Is Coaching Biblical?
We live in a society that if your going to accomplish something great, it has to be done on your own. Like somehow accomplishments shouldn’t be celebrated unless you did it yourself. Our culture tells us it’s every person for themselves, pick yourself back up, and you just have to work harder. That just isn’t biblical.
Biblical examples:
We can see many examples in scripture that point to how coaching was the norm.
Coaching recognizes that God uses people differently. God doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all mold that he uses for his people. What one person is called to do isn’t often the same as what another person’s calling is: “As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’” (Mark 5:18-19)
Coaching provides a way of contextualizing the gospel for your community. We weren’t designed to serve alone. We need others to be a sounding board and bounce ideas off one another. “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Coaching moves people toward maturity and offers accountability. Instead of simply telling people what to do, coaching helps people mature in their gifts. This promotes growth in responsibility and in leadership. Coaching provides the accountability for people to move forward into what they have decided to do. “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). Coaching is a focused relationship that helps people continue to move forward.
Coaching parallels the method of Jesus. Jesus listened and asked questions in the context of relationships, allowing them to draw their own conclusions and allowing them to decide how to act: “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’” (Matt. 16:13-16).
Now these aren’t the only things people can draw from scripture, but it offers good insight on what coaching can offer.
Leaders are not superheroes, and we should never get down on ourselves if we are not like other leaders we know. What coaching does is help strengthen in the ways where we find ourselves the weakest. It’s about coming alongside and empowering for wherever God is leading. Coaching is not telling you what to do, it’s helping you follow God’s call with confidence.
Coaching often seems like a foreign concept, but coaching leaders is much like a sports arena. Through strategy, walking through ideas, and encouragement coaching all around is to support what the coachee is doing and striving to see them thrive.