{"id":34973,"date":"2024-01-17T20:15:22","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T04:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=34973"},"modified":"2024-01-19T13:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T21:40:32","slug":"knowing-yourself-and-helping-others-live-out-of-identity-and-strengths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/knowing-yourself-and-helping-others-live-out-of-identity-and-strengths\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowing Yourself and Helping Others Live Out of Identity and Strengths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coaching has been a part of my story for more than two decades. For context, it was while I was still a young 30-something church planter that I had the privilege of being certified as a coach within my denomination, The Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada (EMCC) [1]. Early on in my pastoral work, I frustrated a lot of people because I would often offer questions rather than easy answers. As I learned the coaching approach, I could see how it resonated with my <\/span>modus operandi<\/span><\/em>. I was invited onto the team tasked with developing our coaching training in 2002, blending coaching for performance with spiritual, transformational elements. If we (the EMCC) wanted to have churches follow Jesus on mission in their context, we needed the leadership to be part of coaching cultures, empowering others to live in accordance with God\u2019s mission and purpose. <\/span><\/p>\n

And for that, our denominational leadership overhauled the denominational structure away from a Superintendent model, to a Denominational Coaching model. That was my role from 2004 to 2017. The coaching models of support, and the coaching training for pastors and lay leaders continues to be used in the EMCC to this day. <\/span><\/p>\n

So when I read books on coaching, I am looking with intense curiosity on what can strengthen my already-loved-and-embraced foundation. Rather than experiencing an entire volume of new material, I found in Tom Comacho\u2019s \u201cMining For Gold\u201d a beautiful, still-profound connection in his work: coaching others towards a life of flourishing must come from being guided that way ourselves. Having found the nuggets of wisdom and purpose by listening to the Holy Spirit[2], we can more-easily resist (although the temptation is always there) the urge to take the Holy Spirit\u2019s job in the life of those we come alongside of. I confess, as a pastor myself, and having worked with hundreds of pastors, the ledger weighs heavier on being \u201ctellers\u201d than \u201ccoaches\u201d. What would it look like if we as spiritual leaders were known as the strongest, most thoughtful question-askers?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, first, this book guides me again to a deeper experience of knowing myself. In every season, I need coaching to find the gold in my own life and ministry, which will always be aligned to my true identity and purpose[3]. And then, as I think about coaching in my leadership, I can support the same for them, and try to be a useful agent in seeing it come to fruition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s become known as Spirit-directed question-askers, and watch what God will reveal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

    \n
  1. \u201cLearn To Coach\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>accessed January 17, 2024, https:\/\/www.emcc.ca\/can-we-help\/leaders\/learn-to-coach\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Tom Camacho. 2019. <\/span>Mining for Gold\u202f: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching<\/span>. London: IVP, 57.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 50.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Coaching has been a part of my story for more than two decades. For context, it was while I was still a young 30-something church planter that I had the privilege of being certified as a coach within my denomination, The Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada (EMCC) [1]. Early on in my pastoral work, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2969,1573],"class_list":["post-34973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp3","tag-comacho","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34973"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35101,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34973\/revisions\/35101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}