COACHING SOUP:  The S.E.A. Factor, or How Support, Encouragement, and Accountability can Help You Be a Better Pastor

This week the Coaching Soup includes the letters S, E, and A; three little letters that can help you succeed as a pastor.  That's because most pastors need more Support than they are getting; more Encouragement than their congregation provides, and more Accountability than that which normally feels safe.  But all of this can be provided by a personal ministry coach.

S - A Ministry Coach provides Support.

What do we mean by 'Support'.  Support means giving you access to the resources, ideas, feedback, and help to succeed.  Most pastors have great ideas, but the pressures of ministry tend to squeeze out the focus and time needed to succeed.  That is where a coach comes in.  A coach provides focus, ideas, and feedback.

For example, maybe the pastor wants to improve the small group ministry.  He needs to find a volunteer who can coordinate it.  He has some idea of what he would like to see, but it is a little fuzzy.  He's not exactly sure what he wants to ask this volunteer to do except to 'help coordinate small groups in the church'. So with a phone session to the Ministry Coach, the pastor gets some support on his ideas and plans.  Through focused questions, the coach can begin to help the pastor frame the mission:  "What is the definition of success?  What would a successful small group ministry look like?  How many small groups would you like to see developed this year?  What will be the focus of the groups; will they be topical, Biblical, relational, or what?"

These are not hard questions, but simply discussing them with someone else helps to clarify the goals.  Through regular contact and phone sessions, a Ministry Coach can be invested as the silent partner in your ministry success.

E - A Ministry Coach provides Encouragement

Discouragement plagues everyone.  It is my understanding that Charles Haddon Spurgeon went through deep periods of "blackness", even as a pastor of the London Tabernacle, one of the largest churches of his day.  The Lord provides comfort and strength in the pages of Scripture, and through daily prayer.  But He also provides encouragement through the voice of other people.

A Ministry Coach believes the very best about his clients, because s/he has heard the dreams and prayed the prayers with them for God's blessing on the ministry.  Proverbs says that an aptly spoken word is like apples of gold in settings of silver.  When the truth is spoken in such a way, it can give the strength needed to keep on serving.

A - A Ministry Coach Provides Accountability

I started this blog by stating that a Ministry Coach can provide more Accountability "than that which normally feels safe".  Who would want that?  Any pastor that really wants to make a difference for Jesus in the world.  The beautiful thing about hiring a Ministry Coach is that the coach works for you.  S/he is your employee.

When I hired my first Ministry Coach, I experienced a really unique dynamic.  I would set my goals, and then my Ministry Coach would hold me Accountable to meet them.  He would remind me of my goals, and if I did not achieve them, he would help me to examine the causes for the delay. As the day for my next coaching session would approach, I would find myself feverishly working to complete the goals I had committed to finish.  Because I didn't want to say that I had missed the goal when my Ministry Coach asked.  But the crazy thing was that the Ministry Coach was my employee, and I was working like crazy to meet the goals I had set!  Even though he was working for me, I found myself working hard to satisfy his accountability questions!  And that is the power of coaching.  Many pastors would normally never feel that comfortable putting their ministry on the line like that before someone else; but they could do it for a Ministry Coach, because the Coach is working for your interests as he holds you accountable to achieve your goals.  It was a really interesting dynamic that ended up making me a better pastor.

And so it goes with "The SEA Factor"; how Support, Encouragement, and Accountability through coaching can help you be a better pastor.

Yours for the Kingdom of Heaven,

Dr. Bill