Video Transcript - Coaching in the Presence of God

Henry - So we're back, and today we're going to talk about coaching in the presence of God. 

Steve - Objectives. Recognize God's presence as central to coach. Shift from performance to presence, practice, awareness, prayer and worship within sessions. 

Henry - Okay, so what it means to coach in God's presence, 

Steve - you are not alone. 

Henry - God is always working. So that's we've talked about, that, how it's you're the coach, there's the client, there's two, but there's more than two. God is always sitting at the table. You know, when I used to do marriage counseling and so on, I would try to get people to see that that I'm sitting here. You two are sitting here, but God is sitting here. And when you two pray together and read the Bible together, you're inviting God to sit at the table with you. And when you have God sitting at the table with you, it's really hard to be picky about that other person. You know, when you pray together at the end of the day, let's say you pray at the end of the day together, and you know, you're upset about something, and now you invite God to sit there, it's hard for you to start saying things like, how come you didn't make me anything? How come you? Yeah, how come this? How come that God is sitting there, knowing who you are, knowing who that person is, knows the truth. And when you invite God to sit there, you become more humble, more honest about your own role and things, and more forgiving. I mean, everything changes with that sense of God's presence. And we've seen that is, and we live it when two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. You are joining a holy moment, not leading it. Now, get that God is leading it, right, right? I mean, that's, that's a profound thought. God has a plan, and we're part of it, and we're not so the ones that make it happen here, even though we're trusting a process, we're trusting a methodology, we have boundaries, it is still God who changes the heart and who's with right, letting God take the lead, begin a recession with internal surrender. 

Steve - Wow, yeah. Well, hey, we try to do that at church, right? We have an opening prayer maybe. And this is basically what we're saying. Holy Spirit guide us with this time. Let, let us. Let us do things that help in our relationship with you, that teach us, guide us, lead us. 

Henry - And we do see that there's like, beautiful songs that talk about that the goodness of God, you know your goodness is coming. You know, I surrender now, yeah, even as a surrender word in there, like we're actually saying, you know, your goodness is running after it's running after me, you know, so then, you know, I lay it down. I surrender all you know that in there's other songs, and we know this in worship, that when our wills are surrendered, our coaching session is surrendered and asked the Holy Spirit to guide that this time that we have together, trust that your role is to listen, not control. Now we've talked about this earlier in the session, so we're in a lot of ways, bringing things back as we continue this session. The ministry of presence, calm, attentive, unhurried, listening becomes worship. Silence becomes sacred. Tears become offerings. We still know that I am God, spiritual attunement, since God is movement in the session, where where is where truth is stirring, what emotions, what emotion is surfacing, what invitation, invitation is present. Discipleship grows in awareness. 

Steve - I think in some ways, in this session, we're basically we've talked about all the different things, yes, steps, and all these different aspects of coaching. And with this session, I guess we're underlining the spiritualness of that, that God is at the center of all of this, that we're not just, it's not just a ministry science, yes, that there's that thing going on that sometimes is even mysterious. What you can have a session with someone and and you're all like, what happened? Right? What happened here? We Yeah, because again, we actually take God's presence at the table seriously. We believe that he's here, that his spirit is here, and we're looking for it. We invite it. We want 

Henry - it. We want it. We invite it in coaching as a sake. at space. Turn conversations into altars. Speak scripture over pain. Invite prayer in the moment that I think that will be felt through your 

Steve - path. I think that's a good point. Invite prayer. It doesn't have a lot of times. You know, both of us were raised in a denomination that was very ordered, yes, and I remember going fishing with a guy in my first church. He took me ice fishing His name was Wayne. Wayne, he takes me ice fishing. I'm not a real ice Fisher, but he, he took me ice fishing, and we got on the ice and he had this big motor with a big screw thing that you drill out a hole. And before he turned that on. He just, without telling me, he didn't say anything. He just looked up to heaven and said, God, it's just a great day to be here with my friend. Here's Steve, and we're fishing Amen. He started that motor, and I was used to people say, let's begin with prayer a little probably ammo a little like because here at the beginning of the service is where prayer is a beginning of a counseling session. You might have a prayer at the end, you might have one, but this is saying it could come anytime, right? Anytime? 

Henry - Wow. Your role is a holy steward. You don't carry the outcome. You carry the moment. Oh, steward the sacred. Speak with reverence, pray without pressure. You 

Steve - know, in a way we if you know, I wish I knew that these were sort of the points that that maybe I could be following when I became a minister like this is what a Minister he wasn't really pointed out to me that I am a steward. Yeah, we had 

Henry - really no idea what we were doing, in some ways, when we left seminary right, 

Steve - right, I didn't know I was a steward of the sacred right. Just even that thought like, what is sacred? What is sacredness? What is you know, what does that even mean? What? How am I the like we are the the keepers of the holy things. I mean, it used to be, you know, back in the, you know, middle ages, they were keepers of the relics. You know, that the church should keep them relics and so on. The chaplains of the relics. There were things you could hold on to where the keeper of the Bibles, and they're hidden, and they're encased in these beautiful leather bound things. But now what we're saying is the sacred is that silence is this session, is this relationship, is this little prayer that we're going to this is a sacred moment when I say, let's pray together, right? Yeah, that's powerful 

Henry - examples of God's presence at work. A client says, I've never told anyone this, yeah, a tear breaks through the silence, a prayer brings peace, a scripture comes alive. These are signs that you are coaching at holy ground in we have seen this experience it over and over and over again, you know, some people will say like, you know, we're witnessing to so many people our lives, you know. And I was talking to one that I brought up earlier about this atheist who's moved over to agnostic. Tonight, I talked to him after we were done for the day, and he started talking about stuff. And what is fascinating is that he said, You know, there's something here. I just don't know what it is yet, right, right, you know? And I, I mean, I'm agnostic, but I used to be, there's nothing here, right, right? But, you see, it's, again, the keeper 

Steve - of the sacred, right? You invited him into the sacred and he doesn't, not sure what it is so powerful. 

Henry - So, you know, it really comes down to this belief that whoever we talk to God is with you, and we bring that in a sense, this is the chat a chaplain type of role. 

Steve - Surely the Lord is in this place, in the counseling session, in the moment when you meet several. 

Henry - God's presence is the greatest coaching tool you have. Trust Him, host Him, LISTEN to Him. That's a ministry coach. Yep.