Barnabas File

In some recent coach training events, the participants have pushed me on the difference between coaching and consulting. Are the lines of demarcation as hard as I seem to make them?   In Disciple Development Coaching , Mark Tidsworth and I define the foci of these two people development practices in this way: Consulting deals with “problem solving, action plans, specific problems.” Coaching is “developing people through learning by doing, partnering between self-discovery and sustainable action.” Consultants are generally seen as persons with expertise in a particular area of content whereas coaches are process experts who work in many different contexts.  A coach does not have to know about education to coach an educator or be an expert in the law to coach a lawyer. Coaches are hired to promote clarity rather than inform their clients.  Consultants are generally seen as resource people and teachers. Even with these definitions, I ...

Some church leaders disagree with the idea that we now live in a post-denominational world.   If they are arguing that issues of doctrine and polity are still important to many Christians, I can understand their position a bit.   There are still congregations that are clearly part of “faith tribes”—Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc.—that cling to a specific commitment to one another as part of a denomination of Christians. On the other hand, I have to disagree if they are asserting that those denominational ties fulfill all of the same purposes they once did or provide the same benefits as in the past. Denominational judicatories don’t provide the services they did in the 20 th century; in fact, every denomination has cut personnel and field services in the past two decades.  Judicatories still attempt to provide support for local congregations but the breadth and quantity of those services have declined. One reason for this ch...