Coaching Missional Communities – The Gospel Foundation

I am in a series of posts on coaching, specifically as it applies to missional communities. The posts in this series are:

• Philosophy of Coaching
• The Gospel and Coaching
• Coaching Questions
• Who Coaches?

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The Gospel and Coaching

Practically speaking, we utilize two primary tools to guide our coaching time, but we are always driving towards the gospel and obedience to Jesus.

The first tool we equip our coaches with is the “Missional Community Roadmap”.

We remind them that issues of obedience are most often ultimately rooted much deeper in the heart, and therefore we need to understand how to approach those issues.  A problem with the implementation of our practices could be as simple as a failure of communication or lack of experience, but more often than not, those shortcomings contain a depth of complexity.

Therefore, when coaches here of problems within missional communities, we help them work through a process of identifying the problem in obedience, then asking questions about values, which flow from motivations, which are produced by the work of God through the gospel.

The chart above is the visual process that we provide for our coaches to help them understand how to go from a practical issue in missional community life back to the gospel foundation.

For example, if a leader is having trouble getting a group to practice a Third Place regularly, it’s likely that they do not value the declaration of the gospel, and are lacking motivation to love those outside the community of faith.

Rather than simply saying “try harder to engage Third Place”, we are able to help a leader or community repent of their lack of love for the lost, and rejoice in the good news of Jesus’ perfect work on their behalf.

Effective coaching keeps skills in view, but diagnoses problems and provides tangible steps that are sourced in the gospel.