Being Coached Is So Valuable to Me

Gospel-Centered Mentoring

One thing about being married to a missionary is that I get opportunities after big moves to reevaluate my gifts, see the new situations that God has graciously laid before me, and take an exciting step into something new.

After recently moving to Africa, coaching was one of those new and exciting things! In 2024, I completed a coaching certificate and have begun coaching women through Grace in Action (GIA). I have personally received the benefits of being coached and am now delighted to be one of many coaches at GIA who give that gift to others.

Reasons I find it so valuable to be coached:

1. In ministry we give of ourselves, and many times our own needs are put on the back burner. Being coached helps keep me accountable to meeting my own spiritual, physical and emotional needs. As a result, the work I offer in my vocations thrives too.

2. Having another person as a thought partner is a huge blessing! Coaching is not advice-giving. It is good listening, good questioning, and helping people discover new awareness. It helps people move forward in areas they feel stuck, without telling them what to do. This is something more easily understood as you experience it, but I have found this approach to coaching amazingly powerful.

3. Christian coaching points me to Christ. Sometimes ministry becomes so much about other people that we forget to preach or hear the gospel for ourselves. Coaching with Grace in Action provides prayer, devotional thoughts, and a big-picture, heaven-focused perspective. Sometimes, like an idiot, I let my device die while sitting in reach of the power source, and it reminds me of being in a ministry setting and yet forgetting how important God's saving Word is for ME to take to heart. I'm so close to its life-changing power and yet I get run down ignoring it. Coaching makes God's law and gospel personal and reminds me to receive those blessings regularly.

4. Coaching is about action and forward movement. It doesn't dwell on the past, but instead, it creates positive action toward a hopeful future. Through the power of the Spirit, I can make progress in my spiritual, physical, and emotional areas of my life.

   

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Thank you, Becky! May God bless your new venture into gospel-centered coaching and mentoring!

Note: Picture is of Mt. Meru in Tanzania.