Missional Community: Reports From the Front Lines – Part Two
This is the second of a two-part October series. October is Pastor Appreciation Month, so it seems fitting to celebrate all of the quality ministers who make up this coaching community and make it what it is: the mutual investment ministry that is Journey Pastoral Coaching.
Journey Pastoral Coaching is a missional community. We are not a community whose members live and work together in the same locale. But we are a community and we work together in a shared mission, helping each other build strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry. We are missional community doing life and ministry together.
Every month at Journey, we ask our members to complete an “Insight Question.” This is an opportunity for Journey members to coach the coach, helping me understand their lives and ministries, the church and culture. These “IQs” are invaluable to me as a pastoral coach, helping me to serve our members effectively.
Recently, a Journey member requested permission to post an IQ. This was a first in our seven-year history. Normally, I do not allow this, but given this pastor’s subject, I couldn’t say no.
As requested by our members, their responses are included below without editing.
Here’s the question a Journey member asked our coaching community:
“Share a testimony or story of how the Journey community has helped you build strong for a lifetime of healthy and effective ministry.”
1. Journey has provided me with a community of women that has strengthened me spiritually. One of the ways in which I get true rest is through spiritual friendships and through the journey retreats I have been able to find more of that. We connect as much as we can and, no matter what we talk about, I always walk away from the connections feeling refreshed. I can laugh, cry and share my heart with them and I have seen the difference it has made in my spiritual life, especially this year.
2. Over the last several months, I’ve had several phone calls with a fellow Journey member who continues to express genuine concern about my personal discipleship. He asks me pointed, intentional questions about how I’m growing in my relationship with Christ and finding freedom in areas of my life where I am vulnerable to temptation. That’s not just pastoral COACHING—that’s pastoral CARE. And it is priceless!
3. Journey community has helped me to overcome isolation in ministry. The life of the minister can be very lonely and isolating at times. Between the bi-weekly coaching calls, monthly peer-to-peer phone calls, and our private social platforms I feel supported and connected to network Godly men and women who are striving to serve God just like I am. This connection is such an invaluable resource for me that I have found empowerment to push forward with vision and been given perseverance to weather the difficult season.
4. Journey Pastoral Coaching has a yearly retreat that ministers to pastors through friendship, time together with Jesus, close knit community, and fun. This facet of Journey alone does an immense service to the health of any Journey member who attends. It is just an incredible time. Out the last retreat I attended, all the guys created a messaging group on an app called Marco Polo. This group has been a lifeline for everyone in it. It has carried the close community that was started at the retreat into everyday life. I am so thankful that Journey creates opportunities to grow in spiritual health, not just within the single coaching relationship each of us has with Pastor Baker, but amongst each other!
5. In one of my early Emmaus calls with a fellow Journey member I discovered we both had very difficult immediate family backgrounds. While our experiences weren’t exactly the same we were both in the process of wrestling with boundaries and how to manage relationships within our families. I found it very beneficial to talk with a fellow minister who was dealing with the same struggle as I was. I was able to glean wisdom and insight from this person on how they were moving forward. I was also able to encourage them on our mutual goals. While I still don’t have all the answers on these tumultuous relationships I do have someone who will listen, understand, encourage, and celebrate with me through the ups and downs. Our shared Journey has been a huge blessing for me.
6. One of the most life-changing weeks of my life was the Journey retreat. I was slightly nervous to attend, not knowing exactly what to expect. What I found was a community of loving, compassionate, caring people. They accepted me, listened, prayed and cried along with me as I processed some of the hardest years I’ve ever lived. The retreat not only provided a safe place to process, but it was FUN. We sat around tables, sharing stories, asking questions, laughing and bonding with one another. We became FRIENDS that week. I still talk to the friends I made on the retreat often. The community we built there, has spilled into our everyday lives. That week was a precious time that marked my life. If you can get to a Journey retreat, it will be worth it.
7. For about a year, God has been stirring desires in my heart for ministry and our family. I currently work full-time for a parachurch ministry and my young children are in full-time childcare. Recently, I’ve felt such a strong desire to be more available for ministry in our local church and more available to our family. I so long to serve in these ways, yet for now, it’s not financially possible for me to restructure my full-time working status. I’ve struggled with this over the last several months. When I was praying one day, the Holy Spirit gently whispered the name of another minister in Journey I should reach out to who has a prophetic gift. I sent her a video message about what I was struggling with, and she had a timely word for me and my family. It was encouraging and just what I needed to hear from God to continue serving in contentment. As I listened to her message, I just wept as something inside me broke. I had been struggling for so long, confused about the discrepancy between our current reality and how I felt God leading me. But in that moment, I heard the voice of God through my dear sister in Journey as He spoke a word of waiting over our family, and I experienced such a peace over this situation that I had not felt for several months.
8. I have always had a desire to help other people in life but especially in serving Jesus. Being able to rub shoulders with other ministers many in places of greater authority and greater ministry. Hearing from their own mouths how I can be of benefit to them has made me realize the essential need for community and care for everyone. The fact that I can minister to ministers shows that the goodness and love of God must to be shared, and the fact that he can use me to do that with others far greater than myself, means he can use anyone to do it. I am encouraged by the unlimited power of God’s word and His goodness to be a blessing to anyone, from anyone, by the one Jesus Christ.
9. Journey has given me accountability and community when I feel like no one else “gets it”. They understand the burden, the family dynamics of ministry and the pressures that pastors of every sort encounter.
10. I have had disagreements, arguments, and bad encounters with leaders in my church. Without Journey, I would have had nowhere to go to find guidance. Those in Journey have done a good job of both encouraging me in those moments while also not hesitating to set me straight if I was the one in the wrong. I’ve been able to rectify situations, mend relationships, apologize quicker, and navigate complicated scenarios because of the wisdom from those in Journey.
11. The Journey Coach. A big reason I stepped into Journey was because of a moment at Central Bible College when Pastor Alan Baker believed in me. I’ll spare the details, but nothing changes a person quite like someone saying “you can do it, I believe in you!” Thank God that’s not where it stopped. Pastor Baker continues to not only say he believes in me, but gets me to say “I can do it, I believe in me!” through his coaching. I’ve given him the green light to ask me difficult questions, and it has paid off, and because of this relationship that compliments my walk with Jesus, I am forever changed and grateful!
12. I am so thankful for Pastor Baker and Tricia and the support that they give in so many different ways. Just knowing that they are the if I need any advice or prayer is a great comfort.
13. When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., the chaos that ensued forced me to make decisions as a pastor that I felt unprepared to make. The mental and emotional toll of trying to pastor people from a distance was overwhelming. When Pastor Baker introduced weekly prayer calls (via Zoom), my wife and I jumped in with both feet. I looked forward to those 60-90 minutes more than almost any other part of my week. Those times of prayer, reading Scripture, and simply sharing our burdens with other members of Journey were a lifeline for me. I am forever grateful for how Journey both sustains and strengthens me in my walk with Jesus, as well as in my pursuit of His calling on my life!
14. I really appreciate how Journey Pastoral Coaching has given me the opportunity to exercise my gifts to help other pastors. I’m able to share resources with other pastors that have personally been helpful to me. I’m able to participate in speaking into the broader ministry of the church along with others in Journey. I’m able to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and praise reports. I’m also able to lift fellow pastors up in difficult times through prayer, texts, and calls. I’ve even been able to grow in my own coaching ability through monthly opportunities and cohort teachings that Pastor Baker has led. I’m so thankful to be part of something that both helps me grow healthy in ministry but also gives me an opportunity to grow from and contribute to a broader community of ministers!
15. One of the most amazing parts of Journey for me, has been the relationship that has been built with Pastor and Ms. Tricia. When I joined Journey, I was in desperate need of a spiritual mother and father. I needed their perspective, wisdom and compassion. Each coaching call was packed with each of those elements. Our conversations have been healing, challenging and life giving to me. I take notes when we talk because there is so much poured out, I don’t want to miss an ounce. I have gone back to those conversations, many times, and drawn strength from them. I want every person who is in ministry to have to opportunity to have a spiritual mom and dad. It’s biblical that we have mentors. God knew we would need seasoned people who could show us the way to walk. Because of Pastor and Tricia’s faithfulness, I am walking closer to Jesus. Because of their example, I want to do that for other people.
16. When I began as part of the Journey Pastoral Coaching ministry, I did not know how to walk by someone’s side by grace. As I walked with my Coach, or rather he walked with me, I started to learn the power of encouragement and grace, letting someone come to their own conclusion and helping them flesh it out on their own, while graciously guiding and encouraging. Now I too have been coaching and mentoring a younger man for almost two years and have seen amazing growth in Christ.
17. Pastor Baker has built an amazing community of coaches with the intention of building each other up. I have been challenged, encouraged, and lifted up during dark times. Journey has been wonderful to me.
18. Ryan _______. This man of God is closer than a brother to me. Always loving me, praying for me, encouraging me, yet also challenging me. His faith in God is contagious and begs me to ask deeper questions of myself, to pull back more layers of the onion. Ryan means more to me than what I can express. I am so glad he is a part of Journey and can take who he is and continue impacting other ministers like he has me and my family.
19. The Journey retreat this year was so impactful in my life. The encouragement and refreshing that I came away with helped me to start this year in the right direction and I have been able to build on that foundation all year.
FINAL WORD
Journey members are on the front lines of ministry across the country, from Massachusetts to Oregon, Michigan to Florida. They are striving to bring to their local ministries what we share in Journey: missional community – a mutual investment ministry where every member is valued, a coaching community where every member invests in others and allows them to invest in him or her. Their Journey experiences are not only transforming their lives, but their marriages and ministries. The key is not Journey. The key is Jesus Christ and doing life and ministry as He did it on the earth: in missional community.
As Gordon MacDonald has written, “With a world of millions to reach, Jesus budgeted the majority of his time to be with just twelve simple men.” Jesus relied not on programs, and technique, but mentorship-coaching and relationships in accomplishing his mission. It was an approach he talked and walked on earth. It was an approach the twelve disciples continued to talk and walk after Jesus’ ascension. It is an approach being rediscovered by the church in the 21st century.
Two weeks ago, we presented the first half of this report from the front lines of missional community. We hope these articles have challenged you to find or even launch a missional community of your own – local or otherwise – or have given you hope if you are walking alone.
If you are in vocational ministry, we also encourage you to find a pastoral coach and/or mentor. While you’re at it, look for peers with whom you can share the journey in ministry. As you read above, peer coaches are a treasure beyond gold.
Finally, please consider partnering in prayer and finances with Journey as we continue this vital ministry to young ministers. There is so much more we could do with your support. Thank you.
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Saddled with large student debt, just beginning to set up homes and start families, and serving in low paying first and second positions, Millennials are those who most desire but can least afford to pay for pastoral coaching.
We are able to do so thanks to the faithful and generous support of individuals and churches like yours who want to see young leaders not only enter the ministry, but remain in the ministry.
Now, more than ever, we need your help.
If you or your church would like to help Millennial ministers across the US and overseas build strong for a lifetime in ministry, please click here to support Journey monthly or with your one-time gift. Thank you.
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