Video Transcript: The Place of the Bible in Coaching

Hi again, Steve Elzinga. Here, this is the coaching class. If you made it this far,  congratulations, you're almost going down the stretch here to keep at it, I hope you've been  practicing some of the things that you're learning without practices, no way that you can  become a coach. You can practice, any relationship, any encounter with anyone. You can  practice listening, you can practice asking good questions that help people think about their  life. It's just a good way of communicating all around. I want to talk about in this session, the  place of the Bible in coaching. You remember, you're not just a coach, you're a Christian  coach. There's a lot of coaching out in our cultures these days, and a lot of it is not Christian  at all. It has more of a new age kind of feel to it. It's all about the truth, inside of you, sort of  this Buddhist view that God is everywhere, and we're all part of the collective God and all we  have to do is search deep within to find out, you know, the truth that is somehow within us. It  can sound very Christian, but it's not. And so how do we, how do we act as Christian coaches,  so I want to talk about the Bible and Christian coaching, Hebrews 13:20-21, Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our  Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you. Okay, equip you with everything  good for doing His will. So God is not some truth, that somehow as a human being, because  you're a collective universe, something and you just have to know, if God in you, God is the  one that's equipping your clients to be able to figure things out. So so we start with the  premise of God, not some generic world, we're all part of some collective thing. equip you  with everything good for doing His will, for doing things, for making things happen, for coming up with goals and plans. And then as a coach, I'm going to help you follow through with those  goals and those plans. And may He work in us was pleasing to Him. Okay. The goal that the  client comes up with are not just goals, the goals about how to please God, the kingdom goals and not just selfish, build your own kingdom kind of goals, work in us what is pleasing to Him  through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. As a coach, I have to keep  reiterating that the goal here is to follow God is not to build our own kingdom. My goal is not  to coach you to become some successful person, but to become a successful follower of Jesus Christ. A successful person using the gifts that God has given for His Kingdom. Jeremiah  29:11. To communicate, get like this verse, for example, to communicate to your clients that  he has some value, that trying to figure out what he should do. Is, is a is a cosmic thing. For I  know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD plans to prosper you and not to harm you  plans to give you hope in the future. These words of Jeremiah were first given to people that  had been obliterated Jerusalem, the walls have been destroyed and temple destroyed. The  people were brought to Babylon, everything that the Israelis believed in the God that was  going to make things happen, it was all gone. And so this promise comes in a bleak time when when when people couldn't see any good thing happen. And so your client has come to you or coach, that your client generally, generally clients are somewhat frustrated with their lives  that they haven't been able to do the things that they thought they could do. They haven't  been able to focus. They haven't been able to accomplish things. Their life is perhaps upside  down. Their walls have been destroyed. They've been taken captive by one thing or another.  And they need to hear that God has a plan for them, that there is a plan and it's a plan to  prosper and not to harm give hope and a future. Psalm 119:105, your word, Lord is a lamp for  my feet a light to my path. communicate to your client that the Word of God is the chief  source of trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. It's not just a matter of  thinking about areas of your life, it is reading the Bible and trying to figure out what does the  Bible have to say, and what in the Bible applies to my life of what I should do? Proverbs 3:5-6, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. So your client is trying to figure it out  goals and plans, that you're trying to hold your client accountable. But how do these goals  and how these plans? How are these things submitted to God? I are they? you might do that  in a session. You know, when you're when your client comes up with a goal when he wants to  do this next week, have a prayer. You know, once your client knows what he wants to do, pray about it. Let's pray, let's ask God to bless this goal, or to show us how to tweak it or to change it. God, this is the goal we have in mind. This is what we're going to try to do this week. If you  have something different in mind, let us know. Matthew 6:33, But seek first the kingdom of 

God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Okay, I'm talking to the  client, how does your goal help you seek God's kingdom first? That's a legitimate question  that you as the coach can ask, you're a Christian coach, you're not just asking your client to  do whatever he wants to do. See them is not Christian counseling or coaching. That is secular  coaching. A secular coach doesn't care what the client wants to do. What do you want to do?  Want to learn how to rob a bank? Okay, I'll help you do that. help you figure that out? No. The  goal is to help someone seek God's kingdom first. James 1:5, If any of you lacks wisdom, let  him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and he in it will be given him.  Because the the clients trying to figure out what he should do out of the myriad of things he  could possibly do in his life. What what things should he focus on? Ask God. Again, in the  session, you can just stop and go, let's pray. Before we think about this, or maybe even  thinking about and you're bogged down, you know what to do. Take the time to pray, that's  okay to do. You should do that. Let's ask God. You might read this verse and say, well, let's  pray that God would do this. Pray that God would do what he says he would do. Proverbs  16:3, commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. So you make a plan.  But don't just write the plan down committed to the Lord. Again, stop right in the middle of  the session, and make a commitment. Questions related to the word. Okay, so these are  questions you might ask your client related to the word number one. What was interesting to  you in your reading of God's word this past week? That's a good question to ask. Remember,  we talked about this way in the beginning, that in Christian coaching, one of the prerequisites  is that your client actually has a walk with God, which means he's praying every day, and he's reading the Bible? Well, is he? a lot of people say they are but they're not. You want to help  coach your client into having a walk with God, because if he doesn't have a walk with God,  he's not reading the Bible. He's not praying, then you're asking your client to come up with  solutions to problems in and of themselves. We're going down the New Age route. If we're  going to trust that the client can figure out the answers to his own problems, then we have to  be reassured that he's actually walking with God daily. What was interesting to you in your  reading of God's word this past week? A follow up question number two, why do you think it  was interesting to you? So the client reads, story of the prodigal son. A younger son, gets his  money from his father the inheritance and goes off and spends it wildly and loses it all. And  then finally he goes, What am I doing? I've lost all my money. I don't have anything back  home. The servants have more food to eat than I do. I'll go back and I'll apologize. And maybe my father will let me be a hired servant. And he goes back. And he has this apology ready to  go. But the father sees him at a great distance and runs in a hugs him, puts a ring on his  finger, accepts him back as a son before the son even says anything. the son, didn't have a  chance to even apologize. He came with the idea, I'll apologize, and maybe I'll get something. But he comes back and he gets more than he ever thought he would get. He gets the Sonship back again. And he didn't even open his mouth. So he apologizes. But he doesn't say make  me as a hired servant. He, he rehearsed that, but he doesn't say that part because he's been  made a son already. And he apologizes now not to get anything because he's already got it.  He apologizes, because he's just sorry. He sees so how much his father loves him. And he  sees how much he must have hurt his father. Okay. So it's a great story. So someone reads  this story. And and maybe, you know, it was in a lot of parts you might relate to. So you asked him so you read that thing? What What? What do you think was interesting to you? Well, I  thought was interesting that that, you know, that he was he came to himself when he was  feeding the pigs. Okay. And for whatever reason, sometimes people have no idea why  something strikes them. So then there's a follow up question. What might God be saying to  you in this? Image, maybe something caught your attention. And maybe there's a reason why it caught your attention, and you're not even aware of it. You ask the person that and they go, Oh, yeah. Why did I mean, there's a lot of good things in this story of the Prodigal Son, why  would the whole feeding the pigs thing be the one thing that struck you? And the client has to think about and maybe, maybe that's all I'm feeling right now. I'm feeling like I'm doing things I don't really want to do. At work, I'm being asked to do things that are not part of what I  believe in. Because in the in the prodigal story, pigs were unclean animal to, to a Jew. And so  your is working in the unclean world. He couldn't even go to the temple, if you want to do 

because he was unclean. And he had to go through a whole process to become clean. It isn't,  this is a fascinating set of questions that you can, you can do Bible studies this way. Write up  a whole Bible study, you can have people read a passage, you know, group of 5, 6, 7, 8  people, have them read the passage, and then simply ask, number one, what was interesting  to you and your reading? What do you think was? Why do you think it was interesting to you?  So you have that? What struck you in this passage? What? What stood out to you for any  reason whatsoever? And one person's picks this, another person picks that another person  picks something else? And then you ask, Well, why do you think you pick that? And then they  say, Well, you know, they just the one word struck me. Okay, so people will explain that. But  then you got to take a deeper, again, the question three, people won't go to question three,  naturally, you have to ask, what might God be saying to you in this thing that caught your  attention, and the real thinking starts. And people will be amazed at what they come up with.  And you will be amazed. So you can use this in Bible studies you can try. Try it out today, in  your family, in your daily devotions today, in your family, just sit down and ask these three  questions. What struck each one of you what struck you what struck you what struck you with truth? Why do you think it struck you? And finally, what God wondered, what is God perhaps  trying to say to you in this thing that struck you try? I think you'll be amazed to see how well  it works. But you can use it in coaching too. You're assuming that your your client is daily into  the Word of God. Use that God, you know, it's a daily walk with God. It's not just Bible study.  Sometimes we think of the Bible is this thing we study, we extract truth out of the Bible know, the Bible is not just a fact book. It's a relationship book. You're actually communicating to  God. God is actually speaking to you in that story. And maybe it's a story that you already  know. But why is God saying telling you that story today, how does that story relate to your  situation right now today. See, Bible reading can be a relationship, not just knowledge. Alright. There we go. Word related to clients focus. Okay, so the Word of God as it relates to the  client's focus. Number one, what Scripture Do you think applies to the area of action you're  wanting coaching? Okay, so that you're, remember, as a coach, you're trying to help your  client come up with a goal and action plan. And when he does, you get asked this question. In fact, you should what scripture you think applies to the area of action, you are wanting  coaching to your coach, your client has an idea that they want to, they want to get more into  ministry. And the goal is to take some classes and you know, and you've worked out this  whole plan, well then challenge your client, okay, so what verse applies to this help your  client, center everything that he's trying to do, whether it's a change, whether it's going to  the next level, or whatever goals he has in mind, how do these things relate to the Word of  God, always bring it back to the Word of God. Because ultimately, it's not about just what the  client wants. It's what God wants through the client. And so doing this helps your clients  center everything that you're working on together, on God and God's word. Number two, what Scripture applies to your plan of action? So what Scripture applies to your goal? What  scripture applies to your old plan about becoming a better father? A Better Marriage? What  what Scriptures relate to marriage? They can help you in your plan. favorite verse questions? I love asking, what's your favorite verse and why? I had a retreat with a bunch of young men a  few months back. And this is all we did. I asked that each one, figure out what their favorite  verse is, and why, and then get up and give us a five minute sermon on that. And the sermon  was just that, you know, here's my, is my favorite verse. And here's why. It's my favorite  verse. So they had to figure out some story. There was something that happened in their life  that made this verse, powerful. There's something behind it. And then number two, how does  this verse apply to any change you want to make in your life? So this is one of those models  that we talked about earlier, a way to help your client, think about their his or her life, in  terms of what they want to change, where they want to go to the next level? What's your  favorite verse and what why? My favorite verses Deuteronomy 31:8, the Lord Himself goes  before you and He will be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. It was a verse that an elder gave to me when I first got ordained as a  minister in 1982 is a great verse. It's good to know that the Lord goes before you, your new  pastor, and there's a lot of challenges. Well, after four years, I went off to plant a church in  Vancouver, British Columbia, and our church grew significantly. So that three years later, we 

decided to daughter a church, and we got a guy, associated guy to do that daughter church.  And so he needed to get ordained. And I had to give him a verse and I gave him that verse.  Deuteronomy 31:8, the Lord Himself goes before you, He will be with you will never leave you  or forsake you. Two years later, we daughtered another church, another guy need to get  ordained. I gave him the same verse, Deuteronomy 31:8, the Lord Himself goes before you  and will be with you. Then I moved to Michigan and I restarted another church, and we got an  associate pastor, he got ordained, and I had to give him a verse I gave him that same verse.  So I kept giving this verse, Deuteronomy 30, I received it, and I kept giving. And the verse was becoming more and more meaningful to me, not only through my own ministry, but in my  connection to these associate pastors that I had an influence that I was mentoring. And so  that verse stood were not just for me, it was stood for my connection to all these other  people. And finally, I met with the elder who had given me the verse many years before he  was dying of cancer. It was the last time that I would see him on this side of heaven. And we  talked, we laughed, and before we left, this was my goodbye. On this side of heaven, and I  stood up and I said, before I go when I want to give you something, and I opened my Bible to  Deuteronomy 31:8, I said, 25 years ago, you gave me this verse. And this is where this verse  has gone. And today, I want to give you this verse back, the Lord Himself goes before you,  and He will be with you, and He will never leave you or forsake you. Even though you have  cancer, and even though you're dying, do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Okay, so  that's my story behind my favorite verse is, there's all kinds of emotion there. And now what  do I want to do? What am I, how do I want to use this? How am I going to give this to you?  How am I going to use this in what I want to do with my life? Already got a hold of my life. And so you have a powerful motivator in this favorite verse. And to the core of someone's being, is something that God enabled them to overcome or, or doing their life already. And so to tap  into that is going to be very powerful. So what is your favorite verse? And why? This verse  applies to any change you want to make in your life? How does this verse apply to any area of life where you want to go to the next level? So just to summarize, anytime that you can use  the word of God in coaching, do so you want to center everything that you do in the Word of  God, you want to center all the goals that are come up with all the plans, you want them  centered in the Word of God, you want a verse attached to all these things. And then as you  manage this process too you're always bringing up that verse, Let a verse become the theme  of what this person wants to do. Because what happens when the client succeeds in this  coaching relationship, instead of just thanking you, and saying, All Praise and glory to you, the coach, they give praise and honor and glory to God. And God is in the driver's seat. God is the one that is ultimately making these things happen. And that's what you want the client to  figure out and understand, because when he helps other people, he will give the glory to God  as well. Okay, we'll see you again next time.