Category: Training

I frequently refer to SEND U as SEND’s training department, although I realize that training is also only part of what it means to “equip SEND missionaries and leaders to more effectively mobilize God’s people and engage the unreached in order to establish reproducing churches.”  The other half of what we do in SEND U, and a major focus of me personally is coaching.  The byline of our newsletter says “BY COACHING AND TRAINING, WE EQUIP MISSION LEADERS TO EFFECTIVELY MOBILIZE THEIR TEAMS TO ENGAGE THE UNREACHED AND ESTABLISH REPRODUCING CHURCHES.”  Are coaching and training two separate assignments or are they somehow related?  I see training and coaching as two complementary “hands,” both needed to develop our membership to accomplish our mission.  In fact, training becomes much more effective when combined with coaching.  An article in Public Personal Management analyzes the impact of a managerial training program.  They found that… Read the whole post

Why am I so convinced that coaching is valuable for missionaries? Primarily because of how much coaching helped me at a time in my life and ministry when I was frustrated and felt that I had plateaued and was no longer growing. Back in 2007, I contacted Dr. Keith Webb in Singapore about some questions I had about coaching missionaries.  I was trying to “coach” a church planting team in FER, but I had no real idea what that meant. Rather than just “tell” me what a coach does, Keith graciously offered to “show” me by coaching me for the next 6 months. That coaching experience proved to be the most significant learning experience of my past 15 years of mission leadership. I believe that I learned more about leadership in those six months, than I had previously learned from any book, seminar or even the graduate classes on leadership… Read the whole post

During the summer, my coaching load went way down, but new coaching series are beginning in fall.  I am pleased to report that during the second quarter of 2010 (April – June), SEND missionaries were coached a total of at least 120 hours.  These are formal coaching hours that were reported to me, and I know there is more coaching going on within SEND than just this.  But according to my records, 33 different SEND missionaries were being coached during those 3 months.  A year ago, the total number of coaching hours and the number of missionaries being coached was about half of what it is today.   So SEND International is headed in the right direction!   In an organization of our size, if 25% of its membership was being coached at any one time, and coaching was happening twice a month, the quarterly totals of coaching hours would be over… Read the whole post