Mentoring and Pastoral Coaching

Here are our favorite books on the world of mentoring and pastoral coaching.

CHRISTIAN COACHING BY GARY R. COLLINS

HELPING OTHERS TURN POTENTIAL INTO REALITY

From the Publisher:

Every day, companies, churches, families, and individuals turn to coaches for help in navigating life’s transitions. A widely used and respected resource for leaders, pastors, and counselors, Christian Coaching will equip you with the tools to help people overcome obstacles and turn their potential into reality.

Now updated and expanded, this groundbreaking guide presents a unique biblically based coaching model, designed to help you:

• Develop and refine your active listening skills
• Connect with people on a meaningful level
• Clarify a vision and defining steps to put it into practice
• Guide someone through obstacles and life transitions
• Coach people in a variety of career, marriage, family, and church situations
• Empower people to establish healthy boundaries with friends, family, and work
• And much more

Now with interactive forms and questionnaires for you and your clients, this comprehensive guide may be the most helpful and entertaining book on coaching you’ll read.

“Dr. Gary Collins takes all the vital elements of coaching and brings them together into one valuable resource. This book is essential for anyone―not just Christians―who wants to make a difference in the lives of others.” ―Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Lead Like Jesus

DEEP MENTORING

Randy D. Reese and Robert Loane

From the Publisher: “God is in the business of raising up leaders.” ―J. Robert (Bobby) Clinton When good leaders are needed, when the work is urgent, our immediate reaction is to enlist new leaders. Instead we are called to invest in new leaders. Good leaders are developed in and through slow, deep mentoring. To think otherwise is to embrace the myth of the quick fix. We proceed, instead, by paying careful attention to and joining in the work God is already doing in people’s lives. This book is designed to help you know better how to come alongside others as a guide and a friend, to invest in their spiritual formation and leadership. If you want long-term impact on the lives of future leaders, how you guide must be as important as the content you impart. Only then will you see lifelong change and empowerment in those you mentor. Randy Reese and Robert Loane show you how to make the most of the crucial ministry of mentoring. They offer a biblically grounded approach that draws on the research and teaching of Bobby Clinton as well as their own experience in resourcing churches and Christian organizations. Jesus Christ still calls people to become leaders in a lifelong journey of conforming to his image. Join him as you guide others through deep mentoring.

SURVIVE OR THRIVE

JIMMY DODD

From the Publisher: The majority of pastors are not truly known—by anyone. They subconsciously isolate themselves from both staff and congregation so their insecurities, doubts, and failures aren’t exposed. Yet confiding in the wrong person can be a dead end at best and disastrous at worst.

Former pastor Jimmy Dodd reveals how those in pastoral ministry can receive ongoing support, accountability, and restoration from relationships with a boss, counselor, trainer, mentor, coach, and good friend. Discover how you can move from surviving to thriving with the six relationships every pastor needs.

SPIRITUAL MENTORING

Keith R. Anderson and Randy D. Reese

From the Publisher: Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens . . . another. (Proverbs 27:17) As we seek God together we come to know him more deeply. That’s the idea behind Spiritual Mentoring. Spiritual mentoring is an ages-old practice that Keith Anderson and Randy Reese introduce in a way that fits life as we know it today. Spiritual mentoring is not only for pastors or saints. Mentors are ordinary Christians who are willing to enter into a faith relationship with another person who wants to grow. Likewise, those who are mentored are not seminary candidates but simply followers of Jesus who long for guidance in their spiritual journey. In this book Anderson and Reese show you how to mentor and be mentored as they introduce, chapter by chapter, the work of a different classical spiritual writer(s) . . .

These writers offer timeless insights from centuries past, while Anderson and Reese help you put their teaching into practice today to grow closer to Jesus in the company of another believer. If you want to learn how to help younger Christians grow while stretching your own faith, or if you want to tap into the experience of a Christian friend who is farther along the road of faith, this is the book that will get you started.

PREVENTING MINISTRY FAILURE

Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman

From the Publisher: Great ministers don’t just happen. Great falls from ministry don’t just happen either. A complex mix of factors both internal and external test the limits of your ability to minister wholeheartedly over the long haul. Senior pastor Brad Hoffmann and licensed professional counselor Michael Todd Wilson work with pastors removed from their place of service. The common experiences of these pastors revealed patterns that consistently contributed to burnout, ineffectiveness and moral failure. If such patterns can be predicted, the authors reasoned, can they be prevented?Preventing Ministry Failure is a personal guidebook for pastors and other caregivers to prepare them to withstand common pressures and to flourish in the ministry God has called them to. Work through the exercises and reflections individually or in conversation with your peers, and you’ll find yourself better equipped for the challenges of vocational ministry, and more conscious of the presence of God leading you on and restoring your soul.

FAITH COACHING

Chad Hall, Bill Copper, and Kathryn McElveen

From the Publisher: For too long, Christians have taken a delivery approach to spiritual formation: we memorize key verses and snappy concepts to spring on our un-churched neighbors; we provide fill-in-the-blank study courses for believers who want to grow in faith; we strive to tell, teach and transfer what we know. The results? Stagnant believers, lowered expectations and an avoidance of spiritual conversations. There must be a better approach. What if you could take a discovery approach to spiritual formation? What if you didn’t have to be an expert with all the answers but you could ask questions that helped others expand their commitment to following Christ? What if you could take a coach approach? And what if this approach were easy to learn, simple to apply, and bore fruit in the lives of those around you? Here is such an approach. Faith Coaching teaches you to leverage the power of coaching conversations to help others find and follow their spiritual path.

THE MAKING OF A LEADER

J. Robert Clinton

From the Publisher: After examining the lives of hundreds of historical, biblical, and contemporary leaders, Dr. J. Robert Clinton gained perspective on how leaders develop over a lifetime. By studying the six distinct stages he identifies, you will learn to:

• Recognize and respond to God’s providential shaping in your life
• Determine where you are in the leadership development process
• Identify others with leadership characteristics
• Direct the development of future leaders

This revised and updated edition includes several new appendixes and expanded endnotes, as well as an application section at the end of each chapter.

THE MENTOR HANDBOOK

J. Robert Clinton and Richard W. Clinton

From the Publisher: This self-study manual is ideal for small groups or individual study. It describes the nine types of mentoring influences (discipling, spiritual guidance, coaching, counseling, teaching, sponsoring, contemporary modeling, historical modeling, and divine contacts) in detail in terms of the five major mentoring dynamics (attraction, relationship, responsiveness, accountability, empowerment). Mentoring is an informal training model, which can fit well in parachurch and church organizations to help other individuals develop.

THE FINE ART OF MENTORING

Ted W. Engstrom

From the Publisher: Passing on to others what God has given to you. 

Mentoring used to be the chief learning method in society, where an apprentice spent years at the side of the craftsman, learning not only the mechanics of a function, but the way of life which surrounded it. 

The good news is that more than a few are waking up to the fact that we have lost something precious in our culture because the mentoring function has been permitted to lapse into semi-obsolescence. There is a renewal of reference to mentoring in the business literature, the world of education, and in social work. And that new alertness has been in evidence, of course, in the Christ-following community also. 

It’s fitting for Ted Engstrom to write this book because of at least two things. First, he has done the mentoring he writes about. Men and women all over the world will gladly and thankfully attest to that. And secondly, he writes from the perspective of a generation which is in the process of handing its work over to its successors. 

The mentoring leader (and that is what Ted Engstrom has been) is a scarce human commodity. So I commend to you the thoughts of one of those wonderful rarities: a Christlike man who has produced Christ like protégées. 

GOING DEEP

Gordon MacDonald

From the Publisher: Jump into the Deep End

What is a deep person? If you’d like to become one, would you know how? Would you like to help others become deep? If so, you have come to the right place.

In this fascinating book, best-selling author Gordon MacDonald discovers that his small New England church could be headed for trouble. Why? Because of a serious  shortage. There are plenty of good people, well-meaning people, sincere people—but not enough deep people.

In his celebrated and engaging style, Gordon transports you back to the fictional setting from his critically acclaimed book, Who Stole My Church? He identifies the crucial missing component in his community: people of true depth, people of real influence. And he offers unforgettable insights on how to cultivate spiritual maturity and exhibit life-altering faith.

As it turns out in Gordon’s town—and probably yours—what’s needed is people who are willing to seek Christ passionately with a hunger to go deep. This may be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

MONDAYS WITH MY OLD PASTOR

José Luis Navajo

From the Publisher: A totally burned-out young preacher reignites his faith and gathers wisdom for life while spending successive Mondays with an eighty-three-year-old pastor.

“Deep inside in some uncertain part of my soul persisted this strange exhaustion that was difficult to explain and hard to endure,” writes pastor and author José Luis Navajo. Thinking of quitting the ministry, Navajo doesn’t know where to turn until he begins meeting with a seasoned man of the cloth—his “old pastor”—who, through successive Monday visits, offers a legacy of wisdom in the form of 15 unique principles. In lyrical prose, Navajo shares the personal anecdotes, fables, and deep spiritual insights offered by the old pastor and his wife. By turns funny, heartbreaking, and thought provoking, Mondays with My Old Pastor is a comfort to anyone who struggles in his or her walk with God. As readers follow Navajo’s journey from desperation to rejuvenation, they will find themselves similarly transformed and inspired. This moving, beautifully written account is sure to reignite every soul’s longing for renewal.

Gospel Coach

Scott Thomas and Tom Wood

From the Publisher: Many ministry leaders serving in churches find themselves overwhelmed, disillusioned, and depressed by the enormous and challenging task of leading and serving others. When leaders aren’t healthy, the result is often an unhealthy church. Leaders need someone to shepherd their soul so that they can then lead others to the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Every church leader―from fulltime ministers to volunteer leaders―needs a Gospel Coach who will come alongside them with words drawn from Scripture and godly wisdom, grounded in the gracious saving work of Jesus Christ, and presented in the context of a trusting relationship. Gospel coaching is an intentional relationship of skillful caring for others based on four ancient shepherding principles: 1) Know the sheep 2) Feed the sheep 3) Lead the sheep 4) Protect the sheep Gospel coaches inquire about the personal, spiritual, and missional aspects of a leader’s life in a loving yet focused manner, probing the heart for compulsive unbelief or selfish motivation, disobedience, and sin, leading them back to the Gospel through belief, repentance, and obedience.