by Gary Reinecke | Oct 8, 2021 | Uncategorized |
Just like you, we did some pivoting when Covid hit. We pulled up our list of “Things we want to do” and went to work. One of the top projects surrounded coaching. The goal was twofold: update our coaching resources and organize them so you can access and utilize them easily. We are really excited to share that work with you!
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A NEW WEBSITE IS COMING!
I’ve partnered with Dr. Robert Logan of Logan Leadership to bring you the best of Christian coaching all in one place. We’ve created an online space focused on resources, assessment, and training of Christian coaches.
Resources
Whether you are a seasoned coach or just starting out, we have what you need to take your coaching to the next level. The website will offer the BEST books and resources for Christian Coaching including FREE downloadable documents that every coach needs. Additionally, we will have a brand new blog that will be dedicated to coaching. You will be able to subscribe to this blog and get regular coaching tips from top Christian coaches and the latest in Christian coaching resources.
Assessment
Assessment is a powerful tool for targeted growth. The new website will host the only researched-based 360° Christian Coaching Assessment that is proven to accurately identify your coaching strengths and areas for development. Upon completion of the assessment, your report will direct you to resources that specifically address your needs so you can maximize your time and efforts to raise your effectiveness as a coach.
Training
Bob and I have spent considerable time working on how to develop and equip high caliber Christian coaches for a variety of contexts. With the launch of this website, we will begin offering 5 unique training paths:
- Independent Self-Study – A great way to kick-start your coaching journey and learn the fundamentals of coaching.
- Personalized Coach Mentoring – One-on-one mentoring to accelerate your growth as a coach.
- Equip People to Coach- A training kit with everything you need to train discipleship coaches.
- Coaching Excellence Track- The next step for experienced coaches who want to raise their effectiveness.
- Reproducible Coach Training- A training customized to your specific needs so you can multiply coaches in your context.
CHRISTIAN COACHING EXCELLENCE
In conjunction with this new website, we will be releasing a book that I have co-authored with Bob. It’s called Christian Coaching Excellence: Pursuing the Journey of Ongoing Growth. This resource takes you beyond the 5 R’s and outlines a clear pathway for greater coaching effectiveness. It will help you dig deeper by guiding you through specific ways to raise your competence in critical skill areas.
We are excited!
Statistics are clear: the American Church is in decline. We believe we have built something special that meets a deep need and has the potential to change the trajectory from decline to healthy and catalytic growth. Join us in counting down the launch of these exciting new resources!
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
The post A NEW WEBSITE IS COMING! appeared first on InFocus.
by Gary Reinecke | Oct 4, 2021 | Coach Training, Disciplemaking |
Only 1 week to go!
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October 11 is right around the corner, and you know what that means… Our 5 Discipleship Coach Habits Webinar is finally launching! After putting a lot of time and effort in creating this training approach to disciple-making, we are so excited to finally begin this journey with anyone who feels ready to take the next step in their discipleship coaching. The webinar launches on October 11, 2021 from 10am-3pmPST.
LEARN MORE
For those just joining us now, this is a webinar focused on building five strategic habits that all discipleship coaches need: missional values, active prayer, relational connections, disciple making cycles and strategic partnerships. This webinar is for anyone aspiring to take their disciple-making to the next level: pastor and church leaders, church planters or even just dedicated Christians looking to make a difference in their community. We have been commissioned to share the love of the Lord and discipleship is the best approach to create a sustainable pattern of multiplication. But multiplying churches and followers of Christ is more difficult than ever (only two percent of churches are growing!) and we are here to offer support and guidance to your team of disciple-makers and their disciples. We can always build more awareness of ourselves, learn new ways to reach others and build stronger connections within our teams and with Jesus.
This is a five-hour webinar that will be led by InFocus’s Executive Director Gary Reinecke, and long-time InFocus partner Micah Dodson of Thrive Church Planting. We are also offering personal triad sessions following the webinar: five sessions for fifty-five minutes, the times are TBD. In these sessions Gary or Micah will work closely with you and another disciple coach on your team, processing new information and insights from the webinar, working through your personal strengths and weaknesses, and discovering your own unique and most effective way of discipleship coaching. We believe that sharing this journey with a small group, including a mentor, adds to the process and the level of personal engagement as well as grows the relationship between team members.
Take the Disciple Coach Quiz!
CLICK HERE
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 23, 2021 | Disciplemaking |
We want to give you a gentle nudge to consider a coach approach to disciple making – CLICK HERE
Five shifts to empower your teenagers to become self-led adults
Shift #5 – Reflection to Action
You may have been reading the previous four blogs that I wrote on the topic of five shifts that will help empower your teenager to become self-led adults. Here are the first four shifts that we have previously covered:
Shift 1 – Shift from talker to listener
Shift 2 – Shift from the center to the side
Shift 3 – Shift from casual interaction to a conversation with purpose
Shift 4 – Shift from being the creator to co-create the agenda
The fifth and final shift to make if you want to apply a coach approach to parenting your teenager is “shift from reflection to action”.
Bottom line: our kids are self-led, aware and have developed interdependent relationships with their peers and mentors. I guess the previous four shifts are a means to this end; but this final shift is the ongoing relationship that you have with your teen leading into adulthood and beyond.
Our eldest followed his passion for economics and is an economic analyst for a firm in Boston, MA. His primary interests are anit-trust cases to help combat larger companies from monopolizing an industry. Their firm draws clients from the medical, telecommunications, .com, high tech and computer fields. They are industry leaders. Any and all things related to intellectual property fall into the service the firm provides, to analyze data to create the strongest argument for law firms that seek their services.
We refer to our youngest as an “old soul”. She is in her early 20’s and going on 45. She settled into university life, graduated with a degree in international development and is now at graduate school. Her focus is Education Policy with a unique emphasis on helping resource refugees who are on the move to avoid bad things in their country of origin. Her end goal is to identify the best means to provide education to these families whose lives have been disrupted and for some, never to be repaired. Her “Why?” is compelling. Early in her education she spent a summer in Malaga, Spain to study the human sex trafficking. Due to the location of Malaga to northern Africa, the industry in Malaga has become the world leader. From her research, she concluded the best way to address the issue is prevention – which led her down the education policy track.
Today the tables have turned slightly. We are now relating more and more – adult to adult. We still coach. Sometimes the tables are turned. Here are some guidelines we followed to make the shift from taking responsibility to empowering
Key Question: How can I inspire a person to take action?
Mini-Shifts:
- Challenge the other person to act
- Do not allow the newest disciple to remain in a state of reflection.
- Use questions to help a person articulate what they will do
- Let questions do the heavy lifting.
- Gain commitment from the other person
- What are you willing to give-up to take this step?
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 14, 2021 | Uncategorized |
The last few weeks we have been looking at five shifts to make that will help empower your teenager to become mature, healthy self-led adults. We have looked at Shift #1: Talker to Listener, Shift #2: Center to Side and Shift #3 – Causal Interaction to a Conversation with Purpose. As a reminder, I am not an expert in parenting. But I have learned a thing or two about coaching and helping people take action towards the direction God has designed for them in life and ministry. Also, these five shifts are not limited to parenting. They relate to working with teenagers in youth groups or wherever you’re connecting with people in meaningful ways to help them take the next step on their journey to follow Jesus’ mission for their life. Let me give a bit of background so you have some context.
Shift #4: Creator to Co-Creator
In our last post, I shared that my wife and I attempted to use a coach approach whenever we could while raising our kids. Starting very early, we did our best to listen and ask questions when the situation warranted it, as opposed to telling them what to do all the time. We wanted them to be able to process the world around them for themselves and make their own decisions… while providing guidance when necessary.
This led to some very interesting conversations during their teenage years. One of the most invigorating conversations we shared independently with both kids was the lingering question – “What are you doing upon graduation?” Of course, it was never so eloquent or overt; but part of the answer was that in the case of both kids, college was clearly their next step. At least we understood the vision. Getting down to the goals and action steps were more nuanced depending on which child we are discussing.
Our oldest was a bit more reluctant to enter the college application process. It took a bit more finesse to engage him in setting his goal and action necessary to apply. But apply it he did, and the rest is, well, very cool indeed.
Our youngest was very clear on her goal and how to get there. Not a lot of coaching was necessary until it came to the dreaded “loan tolerance” conversation. Needless to say, I did the heavy lifting running the numbers to reflect on the three options in consideration. She chose wisely. Made the choice that made the most strategic, financially responsible and practical sense.
Below is a simple framework of the things we did to help our teenagers co-create their agenda.
Mini-Shifts:
- Release the need to control the agenda
- Internally, align your agenda with the Holy Spirit’s agenda.
- Allow the other person to set an agenda
- Connect and allow the new disciple to reflect.
- Engage the other person to set the agenda
- Ask: “What do you want at the end that you don’t have now?”
Real – time Actions:
· Ask the your teenager to clarify their “win”.
Below are two opportunities that can help you refine your disciple-coach skills!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
Cost: $250.00
The full package includes the webinar AND triad sessions:
Cost: $475.00
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 9, 2021 | Coach Training |
The last few weeks we have been looking at five shifts to make that will help empower your teenager to become mature, healthy self-led adults. We have looked at Shift #1: Talker to Listener and Shift #2: Center to Side. As a reminder, I am not an expert in parenting. But I have learned a thing or two about coaching and helping people take action towards the direction God has designed for them in life and ministry. Also, these five shifts are not limited to parenting. They relate to working with teenagers in youth groups or wherever you’re connecting with people in meaningful ways to help them take the next step on their journey to follow Jesus’ mission for their life. Let me give a bit of background so you have some context.
Shift #3: Causal Interaction to a Conversation with Purpose
One of the things we did very early with our kids was to use a coach approach whenever we could. Simply put – we used listening and asking questions versus telling. Of course, a parent must tell their child not to touch the hot stove or they can be seriously injured, but on other occasions, if the situation warranted, we tried to apply coaching technology.
This led to some very interesting conversations during their teenage years. Due to the location of our home we had three viable high school options within a 7 minute drive (10 minutes if we were in traffic). Early on in the decision-making process we decided each school was viable, had solid academics and comparable extra-curricular activities. I imagine, these are the primary priorities most parents consider when considering a public school. We had good, healthy and sometimes tense conversations about what school the kids wanted to attend. We agreed that this was a decision the kids would make. We were deliberate, discerning and prayed for wisdom along the way.
I liked the newest campus because it had all the bells and whistles that a new school in 2010 should have. Gina liked another school in particular because they offered the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. However, the kids preferred the largest school of the three: it offered the most dual enrollment courses, had the most Advanced Placement (AP) offerings and they had an amazing principal who was the founding leader with a stellar record. I discovered that dual enrollment credits transfer directly over to college which could save up to a year of tuition (I really appreciated their logic). It wasn’t the most attractive of the three options but it was not in any way deficient – so we went with this option.
Here are the things we did to move from a causal interaction to a conversation with purpose.
Key Question: How can I establish high trust?
Mini-Shifts:
- Build a trusting environment
- Empathy conveys that you feel what the other is feeling
- Adopt a coaching process
- Make their agenda your agenda and help them clarify a step.
- Engage with your teen
- Help them tap into their intrinsic motivation.
Below are two opportunities that can help you refine your disciple-coach skills!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
Cost: $250.00
The full package includes the webinar AND triad sessions:
Cost: $475.00
by Gary Reinecke | Sep 3, 2021 | Coach Training, Disciplemaking |
Recently, we have been looking at five shifts to make that will help empower your teenager to become mature, healthy self-led adults. Last week, we looked at the Shift #1: Talker to listener. Shift two is all about moving from the center of their lives and decision-making to the side. As a reminder, I am not an expert in parenting. But I have learned a thing or two about coaching and helping people take action towards the direction God has designed for them in life and ministry. Also, these five shifts are not limited to parenting. They relate to working with teenagers in youth groups or wherever you’re connecting with people in meaningful ways to help them take the next step on their journey to follow Jesus’ mission for their life. Let me give a bit of background so you have some context.
Shift #2 – Center to Side
One of the things we did very early with our kids was to involve them in sports. When we lived in Phoenix, Gina and I coached their respective “recreation” soccer teams. We lived in the city and the rec leagues were designed for all kids to participate regardless of athletic ability or economic situation. Our son played one summer of T-ball and we asked him not to play again (the summer heat even for an early game was suffocating) and later basketball BTW – both kids are athletic and our son is a very quick learner so new sports came easy for him. They enjoyed sports.
When we relocated to Southern California we graduated from rec leagues to competitive soccer. What the kids gained were nicer uniforms, higher calibre of coaching and players with a bit more skill. What they lost was the fun factor! For me (playing competitive soccer most of my life through my sophomore year in college at a NCAA Div I program) and Gina (elite gymnast and field hockey player in Australia with the additional bonus of studying kinesiology at university) – we had to make a hard decision and consider: Was this about us or the kids?
Our response to that question led us down the path of understanding what we cared about and hoped to instill in our kids. So we made the hard decision to tell the kids that they did not have to play a competitive sport; but in exchange they had to remain active. That meant, regular body movement. We died to ourselves and helped the kids discover activities they were passionate about!
We took ourselves out of the center and moved to the side!
This meant we had to become like Barnabas. What we discovered was that we were able to dedicate the time we had given to all-weekend tournaments and engage with the kids on hikes, camping and exploring various activities like rock climbing, mountain biking and swimming together. Today, they continue to be curious about the outdoors, learning new activities like trail running and walking the streets to explore new parts of the city while testing their skills and levels of fitness with new activities. This was the vision of what we wanted for our kids back when we made the difficult decision of making this about them – not about us.
Here are some of the things we did to make this shift in the way we parented our teenagers.
Key Question: How can I resist the temptation to force my agenda and be attuned to the other person’s agenda?
Mini-Shifts:
- Sacrifice your need to be the center of the conversation
o Make your teenager the focus of the conversation.
- Support your teenager to discover their next step
o Facilitate the discovery of a step for your teen to take responsibility.
- Put your assumptions, opinions, and biases in the background
o Resist the temptation to make judgements and remain curious.
Following are two opportunities that can help you refine your disciple-coach skills!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
Cost: $250.00
The full package includes the webinar AND triad sessions:
Cost: $475.00
by Gary Reinecke | Aug 26, 2021 | Uncategorized |
We are fast approaching the Fall. Some parents are dreading the upcoming school year. Others are relieved. Not too long ago we were parenting our two high school age children through this exciting phase in their development. Today our children are in their early to mid-twenties and together, we have grown into new ways of communicating – both parents and young adults.
I will share five shifts we made when we encountered these dynamic years with our two children. Right off the top; I am not an expert in parenting. But I have learned a thing or two about coaching and helping people take action towards the direction God has designed for them in life and ministry. Second, these five shifts are not limited to parenting. They relate to working with teenagers in youth groups or wherever you’re connecting with people in meaningful ways to help them take the next step on their journey to follow Jesus’ mission for their life. I found that I had a multitude of examples of these shifts while empowering my teenagers to become self-led adults.
Shift #1 – Talker to Listener
One of the things we did very early with our kids was introduce the idea of internships. Whatever their interests were, we connected them with people we knew and respected in that particular field. We had both kids in summer internships by the time they entered high school. This was important for their development because it gave them a sense of responsibility, curiosity and confidence.
To learn about the kids’ interests, we had to be disciplined in our interactions. We forced ourselves not to react when we heard “surprising” developments about what they experienced at school that day with a classmate, or what a teacher said that might have been taken out of context or the latest slang terminology. Instead of reacting we responded with – “tell me more?” Sounds simple. And it is in theory. Try it next time you interact with your teenager.
Our eldest was interested in finance. His first internship was with a real estate broker. The broker saw that our son was a fast learner. By the end of that summer our son had processed the paper-work for a $1million loan (under the watchful eye of the broker). What did this do for our son? He discovered certain parts of the job he enjoyed, others he did not enjoy as much and still others that were necessary but not his passion.
Our youngest wanted to work in a pediatric physical therapy clinic. The children were on a spectrum of mild to severe disabilities. As a young teen, my daughter supported the work of the therapists, and interacted with the patients and parents. Similar to our son, she learned a number of lessons that she stored in her memory banks for her future schooling and career choices.
Bottom line! To get the kids to the place from the conception of an internship it began with a curiosity in the work, which progressed to an interest to the point of taking action. These steps were all necessary and important to enter into a work environment as an intern. Our part – listen to the processing they were going through in their heads until they came to a point of taking action.
Here is a simple framework that helps breakdown Shift #1 – Talker to Listener.
Assume a Listening Posture
Key Question: How can I ignore my tendency to share my wisdom and seek to listen?
Mini-Shifts:
- Take the posture of a learner
o A coach must believe that they don’t know it all.
o Stay in a quiet place while your son or daughter processes what they sense the Holy Spirit is saying to them.
o Actively remain in a non-anxious state
Real – time Actions:
o Without contaminating what your son or daughter is processing
- Ask the other person “Is there more?”
o No other question is needed at this time
Following are two opportunities that can help you refine your disciple-coach skills!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
Cost: $250.00
The full package includes the webinar AND triad sessions:
Cost: $475.00
by Gary Reinecke | Aug 19, 2021 | Disciplemaking |
If you are one of our followers who has taken the Disciple Coach Quiz, processed the results with us and passed it along to your own disciples, you might be wondering what you can do next. How can you utilize your Quiz results even further? Discipleship is a life-long journey, and wherever you are on that path, there is always a next step; a way to grow and bear more fruit, a way to deepen your relationship with God and others.
If you still haven’t taken our FREE Disciple Coach Quiz, CLICK HERE.
For those who are looking for a next step, we are offering a webinar on the 5 habits of a Disciple Coach. This webinar, like our inaugural webinar in November 2020, will be led by InFocus’s Executive Director, Gary Reinecke, and long-time InFocus partner Micah Dodson. This webinar is a great way to follow up on your newfound insights after you have taken the quiz and can help further deepen your understanding of Discipleship and hone in on the habits of a Disciple Coach. We will help you clarify your missional values, activate prayer, make relational connections and strategic partnerships, while learning how to create your own Disciple making Cycle.
Check out the 5 Disciple Coach Habits training coming up October 11 – CLICK HERE!
In addition to the 5-hour webinar, we are also offering personal triad sessions following the webinar. In these sessions Gary or Micah will work closely with you and another Disciple Coach on your team, processing the webinar, working through your personal strengths and weaknesses, and discover your own unique and most effective way of making disciples. These five sessions of fifty-five minutes will help you to develop yourself and the future leaders around you!
5 Disciple Coach Habits webinar – Monday, October 11 from 10-3 PST
Cost: $250.00
The full package includes the webinar AND triad sessions:
Cost: $475.00
by Gary Reinecke | Aug 12, 2021 | Disciplemaking |
God has given us a personal mission to make disciple in our life in our own unique way, however… we don’t need to tackle that mission on our own! The Lord created us to be relational beings. We are meant to help each other strengthen our faith and grow as people. We need each other, especially when it comes to working through our mission. Partnerships keep us on the paths we’re meant to be, pursuing the mission that God gave us. When alone, it is easy to wander and to get distracted or discouraged.
Jesus understood the importance of working with others. He sent His disciples out in pairs to minister together, and encouraged them to debrief their experience when they returned. Jesus understood the importance of learning through experience, obedience and accountability, and knew they needed to learn to rely on each other because he wouldn’t be with them forever. Jesus trusted that they had what they needed to further the mission to make more and better disciples: strategic partnerships with one another and the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 27:17 tells us, “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” We can, and should, rely on each other, trust each other and grow together.
Accountability is essential in making and coaching disciples, and strategic partnerships answer the question: “Who will help me stay on mission?” Finding others around you who are making and coaching disciples as well, can help. Like the original disciples, having a partner to debrief experiences, discuss struggles and, most importantly, hold each other accountable. These relationships provide accountability, with grace, to the important actions that will support the newest disciples on their spiritual journey. Accountability helps the disciple coach keep the main thing the main thing, learn from real experience and stay in motion.
There are many ways to practice accountability. You can practice on your own (a great skill to build, but the hardest to hold yourself to), with a coach and with God.
- Accountability with yourself
- How am I prioritizing life events as a disciple coach?
- What am I not doing that I know I should be doing?
- Accountability with a partner
- What do you do to process missed opportunities as a disciple coach?
- How do you celebrate your progress when you act as a disciple coach?
- What do you do to process setbacks with a disciple when their good intentions don’t produce the intended fruit?
- What progress are you observing with the disciples you are coaching on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis?
- Accountability with God
- What are you learning about God?
- How do you know when you are doing the things God has called you to do as a disciple coach?
If you still haven’t taken our FREE Disciple Coach Quiz, CLICK HERE.
Check out the 5 Disciple Coach Habits training coming up October 11 – CLICK HERE!
by Gary Reinecke | Aug 6, 2021 | Uncategorized |
In Jesus’ ministry, he always met people where they were on their journey towards the Lord. Look at the disciples; before He asked his disciples to follow Him, each disciple was at a different place in their lives and their faith… wherever they were, that is exactly where Jesus started discipling them. He began the discipleship process before they were even aware of it; in the harvest.
We all have our own story of how we came to follow Jesus, and we will have taken different paths to reach where we are today. All our journeys are unique to who God designed us to be; but there are certain critical elements that are always the same in the process; that is the discipleship cycle. We can see clearly that Jesus had a method in his mission to make disciples:
- STEP 1 – “I do – you watch.”
- STEP 2 – “You do – I watch.”
- STEP 3 – “You do – someone else watches.”
Jesus used this simple method to make disciples who made disciples. He understood that everything He did was reproduced in the lives of His disciples from the day he met them. Jesus’ mission was to catalyze disciple making movements through his disciples. He modeled the inner work of being a disciple and the outer work of making disciples. This cycle is the key to multiplying the Kingdom of God. It means we are making disciples that will make disciples, who will make more disciples.
Real-life Journey
My friend Glenn shared the following about his journey:
I have several friends that I consider to be accountability partners. They help me grow in my faith and hold myself to the standards that God would want of me. We spend a lot of our focus on discipleship and how to become better disciple coaches. As I became more aware of, and committed to, developing relationships with people who don’t yet have a spiritual connection with Christ, we were thrilled to see people growing in faith and being added to our discipleship group. It was exciting to see this progress, yet although this process was reproducible, our efforts were only additive. We shifted our approach to the framework of a “cycle” and are now seeing our efforts multiply. For example, one of our initial group members is branching out to start a Hispanic discipleship team, reaching a group of people that would be almost impossible for me to reach. It is exciting to see where the multiplication effect takes us next!
Reflection Questions:
- Who have you shared your disciple-making cycle with in the last 90 days?
- If you haven’t shared your disciple-making cycle recently, what is getting in the way?
- What changes do you need to make to your disciple-making cycle?
- How transferable is your discipleship cycle?
- Who have you discipled that is using your cycle with other disciple coaches?
- What elements need to be refined further or added to make your cycle more transferable?
If you still haven’t taken our FREE Disciple Coach Quiz, CLICK HERE.
Check out the 5 Disciple Coach Habits training coming up October 11 – CLICK HERE!
