Coaching
For a number of years now I have been running coaching courses for lead elders and their teams. Some 40 to 50 churches have been involved since we began, and it is great to have played a small part in helping other churches flourish. One good example would be Neal Bartlett from High Wycombe, whose church has doubled in size and went multi-site in March.
I am therefore very excited to see that our next course begins in a couple of weeks with 45 leaders, representing some 18 churches from across the UK Newfrontiers family, taking part. My style tends to be very interactive and I prefer the attendees to set the agenda rather than me. I am keen that the days should not be too 'front-led', as I want to respond to the current issues being faced by those in the room. Over the years we have discussed topics such as team building, raising and handling money, preaching programmes and size dynamics. The days are made up of a mixture of group discussion, time for self-reflection, and Q&A sessions – the aim is to provide an environment which facilitates dialogue and where peer leaders can learn from one another.
It is my firm belief that leaders also benefit from good self-awareness, and so we also spend time looking at the subject of personality traits. I am hugely indebted to Brian Watts, who co-leads these coaching days with me, as he brings a great deal of expertise to this area in particular. Brian has also helped me with some one-to-one coaching on a few occasions. I have found this to be extremely useful in identifying the key issues of particular leadership challenges I may be facing.
Of course, in a blog about the benefits of coaching, I need to mention Saturday’s FA Cup Final. Despite their months of training and preparation, Palace sadly failed to beat Manchester United – although they did manage to creep ahead for a brief, joy-filled period of four minutes! Nevertheless, Ben, Josh and I had a fantastic day. We sang our hearts out and loved the whole experience of seeing our team play at Wembley. Maybe, with a little more coaching, they can do it next year...
