Reflections and resources for lifelong learning for missionaries
There is a lot of emphasis on coaching and facilitating in mission circles today. And rightly so - these are great tools! Teaching often does not get much space at the table though. It seems to escape everyone's notice that those who advocate coaching and facilitating are in fact teaching. Teaching is frequently caricatured as …
Continue reading A Time for Teaching?
In three previous blog posts, I have been talking about crucible experiences (trials, or in other words, painful and stressful life or work circumstances) and the role they have in transforming us. But as I have noted, difficult life experiences in themselves do not refine us. Our response to the crucible experiences of life and …
Continue reading Processing crucibles with the help of others
In our mission organization, we provide a coach for all of our new missionaries at the mid-point of their first term. This coach meets with the new missionary for a total of 6 times over a 3-month period to help them walk through the process of doing a self-assessment of their spiritual, physical, emotional …
Recently, I have been thinking about the difference between training and development. Both are important, SEND U is committed to both, but they are different. As Steve Moore said in a recent Missio Nexus webinar, training is oriented around the needs of the organization, while development is oriented around the needs of the individual. Let …
By: Ted Szymczak A second yet related way in which Christian coaching can be helpful in our missionary and church planting ministry is that it helps draw out what the Holy Spirit has put into the hearts and minds of those we coach. As Dr. Keith Webb says in the Coaching Workshop participant manual: The …
Continue reading How can coaching enhance my ministry? (Part 2)
At the beginning of April Bertha and I, together with Ted Szymczak, travelled to Spain and facilitated another Coaching Workshop. The workshop was full, with 24 participants from six different mission agencies, serving in six different countries. A large percentage of the coaching workshop is devoted to giving the participants opportunities to practice coaching …
Continue reading A coaching culture in a mission organization?
In SEND U, we have been promoting coaching as a means of personal development, and as a help for those in mission leadership. But coaching is also used extensively in supporting church planters, and this was the context that first sparked my interest in coaching back in 2007. The following article comes from the …
