C is for Coaching

This section on "coaching" is from A Is for Abductive: The Language of the Emerging Church by Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, and Jerry Haselmayer (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003). I believe that differences in leadership style and roles are a major source of conflict when one has moderns and postmoderns on the same team. I see this in the course of sitting in on leaders meetings. Here it is in its entirety (pp. 67-68).

Personal coaching: Postmoderns will want and need their own personal spiritual coaches. The duties of a spiritual coach are to bring out the best in a player. Coaches cannot play the game for their people, but they can teach, correct, discipline, motivate, mentor, inspire, and praise their players to spiritual greatness. A personal spiritual coach helps disciples of Jesus to realize God's dream for their lives, maximize their soul's potential, and lead faithful, abundant lives true to the gospel. Pastoral counselors willneed to reinvent themselves as personal spiritual coaches and divest themselves of the "therapist" model if they are to have a future. A spiritual director is now part artistic director, part interior designer, part coach, part cheerleader, part shaman.

Team coaching: One of the most difficult jobs imaginable. Why? Because building a team is an art form that harmonizes superstars and team players. Teams need prima donnas and can't survive without them. But prima donnas need to work as a team and can't shine as prima donnas without the backlighting of a team.

In modern ministry, the hero was the star--the prima donna preacher, the singer, the broadcaster, the author, the speaker. In postmodern ministry, the hero is the coach--the one who develops his or her players and deploys them wisely, the one who scouts for needed new talent, the one who inspires discipline and sacrifice, the one who calls--at just the right time--the right plays and the needed time-outs, the one who seeks to give rather than earn praise, and the one who makes sure the players get the credit due at the end of the game. (bold print mine)

Modern leaders seeking to transition to a postmodern world will have to ask themselves some probing questions about coaching. Do I want the place of fame and acclaim on the field or the place of service and true significance on the sidelines? Do I want my team to outshine me? Do I need the spotlight?