What I Love About Being a Pastoral Coach
I have a confession to make: I am a pastoral coach. And I love it.
Many in the church are unfamiliar with pastoral coaching, usually assuming it is what it isn’t. They’re always intrigued when I explain pastoral coaching and then specifically how we do it at Journey.
Many in the church are also intrigued that a “former” pastor and “former” missionary would so love pastoring young pastors, church planters, missionaries, evangelists, ministry directors, and tentmakers: “You mean you’d rather coach young ministers than ‘do ministry?’”
So, with their question in mind, let me celebrate why I so love doing what I am privileged to do.
I’m fulfilling my creation and call
This is first and foremost. No doubt about it.
Personal creation. God has formed each of us individually, personally, and purposefully. He has formed each of us in a way that pleases Him. Simply stated, I can continue to please Him by faithfully living out His personal formation. God has formed me for pastoral coaching.
Personal call. In line with our creation, God calls us to serve Him in particular, personal ways: God calls one person to be a pastor, another, a plumber. God gifts each one for his or her calling. I please God by faithfully living out His personal calling. God has called me to be a pastoral coach.
And I love it. I love living out my creation and call, knowing that, imperfect as I am, still I am pleasing the One who has created and called me to be a pastoral coach. I thank God for creating me for this and calling me to this. I love knowing that my ministry pleases Him.
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? It’s where I get to fulfill my creation and calling.
I get to journey with quality people
I love and respect the people whom I am privileged to coach. Individually and as a group, they are quality people. They are quality people who passionately live to serve Jesus Christ and who are highly committed to the ministry of the Gospel and to the church.
Any pastor knows there is a great difference between pastoring the sitting and pastoring the serving, shepherding the standing still and the running.
At one church I pastored, I described my role as that of “traffic cop”: church members were highly motivated to not only serve in existing ministries, but to start new ones: one of my primary roles was simply directing the traffic of this incredible group of running servants. At another church I pastored, a church initially facing death, people responded to our “everyone to your posts” call with a joyful abandon that inspires me still today – what an wonderful group of people they were.
As a pastoral coach, it is my happy privilege to pastor the people who are planting and pastoring churches like these – and helping transform churches that aren’t yet like these. It is my happy privilege to pastor the missionaries, evangelists, ministry leaders, and tentmakers who are providing servant leadership to organizations, ministries, and groups – people – like these.
These thoroughbred servant leaders are passionately committed to Jesus Christ, to knowing Him and to making Him known. Their purpose in life is to fulfill their creation and their call. And there is no confrontation, challenge, or correction they are not ready and willing to accept from me as they serve the One who died to give them eternal life, the One who lives to lead them in their creation and calling.
And there is nothing so invigorating as walking with them as they do just that.
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I get to walk with quality people who are highly committed to Jesus Christ, to the ministry of the Gospel, and to the church.
I get to help young ministers go farther, higher, and do more.
I get to help them go farther than I have gone, higher than I have climbed, and do more than I have done.
Coaches and mentors have been where you want to go, but they live to help you go farther than they have gone. And they take joy in it when you do.
Picture it this way: you’re walking an alpine path, surrounded by the rugged beauty of God’s creation. But the path is new to you. You have a degree in trekking, complete with essential courses in hiking and wilderness survival. But this is the first time you’ve actually walked these alpine paths.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a guide who knows the way because she has been this way before? Wouldn’t it mean a lot to have a guide who knows when to encourage and when to challenge you, when to exhort you to move ahead and when to counsel you to wait? Wouldn’t it strengthen you to have someone who helps you learn how to make sound decisions, and how to use this particular journey in building strength for future journeys that take you even higher, even farther to places never traveled by others before?
Wouldn’t it be great to have a coach?
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I get to help them go farther than I have gone, higher than I have climbed, and do more than I have done.
I get to spend my days pastoring
Most pastors have to divide their time between a myriad of activities, some they enjoy, and some they don’t: preparing to preach, directing staff, committee meetings, budgets, administration, counseling, training, property and buildings oversight, media and tech, etc, etc. I have church search committee questionnaires for prospective pastors that list over two dozen essential activities of the pastor they are looking to call. Pastoring certainly has changed over the years.
But as a pastoral coach, I am privileged to spend my days focused on people, coaching people as they passionately pursue the purposes of God for their lives – they don’t join our coaching ministry unless they are! As a pastor to pastors, planters, missionaries, evangelists, ministry leaders, and tentmakers I spend my days and evenings encouraging, challenging, exhorting, confronting, examining, and comforting – calling to Christ. I spend my life pastoring quality people as they do the work of the ministry across America and overseas.
Just a few minutes ago as I was writing this piece, a Journey member sent me this direct message:
“Thank you for the support by the way. I love having the Journey coach in my corner!”
That’s pastoring. And I get to do it all day every day. Thank you, Father!
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I get to spend my days pastoring people.
I get to be a part of the new thing God is doing through a new generation of leaders.
As a pastoral coach focused on young ministers, I get to be a part of the new thing that this generation of leaders is bringing to the work of the Gospel. And what creative approaches they have!
Young ministers understand culture from the inside out, in the healthiest and holiest of ways. They have understanding in how to communicate the Gospel to people of this culture in this time.
The message is the same, but their methods are fresh and focused, things never thought of before. This is so because, while they are passionate seekers of the truth, they are also persistent students of how that truth can best be presented to this world, and that means a fearless examination of what the church is doing: if this ministry isn’t making disciples of Jesus, let’s find out does and let’s do it! I love them for it.
Though I have grey hair, I am not a “grey hair” in the sense of being disconnected from the new thing God is doing this new generation of leaders. I have the privilege of walking with young ministers as they have ideas that never occurred to me – as they seek God for, receive, and then walk out effective ways of reaching the world with the same Gospel the church has proclaimed from the days of the Apostles.
I’ll say it yet again: I believe in the Millennial generation of ministers. Are they perfect? No, but neither is my generation. Do they know everything? Of course not, but what generation in history has or ever will? This I do know: the young ministers I coach demonstrate again and again their passion for Jesus, for His Gospel, for delivering the Gospel of Jesus to people, to discipling people in that Gospel, and whatever methods make it happen are the methods they will use until even more effective methods are discovered.
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I get to be a part of the new thing that God is doing through a new generation of leaders.
I receive more than I give
In every coaching conversation, our members thank me for my time, concern, and help. They often identify some specific question asked, issue raised or wisdom shared that helped them learn, realize, or understand, or some specific encouragement, challenge, or support I gave that helped them make a decision or take action as they believe God would have them do. They thank me for giving to them.
And there are many days when a member and I process difficult, even heartbreaking, issues and situations. We talk and we pray as we wrestle with understanding what is happening and with how to handle it. Sessions like these, repeated sessions like these, lead to comments like these: “Thank you, Pastor, for being there for me,” or “I wouldn’t have made it without your help and support.”
In the every day coaching and in the special case coaching, I accept their words of appreciation, silently thanking God for all He does in making these moments possible. And as I accept their words of thanks, I smile, realizing how much these young ministers help me learn, realize, understand, decide, and act as God would have me do. And the encouragement I receive as I walk with them! Priceless.
This dynamic has given me three plus years (2020 update: SIX years) of looking forward to every morning and what God will do in the lives of our coaching ministry members and in my life. This dynamic has given me three plus years of putting my head on the pillow thanking God for all He has done in all our lives at Journey. Every night as my coaching day draws to a close, I thank God that He has given me far more than I have given Him.
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I receive far more than I give.
I get to do ministry the way Jesus did ministry.
Jesus talked to thousands, but He walked with twelve.
When He began His public ministry, Jesus focused more on preaching to crowds, but with the passage of time, He focused less time and energy on the crowds, and focused more and more on the few, especially the Twelve, and most especially, the Three.
Why? Pastor Gordon MacDonald said it this way:
“With a world of millions to reach, Jesus budgeted the majority of his time to be with just twelve simple men.”
Twelve men who could multiply effect out to hundreds, then thousands, and millions. Could this really work? Look in the mirror for the answer. Look to the four corners of the globe for the answer.
As a pastoral coach, I am privileged to invest my time and energy in a few dozen ministers of the Gospel. Through regular, consistent, and focused coaching conversations, as well as in helping young ministers understand the importance of walking with peers in ministry, I am privileged to focus my time and energy on multiplying effect through others, just as Jesus did with the Twelve, just as the Twelve did with Barnabas, just as Barnabas did with Paul, just as Paul did with Timothy.
What could happen if the wisdom and experience of “grey hair” ministers could be blended with theenergy, innovation, and understanding of younger ministers? What would happen if we would do ministry as Jesus did ministry? I’m determined to find out.
What do I love about being a pastoral coach? I get to do ministry the way Jesus did ministry.
FINAL WORLD
The final word goes to a man whose life and ministry have powerfully influenced so many for the King and His Kingdom, Dr. Gary Collins:
“Coaching can help people make decisions, evaluate their lifestyles, build new boundaries into their lives, reconnect with God, and feel hope again. I can’t think of a more needed service in our culture today or a more crucial ministry for the church.”
Coaching younger ministers, helping them maximize their potential, I help them be as good as they can be. And in doing this, I help churches and ministries maximize their potential as be as good as they can be. For the glory of God, the good of His people, and the salvation of those separated from Him.
I love what I am privileged to do with my life. I love being a pastoral coach.
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NOTE: Journey Pastoral Coaching exists to provide pastoral coaching to Millennial ministers.
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.
We also invite you to click and subscribe to our twice-monthly blogs at journeypastoralcoaching.com
“In the early years when I was becoming a pastor, I needed a pastor.”
Eugene H. Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir
