What is your vision to cultivate leaders?
Every church should have a leadership development system. Even if that system is currently working, it needs to be assessed regularly to meet changing needs. Here are the basics that every leadership development system should have...

Written By Gary Reinecke

ICF Master Certified Coach, Resource Designer, Mission Strategist : InFocus
Churches that have a vision to cultivate leaders demonstrate four keys to spot, train and mobilize leaders. Here are the four areas that churches cultivate for successful leadership development:

  1. Clearly defined pathway and outcomes
  2. Specific skill assessment and training
  3. Robust coaching system
  4. Community to cultivate relationships

Clearly defined pathway with outcomes

clearly defined destination and pathway to get there

Every journey needs a map. To cultivate leaders, it is healthy for everyone to know the steps involved and for each individual to understand where they are at any given time.  Think back to your journey.  

  • Who came alongside you?
  • What steps were involved?
  • How was the invitation given?

Not sure where to start? The Effective Leadership Storyboard is a pathway that churches of all kinds typically follow. You can adapt this process or use it as a base and customize for your context.Look at the Effective Leadership Storyboard below as a pathway that churches of all kinds typically follow.

Specific skill assessment and training

Think with the end in mind: what are the key skills that you need to help leaders develop?  

  • Gather a team of leaders who think strategically.
  • Brainstorm a list of essential skills needed to lead.
  • Refine that list until you and your team come to an agreement.

Consider the Leadership Skill Builder and Leadership Effectiveness Profile as resources to assess and help leaders grow their leadership skills.

Robust coaching system

Coaching is a relationship with the purpose of cultivating leaders.  

  • What did the person who came alongside you do to support you in your development?  
  • How has this shaped your approach to developing leaders?
  • What do you actually do to cultivate leaders?

In this article, we have outlined the five best ways to develop coaches – and to grow as a coach in the process. A great place to get started is to read Christian Coaching Essentials.  One of the most critical things a Christian coach does is help people listen and respond to the Holy Spirit. You will find QR codes embedded in the book to help you go deeper into the key aspects of becoming an excellent coach.

But if your vision is to raise-up an army of coaches to walk alongside leaders, check-out the Barnabas Ministry Training Kit – CLICK HERE!

Community to cultivate relationships

This environment prioritizes leadership development for your people. Think of it as the engine for the other three above!

  • Coaching keeps leaders engaged.   
  • Skill assessment and training offer strategic focus.  
  • A pathway serves as a map to follow.  

The environment sustains leaders from one step to the next, one generation to the next. 

Photo by Kayla Duhon on Unsplash

Cover Photo by Tobias Mrzyk on Unsplash

Discover the 5 Best Ways to Grow as a Coach

You are busy with many other responsibilities. How can you take your coaching to the next level instead of just continuing to dabble in coaching? We can help you discover a clear path to move forward in your journey toward coaching excellence.

Accelerate Your Journey to Become the Best Coach You Can Be

By Robert E. Logan and Gary B. Reinecke

You aren’t willing to settle for just okay—not when your calling is as important as empowering others through coaching. But how can you accurately gauge your own effectiveness? Why not try an informed approach to coach development? Instead of working harder, work smarter.

Coaching through chaos  

Change is happening at lightning speed. It’s hard for leaders to keep up and stay on mission. Coaching is more important than ever.

Too many ways to grow as a coach? Try this instead.

You have all these areas you want to grow in as a coach. But you know if you try to do everything at once, you won’t be able to do any one thing well. It can feel overwhelming. How can you go about making genuine, lasting change in your coaching skills? Here’s a way to slow down enough to make sense of the chaos and start putting the pieces together. 

Coaching Leaders to Build Team Unity

The most vocal of the political divisions within many churches may have died down at this point, but it’s still pretty black and white out there with little room for constructive conversation. One of the best ways for leaders to fight division is by modeling unity.

5 Steps to Increase Ability to Focus

There’s a lot going on in the world. Everything is designed to get your attention and there is very little that you can do anything about. It’s stressful and frustrating and makes it hard to focus. But focus you must and so must your coaching clients.

Help Ministry Leaders Make the Most of their Online Presence

Everything thing is done online these days and it’s not always good. But that is where people go first so its important your ministry leaders get it right. Here are 5 ways to make the most of online ministry.

The Essential Skill of Mental Flexibility

The world just keeps getting more complex. It’s hard to keep up. Mental flexibility is more important than ever. The good news is that mental flexibility is a skill that can be taught and honed. Here’s how…

Coaching leaders in times of rapid change and transition

The last few weeks have demonstrated a key principle of change: Change happens FAST, transition is slow. It takes time to understand what has changed, to develop new rhythms, and to build the new normal. These are not easy transitions. With a few waves of a pen, the world has undoubtedly been thrust into a season of transition. And the changes are far from over.

7 Questions to Boost Creativity

Has your client been doing the same events for years even though they are getting diminishing results? They are in a ministry rut. Here are 7 questions you can ask to boost creativity for more effective ministry. 

When Your Coaching Client is Wounded

Sometimes new—or old—wounds hold clients back. Here is what you can do to help and what to do when you can’t.

Coaching Through Decision Fatigue

The world is changing at breakneck speed. For many ministry leaders, new innovations are seen as roadblocks to their mission and vision. Constantly navigating around them is exhausting. Here is how you help those leaders keep moving forward.

Drilling down for insight

Giving feedback is a learned skill.  Helping someone grow in this area can be a game changer. But you must slow down and remain present and ask reflective questions.

Building Cultural Awareness for Effective Coaching

If you are working to make your coaching client list more diverse, the best place to start is with a refresher in cultural sensitivity

Coaching for Resourcing 

Fighting a scarcity mindset by helping clients see God’s provision.

A Military Strategy for Coaching Ministries?

Big changes are needed to halt the decline of the Church in America. However, even small changes can be met with heavy resistance. Many pastors have tried to implement healthy changes and admit that it feels almost impossible. Here is a strategy that might help.

The Organized Coach

If you are coaching more than a handful of people, you know it can get hard to track all the moving parts. Here’s how you can keep it all organized.

Helping clients define discipleship

Here’s a great exercise I picked up from Dave DeVries. If your client wants to make not just disciples, but disciplemakers– people who can make other disciples– here is an exercise to try… 

Avoiding vision whiplash 

If your coaching client’s ministry is constantly evolving their staff and congregation may be experiencing vision whiplash—and it’s painful. Here’s how to help…

What to do when your client is stuck 

You have a coaching client who just isn’t moving forward on their goals. It happens to all of us. These 7 principles will help you troubleshoot and realign to gain momentum.

Before you give up on your coaching ministry

Something feels off in your coaching ministry. Attendance is down, excitement has waned, things feel stuck and you’re wondering if it’s just not going to work. Before you close up shop read this.

 Revitalizing energy for coaching

If you aren’t seeing results, your energy for coaching will become depleted. Let’s look at how well you are empowering the people you are working with.

Choosing the right coach

Many—if not most—of the people who have tried coaching and say it doesn’t work have all made the same mistake: they chose the wrong coach.

An Exercise to Define Your Ideal Client

Whether you are just starting your coaching practice or you have been at it for a long time – knowing your ideal client is so very important.

How to tell if you are a great coach

Anyone can say they’re a great coach. In fact, read through coach bios online and it sounds like they all are great. But you know that’s not always the case. How can you know where you really stand?

What sets you apart from other coaches? 

What makes you unique as a coach? Hint: It’s not your area of expertise.

Principles for a thriving staff

Senior Pastors carry the responsibility to guide their church toward healthy growth. It’s a big red flag if their staff is failing to thrive. 

How is your follow-up question game?

You know that good coaching requires good questions—and you may already be good at asking those. But what about follow-up questions? Even those with strong coaching skills can sometimes fall short when it comes to a skill commonly called piggy-backing. 

How to Make Change Stick

As a coach, you know change is hard. That’s why people need the help of a coach when making real change stick.

Working with Clients to Declutter Time

Spring is here… and so is spring cleaning! But have you ever thought of spring cleaning applied not just to your house and garage but to your time? Your calendar? Your list of responsibilities?