Skip to main content

A Call for Denominations to Invest in Coaching


Something exciting is happening in our culture.  Churches and their leaders are being called upon to step up and provide hope and community in these challenging times.  This is a time for believers to engage.  In recent years, many religious leaders have seemed content to sit on the sidelines, wring their hands over the “decline of the church,” and avoid the charge of Jesus that “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40, NIV) Bold leadership--foot washing and witness--go hand in hand, but this only happens when leaders are empowered and supported.

 

In his new book,  Coaching as Spiritual Practice: Deepening Faith While Deepening Impact Edward Hammett suggests one strategy to provide that kind of support.   “I would like to propose that churches, denominations, judicatories, and districts begin to cooperate to employ a coach in residence to help grow leaders. In turn, these new leaders will transform churches. The retooling and customized leadership development a coach can facilitate will offer support for leaders and organizations during these challenging days of transition.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institute of Coaching determined to discern lessons learned during this crisis, especially the role that coaching played in this difficult time.  In Leading with Humanity:  The Future of Leadership and Coaching (Institute of Coaching paper), they identified six themes on the role, impact, and value of coaching during this crisis:

 

  1. Coaching provides a safe space to feel grounded and reflect.
  2. Coaching helps leaders navigate challenges and crises.
  3. Coaching expands leaders’ consciousness.
  4. Coaching helps leaders see their blind spots and biases.
  5. Coaching expands a leader’s capacity.
  6. Coaching enables transformation of thinking and behaving.

 

All of these are needed by clergy leaders who will lead the church to bring the Gospel to bear on the human need during these days.  If we want to make a difference right now, we need to support and encourage leaders who are engaged, innovative, and committed.  Coaching can assist in the formation of such leaders.

 

 

 

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Check these out

Confessions of a Recovering Southern Baptist

I am grateful for my heritage as a Southern Baptist.  I was exposed to the Bible and worship from a very young age.  I grew up in a church in south Alabama that supported the Cooperative Program of missions giving.  This meant that our church had the benefit of being part of a supportive group of local churches and the educational opportunities that afforded. Our state convention provided varied and effective ministries with groups like orphans, ethnic groups, and college students.  We supported missionaries at home and abroad.  We had good Bible study and training literature (which we paid for, of course).  I went to an accredited seminary and paid a remarkably low tuition.  Wherever you went on a Sunday morning (in the Southeast and Southwest, at least), you could find a church that sang the familiar hymns and studied the same Bible lesson. In hindsight, I realize that this Southern Baptist utopia was imperfect.  There were significant...
1 comment
Read more

Metaphors of the Kingdom of God

In a recent blog , consultant Seth Godin addresses the power of metaphor.   He points out, “The best way to learn a complex idea is to find it living inside something else you already understand.”   In other words, “this” is like “that.” “When you see a story, an example, a wonderment,” says Godin, “take a moment to look for the metaphor inside.”   Jesus turned this around.   In the use of parables, he told a story or provided a metaphor and challenged his hearers to see the truth within. For example, in his teaching on the Kingdom (or Reign) of God in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus compares the Kingdom to such things as a mustard seed, yeast, a hidden treasure, a net, a king, and a landowner.   His hearers are encouraged to use their imaginations to understand something that they had never experienced.   He also attempted to shift their perspective so that they might see signs of the Kingdom breaking into their present reality.  These are metapho...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bible Tells Me So

As I read the story of the Good Samaritan during my devotional today, I was reminded of the times that I have heard the story in the Christian education setting of the local church--as a youngster in primary and intermediate classes (old terminology), as a young adult in college classes, and then as an adult, often teaching the passage myself.     The characters and story line are very familiar due to these experiences of Christian education. These are challenging times for Christian education in the church.  Like so much of what is happening in the church today, the old forms do not seem to support present needs.  What once worked no longer seems to be effective.  Christian education or the formation of believers is in a state of flux. In an article on ethicsdaily.com , retired professor Colin Harris addresses this issue. He points out that the period of the 60’s and 70’s  “saw the beginnings of a loss of vitality within the educa...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tragedy of Willow Creek Community Church

File photo of Steve Carter, Heather Larson, and Bill Hybels As Christian brothers and sisters, we need to pray for Willow Creek Community Church.   On the eve of the Global Leadership Summit, a worldwide conference sponsored by the church in cooperation with the Willow Creek Association, church leadership imploded as a result of further allegations against former pastor Bill Hybels. Last year, Hybels introduced the team who would assume church leadership upon his retirement--lead pastor Heather Larson and teaching pastor Steve Carter.  Although the founding pastor planned to stay on to assist in a time of transition, reports of sexual impropriety involving Hybels surfaced early this year.  He accelerated his departure from the church and left the board of the Willow Creek Association. When other charges emerged last week, teaching pastor Carter resigned. On Wednesday evening, Larson and the entire elder board--lay leaders who provide accountability ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Future for the Global Leadership Summit?

Craig Groeschel, the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church. The Global Leadership Summit which began as a project of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels, over 25 years ago was held this week without Hybels. For several years, the GLS has been now produced by the Willow Creek Association, a spin-off organization and a loose network of churches but Hybels has been its driving force. Attended by thousands at the church facility in South Barrington and broadcast to thousands more at satellite locations, the annual meeting brings together not only evangelical leaders but outstanding speakers from business, charitable organizations, politics, and business.  For the first time, Hybels did not appear due to allegations of sexual impropriety brought against him over the past year by former employees, staff members, and business associates.  He has already left the church and resigned from the board of t...
Post a Comment
Read more