Welcome everyone!!  We are excited to join you on your partnership development journey.

Andy Stanley wrote a book called Visioneering and in it he writes something that perfectly fits for this fundraising season whether it’s your first or your 50th. He writes, 

If you saw The Empire Strikes Back, you may remember the scene in which Luke wants to go and rescue his friends before he has finished his Jedi Knight training… Yoda finally issues a dire warning. “If you leave now, help them you could, but you will destroy all for which they have fought and suffered.” Still... Luke is so locked in on what could and should be, that he feels compelled to leave immediately. So he does. And do you remember what happened? Everything worked out great!

But that’s in a galaxy far, far away. Back here where we live, action before preparation usually spells disaster. In the case of your divinely ordered vision, God goes to work in you to prepare you for what he knows lies ahead. Like Luke Skywalker, you may so urgently feel the need to act, that it seems foolish to wait… Once the vision is clear, we assume we are ready. Otherwise, why would He have given us the vision in the first place?

Stanley continues on saying...Don’t be impatient. Don’t move before God leads. Accept His training and His timing. Meanwhile, your vision, though it may burn inside you, will enable you to endure the wait, because you know it’s worth it to get it right. Vision always precedes preparation. Initially, your vision will exceed your competency. Within the context of that tension, God will go to work on you. To the extent that you can, identify how God is preparing you now to fulfill your vision effectively later on.

At Tailored, we believe that this perfectly applies to partnership development. God has given you a vision, but you need to prepare by getting clear on what the ministry is, how to share it with others, and how to build a strong team to partner with you in ministry. And we’re excited to get you started on that journey today.

At the end of this lesson, you will receive a link to a workbook containing all the materials and exercises you will need for this course. Please download this workbook and work through each exercise as they are presented in their respective lesson.

We highly recommend that you don’t simply watch the videos, but that you take the time throughout to answer the questions in your workbook and work on the different communication items, tools, and plans along the way. If you do, you will get more out of the overall course.

Okay, let's get started!