

Michele Davis: 4:32

So how did that feel? To be

Josh Ferguson: 4:34

very overwhelming. I was also newly married. So Ellie, and I got married, and then three months later was in so I was also coming on Sosa

Michele Davis: 4:50

so she was 20 staff with you?

Josh Ferguson: 4:52

Correct? Because I was really hesitant. I did the sort of thing that everybody does have like, if I don't get this amount by this time, I'm I'm just gonna bail. And so I was like, if I don't raise everything I need for NSO, I'm just not going to erase everything for it. So through actually there's a guy that wrote, I think it's 17 or $1,800 Check anonymously through my wife's church, and we still have no idea who he is. We just know that somebody, somebody emailed the the secretary at her church and asked how much we had left. And then you were to check for that amount.

Michele Davis: 5:34

Oh, wow.

Josh Ferguson: 5:36

Yeah, it was. It was really

Michele Davis: 5:40

ultimatums you kept CAD. Then how specifically you can move in people's hearts to me.

Josh Ferguson: 5:46

I had actually two or three moments of that in my initial MPD as well. Yeah, tell me more after so I decided that if it was if I was going to, you know, be going through this process I was going to need to go home, which is in Texas. So I had gotten back every summer to be the internet. My church was the church that I sort of grew up in. And I didn't really know that many people in Chicago except for you. Know, classmates who were going into ministry. I knew that if if I could get enough in Texas, then that would. I would be good. And so I did. I think 10 weeks I flew down to Texas. Stay with my parents, and it was really intense. But I ended up raising half of my support in that like 10 week time, once I had done all the follow up and work through and then took me like, you know, seven or eight months to do the other 50% But it was one of those like, I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna go in hard. And then it'll either be a failure or a really affirming success. And thankfully, in my situation, it was an affirming success. It's yeah, I always want to be careful with that because I know plenty of people who work really, really hard and do all the sorts of right things and then have not a lot monetarily to show for it. And so

Michele Davis: 7:21

yeah, there's, yeah, I've noticed that too. And it shows that it's not just so plugin, work plus faith and get the result guarantee, you know, there's more factors involved. But when you do seek guide, provide in a big way in a short time, that that says something to any of us, you know that seems like I mean, you just have to like, Take stock of that and be grateful for sure. So, so you are joining to work with the military ministry. Right? Correct. And what was your first job with them?

Josh Ferguson: 8:02

So my first job was field staff so I was working at Great Lakes, pretty much doing the same thing I was doing when I was a student. I really, really loved the recruit ministry. So I did a lot of resource development and then training our volunteers. I was sort of the the go between between crew and Marie. So I worked really closely with our students, which was so fun to do, to be able to, at the beginning of every semester, sit down with our students and be like, Hey, I, I was here like, a couple of years ago doing the exact same thing. And that was really fun. And we actually, yeah, just just the impact of that ministry was always cool to see. One of our student volunteers is actually currently married to a sailor that she met during her PCM which is fun. And then one of the sailors in our Bible study, ended up going to moody and doing it as his PCM. So he was being ministered to by students, that being one of those students to ministered back to the sailors. And then he ended up being one of the first people that I get to coach through NPD and he's currently part time staff at Great Lakes, which was

Michele Davis: 9:24

fun. Just to clarify, tell me again what P C stands for.

Josh Ferguson: 9:32

Yeah. PCM is practical Christian ministry.

Michele Davis: 9:35

Okay. And that's like your, like your moody experience that first like got you out doing ministry it was you needed to do a PCM a practical Christian ministry. I thought it was something like that, you know, but I wanted to be sure that we got that for sure. For all of our listeners, but so how did you go from field staff and doing all these great things to then working in MPD and you know, being an MPD coordinator, like you are now.

Josh Ferguson: 10:07

Yeah, so I joined staff with the idea that I'll probably only be on staff for three or four years. Yeah, almost every year, we were sort of rethinking Is this what God has for us? Is this what we want to continue doing? And the answer was always a very clear yes. And then I think actually, it was working with that one get that talked about who was in our ministry that came on staff. And then also there's another volunteer who also came on staff. Just working with them and seeing how great they were. helped me to like, really just sort of see like, I'm, I am doing field ministry, but there are other people that could do it better. And so just do that. We were just trying to figure out what was next and then somebody from our HR team reached out and said, Hey, we need somebody who can help with coaching. And so I was like, Okay, well, I mean, I guess I can look at it, and oddly enough, get really excited reading a job description. And it was supposed to be part time. And then, within like, a few months, it was officially full time. I made that transition really quick. Really, it was after my first NSO where I got to work was really, really amazing. I love, love, love NSOs because it's all excitement and potential. Everybody there just is spilling over with what they're wanting to do and how excited they are about it. And being around that is really amazing. So after UNICEF I was hooked and I was like I'm gonna do this

Michele Davis: 11:58

full time. So Josh, you know that we're calling this series of episodes highs and lows with a college. And so that means I'm going to now ask you for you personally, in your personal MPD what's been the high and what's been the low or a high and a low? You know, I realize they're in good many years on staff. You may have a few stories you could tell but tell me a story that's high and tell me a story that's low.

Josh Ferguson: 12:24

Yeah, I can I have a couple ones, the real short one, and it's, it's a little silly, but I feel like a lot of people set some sort of arbitrary goal in MPD. And when you're really excited when they do it, like I remember there was a new staff who wanted to get he wanted to get somebody into every interval category, that MPX lists. Which I thought was hilarious.

Michele Davis: 12:48

Monthly, correctly, or whatever. Yeah. Okay.

Josh Ferguson: 12:52

So my goal was that I wanted the whole family on my team. That wasn't related to me. And we actually just did it a few months ago, which was super cool. So we have the parents and they have two children. So it was a small family, but they're all on our team financially, which is really, really cool. Yeah, that's fine. And then, as far as picking a particular high yeah, there's not one that I mean, I have a lot of funny stories, I guess. Yeah. You know, I got a I got a great one. It's a little embarrassing, but also really fun. A buddy of mine, it was a referral. And so a buddy of mine had connected me with this guy who was on his was in his choir, at the church that he was at. And so I was like, Cool. And he said, Yeah, he's also on the mission support team. He loves meeting with missionaries and talking with them and I was like, Cool. Then he said, you know, he works downtown at a banking company. I was like, Alright, cool. And so then, you know, I get ready for my meeting, and I wore slacks and a button up shirt. And as I'm going down town on the train, I'm like, looking through to double check the address and his like, office number or whatever. And it wasn't until that moment that I had read his title, which was vice president of internal something and I was like, oh, no, I should have worn a tie and possibly jacket,

Michele Davis: 14:28

like, C suite. Right.

Josh Ferguson: 14:32

So so I get to the building. And it's like the bank owns that building, which is just don't see very often and suddenly, oh, my goodness. And so I get there and like so where are you? Going? And like I'm meeting this person and like, let me check if you're on the list, and then like, pull up the list to see if I was on it. And I can't remember what floor he was on. But in those buildings like that, they will have separate elevators for separate sections of the building. And I had to go on a special elevator to get to his floor. And then I get and then I get out and the the assistant, you know, asked me who I'm meeting and so I have to tell them again and look on the list and they sit there and so I get to his office and his office as an exterior office. One of his walls is just a window. Oh, like it was amazing. Like looking at downtown Chicago. Yeah. I was so nervous. But he was the nicest guy ever and so I sat down with him. And he was like, just probably one of the most engaged people I've ever had an appointment with. And then before like, whenever I got to the point of Do you have any questions before we talk about how my ministry is funded? He was like, yeah, what's your goal? You know, and starts like asking me all these questions about the financial part of it, which makes sense because he's thinking right as my percentages and he starts doing math, like on the table there and then just comes back with, hey, this much a month be helpful and I was like, Cool, we'll make it happen. So that one was really funny, because of I think it was such a big swing from how nervous I was to how just down to earth and fun he was in that meeting. And so yeah, that was that was pretty cool.

Michele Davis: 16:33

Oh my gosh, I feel so much relief right now hearing the end of that story because you know, I would be so nervous to you know, you're going to like a corporate office. You you don't feel like you're ready for it. Real you know that that kind of stuff. I think it's understandable to be nervous about but praise God. I went really well. It sounds like it went great.

Josh Ferguson: 16:55

Yeah, it was a big change in expectation, but it was fun. And, you know, I've appointments are the best part of MPD and my wife used to joke that her favorite phone calls during our first year of marriage was when I would call her on the way home from an appointment. Because yeah, I mean, it's, you get to talk about what you're so excited about. And even a bad appointment. You know, is still sometimes not not the worst part of NPD I mean, in some ways, I would take a bad appointment over not hearing back from someone.

Michele Davis: 17:34

You mean because at least there's closure. Yeah, there's like acknowledgement I yeah, I could see that. I do think that this was not about me. I will say for me, the hardest thing in NPD is when I don't hear from someone, and they're like in my life and it's awkward, and I'm like you can tell me no, I'm a grown up. It can be if this isn't what you want to give to invest in whatever I just, it's now there's something that feels like I don't know shaming if when you're ignored, you know, so I think that's what I that's a struggle

Josh Ferguson: 18:15

percent it's to me that's, that's always the hardest that. I mean, I hate making phone calls. But if I can power through a phone call, because eventually there's either a voicemail or an answer, you know, but the emails and texts that just go unresponded to for months at a time is it's frustrating, especially like you said it's a person is someone you see on a regular basis, and they're just like, never gets demolished a few times, and it's rough.

Michele Davis: 18:46

Yeah, yeah. Well, so what would be for you personally like the NPD low that you wanted to share with us today?

Josh Ferguson: 18:58

Yeah, I think probably the one that was the most frustrating was where I was reaching out to someone. And I thought at least this person will will get back to me. They did. They actually get back to me really quick. And it was a very long text message, which is always a bad thing. And it started off with Hey, you know, at the moment, we don't really have the capacity to bring you on, you know, glad that you're doing what you're doing and that would have been great if it stopped there. But they did. They went on to talk about how frustrated they are with crew and yada yada yada. And I think that was the part that really just frustrated me was you could have ended this in a very cordial manner. By saying we don't have the capacity. Like you felt the need to sort of stick it and make a point. Like, is this really time to make a point? And so that just sort of felt really hurtful.

Michele Davis: 20:03

So yeah, and you wonder like, what's the what's the end and that that they're desiring do they want you to be like, Oh my gosh, right. It just was waiting for someone to say that and I'm going to read all my life choices now or do they want to say Did they want to you know, like it's

Josh Ferguson: 20:22

Yeah, so I by my nature, I I tend to overthink things. And so as a rule, I always, especially in NPD I should probably extend it to more parts of my life, but it's a really hard rule in my NPD to always assume the best in people. And so like, when someone doesn't get back to me, I forced myself to think they're busy. And that's all this is. Yeah, and until I hear otherwise, I'm just gonna assume they're busy. Or maybe they don't use Facebook. anymore. Or you know what I mean? But in situations like that, it's it's really tough. And so in those situations, I usually just walk away from my phone, because I know I know that if I have it in my hand it's not going to make the situation better.

Michele Davis: 21:20

Yeah, take a beat right not respond right away.

Josh Ferguson: 21:24

And so ended up responding with okay. I wasn't sure how to type more without it becoming a thing because to your point, maybe they were looking to argue or whatever. And so it's just like, there's I remember talking with someone recently, who was going on an MPD appointment. And she was really, really nervous about it. Because she was very certain that the only reason why they were meeting with her is to tell her that she shouldn't be doing it. And I don't know if I should do this as a coach, but my encouragement was you don't have to meet with anybody. Like there's there's nothing that says you have to meet with someone. If you think that's where it's like if you're certain that that's where it's gonna go. And they're just looking for a fight. That's That's not helping anybody. It's not worth anybody's real time. Unless you anyway, she'll be convicted that she should go. And she went, and it was what she thought. But she said at least I stood my ground and was able to say these are the reasons why I'm doing it. It was somebody that just doesn't believe in parachurch organizations. So it wasn't even anything specific. It was just as a general rule. He would have said the same thing to anybody in any parachurch organization.

Michele Davis: 22:55

Yeah, bless her heart.

Josh Ferguson: 22:58

Yeah, she's wonderful. She I will say she's one of the things about being a coach is watching people do things that you're not sure you would be able to do. And having that be like, Wow, I can do better.

Michele Davis: 23:14

Yeah, like they inspire you to to reach greater heights in your own in your own efforts. Yeah.

Josh Ferguson: 23:21

I am consistently impressed by the people I coach.

Michele Davis: 23:28

Well, hey, that's a good segue because I also wanted to hear the same like the high in the low but for coaching like as an MPD. Coach, what's been the high what's been what's been something that's hard, you know,

Josh Ferguson: 23:40

the high for this is so easy. It's by far the coolest thing that has ever happened is a guy that I was coaching, who was a volunteer at Great Lakes. So our relationship is hilarious because when I came on as a student, he was the Director of Religious Education at the base. Oh, which is a part time contracted role. So as a civilian, he was sort of the head of volunteers for the base. So when I first came on, as a student, he worked for the base and sort of like showed me the ropes, which was cool. Then whenever I came on staff, that role had been eliminated. And so he was a volunteer under me Yeah, and we laugh about it all the time. Really humble guy, just fantastic. And then, after I became a coach, he joined staff soon after that full time, and he can't afford a fairly low goal. Because he was retired military with full everything. And so he still was, like, adamant of like, I still want to raise this much so that we can do these things and, you know, all this other stuff, and so he had a great attitude towards it. But one of the things that his wife did, is they did fostering and they had fostered these little girls for a little over a year. And then as they came on staff, the girls went back with their parents, which is what they wanted. It was it was a really good situation. They had gotten enough parents there was really the outcome they were hoping for, but still really devastating and sad. And so that's how they started MPD and it was like, Dude, if you need time, I get it. But he you know, dove right in and what's going well, and then COVID Hit that family that they had fostered the girls with. They both lost their jobs. They couldn't afford rent, and they didn't know what they were going to do. And so they actually moved in with them. And so they were essentially fostering the whole family at this point, which was really cool. They weren't believers. And so they thought this is a great way for us to minister to them. And I remember my first call with him after they had moved in. And as coaches you know, we look at the MPX breakdown. So, you know, unless somebody's bad at filling out MPX we have a pretty good idea of of what's been going on that week and I saw that most everything was zeros. And so I was like, but you know, they just moved in, it's fine. And so I got on the phone with them and are on Zoom and I was like how's it going? And he's like, it's going well, he said things are happening. He said I just haven't done any MPD this week. And he said that, you know, he was he was like apologetic about it. And I said yeah, and so I get it. You know, you're you're adjusting some things I said, but you know that you had support come in this week, right? And he was like, really? And we looked at it and he had$500 in new monthly support that came in that week. Oh wow. And so we got to have this really great conversation of you know, you're doing what God has called you to do. And at the moment, it's taking care of his family. And by the time that he had reported the parents that come to faith in Christ, and they got married in their house, and that's what they wanted to get married was was in their living room. It was a really cool ceremony and it's it's just the coolest story ever. And so yeah, MPD is different for everybody. And there is a sense of leaning into, you know, the situation that God has you in and he will walk you through it. It might be longer than you expect. It might be different than you expected, but God provides some really amazing ways.

Michele Davis: 28:13

So when you take take a step back and you're looking at at all these things, what is it that keeps you motivated Josh to Sunday bath and stay with MPD coaching?

Josh Ferguson: 28:26

Yeah, I think just hearing about what's going on in the field. Because sometimes get feel very, like we're very separated from what's happening on the ground in the field. And so I love hearing about what the people I've coached are doing now. Staff conference, I get to sit down with someone from Great Lakes. And when I was there on Sundays with the recruits we would have 1012 20 like that, like 20 was a good Sunday to have in our Bible study groups. There in the hundreds which is just mind boggling. Like we would rotate our volunteers and hearing them say like, no, it's pretty much all hands on deck every Sunday is really, really cool to hear, you know, and just the unique and creative things that people are doing, especially during the pandemic. The way that people turned obstacles into opportunities. I heard about a group that was doing a weekend to remember it was supposed to be in person in the head. I forgot how many were registered for it. It was it was it was a good group but what huge COVID forced them to go virtual. And because they went virtual, they had people from all over the world that locked in. They had people in there were like 1012 hour time changes that were waking up in the middle of the night. To attend this virtual marriage conference. And just hearing things like that. It's cool. I love what Kurt does all over the world. And I know that you know, we're not a perfect organization, but man we do a lot of good in a lot of places. And it's it's really encouraging to hear those things. And it's I think that's what keeps me on staff is talking with people that are doing that stuff because as I mentioned earlier, I'm not that guy but I can I can help those people stay with their call to be and keep doing that. So yeah, that's what that's what keeps me on staff, for sure.

Michele Davis: 30:48

Thank you, Josh. Like it's been encouraging today to hear your your genuine care for your staff and how excited you are for helping to get more more staff to be ministering to people. And that really was my vision for that too. So thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing all these stories and just really appreciate you.

Josh Ferguson: 31:12

Yeah, well, thanks for having me on.

Michele Davis: 31:15

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. Until next time, we encourage you to be faithful and full of faith in all things. Especially in MPD