Pre-Conference Coaching Forum Notes

Before the conference even started yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a coaching forum to talk about coaching strategies, tactics, and issues. The forum was led by some of the country’s top small group coaching strategists, Greg Bowman, Mike Hurt, and Dave Auda. Here are my notes:

-Every leader needs encouragement and support.
– Consider using the term “branching” instead of “launching” and “birthing.”
– We need people who are 100% focused on group life.
– Coaches should schedule out relational meetings to make sure they happen.
– When recruiting coaches, consider having people over for diner to eat, play Cranium, and talk a little about coaching. Don’t necessarily use this as an opportunity to ask them to coach, but instead to ask them to pray about coaching.
– Make sure that the structure serves the people and not the people serving the structure.
– Get the right mind set from your coaches.
– Coaches should do group visits to remind people that the group is part of the church and to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s really happening in group life. A coaches first group visit should be in a social setting.

– Jesus strategy from Luke 9:1-9 – JUST GO!
– Jesus strategy from Luke 10:1-23 – JUST GO!
– We need to have a missional mindset about our groups.
– People need to be aware of the lost people in their lives.
– Mosaic is doing something cool with their coaching strategy. They are teaming up 3 coaches to oversee a larger group of small group leaders. The team should provide a pastoral (care/spiritual development) role, a catalytic (connectedness) role, and an assimilative (vision to save the lost) role. This strategy minimizes burnout, minimizes blind spots, maximizes synergy of spiritual gifts and strengths, and is more fun!

– Coaches need to be in community!
– We have to be flexible.
– It’s not going to be the same formula everywhere.
– Don’t minimize the power of prayer.

I know this is somewhat of a hodgepodge, but I have to say that this forum was far more valuable than I expected. I am so excited to wrestle through some of this still.

Stay tuned…