Programs come and go in the church all the time, and if you’re as passionate about training lay coaches as I am, you will want your first training to have a good reputation and a life-changing impact for the long-haul. The best way to do that may be to carefully think through how to recruit your first class of potential coaches. I recently had a good experience recruiting and training lay discipleship coaches in my own church, so here’s a first-hand summary of what seemed to work:
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…a recent Barna study suggests 61% of pastors have difficulty in developing meaningful relationships. In other words, pastors many times do not seek relationships for their own leadership development. Dr. Louis McBurney, a leading pastoral counselor suggests it is taught as a “best practice” in seminary; avoid intimate relationships…A personal coach can be the missing link for pastors to truly transform their ministry.
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During the first round of our church staff coach training, he spent most of the time on his new Blackberry. A year later, during the second round of training, he informed me he was leaving early…Hence, we had a problem, since he was not fully engaged in the staff-wide coaching training which our senior staff had agreed upon…When the dust cleared, the following insight became obvious about the role of the lead pastor when attempting to inject a coaching methodology into the DNA of paid and unpaid staff:
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When we do coach training for a local church, we’re hoping for two separate results: transformation for those who will eventually be coached and transformation for the coach him or herself. The latter is often a surprise for the trainees because that’s not why they signed up – they wanted to help others but didn’t give much thought to what God might be up to in their own lives.
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How important is it to get your Pastor’s blessing up front if you hope to start a coaching ministry in your church? It’s IMPERATIVE!! It is not wise to try to introduce something as life-changing and paradigm-busting as coaching to a congregation without the Senior Pastor’s agreement. But “selling” coaching to your pastor is not a job for the faint-of-heart. It can be a very challenging business.
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Brian Rhen, pastor at Peninsula Covenant Church near San Franciso, is patiently working with his church to become a coaching culture by adding coaching to the overall people development process – that is, training both staff and volunteers in coaching skills and then encouraging them and holding them accountable in the practice of these new skills.
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It all started when Robert Brown, an insurance agent in Ponte Vedra, Florida, had a brief experience with a Christian Life Coach as a part of a stewardship program in which his church was participating. …
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Churches who have counseling ministries are more open to coaching. Certified coaches can partner with churches who offer counseling through referral relationships, workshops for counseling clients, or even by joining the staff of a church counseling center.
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Eddie Hammett, Senior Coach and Consultant for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina talks about the benefits of churches having a Congregational Coach in Residence and the options churches might consider for working with a certified coach.
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We now have good research that says that church programming alone does not consistently produce mature disciples. What McNeal is clearly saying is that life coaching offers us a better alternative for discipleship.
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A church leadership expert talks about coaching and discipleship – Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future, on why coaching should be the spiritual growth methodology of choice instead of just giving folks more head knowledge
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Will the local church accept the coach approach to leading and disciple-making? Friends have heard me rant for several years about “Why aren’t Christian coaches using their coaching skills in their own local churches…
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This study “suggests that the church provides minimal support for those who are most devoted to Christ. Since these people are the best equipped and most motivated advocates for Christ, providing them with … coaching and encouragement could reap great gains for the kingdom.”
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