Leaders Need Coaches

To Lead you must constantly be a learner. One of the best ways to learn is to get a mentor-coach who does what you want to do. Simple enough. Pray. Search. And find someone who is doing with God-honoring excellence, what you want to do.

Leaders have to find great mentor-coaches: 1) Mentor = someone who has gone ahead and pours back in (to you) and 2) Coach = someone who draws alongside and draws out the best that is in you. God must be at the center of the whole thing.

I lead a church. I lead in two para-church organizations. People trust me. They look to me to know where we are going. Newcomers in our church want to know if I am worthy of following. The leaders who serve with me are looking to me to see if I know how to lead them. I need to be close to God. And, as Proverbs indicates, I need the best mentor-coaches (advisors) I can get.

That’s why I have always sought out the best possible coaches - Jim Griffith (Griffith Coaching), Thom Rainer (now CEO of LifeWay), Bob Logan (CoachNet.org), and for the last 1.5 years, Jim Putman. Check out www.reallifeministries.org. Yes, they have gone from Zero to 8,000 in eight years – and they are all in small groups. Putman is the sharpest church leader that I know. He knows more about Jesus' style leadership than all the experts. What a gift to have him as my coach.

Recently my church has needed me to become an expert in incarnationl-missional stuff. The Forgotten Ways describes it. Church Planters need my best too – so, God has blessed me with Alan Hirsch as one of my new coaches. So far, he is sharp, in a cool, artsy way. He will help me be a better leader.

Leaders Need Coaches.

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