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Why develop coaches?

How can you really make a sustainable difference in critical areas like leadership development, church health, and church multiplication? Coaching can function effectively as the core discipline for engaging high quality growth in those areas. It provides the infrastructure and momentum for seeing biblical mission carried out, for seeing new leaders developed from within an organization, for seeing churches grow in health and effectiveness, for seeing new churches taking root all over. Imagine the strength of having coaches available at every level of the denomination so everyone is getting the help, connection, and resourcing they need - the new church planters, the denominational leaders, the local church pastors... even the small group leaders and the new converts. Imagine the potential for growth.

What makes coaching so powerful?

People are at least twice as fruitful when in coaching relationships. Good coaching empowers people to discern God's will and take the appropriate next steps for their personal and ministry development. Consider some of the benefits and functions of coaching:

• Provides encouragement for the journey
• Cultivates wisdom and strategic insights
• Discovers breakthrough opportunities
• Maintains focus on the truly important
• Transforms vision into reality

Coaching is the core discipline for effective resourcing. Quality coaching is central to everything else you deliver - it creates a pipeline of new leaders who will contribute in varying ways to the overall mission of the church. Consider some of the potential applications:

• Discipleship of new Christians
• Personal and ministry development of emerging leaders
• Pastoral and leader development
• Follow-up after seminars or training events
• Cultivating church health (e.g. NCD)
• Starting and multiplying new churches

And coaching is flexible enough to be helpful in a variety of ways, depending on the needs of the people involved. Here are a few different ways to structure coaching:

• Personal (one-on-one)
• Triads (peers)
• Clusters (networks)

Coaching is central to how we resource people for biblical mission. Along the journey, you're helping people committed to some aspect of biblical mission. Coaching is a way to walk alongside them on that path and help them stay on track.

What does coaching accomplish?

Quality coaching is about much more than individual skills - it's about orchestrating those skills together to accomplish a process. The coaching process can be summed up in the 5 Rs:

• Relate: establish coaching relationship and agenda
• Reflect: discover and explore key issues
• Refocus: determine priorities and action steps
• Resource: provide support and encouragement
• Review: evaluate, celebrate, and revise plans

By taking someone through this coaching process, a coach can help that person accomplish his or her goals. Skills are needed to achieve that process, but must be used with this bigger picture in mind to achieve the desired ends.