The 'big why' of coaching
Coaches work with Methodist leaders to help them go further and delve deeper in response to God's call. The overall aim of coaching in The Methodist Church is spiritual, missional and numerical church growth, in existing churches as well as in new Christian communities.
Who will I be coaching?
You may be coaching a pioneer who is shaping a vision for a new Christian community, helping them get clear, get started, and troubleshoot problems along the way. You may be working with a leader in an existing church who is encouraging their church or circuit to engage with their community, do justice, share faith and see new people begin journeys with Jesus. You may be coaching a district officer who enables others to start new Christian communities and pursue church growth. They may be a passionate lay volunteer, an ordained minister or a lay employee; they may be pioneering in their spare time or leading a church full time.
How does the coaching happen?
The vast majority of the coaching happens over video call, as our coaches and thinkers live all over the Connexion. If you are willing to offer onsite coaching, however, please let us know.
Most of our thinkers meet with their coaches about once a month but you should feel free to find the frequency that works best for the thinker. Part-time pioneers and those who volunteer their time, in particular, may find that 5-6 sessions a year is plenty. If your thinker is struggling to find a topic to think about, or hasn’t been able to make much progress since your last session, that may be a sign that less frequent coaching would be more effective.
We hope that you’ll build a positive relationship with the person assigned to you, but if for any reason you don’t ‘click’, just let us know. We’ll find them a coach that’s a better fit, and assign someone else to you.
We start by agreeing a year’s coaching. We’ll get in touch every six months with a short survey so that we can find out how the coaching is going: what’s helpful, what’s not, how we can tweak things and improve them. When the year is up, we use the surveys to help us decide whether the coaching should continue. However, we won’t ask you to reveal what you talk about in coaching – that's confidential, except in the case of a safeguarding concern.
What we offer our coaches
Some of our coaches are volunteers who generously give their time in exchange for free coach training. Others are professional coaches who we pay for their services. All our coaches are crucial partners in The Methodist Church’s ambition to start new Christian communities in every circuit and seek spiritual, missional and numerical church growth in our existing churches.
If you’re a volunteer coach, you can expect to receive high-quality initial coach training, giving you the foundations to become a skilled coach. Whether you’re a volunteer or a professional coach, you’ll be matched with great people to coach and can access ongoing coach development opportunities throughout the year.
What we expect of our coaches
We ask you to keep your coaching safe and sharp, and offer you support to do that. We all keep coaching safe by following The Methodist Church’s Safer Recruitment policy, completing Safeguarding training and by agreeing a safeguarding contact at the start of each coaching relationship. We keep coaching sharp through ongoing coach development opportunities, including online and onsite events, coaching practice sessions and a yearly coaching check-in.