While there may be certain differing viewpoints to that question, it’s still a key question that should be answered – at least by anyone who identifies as a Christian Coach.
Deuteronomy 5:32 (NLT) – So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD your God, following his instructions in every detail.”
One: As Christian coaches, we focus on helping our clients to significantly accelerate their development as a Christian professional. We are not therapists, counselors, or even mentors. We are highly trained coaches with the skills, background, and professional credentials to help those we work with to realize the results they want around the unlimited scope of God’s truth. We focus on helping our clients to increase their impact and improve their results. We work to ensure our clients will take positive actions that help them move from where there are today – to a place in the future that’s aligned with God’s calling for their life.
Two: As Christian coaches, we expect great things from those we coach. We’re not going solve all of their problems, but we will work hard to help each person solve their own problems. We don’t coddle, make excuses, provide pity, or blame others. Instead, we engage our clients in a rigorous process of honest self-assessment, personal exploration, and the formation of a highly committed action plan. We invest in our clients, so they will invest in themselves.
Three: As Christian coaches, we work with our clients to build the kingdom of God on earth. We are intensely interested in the successes of our Christian brothers and sisters because those successes reach beyond this world. We are guided to help them reach past what’s considered average or normal – in order to impact the culture and frame “God’s will be done” in whatever they do. We help them move past certain much-loved behaviors and even some well-worn practices, in order to move into the next chapter of their life and success.
Four: As Christian coaches, we are fierce advocates for our clients. From confronting assumptions to identifying unused talents to building a vision for the future, we love our clients with a spiritual fire. We serve them with an unwavering faith, believing in their potential, even if at times they don’t believe it themselves. We recognize that God designed them for good and as such, we help our clients tap into God’s design so great things come forward.
Five: As Christian coaches, we confront our Christian clients when they want to sell themselves short, diminish the reality of “Christ in them”, or when they want to settle for mediocrity. We help them visualize their future in order to grow into higher levels of performance or accomplishments. We help our clients experiment with new ideas and stretch them out of their comfort zone. We ask the right questions, so they can reframe ideas, build relationships, and recognize the Lord’s hand in their multiple experiences.
Six: As Christian coaches, we tell our clients things that others will not. We help them reflect in order to build spiritual self-awareness to become more of what God designed them to be. We help them hear the raw unvarnished feedback that’s needed for their continued growth. We bring an ongoing sense of God’s word to the relationship in order to help them be set free.
Seven: As Christian coaches, we rarely provide advice or recommendations. We recognize that the best advice is the advice that’s generated from within the client and from the Holy Spirit that’s at work within them to be creative, resourceful, and insightful. We walk with our clients, challenging, encouraging, confronting, provoking, and affirming – always with faith that our client has the ability to chart their own course as a Christian putting God first.
Eight: As Christian coaches, we don’t provide easy answers. We don’t push a singular program or product saying that each person must take a certain five steps, adhere to some special program, take only this assessment, and then suddenly, everything will be easy, comfortable, and lucrative. Instead, with help from the Holy Spirit, we ask some of the most important questions they will ever need to answer.
Nine: As Christian coaches, we will, at times, have dangerous conversations with our client. We ask question from a wide range of issues, sometimes making coaching feel a little “un-safe.” We believe that God is continually pushing His people to reach their God-given potential and that means there will be times when small and insignificant issues get burned away allowing for the more important spiritual issues to come to the front. We embrace those key conversations where passions are renewed, failures are forgiven, legacies are planned, relationships are reframed, and careers are redirected.
Great Christian coaching might be described as one of the world’s most constructive, deliberate, confronting, effective, and ongoing conversations that a man or woman of God might have. As Christian coaches, we serve God’s people in their movement from dependence on the world to independence around the promises of God.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Rich Weigel has an extensive background in leadership with over twenty years leading school districts. In addition to being a credentialed Leadership and Visioneering coach, he has been an adjunct professor five times in various universities teaching Strategic Leadership, Business Ethics, and Educational Leadership. He and his team provide support, coaching, and professional development for teams and leaders in schools and businesses around the country. Rich has served as CCNI’s President since January 2020. He can be reached at proedcoach@gmail.com.
