Coaching and the christian faith

I finished reading Coaching For Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide by Linda Miller and Chad Hall. I found it a very good refresher, and thought I would share a few snippets here and there. For today, they share in the introduction some ways that coaching relates to the Christian faith. This is from p. 4...

Coaching squares with orthodox Christian theology and provides a powerful expression of Christian faith -- one that impacts the world for kingdom good. Coaching is a real-life means of living out the Christian faith according to six core Christian beliefs.

1. Meaning. Acknowledging that the here and now holds meaning. Christian coaching brings a redemptive power to the present. Coaching affirms life as a moving, memorable, and meaningful story and seeks to help individual believers align the stories of their lives with the narratives toward which God is directing them.

2. Potential. Coaching affirms that God has created each person with enormous general and specific potential that is intended to be released. Coaches care genuinely and work tirelessly to germinate and grow the potential of those they coach. Christian coaches invest relational energy in helping people discern and live into their God-given potential.

3. Sanctification. Coaches are in the "sanctification" business. Believers are on a journey toward "saintliness" - not a state of holiness that removes people from the everyday and mundane, but a commitment to walking through life according to the will and ways of Jesus. Coaches help people move forward, exploring challenges and opportunities of life and shifting behaviors and attitudes towards heaven.

4. Action. Christians believe the material world is the dwelling place of the spiritual. Coaching encourages people to reflect on what is true and to act in new ways based on this reflective encounter with truth. Christian coaches want people to take intentional action determined from thoughtful consideration of reality, possibilities, barriers, opportunities, and outcomes. The coaching relationship creates space for a person being coached to slow down, become focused, and think through the personal journey of life.

5. Stewardship. Coaching supports the Christian belief of stewardship by giving positive attention to the results of a life lived with intention. A part of God's intention is that each individual bear fruit. Coaching invests attention in exploring the results a person is getting, the level of satisfaction with the results, and how poor results can be a doorway into investigating habits, attitudes, beliefs, and actions that produce the results.

6. Relationships. The relational nature of coaching reflects the heart of the Christian faith. Coaching is a relationship that fertilizes, nurtures, and even sometimes prunes so that people can live well and bear fruit. A coach is similar to the biblical term paraclete, one who comes alongside to assist. Christ used this term to describe the Holy Spirit, who would be a Helper for God's people as they moved through and toward life. The coaching relationship encourages coaches to be used by God in the paraclete role for others.