I first read about life coaching in 2005. At the time I was assistant pastor of a York church, and my thought was "It sounds new agey and it'll never be accepted in church circles." So when in February 2006, an article titled "Coaching for life - Putting a secular idea to spiritual use" appeared in Direction Magazine, the monthly magazine of the Elim Pentecostal Church, it grabbed my attention.
The author, Karen Green together with husband Dave are pastors of the Elim church in Halifax, not far from York. I gave them a call, took a drive to Halifax and spent a morning hearing about how they were using coaching techniques as a means of helping people in their church grow in confidence and become doers - disciples. Karen recommended a book, Christian Coaching by Gary R Collins, and a correspondence course taught by a college in Newcastle. My scepticism behind me, I began to study and apply what I learned, and was thrilled to discover how simple techniques of listening, questioning, feedback, etc, could help a person achieve clarity about their values, goals and the path needed to get from where they are to where they want to be.
A few extracts from the article:
The introduction states: "Many have heard of 'Life Coaching' and may be suspicious of this latest trend in personal development. But Christians hold the secret of 'life to the full' - so shouldn't we be doing the coaching?
"Karen writes, "Make disciples, make disciples..." - that was all we could hear God saying to us. "We get the message, God, but how?" ... Then I began to hear about life coaching. It's a tool to help people move forward in their lives through asking the right questions, clarifying their values, setting goals, identifying plans of action, and establishing accountability. ... The tools in life coaching help us in discipleship in that they work by helping the individual make his or own decisions, not by imposing our ideas on them. ... 'What do you want?' was a common opening line Jesus would use. It is invariably the opening line in life coaching.
From my recent reading on Christian leadership, I've concluded that Jesus' leadership training was so broad that it encompassed much of what is taught today as "coaching," "mentoring," and "leadership development." As one of my lecturers would say: "good research only reveals what God already knew."
