So I'm a Coach?

People keep wondering what it means for me to say that I'm a coach, or that I am coaching someone, so it's time to clear this one up. Coaching is a field that I barely knew about before I enrolled in the training I got. What little I did know made me realize that it was likely in my future, and that future came in a most providential way. I was working for the Community of Dreams Alliance to create a planning matrix for churches across the US interested in reaching their communities in cutting-edge ways. Our strategy included the need to form what we called "Coaching Communities." Since I was going to have to sell this to churches, I figured I better learn more. The ministry we were partnering with to provide coach training for our partners was unlike any I had seen. Their vision was (is) tremendous and lined up with everything we stood for. It also seemed a great opportunity to move in that direction as well. I signed on to take a full year of training from Transformational Leadership Coaching, now renamed Lifeforming Leadership Coaching, which I completed in 2006.

The impact was indeed transformational. Among the results of that year were:

• a new understanding of my own life purpose
• new insights into what I was not called to
  
• a whole new vocabulary of change
• a new set of skills to add to my counseling practice for helping individuals grow
• a new appreciation for mutual accountability and submission in the Body of Christ
• a practical and tangible product: the creation of an in depth study for husbands.

What exactly is coaching? I have a page devoted to this question on my web site, where you can also read a couple of testimonies from clients. I actually am available to coach by phone anyone anywhere, as coaching is traditionally done most often over the phone.

The bottom line for me was a realization that investing in people, particularly leaders, with a heart to grow and think outside the box is where my gifts are. My passion is to find and invest in these kinds of leaders on a citywide and multi-disciplinary approach so that they, in turn, lead a movement to help "the whole Church take the whole Gospel to the whole city."