Thanksgiving from InFocus
Praying for your day to be filled with gratitude for God’s provision in your life and ministry!
Gary Reinecke
InFocus Ministries
A comprehensive coaching process – anchored in Christ
I’ve trained leaders around the world in the coaching process (commonly known as the 5 Rs – see below) who are catalyzing disciple making movements, planting churches, empowering leaders, leading teams and pioneering networks. A conversation with one missionary reminded me that the five elements of the coaching process are more descriptive than prescriptive. It was evident this gifted woman was wrestling with the process. When I gave her freedom to come up with her own language to describe the process she uses, she lit-up!
- RELATE – Establishing a coaching relationship and agenda
- REFLECT – Discover and explore key issues
- REFOCUS – Determine priorities and action steps
- RESOURCE – Provide support and encouragement
- REVIEW – Evaluate, celebrate and revise plans
That is the way I present the 5-R coaching process. Once people become familiar with the five elements then I challenge them to personalize it so that is fits their context. Find language that captures the essence of what they do and how they do it. And most of all – begin using it!
Below are five questions to help you identify the coaching process you use:
- How do I connect with people I coach?
- How do I help people analyze their situation?
- How do I help them envision the future?
- How do I help people identify resources to implement their plans?
- How do I help people I coach review their plans, celebrate success and capture insights?
Answers to these questions will help you uncover your coaching process. The more transferable, the better. If you have a process you’ve created, I’d appreciate you e-mailing me or sharing it with the InFocus coaching community below.
Creating a Disciple Making-Coaching Culture
Normally I’ve seen one or the other emphasized:
- Disciple Making
- Coaching
This last year I’ve been part of a two-pronged training process combining Disciple Making Movements (DMM) with Coaching in 5 regions around the world beginning with India and Turkey, followed by the US, then concluding with Spain and Hong Kong. Each event lasted 5 days with the morning dedicated to DMM and afternoons focused on Coach training. Participants were forced to live in the tension of learning the technical side of DMM utilizing Discovery Bible Studies (DBS) in combination with the relational side of Coaching.
Why was this approach taken? For obvious reasons, I won’t reference the organization nor the leaders because they are planting churches in under-resourced and under-served areas of the world (10-40 Window); however, this is what they learned when they interviewed other mission agencies taking this approach:
In talking to other organizations that have implemented DMM training each and every group has said they should have taught coaching principles in coordination with DMM to give their workers the skill of coaching.
Typically, I present coaching as a non-directive process; however, in this training approach the “content” is assumed to be the Bible in the context of a DBS. Further, when a person is ready to reproduce a DBS into the second and third generation, the focus of the coaching relationship shifts to leader development. Through this process, churches are planted with coaching embedded in the DNA.
Here are three lessons I’ve learned:
- Synergy – utilize practitioners from each discipline to maximize the strengths of both systems.
- Progression: explain how the two disciplines are distinct – then show how they compliment one another.
- Structural Tension – allow participants to live in the tension of making disciples AND coaching leaders to reproduce.
What lessons have you learned training leaders to catalyze disciplemaking movements? I would love to read your reflections. Please share your insights below.
Focus – the gift a coach gives a leader
What do you provide those you lead?
When you coach those you lead, you have the opportunity to help them focus. Whether you are helping them:
- see where they fit in a larger vision
- understand where they are in the mission God has entrusted
- take the next step to help them clarify a vision God is revealing to them
Focus is the gift you give to those you are developing, influencing, empowering.
I am in Hong Kong as I write this blog – training leaders who are making disciples and planting churches in under-served and under-reached regions of our world. These leaders are learning how to coach leaders and spark discipleship making movements (DMM). My job is to help them understand how coaching compliments their disciplemaking efforts.
I like to use the analogy of a train track. Think of one rail representing the “strategic” (DMM in this instance) aspect and the other rail representing the “relational” (coaching) aspect. Together, these two rails provide a path for leaders to travel – keeping the focus on fueling a movement of making more and better disciples. When you have an effective strategy in conjunction with a comprehensive coaching process, you can help keep leaders focused.
Remember the gift you are giving away. What systems do you use in conjunction with coaching?
Coaching Through Personal Transitions
How many times have you heard leaders share that they are considering a “new ministry” opportunity. Sometimes, it is a natural response to the monotony of life and other times it is a case of the “grass is greener” fallacy. In other circumstances, a leader might find themselves in transition. When I speak to leaders about transition I like to explain three phases: Pre-transition, Transition and Post-transition.
When coaching leaders through transitions I’ve used three helpful questions:
- Where have you been?
- Where are you going?
- How will you get there?
I remember when I first came across a process that addressed these questions, I was a third year seminary student. My instructor, Dr. Gordon Klenck had returned from a 30-year stint as a missionary in Europe. During his doctoral work at Fuller Seminary he took a course entitled Leadership Emergence Theory from Dr. Robert Clinton. The material was in the formative stages but the process helped me turn the corner on what I eventually did following graduation and set me on the trajectory that I continue to this day. The Focused Living Retreat Workbook is a reformulation of that process and does an effective job helping a leader:
- Look back – Personal Time Line
- Look forward – Personal Calling Statement
- Look around – Mentoring plan
I’ve used this resource in a number of different settings with a high degree of effectiveness e.g. graduate leadership courses, small group gatherings and 1-1 coaching. The process of discerning God’s will is not formulaic, nor is it linear; it is more like spaghetti. Imagine twirling your fork in a pile of noodles, finding a few that land on your utensils and into your mouth. This illustrates how the discernment process works. Once a leader has a sense that she/he is in transition, they begin the journey of twirling their fork. Going through this process in collaboration with a coach can help a leader move intentionally and fruitfully through a transition period.
What tools have you used to help leaders navigate transitions in their life and ministry? Please share your ideas below.
Level 5 Multiplying Church
In 1988 I was a young seminary student engaged in church planting when my life intersected with an even younger college student named Tim Vink. Tim and I met as short-term missionaries with Youth With a Mission in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We participated in street evangelism, ministered to young adults in night clubs and connected with a variety of people in the famed Red Light District to share the life-transforming message of the Gospel. Many late nights were spent discussing the adventures of the day, challenges of the unique spiritual dynamics in the city and our dreams for the future. One conversation stands out to me. When asked what he felt God had called him to do with his life, Tim’s response was to lead a church multiplication movement (his actual answer was to “disciple a denomination” but I didn’t have a category that fit that vision).
When I caught up with Tim in 1999 he was leading a church that was in the early stages of planting new churches. Tulare Community Church is a church planting church. Presently. Tim serves in a national capacity for his denomination where he is helping leaders embrace a church multiplication DNA. I asked Tim recently how many churches Tulare has planted, and as of Spring 2016 the number was around 35 – and still counting. Some of the churches that Tulare has planted are planting into the third generation. As a network, the denomination has planted over 360 churches to-date.
Tulare Community Church is a Level 5 Church – bent on multiplying, releasing and sending.
Previously, I introduced the book “Becoming a Level FIVE Multiplying Church Field Guide” (by Todd Wilson and Dave Ferguson with Alan Hirsch) and five levels of church multiplication as follows:
- The primary characterization of Level 1 churches are “subtraction, scarcity, and survival.”
- The primary characterization of Level 2 churches are “tension, scarcity, survival, and growth.”
- The primary characterization of Level 3 churches are “addition, growth and accumulation.”
- The primary characterization of Level 4 churches are “discontent, new scorecards and reproducing at all levels.”
- The primary characterization of Level 5 churches are “multiplying, releasing and sending.”
I found the book with the self-assessment helpful to determine where congregations are on the multiplication continuum. Read “Becoming a Level FIVE Multiplying Church Field Guide” and administer the self-assessment to determine where you are on the multiplication continuum. Here are a few questions to help a Level 5 church reflect and reproduce church planting movements:
- What changes can we make to raise the bar on discipleship and lower the bar on leadership?
- What aspects of our disciple-making and leader development processes are easily reproducible?
- What aspects of our disciple-making and leader development processes are challenging to reproduce?
- What steps can we take to reproduce disciples more effectively and efficiently?
- What steps will we take?
I’ve observed that when leaders have the right DNA and are willing to remove human barriers to church multiplication, the Holy Spirit is able and willing to move rapidly in people’s hearts so that His church is empowered to fulfill the mission to disciple the nations.