Customer Reviews

Coaching for Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide (TCP Leadership Series)

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Linda Miller and Chad Hall have produced a helpful introduction to Christian coaching. The strength of the book lies in its balance of explaining coaching skills, benefits, and uses of coaching in Christian ministry.

The "how to" section is roughly half the book (70 pages). These chapters introduce 8 basic coaching skills, with Listening and Asking Precise Questions getting the most coverage. The teaching is correct, helpful, and up to professional standards (Miller is an ICF Master Certified Coach working for The Ken Blanchard Companies). However, the book suffers the same fate as so many introductions: There's not enough "how to" for someone to pick up the book and significantly improved their ability to coach. (The best Christian "how to" coaching book is Leadership Coaching: The Disciplines, Skills, and Heart of a Christian Coach.)

Practical examples throughout the book demonstrate the benefits of coaching in a wide variety of settings and from a variety of helping roles. In fact, the unique contribution that Coaching For Christian Leaders makes is the summary of how to use a coaching approach in different leadership roles (leading, visioning, managing, and shepherding), and in church ministry.

Many authors and readers have trouble translating the formal coach-coachee relationship to a more spontaneous, informal relationship of using coaching skills in everyday interactions. Here Miller and Hall excel. They take the longest chapter (26 pages) to outline coaching in the church. They give a page or two to a coaching approach to:
+ Preaching
+ Sacraments
+ Prayer
+ Building Community with One Another
+ Spiritual Growth
+ Spiritual Friendships
+ Ministry Teams
+ Service to Those in Need
+ Evangelism
The cumulative effect is a beautiful picture of how coaching skills can be used in everyday interactions in the church to empower and draw out the potential of people.

Currently, Coaching For Christian Leaders the best introduction to coaching from a Christian perspective, although the subtitle, "A Practical Guide," is a bit of a stretch.

If you're looking for a well-rounded book to introduce Christian coaching, this is it.

Linda Miller and Chad Hall are incredible coaches. They are also incredible coach trainers. I am extremely pleased they have written this book on Coaching for Christian Leaders. Coaching is part of the emerging wave of leadership in congregational life.

In this book they offer many definitions for coaching. My favorite is on page 37: "Coaching is a collaborative journey toward the goals of the person being coached." Christian leadership coaching involves coming alongside a person and joining them in their life and ministry journey, and helping them live into the goals and actions they feel spiritually led to fulfill.

This book, in my opinion, offers several benefits to the reader: [1] It equips them to play a supporting role in the lives of others by helping others reach their full kingdom potential. [2] It helps prepare a person who is seeking to develop as a coach to develop the coaching practices that will enable them to focus on the core competencies required for International Coach Federation certification. [3] It helps coaches to focus on the Christ-centered relationships a person needs to be an excellent Christian coach.

[4] It supports coaching as a helping role for people who desire to have a Christian stewardship approach to their lives. [5] It helps to focus on what I consider to be two great characteristics of coaches/coaching, that they call "wise coaching"--listening and asking precise questions. [6] It provides multiple models for coaching that are sure to be helpful to a developing coach. [7] It focuses on various spiritual aspects of coaching, including discernment as a key characteristic.

This really is a practical guide for those who desire to be coaches or to benefit from a coaching relationship.

In addition, it supports the approach I urge congregational leaders and congregational coaches to take in my book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation. Pursuing your full kingdom potential is also part of the emerging wave of leadership in congregational life. It goes beyond being missional to discover your full kingdom potential.

This practical guide is just that! Linda and Chad provide great background for Christian coaching as well as practical examples to help bring the concepts to life.

Linda Miller and Chad Hall have taken lessons from their Corporate and Church leadership experience and created an easy read with much practical advice for those who wish to provide meaningful leadership to their organiations/ministries. Anyone who is wrestling with how best to apply coaching to the leadership role should read this for process and practice coaching.

As I read this book I became aware of how the concepts (and cautions) would have been of value as I cared for my wife in her struggle with cancer. It became apparent that as a care-giver much of what I did could be defined as coaching. The story on pp.25-26 made me reflect on how God made me a better husband in much the same way as illustrated in the story. Conversely, the dangers of losing objectivity were brought to mind as I remembered times that I didn't really listen, instead focusing on outcomes I thought were important rather than what she wanted to say. The situations listed as inappropriate for coaching (p.19) might have been broader to recognize the interference of personal relationships with objectivity. The examples of self-referencing (p.29) were on point in this regard. This was also addressed in the discussion about attitudes, biases and beliefs (pp.77-78), but the discussion there would have been strengthened by examples.

Overall, the examples were the best part of this text. While the book seems to focus on coaching as a profession, the examples demonstrated how the concept can be integrated into many ministry settings. The examples were broad, illustrating usefulness for teachers, parents, managers, ministers, etc. In particular, all of Chapter 7, "Coaching in the Church", was excellent. This content was so important that I found myself wishing that it were emphasized in the beginning of the book as an organizing principle, with the how-to specifics developed from that outline.

The most important criticism I would have for the book would be a more careful application of scripture. When read in context, some of the quoted verses do not actually mean what they intended to illustrate. For instance, quoting James 1:5 (p.48) in regards to the wisdom of whether or not to share personal knowledge while coaching is a misapplication of what James was saying - the passage is about asking God for the wisdom to deal with suffering. The quote of Philippians 2:3-5 (p.17) was an example of a relevant quotation aptly applied. It is important to rightly divide scripture; however I do recognize that not everyone is as strict about out of context applications as I am.

What a wonderfully clear and helpful book on the subject of coaching from a Christian perspective. Something seems to be missing from the process of taking new believers on the journey of spiritual maturity. Perhaps what has been missing is the element of coaching. Miller has, from her vast experience, written a very helpful book for the Christian seeking to understand the wonderful help coaching can bring to that process. This book is helpful, engaging and well written.Christ -centered Coaching: 7 Benefits for Ministry Leaders (TCP Leadership Series)

A book for learning how to communicate effectively and how to help others discover solutions to their problems and issues within a Christian context. The information is rich with scripture and description. There are specific examples that bring life to theories presented. Having been a professional coach working with graduate students, the book provides basic and advanced coaching skills and approaches that apply to a variety of situations including non-Christian settings.The analysis of skills is helpful in presenting ways to promote self discovery in others through skill development in listening and questioning. A great book also for anyone who wants to understand effective ways to communicate.

Naomi Sanchez, Ed.D.

Well, it is a good read, but not quite the 'practical guide' to coaching I had expected. As a coach, the title, etc. caught my eye as just what it said it was - a practical guide to coaching. I expected a book geared for coaches (or potential coaches). Instead, the book seems like it can't quite make up its mind whether it's written for them or for those simply searching for a coach or wondering what good a coach might be.