For my first blog post in the new year I want to share some of what I’ve been thinking about the CAM Coaching Community and how it has served me –and many other coaches – so well this past year. This month we are celebrating the first anniversary of the start of the community and I hope I can give you just a few of the highlights for me personally from being part of this coaching community.
The whole idea was born out of our (Chad, Brian, and myself) own experiences in coaching, training, and mentoring others in what could sometimes feel like a wilderness. Like many of you, we have found that coaching and ministry are quite a powerful combination. We’ve bought in to the mindsets and the broad applications for coaching within the Christian ministry context, and we love having a front row seat to watch what many of you are doing to bring these two concepts together.
To be honest with you, for many years it could be tough. As you probably know, there weren’t many organizations and resources out there for those who work in and around Christian ministry who wanted to bring a coach approach to the ways they worked. In many ways it seemed we were making it up as we went and, like Thomas Edison, we discovered many ways not to use coaching in ministry.
But we did discover a lot of things that do work. And we’ve watched many of you discover a whole lot more! And THAT has been the most exciting and fulfilling aspect of the CAM Coaching Community.
The first members of the community came together in January of 2016. It was our intention to bring some helpful resources, to provide opportunities for getting together, and to provide access to the CAM leadership and other mentors to help our community members grow in their competency, confidence, and connectedness.
What we got was SO MUCH MORE!
The CAM Coaching Community has given us – and many of you – a much larger sense that we are not in the wilderness anymore. We’ve found so much by connecting with the community in the way of ideas, motivation, accountability, trust, and confidence.
In April of 2016, the CAM leaders gathered with a dozen of our community members for four days of intensive, intimate, inspiring work and fun. We learned about the ways each of these community members were dreaming about how they could bring coaching to their context….and we watched as the group came together and helped turn those dreams into some concrete actions that have already jump-started several of them in bringing those dreams to life.
Every month, we have gotten together with community members for a Learning Lab where we kick around wins and challenges, and then take a deep dive into one of the ICF Core Competencies to look for more ways to understand and improve our skills. Along with the competency-building, we have watched relationships forming during those monthly conference calls that have borne fruit in developing new ideas for using coaching in specific ways.
Every week we share some of our latest thinking on the community’s blog. Brian, Chad, and I have tried to introduce some new ideas, expand on some old ones, and kick-start some conversations about coaching between our community members.
Each month we’ve offered a new challenge that has prompted discussion and action for the community, and then we’ve watched the conversations take off in our private Facebook group. Nothing gets us more pumped than for our phones or computers to notify us that one of you has posted a new comment to the Facebook group!
Can you tell I’m excited about our first year??
These are some of the results we’ve experienced from being a part of a coaching community. We’ve gotten some great ideas and inspiration…some feedback and pushback…some accountability and some camaraderie.
But most of all, we’ve gotten a sense that we’re not all alone. We’ve been reminded that there are others out there who see the world and the church and the opportunities for coaching in many of the same ways we do. The crazy and impossible ideas and dreams we have don’t seem so crazy and impossible when a community has our back. When we can share those dreams with others and get encouragement and feedback, we gain so much more confidence that we can actually accomplish them.
And so that is my hope and challenge for you in this new year. Join a coaching community. Get connected to like-minded folks who share your passion for coaching in the Christian context. Find a community that needs your encouragement and feedback, and whose input and friendship can help you on your journey.
This time next year, as you look back on 2017, you’ll be glad you did.
