Taking Christian Coaching to the World

There’s a new movement afoot in Christian coaching — cross-cultural and missionary coaching.  And I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
For more than 21 years, I’ve been a friend and supporter of Maureen Menard and her international team of YWAM leaders. She’s caught the vision for the tremendous impact individual and corporate coaching can have on reaching the nations for Christ.
Over the years, I’ve partnered with Maureen in various ways, including:
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• Debriefing a collaborative Discipleship Training School outreach to 26 nations in Budapest, Hungary.
• Bringing a Coach Approach to Leadership Workshop to 20 international leaders in Cape Town, South Africa; using the Myers-Briggs Temperament Inventory® as a tool for leadership development, and a life-size Wheel of Life that allows leaders to “think out loud.”
• Facilitating a prayerful Retreat Coaching process where coaching models become life-size illustrations marked in duct tape on the floor, allowing participants to literally “step into the future.”
• Working with the core team at YWAM, developing an Executive Master’s program in Christian Formation & Discipleship that features a coaching track that runs alongside, but separate, from it.

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The Participants

Looking around the room, a converted orphanage in Burtigny that serves as the YWAM base, I see hearts beating for Southeast Asia, Caribbean, North America, East Asia, Africa, Eurasia and Europe to name a few.
Thirty-five participants from 11 nations serve as missionaries in every continent in the world. This global impact is the exciting culmination of many years of prayer and preparation.

The Coaches

In 2012, YWAM leader and Coach David Harper and I invited a small network of coaches to facilitate an interactive, learning experience designed to nurture greater fruit in life and ministry.

As part of this coaching venture, I invited coaches whom I know and respect to join me in reaching the nations for Christ. Each of these coaches had pursued advanced training through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute (PCCI), invested in mentor coaching, and felt called to minister to the nations.
PCCI coaches, together with YWAM coaches, have been oriented and equipped in cross-cultural considerations and temperament-based coaching. Students have the option of one-on-one coaching or coaching in a dyad where one leader serves as the prayer support for the other during the coaching session and vice versa.
Candidates participate in three coaching modules, each consisting of six sessions with their dyad/groups for a total of 18 sessions. Along the way, we continue to discern, re-evaluate and re-imagine, determining what would be most valuable going forward.
These YWAM missionaries are grateful for the investment coaches are making in their lives and ministries. They envision a major graduation celebration somewhere in the world after finishing their thesis projects in 2015.
To hear more of my story, listen to the Missionary Coaching In-Country podcast, or consider signing up for the Professional Christian Coaching Institute’s next Cross-Cultural & Missionary Coaching class.