Slides: Coaching Basics Part 1

Professor Steve Elzinga

Coaching Basics Part 1

We learned that coaching is not …

1. Pastoral Care = General care offered by Pastor and/or staff
2. Counseling = A more professional, specific care offered by Pastor or Counseling staff
3. Teaching/training/discipling = Helping people learn how to do something.
4. Mentoring = A process of helping someone acquire skills, attitudes, behaviors already mastered by the mentor

But coaching does include: 

1. Caring (like pastoral care)— more about challenge than comfort
2. Care to a specific need (like counseling)— more about the future than the past
3. Teaching/training/discipling, but is more about helping the client teach themselves than the coach teaching the client
4. Mentoring, but is less about the client becoming like the mentor and more about the client becoming what he or she could become with a little bit of help

One of the basic tenets of coaching is that it is client directed, not teacher directed.

But in Coaching Basics Part 2 we are going to explore coaching options that are more teacher, or coach directed.

Two Options:

1. Directive
2. Semi-Directive

Warning

As the coach gets more directive with the client it is easy to lose the very thing that makes coaching so effective.

Note on Influence

We live in a culture (especially North America) where the influence of Christianity is being labeled abuse by those against Christianity.

But all relationship interaction is influence, including:

1. Casual conversation
2. Advertising
3. Products and services
4. Laws
5. Government
6. Education
7. Parenting
8. Movies
9. Social media

So if every interaction has the potential to be an “influencing situation” then the real question is: Who is the one doing the influencing and what worldview does he or she have?