Note: part of a series started April 22nd. “What’s next?” It’s a simple question, but one that we need to be asking ourselves on a macro-scale at least once a year. What does God have for me next? How am I to invest my time, resources, and energy? I had two different...
When I was in the early stages of pondering the church plant I’m currently working in, my coach asked me a series of five questions that, over the course of months, helped me think through what my church plant should look like. Over the next five blog entries, I’ll be...
When you’re discipling people who are in recovery, I’ve found that there comes a point when you have to shift gears. Once someone is well-established in recovery—not drinking or using but still wrestling with life issues—an important shift needs to happen in your...
For those who want to spark change toward missional incarnational ministry, discouragement is a constant battle. For change at this level to occur, we’re actually talking about DNA. That’s the toughest thing to change once it’s already taken root. Recognize that it’s...
Note: part of a series from From Followers to Leaders. See Feb 21 blog entry for backstory. Even after people have started out along the path and we’ve provided some on-the-job training, we’ll still need to provide continuing support. The challenges our leaders will...
In my blog entry of December 21st, I wrote about Rich Earl who had begun offering free coaching to the unemployed. I recently asked him how it was going—below are two stories from Rich that speak to the ways God has been at work in the lives of those he’s coaching:...
I have the following story from Rich Earl: In an effort to combine the power of coaching with a missional/incarnational approach to ministry, a fellow pastor and I have volunteered to provide free coaching services for a local non-profit group in our city. We are only...
Where should we set the bar in training people to do ministry? It’s tempting to set the bar too high too fast. An athlete training for the high jump wouldn’t start with the bar seven feet high. He or she would start much lower and then work their way up with...
Below is a meditation on coaching missional leaders that I originally published in Christian Coaching Magazine. As I think back on it, the material seems even more relevant now. More and more of my coaching lately has involved coming alongside missional leaders. Over...
