Viewpoints: Fresh Perspectives on Personal Support Raising

by Steve Shadrach, Ellis Goldstein (Foreword)

ViewPoints gives fresh perspectives on personal support raising for any Christian worker seeking to fund his/her ministry. With 66 chapters full of biblical and practical advice and resources, this book is sure to provide encouragement to you during the support raising process.

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Christian

174 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Steve Shadrach has a passion for developing laborers for Christ to reach the world. He has been involved with Campus Crusade, The Navs, and as head counselor with Kanakuk Kamps. He served as Pastor of Students and Missions at University Baptist Church in Fayetteville, AR. He is the founder of Student Mobilization, which focuses on evangelizing and discipling college students in the U.S. and abroad, The Traveling Team, and The Bodybuilders ministry, seeking to "build up the body of Christ" through the development of seminars and publications.

Reviews

[Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet with fun antidotes to help make it an easy read for an not so easy subject. I kept it my back pocket for motivation. It was great when a certain chapter or paragraph spoke directly to my struggle as I was support raising. I appreciated the subject of poor talk and challenging others to be apart of a great investment. It also opened up my eyes to people I had never considered as potential supporters. I you carry this book and read again in between support appointments.

[Clark Lanier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good people for people going into ministry on support. Also a good read for generous givers who want to know the heart behind giving to missionaries/para church organizations. Shadrach uses a lot of exclamation points though so you have to prepare yourself for that for sure, but its worth it.

[Kaitlin]

This book is basically the outline version of Shadrach's "The God Ask." If you enjoy the short, referential style or you want to remember stunt of the key points from his other book, then this is the reference for you. Otherwise, I highly recommend his newer book on the subject of support raising.

[Aaron Loy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viewpoints is basically a "diet coke" version of Steve Shadrach's newer book, The God Ask. Save yourself the time and money and buy that book instead. It takes his points further and fleshes things out better.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful

This book was helpful in emphasizing some things I had already known, primarily, it is important to build relationships, cast the net wide, and meet face to face. He basically says those three things in many encouraging and inspirational ways.

[Brian Pate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good stuff, but a repeat of what's already in Shadrach's book "The God Ask."

[Taylor Okvianto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was easy to read and had great ~view points~ on support raising!

[Adam Balshan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars [Missiology]
(W: 3.12, U: 2.5, T: 2.54)
Exact rating: 2.72

[Steve Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thousands of people are engaged in missions, ministry, or some other kind of work that requires them to raise their own income. This book is addressed to them...Or at least a subset of them.

Shadrach apparently assumes most people who buy this book are just starting out. He also apparently assumes that his readers are the evangelist, church planter sort of worker, complete with an outgoing personality and a gift for personal evangelism--Several times he compares raising support to what I would call hard core evangelism. As such, this book has limited value to me.

I have been raising support for a dozen years or more. Because of my location, I am allowed four weeks a year to maintain the support I have, to raise any additional support I need, and related travel. Like most people in my mission, I am a support worker, much more like the secretaries in one ministry who Shadrach writes should not raise their support: "It seemed like they could never get someone in this role who could raise a healthy and consistent team of givers...Rebecca resolved to find the very best person she could and pay what the person was worth."

Why is it that people in some roles struggle? We need someone to answer that question and find some solutions.

I perked up when I saw the chapter on Facebook, but this did little more than say that we should use it, and it used sarcasm at that. The chapter made no mention of creating pages separate from a personal account, and other appropriate ways to use Facebook.

The book did convince me that I should concentrate more on individuals. Churches have always provided about 2/3s of our support. It did also convict me of "poor talk", something I need to get rid of. For those two reasons I gave an extra star. Otherwise, I would have given the book a solid 2-star rating.