Coach with Confidence

 Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

For you as a church planter, how has the experience of planting a first generation church been different from the experience of helping others plant second-generation churches?  What has been your experience?

When a new church planter sets out to plant a first generation church, he or she begins with prayer. In my experience, much of my prayer life as a first–generation church planter revolved around the simple phrase, “Lord, help me.”  I would pray, “Lord, help me to find people receptive to the Good News. Lord, help me share the Gospel well.  Lord, help me be sensitive to the needs of the people I am talking to. Lord, help me to understand them and Lord, please help them to understand me.”

And the Lord did help me and the ones I was working with.  Men and women came to faith in Christ; we started a church. Then we began to work on the planting of second-generation churches.  This is a very different experience. Now our prayer life changes.  Our prayer becomes, “Lord help him or Lord help her. Lord help my second generation church planter.”  This is a huge change. It is a change that some first-generation church planters fail to make.  They may pray, “Lord help him.” But then they step in to carry out the ministry that the second–generation church planter should be doing.  Instead of equipping and releasing the second-generation church planter for ministry, some first-generation church planters step in and take on the responsibilities that should truly be carried out by their disciple.  Have you ever done this?  I know I have.  I would say to myself. “I will just help him a little more until in the future he can do this ministry without my help.” But I wasn’t really equipping the second-generation church planter.  I was doing his work for him.  This is no good.  If we do this, we fail to develop more workers for God’s harvest field.

As first-generation church planters, when we are tempted to do the work that is the responsibility of our second-generation church planting disciple, that should be a signal to us that we need to stop what we are doing and begin coaching.

Coaching is the ongoing process of asking open questions to help other people make wise decisions.

Coaches empower others by helping them set achievable goals. They ask, “What do you want to achieve this month in you church planting ministry? Coaches empower others by helping them see clearly the true situation where they are working.  Coaches ask “What is happening with the people you are serving?” Coaches use open questions to help other people identify a variety of options to achieve their goals.  They ask, “What are some steps you could take to move forward to reach your goal for this month?” Finally, coaches ask “What will you do?” When they hear what their disciple plans to do, good coaches hold him or her accountable to do what they said they would do.

So here is my word of encouragement for first generation church planters: You can coach with confidence. Don’t do for second-generation church planters they work they themselves should do. Use open questions to help your disciples make wise church planting plans. Then pray for them saying, “Lord help them to do what you have put in their hearts to do.”

This has been “Multiply.” And I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today?

 

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