Lessons I’ve gleaned after coaching missional leaders for 30 years:

So far, I’ve focused on the importance of the:

  • Spiritual: Discern the will of the Father, helping those you coach to do the same
  • Relational: Value the other person
  • Personal: Embrace your unique contribution
  • Interpersonal: You can’t want something for someone else more than they want it for themselves

This week I shift focus to the creativity of coaching.

Lesson #5 – Help people tap into their creativity

I’ve mentioned that I enjoy attending The Global Leadership Summit hosted by The Willowcreek Association every August. It is the gathering of leadership experts from the business (secular) and ministry (sacred) arenas. I would encourage you to attend this event with your team next year.

This year we heard Fredrik Haren speak on the topic of “creativity” from his bestselling publication, “The Idea Book”. I am taking the concept of creativity and relating it to the “core purpose” of coaching a leader.

Haren began by asking 3 questions in his global research:

  1. How many people think creativity is important to their job? 98% globally
  2. How many people believe they are creative? 45% globally
  3. Does your company/organization develop your creativity? 2% globally

Key Learning – based on his research, there is no correlation between 1 & 3.

It raises an important question for coaching: What role should a coach play in developing the creativity of leaders we coach?

Furthermore, Haren continues his examination of creativity by offering a definition for the word “idea.” According to Haren, an idea occurs when two abstract, seemingly unrelated concepts are combined in a new and novel way.

Another way of saying this is: Creative Idea = Person (Knowledge + Idea)

Let’s apply this to coaching.

Let’s say the church planter you are coaching has a vision for a different kind of church. I have been working with a planter for the last 18 months. Bruce Persons is planting The Table Church. The challenge for Bruce is to reach one of the most invisible, under-reached & under-resourced communities in the world: the Deaf and hard of hearing.

Here is how Bruce describes the unique vision of The Table Church:

  1. TTC is a church plant in Frederick, MD with a vision for rapid multiplication.
  2. TTC uses Facebook heavily, to reach remote locations of the world.
  3. TTC follows a sort of an organic, cell church model.
  4. TTC uses video because we are reaching a people group who uses American Sign Language to communicate.
  5. TTC’s goal is to make the gospel accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing community through ASL.

Bruce saw the opportunity.

  • Knowledge – isolation of the Deaf and hard of hearing community
  • Idea – leverage the internet to reach this “invisible” group of people

With a focus on smaller communities of faith, he discovered that the internet through the use of Facebook, could cast his net wide while meeting the relational needs in smaller gatherings. As a result of streaming his sermons, 1,500 people have logged-in to worship services. This is a great example of a creative strategy that meets people where they live and creates the relational support that is a desperate need, through smaller communities of faith. He has planted one faith community at Gallaudet University, while a second is on the way in Washington DC.  

What separates a good coach from a great coach? Good coaches help people reflect; great coaches have the ability to tap the creativity of a leader through listening and powerful questions.

Here are five questions to help you tap a leaders creativity:

  • If you knew you could not fail, what would your church look like?
  • What makes your church unique?
  • How would your church make the community a better place?
  • What sets your church apart from other churches?
  • What excites you about your church?

The above story is used with permission – see The Table Church for more information.

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