Over the last year, the Multiply Vineyard team has been restructuring our coaching system in order to better serve church planters, past and present.
We think every church planter needs a coach! Participating in coaching means you have someone to come alongside you to help you gain clarity and get unstuck, someone who encourages and motivates you as you move toward your goals. This person listens deeply, asks thought-provoking questions, helps design action steps, and celebrates progress with you.
Here’s what we want you to know about our coaching process:
- Our coaches are trained to International Coaching standards.
Every one of our coaches is trained in the 8 Core Competencies of the International Coaching Federation, the largest global professional coaching organization. - We provide focused coaching in areas vital to planter success.
Over years of work with planters, we know the key areas you’ll want to develop to help your church grow and thrive. Our coaches focus on these areas and help you move toward commitment and action. - Every planter gets a coach.
Our commitment, as part of our church planter training and sending process, is to pair every new planter with a coach for an initial coaching engagement for six months with a mutual option to renew. Those who didn’t get matched with a coach upon their plant’s release, can also re-sign up now and take advantage of having this person alongside them in their journey.
Still on the fence? Check out these answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the coaching process.
If you already have a good relationship with your sending pastor or other mentors, praise God! What a blessing! We still suggest being paired with a Multiply Vineyard coach.
The perception of your sending pastor or mentor will be formed and informed by their experience and their previous relationship with you. A coach will primarily focus on the process of getting you to view your challenges from different angles and discover new options for moving forward. Often a coach from “outside” your sending church world can enable you to see issues from a fresh perspective and partner with you to design steps to turn your thoughts into actions.
A coach will always start where the church planter wants to focus, but there are two major “tracks” that Multiply Vineyard coaches always keep to the forefront: the church planter’s health and the health of the church plant.
Typical areas to dig into concerning planter health deal are spiritual vitality, marriage and family, and balancing ministry, work, and home life. Important areas concerning plant health deal with communicating values and vision, gathering small groups, leadership development, and pastoral concerns.
Ultimately, the litmus test for a successful coaching engagement is how the church planter has moved forward in their life and their church plant.
The church planter will describe a breakthrough from the context of their life and their church plant. In each coaching session, you will be asked what has been most helpful for you today. At the end of every six-month block of coaching, you will be asked how God has used coaching to change you and your church plant. Like most transformative processes in the Kingdom, you will reap breakthroughs or success in direct correlation to investing your time and yourself in the process.
We will set up an interview to dialogue about your context, church plant, family, and interest in coaching. During this time, we are looking to learn what you hope to accomplish through coaching and what type of coach would be most helpful to you. After that initial coaching assessment, we strive to connect you with a coach within two weeks.
At the end of the six-month coaching engagement, you and your coach will discuss if you’d like to continue your coaching relationship. If you both agree to continue, the coach may propose a fee schedule for the additional sessions.
Multiply Vineyard is only able to offer the first 6 months of coaching on a pro-bono basis. Subsequent coaching engagements may include an agreement to pay fees to the coach, which is entirely appropriate to compensate professional coaches for the value of their services.
Have any other questions or reservations about coaching? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Coaching Specialist Harry Fritzenschaft.
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