Blog Post: Unique Situations Are PERFECT for Coaching

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Your situation is unique.  Absolutely nobody has the exact same situation.  But plenty of people have advice for your situation.  They would like you to do “this” or “that”.

But it is never that obvious how you are to make “this” work in your situation.  This has been my experience as a pastor of a church.  I read a book or go to a conference.  I want my church to be as successful as the church I read about or the speaker I heard.

But how do I implement what the author wrote into my unique situation?

A couple of years ago I went to a big church planting conference called Exponential and went to a workshop on leadership development, taught by a successful pastor that had transformed a church in the Chicago area.  I was ready to learn.

He shared exactly how he develops leaders, and immediately I thought, “How is this going to work in my situation?”  During question and answer time, I asked,

“How big was your church when you first implemented this leadership development system?”

He answered,

“We were averaging 800 in worship when I started developing leaders with this program.”

It was a good system for developing leaders in a church averaging 800.  But very few churches average 800 or more.  Very few.  My church doesn’t.

I would rather have learned how he developed leaders when they were small.  This would have had much greater application for most of the pastors in that room.

I walked away very discouraged.  Maybe I couldn’t start a leadership development process at my church unless we were 10 times bigger than today.  But I doubted I could get could our church to grow 10 times bigger unless we had a good leadership development process in place.

To beat discouragement, you should ask the question:

“What is the unique next thing that needs to happen at our church?”  Or in our organization?  Or in my life?  Or in my family?”

Conferences are great.  Books are wonderful.  Consultants can be helpful.  But they are really a complete waste of time if you can’t figure out how to translate their teaching into your unique situation.

Coaching can help you understand how to make changes in your unique situation.

It may sound strange at first, but in coaching, you are the expert.  The coach is there to help you think through your situation.  Because nobody knows your situation as well as you do.

  • You know what will work.
  • You know when it will work.
  • You know who needs to be involved.

A coach helps you think it all through and put your plan together.

What makes your situation unique?  What are the issues that must be considered in your particular situation?

  • My church is in a town that is quickly becoming post-industrial.
  • Our town is king of the small towns.  (It is the biggest city in a 50 mile radius and yet isn’t very big — 20,000 people).  This makes it very unique!
  • Our church has a majority of single people and a majority of introverts.

So how can coaching help your church?

  • A good coach can help you and your leadership think through what is uniquely next for your church.
  • Coach training can help you and your leaders begin to ask the right questions to help your church move ahead.
  • A coaching culture in your church will create an environment where everyone is asking the right questions and forward movement becomes standard.

My hope for this blog is to address issues that help you think more deeply, set clear goals, overcome obstacles, and move ahead in your life and ministry.  As your situation is uniquely yours, help me to understand how I can help you.

I’ll ask questions at the end of every post.  This is a great place to begin.  Please engage in the comments.

What makes your situation unique?

What are the issues that must be considered in your particular situation?

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