The distinction between what to guard and what to give away became clear to me in a webinar about how to embed coaching into the ministries of a church. Because coaching is founded on the expertise and agency of the person being coached, church leaders may reasonably fear that the proverbial train could go off the tracks if there are no clear guardrails. So before we talk about giving people more freedom, ownership, and responsibility, it makes sense to start by being very clear about what must be protected.

The first distinction is the most obvious: there are things a church must guard.

We guard the authority of Scripture. We guard the authority entrusted to church leadership. We guard fidelity to the vision and mission of the church.

A coach approach does not require leaders to surrender any of those things.

In fact, one of the core emphases of coaching is creating enough safety for a person to explore an issue honestly and vulnerably. A good coach works hard to establish an environment where the person knows what the relationship is, what it is not, and what can be safely explored.

It seems wise to approach the church in the same way.

Before asking leaders to loosen their grip, we should make clear what will remain protected. Once we have established what is guarded, though, we can become much more generous about what can be given away.

The second distinction is what we want to give away: the ministry of the church.

Ephesians 4 gives us a compelling picture of church leadership. Leaders are called to equip the saints for the work of ministry. The implication is that the ministry does not belong primarily to the leaders. The people of the church are supposed to do the ministry.

That sounds obvious, but almost every church I know complains about the same problem: a very small percentage of the people do the majority of the work.

We recruit the same people. We depend on the same volunteers. We burn out the same leaders. And then we wonder why more people are not taking ownership.

A coach approach provides a different mindset.

If Scripture, leadership, and vision are firmly guarded, then we can give people much more room to discover how they might contribute from their own strengths, experience, gifts, and calling.

Instead of only asking, “How can I get someone to help carry out our plan?” we can begin asking, “What might God already be doing in this person, and how can we help them take ownership of it?”

That is a very different question.

Coaching does not simply help distribute work. At its best, it helps distribute ownership.

And once we understand the distinction between what to guard and what to give away at the level of ministry, we can apply the same distinction to coaching itself.

The third distinction is this: guard the role of the coach, but give away the tools of coaching.

There are parts of coaching I believe we should guard carefully.

• We should guard who we formally call a coach.
• We should pay attention to how coaching relationships are established.
• We should care about how coaches are trained.
• We should have a clear process for how people enter into a coaching relationship and what they can expect when they do.

If we are going to call something coaching, there should be integrity around that word.

But that does not mean we need to guard everything associated with coaching.

• We can give away the tools.
• We can give away powerful questions.
• We can give away intentional listening.
• We can give away curiosity.

We can teach leaders to resist the urge to immediately solve someone else’s problem. We can help them become more comfortable drawing insight, responsibility, and action out of the other person.

Not everyone needs to become a coach. Nor should everyone become a coach.

But every leader in the church would benefit from learning a coach approach.

That leads us to what I have begun thinking of as two lanes for embedding coaching into a church.

The first lane is a coaching ministry.

This is where formal coaching takes place. People are identified and trained as coaches. Coaching relationships are intentionally established. There are expectations, processes, and standards around the work.

This lane needs to be guarded.

The second lane is a coaching culture.

This happens when the skills and models of coaching begin to spread informally throughout the church. Pastors use coaching skills with staff. Ministry leaders use them with volunteers. Small-group leaders learn to ask better questions. People begin listening to one another with greater intentionality.

In this lane, people are not necessarily serving as coaches. They are learning a coach approach.

The distinction matters.

A church does not need everyone to become a coach. But imagine what might happen if its leaders became much better at listening, asking questions, creating ownership, and helping people discern their own next steps.

One lane gives people access to excellent coaching. The other begins to create a culture shaped by coaching.

A church could intentionally develop either lane. I suspect many churches would ultimately benefit from both.

This distinction, and much of its application, became clearer to me during a webinar CAM hosted with Adam Howard from River City Church in Lafayette, Indiana. Adam has been doing significant work around embedding coaching into the life and ministry of the church, and our conversation helped me see these two lanes more clearly.

You can watch that webinar here: [webinar link].

Over the coming weeks, I want to talk much more about what it looks like to embed coaching into a church using these two lanes.

And I want to do more than write about it.

We do not need to give everything away. And we do not need to guard everything either. The opportunity is to become much clearer about the difference—and then build ministries that reflect it.

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CAM is looking for ten churches that would like to intentionally walk through this process with us.

I am tentatively calling them CAM Churches, although I am not yet convinced that is the right name. What matters more than the name is the idea.

We are especially interested in churches that already have some coaching foundation in place. Maybe you have trained coaches. Maybe you have introduced a coach approach to leaders. Maybe coaching is already happening in one ministry, but you have never thought intentionally about how it could become more deeply embedded.

We are looking for churches that want to build a formal coaching ministry, develop a broader coaching culture, or work toward both. We want to help them think through what must be guarded, what can be given away, and what it would look like for coaching to become embedded rather than simply added as another program.

If your church might be one of those ten, reply to this email and tell me what coaching already looks like in your church and where you would like it to go.