Articles
Coaching worked for us...
Sometimes meeting with a "coach" could sound a little like making a trip to the psychologist office. None of us enjoy admitting that we need help. And we certainly don't like hearing the suggestion from someone else. That's exactly our story.
We moved to Nashville to begin Green Hills Church. As a Southern Baptist Church receiving Tennessee Baptist Convention financial support, we were instructed to choose a coach and begin meeting regularly. We scheduled our first meeting and expected to jump through the necessary hoops in order to satisfy this requirement. Our expectations were low to say the least.
To our surprise coaching was far different than we had expected. Instead of showing up and operating on someone else's agenda, we were told that we would set the agenda. Although our coach had church planting experience, he told us that we were the experts. His job was not to tell us what to do or regulate our performance. Instead he came alongside us in order to help us think toward the future and work well together.
Coaching has enabled us to function more effectively as Co-Pastors and leaders because we have been able to think strategically toward the future. Unlike counseling coaching isn't focused on solving issues from the past. Coaching focuses more on how to plan for the future and be effective in moving toward success. Every coaching session we have attended has yielded valuable results that have enabled us to experience encouraging wins in the life of the church and positive steps for the Kingdom of God.
Some of the areas our coach has specifically helped us is thinking about what steps we need to take to reach our preferred future. As a church plant it is vital for us to get our people invested in serving the church and committed to inviting outsiders to join us. An example of how our coach helped us think though our challenge of getting our people excited about serving and inviting occurred last summer. We had been puzzling over what we needed to do to make a significant push in the fall of 2008.
After laying out our struggle and frustration to our coach he asked us if we had any ideas that were volunteer driven and had been suggested by some of our members. An idea that we had kicked around several months earlier was a hosting benefit concert. We hadn't done it earlier because we had been overwhelmed getting ready for our Sunday morning service launch. Because of our coach's prompting we decided on doing a concert benefiting kids in Bogota Colombia. We had 3 bands and hosted it in a local music club downtown Nashville. Our entire church rallied around it and we ended up having a large turn out with many new guests and contacts. We even were able to raise over 1000 dollars to give away to a community center in Bogota. The event was a rousing success.
Coaching has been a positive experience. In retrospect, having someone who is solidly behind you encouraging you and helping develop your ministry is valuable resource. I can honestly say that our church would not have the people who are coming and the stability we enjoy today without our coach.
Brad and Mike Church Planters
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Coaching was the Answer
By Lisa Huddleston
Sometimes the most exciting journeys are those that begin without a clear destination in mind. The Sunday afternoon drive on a crisp fall day. The wrong turn that takes you on the longer but more scenic route. Or the journey that begins with the inevitable change that accompanies a new season of life. Such was my situation as my children grew and one by one began heading off to college. For many years, my life had revolved around them and the call I had received to home school. I had been happily busy with teaching and had felt a lot of satisfaction in my work. This time had always seemed so far in the future that I had not given much thought to what I would do when I finally worked myself out of my job. But as my first and then second child moved to college and I was left with only one child at home, I felt a growing restlessness in my heart and more than a little despair at seeing my "life's work" drawing to an end. Surely that couldn't be it. I felt as though I stood at a crossroads without a map, and all I could think to do was ask, "Now what, God?"
Thankfully that was the perfect question. You see, just as He promises, God heard my cry and answered with a response that has sent me on a surprising journey full of new discoveries. His timing is always perfect and on my oldest child's senior recognition day at our church, God sent a friend to help me find my way. On that day, a new interim pastor arrived and preached a sermon on receiving a fresh touch from God. Yes! That was just what I needed to hear, and as his tenure as our interim progressed, the pastor shared more with our congregation about his own journey and his passion for a process called coaching. I was not very familiar with the term at that time, but I have come to learn that coaching is a process that encourages self discovery, accountability, and forward movement through a relationship that is safe, non-judgmental, and extremely supportive.
Even though our pastor had offered his services as a coach to our entire congregation and I had asked God for the help, it took me some time to work up enough courage to enter into coaching. It was about six months after my oldest son moved to college that I had my first coaching session, and within a few short weeks, I began to get a glimpse of the new things to which God might be leading me. I am not sure, but I think it was within the first month of coaching that I rediscovered my desire to write and felt as though a dam had burst. I almost couldn't stop writing as so many thoughts were struggling to come out. I had been an English major and done writing and editorial work before the births of my children, but my interest in writing had been put on the back burner for many years. This rediscovery has led me to many new opportunities as I continue to seek the Lord's direction and to serve Him. He has given me space to write devotionals for two websites, and I have been able to work on several other interesting writing projects. I can see a little further down the road now and feel encouraged that God still has work for me to do. And it is good!
Would I have made these discoveries without a coach to help me along? Perhaps. But I doubt that I would have made so much progress so quickly. Having a coach has helped me to learn more about my gifts and abilities, to see my situation from a new perspective, and to accept that God has great things waiting for me to do. Coaching has been an awesome motivator when I have felt like giving in to despair, and it has held me accountable to keep seeking after the good work that God has prepared for me to do. My coaching experience is not finished yet, but I thank God for hearing my cry and sending someone to lift me up when I was down. "Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts" (Ecclesiastes 4:9). Such has been my experience with coaching.
Lisa is a freelance writer/editor and coach living in the Lebanon Tn area |
