One of the best practices for new church planting is to have a coach. This is someone to talk to about your work, to help you see themes in your story you don’t see yourself at first, and to hold you accountable to the things you need to work on. I have had 4 coaches in the 3 years we’ve been here at SFC. The first was a colleague who was training to be a coach. She did a fabulous job. At the end of my first year however I felt like I wanted someone with new start experience. Luckily I had a friend who had done some new start work and asked him to be my coach. It was hard to separate out coaching and friendship, so that only lasted a little while. Then I asked for recommendations and found a serious, professional new start coach. That lasted all of 2 sessions. It was not a good fit at all. So I was drifting a long, trying to find the right person when she popped into my life.
This relationship is exactly what I need coaching to be. She is my cheerleader and is super honest. I always get off the phone feeling encouraged, like I can actually do this work God is calling me to. She also helps me to see if when there is a problem or something I needed to think about. Her encouragement is authentic, because we also talk about the hard stuff.
Now that I’m part of a successful coaching relationship I’m beginning to think everyone should have a coach. Someone to be on your side and who wants the best for you. Someone who can ask you questions that open up whole new avenues of understanding within yourself. I’ve had some coaching training myself, and I can see the power in asking questions that help people to hear their own stories.
As with everything else in new start world, the lesson for me here is that finding the right coach takes time. Growing community takes time. Hearing God’s call takes time. Becoming sustainable takes time. I am so thankful for the time I’ve been given to walk this journey and I’ excited to see what unfolds over the next year, my coach cheering and calling me to examine myself the whole way.
-Eilidh
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