Coaching in the Church: Leadership and Growing the Skills of Those Around You, by Martyn Snow & Huw Thomas. Grove Pastoral Series No. 115. Reviewed by Richard Fox
Coaching in the Church: Leadership and Growing the Skills of Those Around You, by Martyn Snow & Huw Thomas. Grove Pastoral Series No. 115.
Grove Books, 2008, 28 pages, ISBN 978-1-85174-698-9. £3.95
Reviewed by Richard Fox
A welcome addition to booklets on church leadership is ‘Coaching in the Church’ by Snow and Thomas. As the authors state, coaching and mentoring is becoming widely accepted in the church as a cost effective method of supporting individual ministers and lay members who want to maximise their potential.
The authors draw lessons from the Bible to illustrate how coaching can help an individual move forward in their personal growth, set goals, overcome obstacles and keep going.
At first I was concerned that the authors might place too much emphasis on the role of coaching in developing skills, enabling the coachee to become an even more effective ‘human doing’. The authors, however, also give examples of where coaching can help an individual improve as a ‘human becoming’.
The booklet includes useful tips on understanding motivation, developing rapport, reviewing progress, asking questions, and setting goals.
Richard Fox is a member of MODEM’s Leadership Committee and a qualified coach and facilitator (www.churchleadership.com).