Leadership Coaching for Pastors
Equipping and Supporting Pastors and Congregations In the Renewal Process
Daniel Smith
Speaker, Consultant, Trainer, Coach
Congregations Current Reality and Specific Needs Vary
- Some congregations are thriving and simply need to discern and develop a next faithful strategic plan
- Some congregations are stable but on the brink of decline unaware of the potential danger faced
- Some congregations are declining without awareness that key indicators of health indicate serious problems
- Some congregations recognize their decline and think that a new program or a new pastor will solve their problems
- Some congregation recognize the loss of missional focus and are ready to engage in a renewal process
All, however, are in need of congregational renewal. Renewal just means different things for different congregations, depending on where they are in their life cycle.
Each of these congregations needs a pastor who will caringly serve the needs of the people. AND each of these congregations needs a pastor who will wisely, skillfully, and courageously lead the congregation into the future God envisions.
What Is Required of You as a Leader
Seminary prepared you to fulfill a variety of pastoral functions. Experience has helped you further develop your skills. Training events and personal study have given you information about how organizations change and how congregations develop. You see the need your congregation has. But you also experience the resistance from people to move forward even when they declare they want their church to change.
To provide the wise, skillful, and courageous leadership your congregation needs from you, you must:
- remain firmly anchored in your calling
- develop strategies for building bridges from theory about congregation development to specific next steps for your congregation
- sharpen skills for facilitating collaborative work and using resistance creatively
- develop patterns that keep you focused on what is important rather than what appears urgent
- choose to move day by day courageously and faithfully along the path that you know is right for you
What I Bring to You As a Coach/Consultant
I bring knowledge about how congregations move successfully and effectively into a missional focus and:
- an opportunity for you to clarify your calling and stay connected with what brought you into ministry
- a place for you to think through what your congregation needs from you next – and a person to do this thinking with
- support for you as you courageously take steps to develop new leadership muscles and new patterns in using your time and energy
- help in seeing the bigger picture of what is happening in your congregation, maintaining a healthy perspective, and seeing your successes
- someone to champion you and help you hold yourself accountable as you step forward into scary and hard places
Some pastors can do the leadership work with only God as a companion. Some do it with the help of strong support from colleagues. Repeatedly I hear pastors say, “I don’t see how this work of leading change and renewal in a congregation can we done without a coach.”
How Coaching Works
We meet on the telephone generally 2 or 3 times a month. Each session is 40 minutes. You bring a situation you are facing in the days ahead or an experience you had in the recent past. What you bring serves as the starting point for us to explore your larger agenda of effective and successful leadership.
The standard cost is $175 for each series of 3 sessions. I can accept payment by credit card as well as check.
Email me or give me a call to schedule a complimentary session to explore whether coaching seems right for you.
Contact Information
Dan Smith
206-618-5369
DanielP322@aol.com