Ep. 48 : Coaches Roundtable: New Year, New You...New MPD Replay

Need a bit of a pep talk for MPD in the new year? Cue AIA MPD Coaches Brent Batiste and Mark Hammitt! They join Michele and Katie for an encouraging and visionary convo about setting goals that are full of faith and grace. Can we make progress in a busy season? Yes! Can we try some new things and not be bogged down by guilt if it doesn’t go “perfectly”? Yes, yes we can!  

Resources referenced: The Spirituality of Fundraising by Henri Nouwen. MPD Resource Site Links: Calculating My Support Goal, Planning Your MPD Activities, and MPDx.

Please like and share and subscribe to get more encouraging episodes like this one!  Also, please follow us on  Instagram, Facebook and Twitter by searching for The Cru MPD Podcast.

Transcript

Michele Davis: 0:17

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: 0:52

Welcome to our second Coach's Roundtable today, we're really excited to talk about the new year and new MPD practices for this new year. And today, we have two of our coaches, Brent Batiste and Mark Hammitt are here with us today. We're really excited to have them. So hi, guys, could you guys start by just introducing yourselves and a little bit of your background and your family and anything? Honestly, anything you want to share?

Brent Batiste: 1:21

Yeah, happy New Year, Katie. And Michele, it's good to be with you two. And yeah, my wife Stephanie and I, we've been on staff for 25 years. And you know, we've actually been at the same ministry location the entire time, we had been serving on campus at Northern Illinois University, with Athletes in Action. But about halfway through our staff career began to work a little bit more in the MPD space, initially coaching summer interns, and eventually working more and more with senior staff as well. And so that's a portion of what I do during my time on staff, but we have four kids. One just got married this summer. We have two in college and one in high school.

Michele Davis: 1:59

Oh, wow, that sounds really busy and exciting.

Mark Hammitt: 2:02

Yeah. So my name is Mark Hammitt, Susie, and I live in Medford, Oregon, we just moved here. Actually, about six months back. This is where Suzie grew up. We are officially empty nesters. We have three grown kids, four grandkids that are back in the Midwest, where we spent the last 20 years in Cincinnati. And our our life has been really in the campus ministry, from Arizona, to South Africa to Cincinnati. And now, just to the last year and a half or so I've been the coordinator for athletes and action in the MPD world. And that's really probably Brent, you're a little bit to be blamed for that one. Our relationship over the last over the last couple years is just really caused me to see that, you know, not only us as a couple, but we want our staff to be able to thrive in the area of MPD. And I just kind of feel like these, this next stage in my life, no better way than to serve in this capacity.

Katie Johnson: 3:08

Well, guys, thanks so much for being with us today. We're excited to talk about what does it look like to plan out your year right with MPD? And how do we continue to care for our partners and build our ministry teams in the midst of being on assignment? That's always the big question. And this year, we have, right, Cru 22 is coming up. So it's important to work on your MPD I think this year, even more so than the past few years. And so I just wanted to hear from you guys. First, what is been the worst MPD year you've ever had, and contrast it with the best. And what did you guys learn from both those years?

Mark Hammitt: 3:48

Yeah, well, as I was thinking about the question, I can't label it as like one year specifically. But when we came back from South Africa, we hit like a major roadblock. With MPD, we lost a lot. Some of our churches that were helping us out stop because we were no longer International. And that was personally really difficult for us. But I think for me, it was more of a season that we kind of were challenged with in those early 2000s. And then kind of like some economic downturn in 2008-2009 that really hit us hard, short paychecks, you know, in deficit, not really having a story to tell in some ways, not really having a vision to share. Not having a coach to encourage me along the way. All these types of things kind of like multiplied themselves into basic disaster, is what I probably would just have to say for our family. And you know, fortunately we were at a spot where we were able to pull from some of our savings but that wasn't always the case. And as I was thinking about that I was thinking about Lamentations chapter three. You know, we're where he says The Lord's loving kindness and deed never sees first. compassions never fail, for they are new every morning, great as I faithfulness. And I just think about that newness of this year. And I think about the newness, you know, of the Lord's faithfulness in our lives. And I think that was a true that was true, something that we experienced. But I think we the Titanic, I'll phrase it that way the Titanic turned from sinking into a new a new course. And that probably happened in like 2010, when we decided that we were going to start taking MPD trips together as a couple. And so Susie, and I would just set aside time, and this was an this is a new thing for my, our Regional Director. It was actually during the school year, that we, our first trip was to Arizona in 2010. And we just saw the Lord provide some new support there. And it provided some great interaction with our ministry partners, that that became, like an ongoing thing that we did, which really helped us to turn the ship around a little bit and find some success and MPD.

Katie Johnson: 6:12

I'm just curious, you mentioned like you're you're struggling with even vision for your ministry at that point. Um, yeah, what helped you to like renew your vision? And for MPD and for raising support?

Mark Hammitt: 6:26

Yeah, I think part of my problem was when we came back from South Africa, was that I had tons of stories to tell about our time in South Africa. But I didn't have anything to talk about my new assignment. And here I am in a new assignment in Cincinnati, working in the metro Cincinnati area and all these campuses, and not having anything of the Lord's faithfulness in that sector yet, you know, and so I think I just needed to talk about the Great Commission and the Lord's calling in my life. And that was the vision that I needed to share, and not so much. Here's the 20 people that we saw that just received Christ. You know, and yeah, and I, yeah. Does that make sense? Katie?

Katie Johnson: 7:11

No, that does make sense. And I the reason I asked is because I think that's a somewhat common place that people on staff find themselves in of transitioning from ministry to ministry or overseas back to a different role. And so I just was curious, like, what did it take right for you to get over that roadblock of not seeing a vision for your ministry or not knowing how to cast vision for your ministry? And I think you're exactly right. Like, whether it's a story of 20 people coming to know the Lord or the mission of moving forward the Great Commission. It's all the same. It's all. We're all want to see more people come to know Jesus. Right. And so yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.

Michele Davis: 7:57

Yeah, I'm actually coaching a couple right now. Yeah, they are coming back from overseas, they're moving to a new campus in the Midwest, they don't know a lot about this is very, it's very relevant to so manystaff.

Mark Hammitt: 8:10

Yeah. And I think that needs to be a part of the conversation for our staff as they transition back. So they're not taken by surprise, like we were, it was just like, ah, you know, but I think some of the lessons that I learned from this is that, you know, ultimately, I have to do my part, we have to do our part. But ultimately, it's the Lord who provides, you know, I was thinking about just the phrase, Jehovah Jireh. You know, he's the one who provides. And and, yeah, that's just been encouraging for me through the lows and the highs in our MPD. World.

Michele Davis: 8:50

Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely something I go back to to thinking about the Lord and MPD.

Brent Batiste: 9:00

When I read that question, I thought it was a good question. I was like, I don't know if we've ever had a, like a worst year. But we've certainly had some wake up calls along the way. And I think almost even some conviction of some missed opportunities as well during our time on staff. And I tell you, when we, when we first reported a campus, we weren't quite newlyweds, but we were, you know, just the two of us. And now we have, you know, four kids later, as the ministry grows and develops, the needs increase. But I remember pretty early on, it was actually a summer Katie, you reference the national training for our Cru staff, that we all we all gather together. And I remember coming back from a summer mission that summer, and then going directly to the Cru National Training. And then around August or so, you know, we got a notice in the mail, that's when your paychecks were actually paper and you actually they were mailed to you. And we realized that wow, we didn't receive as much funding this month in our paycheck than we typically do. And what had happened was our account had gone into deficits. And that was a wake up call for us. It really was. And I remember exactly where I was standing in our kitchen. And I, we looked at it, we read it together. And here's what we did. We we literally dropped to our knees, and we sought the Lord. And we prayed, we prayed, we sought his face. And then we made a plan. So our first reaction I'm thankful was, was a heart of prayer. Yeah. And in that prayer, we said, Lord, we said, Lord, never again, because I really, I really do believe that the call to staff is a call to full funding. And it's a call to having to provision to do the work. So I remember after we got done praying, I jumped on our computer, and I began to craft a letter to our partners. And I honestly, I try to stay away from kind of those urgent emergency letters, I think we've done like maybe two in our entire time on staff. But that helped us get out of our initial, you know, because that we were stuck. But But more than that, and what we learned through it is that we, we got to campus, and we went full blast for three, four or five years. And we didn't really think about MPD much. And what the Lord taught us during that time was your MPD is just as important as your time on campus discipling and sharing the gospel. And I'm fine, I'm thankful for that. That little wake up call from the Lord to prompt us. Because he really taught us some things through that. And other thing was, I think, maybe some missed opportunities over the years. And I even think like in our training, I think we're even encouraged to, to, to revisit some conversations with our partners every couple years to ask them, if they might, Lord willing be in a position to increase their level of support with the ministry. And we really didn't do that for many, many years. And I think, as I look back, I referenced that as a missed opportunity, because I think, Boy, I think ourselves, I think a lot of our staff would be in a much stronger position where we're fully funded and able to freely focus on the mission, if we had done some of those steps, steps early on. So that was not so much the worst year but a wake up call. And as far as the best years, you know, I think from that time forward, we began to make some decisions in our weekly and monthly schedules, and to prioritize MPD. And I just think by God's grace, we've seen a slow and steady increase in our support over the years. And the Lord is freeing us up to do the ministry He's called us to. Hmm.

Katie Johnson: 12:41

I feel like there's so many nuggets that you just said that I want to be like, can you just repeat that for our staff again? MPD is a part of your ministry being fully funded as a part of your ministry. It is just as important as your ministry, right? And a lot of freedom, right, the freedom that came with being fully funded, you can actually focus on your assignment. And that's so good.

Brent Batiste: 13:07

Yeah. I asked one of our staff once he's actually one of our coaches. I'll give them a shout out Elliot, when I asked him, I said, what is being fully funded mean to you? And he said, It means being able to say, Yes. I thought, wow, that's really encouraging, saying yes to to ministry saying yes to a summer mission assignment, saying yes, to being generous to others, as well. And I've always, I've always held on to that it's really encouraged me.

Michele Davis: 13:34

I'm literally writing that down.

Mark Hammitt: 13:36

Yeah, you know, and I mentioned how we started taking MPD trips, and some of those fell during the school, some of those fell during the school year. And that initially, I got some pushback on that. But but if we do actually believe that MPD is ministry...what it created for us in the campus sector was that our student leaders realized, Hey, this is just as important to mark and Susie as sharing their faith on campus. And it gave them It gave them a chance to kind of step in and take some leadership roles on the campus while we were gone. And to say that, you know, raising support is a part of what we do as staff with Cru

Michele Davis: 14:17

I really like that.

Mark Hammitt: 14:18

Yeah. So we didn't have to, like hide that. Like sometimes in the summer months, we have a tendency of like hiding this so that no one else can see what we're doing. We wanted to be out there in the open and say, This is what we do. This is a part of what we do, you know, and yeah, we're excited to be able to take this time to be able to do that. So yeah,

Michele Davis: 14:37

and I can see that by showing. So yeah, yeah, exactly. And I can see how that helped your students to have a category both for maybe raising support themselves someday or for giving, you know, in the future, but also, I would imagine that really set a good example for your fellow staff. One of the things I just have a burden for as I went Our staff to not feel like they're alone in their MPD or you know that, you know that they can't talk about it or, like, I don't know, I think that just happens sometimes where our staff can, you know, maybe talk in generalities or not, like really, like, just be open about their needs or what what they're doing in their MPD. And I think that really like, then kind of hurts all of us, in a sense, because we can't then have that camaraderie that learning from one another. I really, I need the encouragement of other staff around me, I think and MPD. So I love that you, in being proactive about, you know, working on MPD. You were setting that example. And I love that I think you had said earlier like that was a, like a first time that you and Susie had gone together on an MPD trip. Right? I'm curious if there if there's more to that story that just sounds like Like, like, what was like, you know, the differences that when Susie got to was like a part of that trip to etc? Yeah,

Mark Hammitt: 16:04

yeah, well, so it was, we had done that prior to South Africa. But during the South Africa years, you know, we weren't raising support from South Africa, because it just wasn't a reality. And so when we, when we came back, we wanted to do more of that. And then I think as our kids went off to college, it created some space in our schedule, where we were able to go together to do those things. And I just think it's a win. It's a win win, when a husband and wife can go together to visit partners and go on appointments together. It's just, it's fantastic. We love doing it.

Katie Johnson: 16:43

Was this when your kids were small?

Mark Hammitt: 16:46

Well, we did we did we get a lot of those. Also, Katie, you know, I remember raising support to go overseas and just like having, like, a two year old with us, you know, and, and, and then later when we came back on our home visits or furloughs, you know, having three small children with us? Like, could you just be quiet, like for an hour? So we have this conversation?

Michele Davis: 17:11

Right? Like bringing snacks or...

Mark Hammitt: 17:15

Just, exactly. But you know, oftentimes, we found and this is just the joy that we have as we go visit our ministry partners is that oftentimes, much of the conversation is just surrounding real life. And it's surrounding our family. And and sometimes there's not a lot of questions about ministry per se, like, you know, what are you actually doing, or how's it going? But it's just so much more personal things. And I just love that part in having the family there for it even just accentuates that opportunity.

Katie Johnson: 17:49

Yeah, I love that. I mean, how fun to have your kids even know your ministry partners. And

Mark Hammitt: 17:54

oh, yeah,

Michele Davis: 17:56

....Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Okay, I want to hear from all of us on this question, when we're thinking about our upcoming year. Like, how do you guys all approach thinking about your MPD in your upcoming year? Like, do you set goals or benchmarks or habits? Or like what's your strategy as how you move forward? And that's something I'm like working on right now in updating my, you know, position focus and PDP. So...

Brent Batiste: 18:30

that's a great one. And, you know, they say, a goal that's not written down is just a wish, right? Totally have something to think on something and to write it down to share it with a friend, perhaps. But the way that we do it is we have we have we kind of break our year down into three segments. And for those of the staff who work on a college campus, it's kind of easy, you know, we have the spring semester, we have the summer, and then we have the fall semester. Obviously, the spring semester for most falls right along with the with the New Year as well. Yeah. And so it's kind of an extra, maybe an extra lift, you know, with intentionality to really see some progress. But, but really, that's a lot that's birthed out of kind of, throughout the year, we are regularly combing through the MPD software that our Cru staff use called MPDx. And we're continually checking that on a quite regular basis to see if what is the partners who have committed to seeing, hey, if what has been committed is actually coming through to our account, or has there been a change in their life, their realities financially or family wise, that has changed that? So throughout the year, we'll we'll track that pretty intentionally. We certainly won't wait for the new year to address any any challenges there. I may require a phone call or just touching base with a partner. And maybe maybe it was a credit card that was no longer working or a bank statement. For us on Cru. We've gotten those emails before about a processing error. And really, I think the best thing we can do then is jump right on the phone and engage with that partner, and probably spend most of the time just thanking them, lavishing them with gratitude for their support, and then letting them know how important it is to us and say, Hey, I got this email from crew this week, and just wanted to touch base with you. But we're combing through that throughout the year. And then depending on the time of the year, and if it's one of our busier times or not, we won't necessarily jump right into a full blown NPD mode. But we'll we'll take note of that. So that when we wouldn't wait necessary for the new year, but we'll wait for a time during the ministry here that we have some extra energy and the ability to basically say, Okay, here's what we're lacking. And here's what we're going to trust the Lord for. And then we'll build those those numbers into our, our MPD plan. And I have I just kind of make it I say, make a plan, right, the plan down, share the plan with a friend,

Mark Hammitt: 20:59

you've shared it with me many times they haven't you Brent.

Brent Batiste: 21:03

Mark has been an incredible partner in this whole process

Mark Hammitt: 21:08

you have as well.

Brent Batiste: 21:10

And lastly, get the plan done, get the plan done. They do say just writing a plan down increases the likelihood of it being met the goal, but then they say also sharing it with a friend also kind of puts you on the line a little bit, you have someone check in with you encourage you in that. So that's kind of something that we've done, and we do it in the spring and the summer and the fall. And it's all based on what our current what we're currently trusting the Lord for.

Michele Davis: 21:37

So you check in each of those three points and tweak your plan.

Brent Batiste: 21:41

That is what we do. Yes, ma'am.

Michele Davis: 21:42

Oh, I like that. I like that a lot. What do you

Katie Johnson: 21:45

Yeah, um, I am a little less structured than you do, Katie? guys. Okay, um, I do like lists, and I love plants. But I wouldn't say I do anything specific every year. This year, I feel like coming out of COVID. And going back into conference season, whether it's the summer conference are lots of other conferences coming up, I have thought a lot about raising more support, making sure my monthly support is at a level that's sustainable, but also focusing in a little bit on special gifts, because of all the conference expenses coming up. And so, um, as I've been thinking about that, I plan on organizing first. And so I think I have to have things in digestible pieces. And if it's this giant task before me, then I just never get anything done. So, um, I think organizing is really important. And so my hope this year is to organize for MPD. And I guess it's kind of like making a plan. But basically making sure all my contacts are in MPDx. And everything has notes and is tasked to tags and you know, all those things. So then when I do sit down to do MPD, it's not, oh, I have to do these 10 things before I can actually contact someone. And so I have some other goals as far as numbers, right? Like, where I want to be monthly or special gifts. But I feel like one of the biggest things that helps me throughout the year is making sure when I do have time to work on MPD. I know what I'm working on, and it's ready to go. Yeah, if that makes sense.

Mark Hammitt: 23:31

Yeah, definitely great. Well, with, with our move to Oregon, the cost of living is a lot higher out here than it was in Cincinnati. And as a result, we've had to make some adjustments to our budget. In light of that we we have kind of set some benchmarks like $600 of new support by March the first by May the first and by July the first. And so, you know, if we were to see that take place, then we would be in a much better space than we are right now. And so that's one way. I think when when staff truly do like an MPD assessment or evaluation of their solid monthly, I'd like to say that reality is is our friend. And most staff that we talked to, they'll say, oh, I need to raise 500 a month or I need to raise another 1000 or whatever it might be. But that's just pulling numbers out of the air. There's really no reality to that. And so I think if we do our homework, and we crunched the numbers, and we see what those are, then, you know people work better in different ways. Some people want to just set aside a concentrated time to work on it, and try to knock the whole thing out. Other people like to just work it into their DNA that structure their week. And as they're doing MPD throughout the course of the week and throughout the course of the month. We like those benchmarks of like, you know, every two to three months set another goal and so it's much easier for us as we're on appointments with people to say Yeah, we're trusting the Lord for an additional $600 of new monthly support by March 1, you know, would you would you like to join with us, you know, something like that. So that's, that's what we do. We do have two MPD trips, because I just talking about trips earlier in the podcast. We are planning to go to Arizona in March. And then we're going to combine being back east for Milwaukee to visit some of our ministry partners in the state of Delaware during July. So those are two things that are kind of in the calendar already too.

Michele Davis: 25:35

Yeah, well, to piggyback off what Mark said I, when I'm like thinking through, or this is literally what I'm doing on my to do list this week is to rework my MPD goal. And like to just changes need to make to budget and things in there that I do, I just work better when I know, this is the goal to the dollar, have what I need of what I need to raise and think through the budget. And I personally, am not one that is like, gonna always do like three tasks a week, this every week for the rest of my life, I work more in bigger seasons. And so, and for me, what helps me work best is, is like making sure that that time is reflected on my schedule, even if I have to move it later, because life is crazy. And that sometimes happens. But if I like put a two hour block in my Google Calendar, that's like work on your MPD tasks, then I know when you know, when I hit that block, I open up in MPDx and I start getting to work. And it protects the time because my I know my biggest like setback this is actually like a different question we were planning to talk about later. So maybe this is a natural segue. But my biggest tendency is I can just get really distracted by urgents Like all those little urgent things in my life, and I'm not like, I'm just not overly regimented person, like, my husband and I laugh about this a lot, because he is he is just very good at running the same play. So he's in charge of paying our bills, okay, and I'm better at the bigger picture. So I run like our bigger budget plan, and our like, savings goals and things like that. So like, my husband's no longer on staff. And, you know, he's, like, supportive of me and helpful, but he's not here anymore to be like, with to do our three tasks, right. So I have to kind of like, find a way to, to like work within my own tendencies. And to know that I need to, like, kind of have a big gear up, and I need to protect the time, and then I can kind of overcome the fact that I don't know, What's my problem? Do I just get bored with like, doing the same thing all the time? Yes, that's part of it. Do I get distracted by my crying kids? Or a pretty day I want to go on a walk the squirrel that walked by? Yes, that's awesome. So, um, yeah, so some self awareness has helped me to work better on MPD. And to kind of just like, stop pretending to be someone I'm not and just work with, like, how I work best.

Brent Batiste: 28:11

Well, as we look to 2022, something that we're hoping to grow in is really to take to continually move from fear to faith in our MPD. And we see that in ministry on campus or in the workplace ministry, but I think that's also significant in our our ministry, partner development as well. We're looking, uh, Stephanie and I are we're looking at a possible transition within the ministry this year. And if the Lord is leading in the way that we think he might be leading, it would involve a cross country relocation. And, you know, like I said, we've been in the same location for 25 years, so we haven't really done transition a whole lot. There have been two times of transition early on in our staff life that...

Mark Hammitt: 29:02

give me a call. Give me a call, Brent.

Brent Batiste: 29:05

I will continue to learn from my brother Mark.

Michele Davis: 29:07

I mean, all of our eyes are so big on this call at least mine I'm like, Ooh, he's like hinting at some fun change coming up...

Brent Batiste: 29:15

and we're still waiting for things to unfold for sure. But, you know, there is that element of fear involved. And I look back to 2010. Our family went on the Lake Hart Stint. And that was a transition of sorts. We knew when we went we it was just going to be a year commitment. But there was still something within us. Will our ministry partners understand the value and the need for this, this this experience with Cru serving at their headquarters for that year? And there was an element of boy do we do we do this? Or do we not do it and there was like this fear of what will be some of the maybe the ramifications if we if we left campus for a year. And then also, the following year, we made the transition from serving with Cru campus to switch to the ministry of Athletes in Action. And even with that kind of transition, there was something within our hearts that felt like, I wonder if our ministry partners will fully grasp the vision for reaching student athletes for the gospel. And in both of those, the Lord has shown and proven himself incredibly faithful (Amen) He is our provider. Yes, he is our provider, and we can step out and trust him. But we are literally looking at ministry for the next 25 years, Lord willing, and we know that our God is a provider, we know that he wants to strengthen and sustain our support. My hope for 2022 is that we would move forward in faith, and not kind of resist this opportunity because of fear.

Michele Davis: 30:45

Okay, I just want you to know that everyone listening is going to start stalking you on workplace to figure out what your new job might be. Or maybe I just will, I don't know. I think that's, that's fun. It's exciting to think about, Brent.

Brent Batiste: 31:03

Thanks.

Mark Hammitt: 31:07

I know for me, one of the things that that I look forward to in this new year is that when the Lord brings one of our ministry partners, to my mind, there's a reason for it. And, and not just to squelch that or quench the spirit, but respond to the Spirit. I've been spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks in the Beatitudes. And as I've been just reading some of those simple yet powerful phrases of Jesus in the early chapters of Matthew, it just reminds me again and again, of, you know, show mercy, that you may receive mercy. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. And I, as I think about that, wow, if I would treat other people like I would want to be treated, that's really going to require Holy Spirit power in order to do that. And in light of our ministry partners, how would they want to be treated? You know, and so there's a, there's a, there's so much room for growth in my life when it comes to this area. But when when the Lord brings a partner to mind, I want to jump on the phone. And even if I get a voicemail, I want to say, Hey, Jack, just thinking of you earlier today, hope you're doing okay, you know, and maybe even pray for him on the phone. And I did that a year and a half ago with a guy. And he didn't answer, but I prayed for him on the phone. And he kept that prayer. And, and I didn't know that until months later, when we were speaking again. And he said, I kept that prayer. And I would just go back to it time and time again. Because I just needed to hear that, you know, and so we don't know what the Lord's doing when He brings someone to our mind. But I want to be holy spirit powered to respond, as Brent said, in faith and make that call reach out and just say, How you doing, I'm thinking of you.

Michele Davis: 33:16

Gosh, what a good example of how MPD is, is ministry, and the Lord uses us to minister to our partners like that. It's such a good example of

Mark Hammitt: 33:26

Oh, yeah. And then another thing I just thought of this morning, prior to our call, was, you know, all of us get these kinds of letters in the mail, where, at Christmas time, some people just send a Christmas card, and it'll just say love, you know, John and Julie or something. But some people send a family update. And so I'm going to go back through all the cards that we got this year at Christmas, and I'm going to pull all the family update letters out. Because we just tended, like skim over those and pitch them or put them in a pile or whatever. But there's a lot of information here that I think could be transcribed into MPDx. So we get to know the family better. So we can ask more pointed questions. But here's what I'm going to do for 2022 is I'm going to make a phone call to everybody who sent a family update letter. And I'm going to ask some more questions. And I'm going to say, Oh, you mentioned Tim and Casey just got married and they have a 95 pound dog called Wilbur, you know, tell me more. Because we yeah, we want to enter it. You know, it's it's about building relationships here. And so that's what I look forward to doing. (Oh my gosh,)

Katie Johnson: 34:36

would you say you get Christmas cards from a lot of your ministry partners?

Michele Davis: 34:41

Yes, I do

Mark Hammitt: 34:42

Tons. tons. Yeah, we probably I'm guessing we probably got 60 cards or more.

Michele Davis: 34:50

I haven't counted but I got a lot.

Katie Johnson: 34:52

Yeah. That's so fun. I should ask to get put on my ministry card, my ministry partners Christmas card list.

Mark Hammitt: 34:58

Well, you know, that might be a little little bit different in the changing times with more people using emails and less hard copies, that people aren't maybe sending you those people aren't sending Christmas cards as much. I don't know that's true. Now,

Michele Davis: 35:11

I do get a lot I recent one of the somebody go to church with said that they keep all their cards up, they're not in ministry, they're just a couple of my church that I'm in a small group with and like, every day that they'll take one of the cards off of the display of their cards and pray for that person and put it down, I thought, what a great idea, you know, to instead of just like gather them up and recycle them or whatever. So yeah, and so that's similar to what you brought up Mark like, and really what you're saying is kind of take it to the next level and reach out to that person, you know, and so kind of like writing that down, I might add that to my position focus under MPD. To pray for call. Just that's a good place to start. Sometimes I just need like a, like a new and exciting idea for how to just mix it up a little bit.

Mark Hammitt: 36:06

And that might only be five or six people for you, Michele, but that's, that's great. It's a great place to start.

Michele Davis: 36:11

Yeah. Katie, you and I were talking earlier about like the negative tendencies, right? Where you want to do like, Yes, I'm not trying to call you out on what is hard. I just want to hear I want I want to hear is how, like, and I I'm so actively, like, just looking for help in that. You know, like, I think I'm in a season of yeah, just needing some fresh ideas. Mm hmm. So

Katie Johnson: 36:39

Yeah, well, and I would say that like, just well, the listeners know, no one is perfect. Like, there's always negative tendencies to everybody's rhythms of MPD when my husband was on staff with me, um, I feel like we complemented each other really well. And then when he left, I found a lot of negative tendencies that I do and MPD because it left like this gap of, oh, he like, did this part of MPD. And this part, and this part, and this part. I think one of the biggest things that maybe it's twofold. I am not great at keeping and MPDx updated. I think that's a big negative tends to have an MPD. But also, bank called me out on this last year when I was doing MPD. He listened in on a call I was doing, which is a whole nother conversation. And afterwards, he said, Katie, you need to do better asking for referrals. And I was like, Man, you want to join me and ask for referrals yourself. I'm just kidding. But I, but I think that it's easy for at least for me to like you guys were saying step away in fear, instead of pushing it in faith. And so I think one of my one of my tendencies is to run away with fear. And even as you're talking about calling people, I'm literally sitting here like, I don't want to call people. That's not what I do. I don't like talking on the phone anymore, you know. And so I think I definitely end up backing out and fear from a lot of different situations and MPD. And I think I need to start stepping forward and faith more. So I think that's probably my biggest negative negative tendency and MPD. Michele, do you what are your negative tendencies?

Michele Davis: 38:40

Okay, well, we did talk about mine a little bit earlier. Just, I'm not super great at being consistent. Actually, Katie, okay, so my husband's on staff either. Neither is Katie's. Maybe we should be those like encouragement buddies.. if I mean, we already talk all the time anyways, doing this podcast, but we've been inspired to you by like, what Mark and Brent have alluded to that, you know, they're pretty open with one another about where they're at in their MPD. You know, and that's, I think there's just a lot of benefit to that. So I can just get distracted by the urgent and so if something's not my calendar, I don't do it. And so that's where I try to put stuff in my calendar. I try to be realistic. I don't know. I'm just you know, but I could also just use a buddy. Like, good. So

Brent Batiste: 39:31

that's No, it's, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, go ahead. It's one of the one of the benefits of groups that we've been a part of over the years. The fellowship of the fully funded, and they're really, they're really what the staff make of them. Some of them meet weekly, some monthly, some are very short touch points and kind of check ins. All those are a little more extensive. Some meet in person, but I think most right now are probably virtual, but it's just that idea to encourage each other Hey, where are you winning an MPD? What are you trusting the Lord for? How can we kind of spur you on towards your your goals? And whether it's two people on a phone call or a group of, you know, several on a zoom call? Those have been critical in my MPD experience, though, all for having a buddy.

Katie Johnson: 40:20

Are these organized groups that you're talking about? Or is this?

Brent Batiste: 40:23

Yeah, Mark can actually share a bit more of us ours and how

Mark Hammitt: 40:28

Yeah, this is something that Brent and I started a number of years back with AIA, I read about it in a publication from Cru Orlando, a couple of staff in Orlando, we're meeting every two weeks at a for breakfast at a coffee shop. And it just gave us the idea. And we reached out to a couple other AIA staff, and we would just there was probably four or five of us on the call. And we would only meet for 30 minutes. But it was every week. And, and it was great. We prayed together, we shared some highs and lows in MPD. Sometimes we would read an article, you know, preemptively before the call and talk about a couple of things, some content wise, but it really lead to just that more transparency piece, which I think we benefit from

Michele Davis: 41:21

that, absolutely. I had heard that phrase out of some staff in Orlando fellowship of the fully funded I didn't realize (yes like, go for it, Michele), and some you know, some other groups out there, I think that's a great idea. You know, because for some people, their staff team maybe is an environment where they are talking about this a lot. But I know I work remote. I see people on my screen, there's a lot I have to do when I'm in a meeting with them. I'm not right now in an environment, you know, and so I, I like this, like kind of challenge to to create that. And to Yeah, it can be a small commitment. I like I don't know, I like this, this was really, I didn't realize I was coming in here to... I'm liking it.

Mark Hammitt: 42:08

Oh, no. Yeah. Well, then we also have the MPD champions to, you know, work on it on a team can can lean upon a champion there to bring MPD to their team each couple of times a month.

Michele Davis: 42:21

I do love that. Yeah. But yeah, as again, as like, I'm now in USLDHR. So I don't, I don't have an MPD champion. Who knows what's going on? Right? I'm just in MPD and I'm an MPD leader. You assume I'm fine. But that doesn't mean I don't need a buddy or some encouragement. I do. I just totally do. So. Okay, guys, let's say I want to hear from from us here just like What's this like a final charge as we're closing out our time together in this coach's roundtable, something that you wish staff would do this year and their personal MPD. I know like coaches we are often hearing from staff like certain things and have like been a burden for like, Oh, I just wish that staff would know this. I wish staff would do this. And so I want to hear from you guys, what's your final charge to our listeners for their MPD this year?

Brent Batiste: 43:14

You know, earlier I had referenced I think I referenced Paul's words to Timothy, the worker is worthy of the wage. And if you think about it, we are by God's grace and to His glory, we had been called to be a part of something very special. That has the potential for eternal impact. And I think that just does something within our soul and maybe even our level of confidence that as we engage in MPD, we can have a very eternal perspective. And I think connected to that my hope and prayer is that our staff myself, all of us would courageously step out in faith, with boldness and humility. The scriptures say the righteous are as bold as a lion. And they also say that God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. And I think there's a beautiful connection there. I think we can be bold and humble, because we're representing the Lord in his in his mission. So I think my my biggest desire, I hope our staff, we just have a continually vertical perspective and understanding of who they are in God's eyes and what they've been called to. The second thing I would hope they would do, and this this, you know, Katie mentioned this earlier, but I would I would hope they pick up the phone, and they stay on the phone. And I think I think there is beautiful benefit and fruit from always trying to take the most relational route. (I agree completely Brent, yeah) In our MPD sometimes we take the easy route, the quick route, the less intimidating route. If you have a partner who's giving monthly and all of a sudden, that you don't see gifts for a month or two or three, you know, we don't know what's going on in the background there. And to my, you know, you know, kind of about missed opportunities I had let that go for quite a while with one particular partner. And they were giving it a level that was very, very helpful to the ministry, I finally called them but boy, it was like eight months later. And they said, Brent, I wish you would have called us right away. And they not only began their giving again, but in their generosity and graciousness, and they made up for those those past eight months, which was just like, increase my faith, to say the Lord, the Lord blesses those steps of obedience to take the most relational way, in developing our team of partners. So those would be kind of my hopes and my, my encouragement.

Michele Davis: 45:49

Hmm, that is good.

Mark Hammitt: 45:51

Yeah, I think for me, I'm just really coming to understand and fresh ways that MPD is ministry. And for those who have maybe haven't read the Henri Nouwen book The Spirituality of Fundraising, let me let me encourage you to check that book out. But I think I've learned from from Henri, that MPD, fundraising, his ministry, and it's when we can build that into our, like I mentioned earlier, the DNA of our weekly schedule, it becomes that much more important, we see we see progress. Yeah, it's just been exciting for me. And then I think the other piece is MPDx. You know, as I'm coaching new staff, ...lots of times new staff may not see the value of that. But 40 years, on the other side of this, now, I see, the more I put into that, the more personal my relationships going to be with our partners in the years to come. And so I just want to encourage our staff to get to know that get to use that get to love that software, because there's great value in that. So I just click all the notifications, you know, I want to know, when a person misses the gift, I want to know when a person's having a birthday, or an anniversary, or whatever. And I just get this little friendly email that says, So and so I was having their anniversary coming up, you may want to reach out to them. And so guess what I do, I pick up my phone, you know, and reach out to them. And so I think that's just been just a great way to having ongoing contact with our ministry partners, and help me to bring MPD as a part of the DNA of all that I do in God's kingdom.

Katie Johnson: 47:50

I think that I would say, like everything you guys have said has been great, but also some, some people MPD is very emotionally draining. And even for like I'm an extrovert, I find MPD very emotionally draining. And that's on top of your ministry, if you're on assignment, which most likely is also emotionally draining, and spiritually draining. And so I would encourage everyone to make sure you have a good balance of make sure you're refreshing your yourself, right, like resting well, and doing life giving things outside of ministry and MPD. Spending time with the Lord and always going to him so that you can fill yourself up to be able to invest in others, which includes your ministry partners, but also your personal community, right? Like your ministry partners aren't the only people you have relationship with. But we want to make sure we're taking care of ourselves and going back to the source of emotional energy and spiritual energy. And that's Jesus right. And so I would say continue to to make space, especially those people that are not, are not extroverted, where this is probably very extra draining, like calling someone is so draining for an introvert Right? And, and, and honestly, I'm an extrovert, I don't like calling people either. So you want to make sure you're also doing things that are not draining. So that you can do MPD well, and so that you can do ministry well. And also make sure your goals are digestible. I'm one of those people that's like, I have all these goals for the year for the semester for the month, or, I mean, I look at my PDP every time and I'm like, Why did I list 15 things here? I like my life. Um, and I feel like a failure every time right? And so instead of putting all this pressure on yourself and expectation, create goals that are doable and small, and maybe even seem like not enough, because you will succeed that way and You can look back and celebrate what you've done well, um, so those are the two things I would say,

Michele Davis: 50:06

Hmm, that was good. That was really, really good. Um, I want to say and that this, I think flows from what Katie was saying that every day is a new day. I think MPD gives us a lot of opportunity to, you know, live out what Paul says in Philippians, where he, you know, he doesn't look back to what's behind, but he looks forward to what lies ahead, this, this walk of grace that we do as we are living with Jesus, you know, it applies to MPD as well, you know, so this is a new day, you are beloved, even if you you know, maybe you botched a call and you don't like how it sounded or maybe it has, it feels like it's been a while we're in the economy of grace, we can we can step out a new day power of the Holy Spirit and be faithful today. And so that is what I really hope for all of you listening. And I hope that as you're you know, listening to just you know, also maybe this year follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, The Cru MPD podcast! We are hoping this that this cheap this podcast here would provide a lot of encouragement and hope for you and your MPD journey we exist to to serve you, our staff. So yeah, Brent, Mark, thanks for joining Katie night today. This has been fun. So thank you very much. Yeah, I feel challenged and encouraged. I hope you guys do too.