I’ve noticed an interesting trend in church planting recently. An increasing number of sending organizations are offering coaching as part of their planter support package. I’m seeing this across a wide variety of denominations—from Anglican to Vineyard.
And why not? For significantly less than the cost of health insurance, you can see a 30% to 50% increase in productivity. Just as it makes sense to try to keep your planters healthy physically, it makes sense to do what we can to help them be healthy personally, spiritually, and in their ministries.
When a resource so greatly enhances the output, it makes an incredible amount of sense to provide that resource. It’s not an expense—it’s an investment.
One young planter’s strengths are evident: charisma, competency, and a heart for God. He spends his coaching time working on increasing his capacity as a leader. How can he develop others? How can he make a broader impact and empower more people? His coach comes alongside him to help him increase his leadership capacity. Coaching increases productivity by increasing the results of those being coached.
One word of caution to groups who want to implement coaching for their planters: separate the coaching role from the supervisory role. Even under the best circumstances, it’s difficult to share freely with someone who is also your supervisor. And in a church planting context, where the planter’s income is usually tied to results and where the supervisor is responsible for making sure those results happen, it’s almost impossible. If you want your planters to brainstorm freely, to experiment, to have a safe place to share their struggles and doubts, give them a coach who doesn’t also have the power to fire them.
More and more ministry organizations are seeing the value of providing coaching for their planters. Is your organization one of them? If you have a vision for powerful coaching, let’s talk!
