What is coaching?
At its simplest, coaching is keeping someone company while they think (Pedrick, 2020). It is a conversation in which the coach listens well, asks great questions, and helps the thinker achieve fresh insights.
Coaching is complementary to other reflective spaces, such as Supervision and spiritual direction. Coaching is forward-facing and action-oriented, aiming to help people find their own answers that help them move forward in their life and work.
Why coaching?
Coaching helps lay and ordained practitioners go further and delve deeper in response to God's call. The Methodist Church is seeking spiritual, missional and numerical church growth, in existing churches as well as in new Christian communities, and coaching is a gift to help us. Coaching equips people to cope with questions without easy answers: there is no one right way to start a new Christian community or to seek growth; no one right answer to the challenges facing the Church. It also helps people understand more clearly and respond more joyfully to God's call on their life.
A coach helps a thinker:
- Discover who they are;
- Choose between many possible ‘right’ answers, and
- Experiment: acting, reflecting and acting again; taking holy risks.