by Michael Sove
I have experienced the truth of what Jim Egli’s research says about the importance of a coach to the overall health of a cell/small group ministry.
He says, “My research involved 3000 small groups in 200 churches. The findings clearly demonstrated the most important factor for long-term success with small groups: the participative coaching of small group leaders.”
I want to expand this to include all leaders from the Senior pastor to the Cell champion (if the church has one) to the coaches themselves as well as the cell leaders and those being groomed as future leaders. In short “Everyone Needs a Coach.”
This past week I have seen coaching at every level in our church.
This week I, the Cell champion, and the Senior pastor were involved in a conference call with Joel Comiskey who functions as one of our outside coaches.
The Senior pastor met with the staff, who are all involved in cells, and we talked about guests from the weekend services and people who we are tracking for ninety days in our system.
Tonight the Senior pastor and I met with all our coaches and went over our coaching structure as well as handing out the stats for the last few weeks.
For the next few days I will be meeting with some of the cell leaders and coaches that I’m responsible for and part of what we’ll talk about is the people they are developing.
Next week all our leaders and coaches will gather for our monthly “vision, huddle and skill†time where more mutual ministry will take place and leaders will be lavished with encouragement.
Everyone needs a coach and no one can survive and thrive without one. The beauty of coaching is that it mutually benefits both parties. Today I received a call from one of my cell leaders who was aware of one of my needs. He wanted to see how I was doing and how he could pray for me.
When thinking of coaching, don’t focus only on your cell leaders, “Everyone Needs a Coach.” Think through all the levels in your system and make sure no one is overlooked when it comes to coaching relationships.
Have you found coaching to be the most important component to the long-term success of your cell system?
Michael
In the past we found it was difficult to find deacons/deaconesses for the celebration side of the cell/church. When we introduced coaching there too, we found more people willing to step out for ministry in this area.