Christ-Centered Coaching

7 Benefits for Ministry Leaders

Jane Creswell

• Editorial: Chalice Press
• Año: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780827205147
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Christian Ministry

Creswell draws from her extensive corporate and ministry coaching experience to provide ministers and other church leaders a clear definition of what coaching is and the seven basic benefits an individual, church, or group can receive through a qualified coach. Solidly based in experience, each chapter is built upon an actual scenario growing out of Creswell's own coaching experience. Along with the illustration, she provides scriptural teaching, gives explicit information on the purpose and merits of coaching, additional resources, and tips for coaching.

CHAPTER 1


Why Christ-Centered Coaching?

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

MARK 12:28–31

Love the Lord your God with all your strength. Wow, what a daunting task! A little thought about it may at first evoke more questions than answers. What exactly does it mean? How do you love the Lord with strength?

Surely strength as it’s used here doesn’t mean muscle. If so, many of us are in big trouble! With our limited physical ability and endurance, most of us wouldn’t have much love to give if loving with all our strength meant muscle.

But if the meaning of strength is expanded to include all the gifts, talents, skills, personality traits, cognitive preferences—all the characteristics that contribute to making each individual a unique being created in God’s image—then that’s a concept each of us can embrace. Yet even that expanded definition of strength continues to lead to questions.

How can you know what your strengths are—all those gifts, talents, skills, personality traits, cognitive preferences—all those bits that are uniquely you? That process could take a lifetime to explore and discover. You can take an endless variety of assessment tests to gain some awareness and understanding of all those characteristics, but then what would you do with all that information?

What if you change over time? How would that affect loving God with all your strength? Would your love for him change, too?

And what about that word all? That would mean you couldn’t love God with all your strength if any part of you—your gifts, talents, skills, personality traits, cognitive preferences—didn’t unite in loving God. That would mean that you have no gift; no talent; no part of personality; no left-, right-, front-, or back-brain activity that isn’t dedicated to loving the Lord.

Sounds overwhelming, doesn’t it? But Jesus didn’t offer the Great Commandment as an option. It’s not a choice. It’s a command.

You as a ministry leader probably know well the overwhelming feeling of working out of all your strength—loving God and loving others. The pressures in the church today are tremendous. At least, that’s what current statistics and ministry leaders themselves are saying. Let’s take a look at the current state of the local church in the world today.

What’s the Problem?

In the United States today church membership is declining in most denominations. Individual attendance is declining, as well as the number of hours individuals are willing to give to the church each week. Many ministers conduct a lot more funerals than baptisms and weddings in their churches. When worship leaders look out across their congregations on Sunday morning, many see a lot more wrinkles and gray hair than squirming youngsters and whispering teenagers.

That congregational mix and their dedicated time and money mean fewer lay leaders to carry the load. Many of the faithful are getting too old to teach active children or identify with teenagers and young adults. As the leaders of the past are dying off, fewer adults in succeeding generations are stepping up to take their place.¹

Among the younger adults who do attend, fewer are willing to commit to the demands of the jobs they are asked to do. Teaching Sunday school means not only hours of weekly preparation but also a commitment to attend every Sunday. Serving on committees or teams often means long hours of meetings and little real ministry. Program organizations of the past just don’t inspire young adults to commit to such leadership positions. Every year it’s harder for churches to fill the jobs template with adults who will say yes.

And then we face the challenge of those outside the church. If people inside the church struggle with the church’s value and relevancy in their own lives, for many outside the church it’s not even an issue.² In fact, many people today are turned off by Christianity! They find it—or at least their image of it strongly influenced by the media—arrogant, judgmental, and archaic.³ Yet Jesus, in addition to the Great Commandment, left the church with the Great Commission—go, teach, baptize (Matthew 28:18–20). That means telling the unchurched about their need for a Savior in ways that they can hear it and actually attract them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Many church leaders find themselves exhausted with their seemingly futile attempts to rally the flock, frustrated by the demands of aging buildings and bodies, desperate to meet a budget, and overstressed by congregational and community demands. In the face of all this, many ministers are deciding to seek easier ways to earn a living.⁴ They especially choose an alternate path if it means more time with family and less stress over seemingly impossible tasks and a lack of answers to impossible challenges.⁵

Why Are So Many Churches and So Many Ministers Facing These Challenges Today?

The mix of causes is probably unique in every situation. The many reasons given for the state of the church and ministry today include:

Postmodernism–The postmodern environment has changed our culture.⁶ People with this mind-set question everything. They are not automatically ready to consider the Bible to have absolute truth, for they think much of truth is relative. They demand interactivity, and that includes learning, worship, and ministry activities.⁷ Giving money so someone else can go to Africa makes no sense to them. Sitting in a meeting when they could be painting a widow’s house seems pointless. Will the church have to write off people of a postmodern mind-set? The church has endured two thousand years of cultural changes that were as challenging as this one, yet it has persisted and grown. No, I don’t believe that postmodernism alone can be the cause for the state of the church today. While it may contribute to the downfall of some churches, many will survive the transition as they shift some of their approaches to worship, ministry, missions, and Christian education. Those who make the transition well will thrive in this changing era.

Lack of leadership–The church not only faces a postmodern era but also one that has lost its zeal for denominationalism or even Bible knowledge.⁸ The average adult in the pew has limited understanding of the polity of the church or its denomination and probably little interest. Few systems for teaching the Bible are actually geared toward the ways in which adults learn effectively. These deficits lead to struggles, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings when discussions arise about membership and leadership expectations and requirements. As a result, those who are willing to lead are often unqualified and untrained.

Lack of leadership has often put even more responsibility, time demands, and frustration on ministers. Add to that the idea many laypeople have that ministers were hired to do the work of the church, and they, the members, should not be expected to take on such demands on their time, energy, or finances.⁹

Ultimately, the demand on ministers is to cast a vision that will inspire members to follow, committing their resources to join in reaching the goals to make the vision a reality.¹⁰ Then those who respond to the vision must be taught, equipped, trained, motivated, and encouraged. Somewhere along the line, this breaks down in many churches and adds to the pressure on many pastors and staff ministers.

Untapped potential–Perhaps the adults in your church aren’t just lazy or undisciplined, lacking commitment. Perhaps many are loving with something less than all their strength—living in the “not-all” state; they haven’t yet determined to love God with all their strength. They may not know how. They may not know how their gifts, talents, and skills can be used in ministry. They may hear the sermon on Sunday but have a total disconnect on their role in the Kingdom—on Sunday, Monday, or any other day. They may dwell on the edge of the Kingdom but have no idea how they could make a contribution to it.

What will it take for laypeople to get a vision of their role as Christ’s followers in terms of ministry both inside and outside the church? What more would it demand from ministers today? Aren’t most ministers in the “all” state, giving everything they’ve got in service and love for God and his people? Maybe, maybe not. Untapped potential abounds in laypeople and ministry leaders alike.

Unrealistic expectations–While laypeople often aren’t living up to the expectations of ministers, clearly ministers get feedback that they are often not living up to the expectations of their church members.¹¹ When you felt called to ministry, did you ever dream that you would be dealing with some of the tasks and situations—even nightmares—that you’re dealing with today? That’s one of the reasons some ministers have had enough and are leaving the church. Their calling just didn’t include the things that consume their time.

Many ministers are caught in an endless morass of administrative chores, “fire-fighting,” maintaining programs that seem to have lost their energy if not their purpose, and responding to unhappy and needy members. By Sunday they confess that they are just going through the motions. They find themselves in the “not-all” category during worship—the part of their call they value most. Rather than compromise worship and their high calling, many abandon ship.¹² And many who remain in ministry confess feeling more frustration and less joy in ministry than ever before.

Unworthy goals–Has your church ever spent more time and energy than it should on any of these issues: the color of the walls or the carpet, whether to rent or purchase a photocopier, the wording that goes on the church sign, or whether to sponsor a student ski trip? Even more important issues can bog the church down in endless discussion: which curriculum to use, where youth will go on a mission trip, whether to share space with an ethnic or foreign-language congregation, or how to respond to current denominational controversies. Sometimes the harsh words and hurt feelings last a lifetime and seem to negate the ministry goals that began the discussion.¹³

What If?

What if many of these negatives could be turned around?

What if laypeople were to move from the “not-all” to the “all” state? What if their untapped potential could be harnessed and used in Kingdom ministry? What if they became motivated, enthusiastic, totally committed?

What if the church could unite in using its limited resources together in meaningful, focused ways? What if church members began to see results, to get excited about what the church was doing and accomplishing? What if what they experienced in church just kept getting better and better, totally living up to their expectations and engaging them in fulfilling ministry?

What if the structure, the programs, the ministries of the church were organized in a way to maximize the gifts, talents, skills, personalities—the strengths–of both ministers and laypeople so that all were united in a common God-given vision?

What if the Great Commission and the Great Commandment became the driving forces for both ministers and lay leaders so that secular people were being attracted to Christ and all members were growing as disciples, united in love for God, for one another, and for those outside the church?

What if this change occurred not only in your church but in churches throughout your community, your city, your state, the nation? What then could be accomplished for the Kingdom?

What if your church could change? What if your ministry was more often than not one of joy and fulfillment? What if you had dedicated, motivated, equipped leaders lined up waiting for Kingdom assignments?

What if all of this could happen where you are right now?

How Will This Book Help?

Right now, for most ministers and most churches, a large gap separates the reality and the “what-if” columns. While most ministers would like to rewrite those ledger sheets, they probably think it’s impossible. If you are experiencing any of these frustrations, you’re probably thinking:

Yes, but my situation is different. You have no idea what I’ve been through, what I’m going through. You can’t imagine what some of my members are like, what they have done, what they have said to me, how uncommitted, ill-equipped, unmotivated, and helpless they are. You just don’t know how difficult, how impossible, this situation is. I can’t possibly turn it around. There’s no way it can improve. I see no way out but to move or leave the ministry.

Unfortunately, such thoughts, while honest, do little to h...

Índice

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Editor’s Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 - Why Christ-Centered Coaching?
• Chapter 2 - Christ-Centered Coaching: What It Is and What It’s Not
• Chapter 3 - The Benefits of: Christ-Centered Coaching
• Chapter 4 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Leverages Your Strengths
• Chapter 5 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Provides Clarity and Focus
• Chapter 6 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Instills Confidence
• Chapter 7 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Catapults Learning
• Chapter 8 - Christ-Centered Coaching Fosters Intentional Progress
• Chapter 9 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Rubs Off on Others
• Chapter 10 - Christ-Centered Coaching: Encourages God-Sized Goals
• Prayers of a Christ-Centered Coach
• Appendix 1 - The ICF Philosophy of Coaching
• Appendix 2 - How to Find a Christ-Centered Coach
• Notes