Have you ever experienced something and you just knew it was the right thing for that situation? This may seem obvious to many but I am convinced that coaching and church planters are one of those “You just gotta” things.
Over several posts, I want to provide some thoughts on why this is such a great fit for leaders who are called to plant a church.
Leadership is lonely. The loneliness is there whether you are leading a church, a business, or a Scout troop. Several factors are at work assuring the loneliness. It might be people’s reaction when the decision is unpopular or it could be just the shear weight of the decision on the leader. Using your team to help you examine issues and make decisions will help (that is one reason we talk a lot about collaboration) but there will always be a time when the call has to be made by the leader and the isolation is guaranteed.
Church planting is just hard. There is no other way to say it. Cracking a local culture and helping people see the need to break away from the world’s way of living has never and will never be anything but hard. Difficult tasks always require our “A” game. I can’t imagine anyone consistently bringing their “A” game without a knowledgeable coach and a coaching process built for the roller coaster ride called church planting.
The stakes are high. In the USA alone, the opportunities to present the gospel to people who have given up on the church but not on God is gigantic. Externally focused church plants are breaking through. It can be done. God is still in the business of changing lives. I believe He desires for more churches to fulfill the Great Commission by offering something other churches in the area are not. Many times the best way to do that is a new start with no baggage.
Coaching takes time and has a cost. So do a lot of other things that church planters recognize as essential. But how valuable is the consistent input that a coach can give you as you are working through those difficult decisions? What is it worth to know you have the ear and heart of another Christ follower to help you take an independent look at a situation? How can you put a price on persistent input on spending the right amount of time with your family so neither you nor your family burn out?
Will coaching guarantee success for a church planter? No. Will it be a vehicle God uses to keep a church planter engaged and energized during bad times and good? Yes it will. I know it in my heart.
