Every year the International Coaching Federation observes International Coaching Week, a global celebration that educates about the value of working with a professional coach. One of the ways ICF does this is by encouraging coaches to offer pro bono sessions to those who haven’t yet experienced the power of coaching. I happily participate because I love coaching, I know coaching offers results, and I get to meet new people!

If you are a minister and have never been coached by me, I invite you to sign up here for a free 30-minute session by phone or Zoom that will take place May 8-11. You are welcome to share this link/post with others who might be interested as well.

Why should you try coaching? It is leadership development that is completely customized for you and your context. It takes place on your schedule. It engages your own wisdom, experiences, and resources, meaning you will be more invested in taking the steps to move forward that come out of coaching. And coaching can address almost any professional or personal topic. If there is a gap between where you are and where you want to be, coaching can be effective in that gap.

I look forward to talking with you soon.

Coaching is not just for individuals! Did you know that I also coach church staffs, teams of lay leaders, and entire congregations? Anytime there is a gap between where you (as an individual or as a collective) are and where you want to be, there is fertile soil for coaching. A coach approach to meeting benchmarks and overcoming challenges can provide structure, tools, and encouragement to groups as they strategize in ways that make sense in their context and utilize their specific gifts. Coaching also builds ownership of new insights and plans among coachees, because it does not result in a solution handed down by an outside “expert.” In coaching the people doing the work in a particular space are understood as the true experts, and they are the ones who map the way forward.

And guess what? This time of year tends to be one of the best seasons for coaching. Summer vacations are tapering off, so it’s easier for groups seeking coaching to meet consistently. Fall programming is mostly settled. There’s some breathing room in the liturgical calendar before Advent, when the focus (rightfully) shifts to the journey to Bethlehem.

Coaching doesn’t have to break your church’s budget, either. Now that we are all very familiar with video conferencing, you only need to plan for an hourly coaching rate. No longer do you have to worry about travel and other expenses that can add up quickly.

If you sense that your congregation (or some segment of it) needs the kind of nudge that coaching could provide, here are some areas in which I specialize:

Congregational self-study during pastoral transitions. In the time between settled pastors, it’s important to do this good work to undergird the search for a great-fit minister. Who is our church apart from the personality and passions of our former leader?

Figuring out church after(ish) Covid-19. In pre-post-pandemic, many questions remain in order not just to do church but to be church. What is our role in the world after a big shift in people’s priorities and ways of life? How do we rebuild relationships and establish new ones both within our congregation and in the larger community based on what we’ve learned about ourselves and our neighbors over the past couple of years?

Setting new touchstones and metrics. The pandemic shook many markers loose. What is it that is consistently grounding for and true about our congregation? What are helpful benchmarks that let us know our impact in partnership with God?

Visioning and discerning next steps. We might only see half-steps forward right now, but we can figure out how to recognize them. How do we listen for invitations from God? How do we engage in a continuous cycle of experimentation, assessment, and learning in a way that brings excitement and delight instead of a sense of failure and shame?

Pastor searches. Teams of laypeople (appropriately) have a lot of questions about how to find someone for a role they themselves have never held. What do we need a pastor to do? Where do we look for people who can do these things? How do we invite candidates to consider our ministry opportunity out of a spirit of welcome and generosity?

I would love the chance to talk with you about any of these congregational coaching possibilities, as well as potential coaching topics that are not mentioned above. Please schedule a free exploratory call here. If you don’t see a time that works for you, contact me so that we can figure out a window that will.

Last week I offered some discussion prompts for congregations that are discerning whether to lean into true hybrid community that creates robust belonging for both online and offline participants. If responses to those questions point to an openness to hybrid church, the reflection cues below begin to get at planning the specifics.

Logistics

• Based on responses to these questions, what might our digital sandbox look like? What’s the container for the sandbox? How big is it? Who might want to play in it? What toys are in it for people to play with? (Sit with this metaphor a bit before moving into practical details below.)

• What platforms would we utilize? What criteria will guide this decision? Which ones are current constituents and those who aren’t yet engaged already using?

• What elements of hybrid church would be synchronous or asynchronous?

• Which elements of hybrid church would be open to anyone and which would be password protected? What community norms would we need to establish for each, consistent with what expectations are for in-person congregational interaction? What would the bar be for obtaining the password?

• What systems and leadership would we need in order to tend the online aspects and to facilitate mutual connection between online and offline participants?

• What training would leaders and participants in hybrid church need?

• How would we actively invite people for whom our hybrid church is good news?

• How could we create space for hybrid participants’ contributions and big questions, indeed for their full participation in creating a faith community characterized by belonging?

• What mechanisms for regular assessment and course-correction would we put into place?

Membership

• What are our formal and informal practices around and beliefs about church membership? In what ways do they serve us well, and in what ways do they not?

• How would the intentional cultivation of hybrid church necessarily affect what membership means and who can become a member? What changes do we need to make as a result?

Leadership

• What time and attention, and from whom, would hybrid church require?

• How could we make this leadership consistent and sustainable?

• What does this mean for our staffing configuration (and budget) and the roles of lay leaders?

Mutual responsibility

• What kind(s) of commitment are we asking for from online church participants in order to create the mutuality that belonging entails?

• How do we communicate the what and why of these expectations to online community constituents and get their assent?

• How do we engage online community participants in helping to craft mutual expectations?

• How do we make it as inviting as possible to uphold expectations?

Sacraments/ordinances

• What are the most important rituals in the life of our congregation? What meaning do they convey? What role does physical presence play in them?

• What is and isn’t negotiable about being physically present to participate in these rituals?

• Within what is negotiable, how might we get creative – and invite those online to do the same – in order to invite participation and communicate meaning across online and offline spaces?

The questions I’ve offered over the course of these two posts are not the only ones your church would need to address, but they offer a place to start. Your congregation might work through these prompts and decide that your call is not to be a hybrid church. You might not have the capacity or deep desire. That’s ok! But for congregations that are excited for this possibility and have the resources to make it happen, much is possible. In this time of increased polarization, the body of Christ has become loosely connected at the joints, and uniting those with a propensity to go online for church with those who attend in person offers the chance to strengthen the relationships among these parts to the glory of God.

Photo by Dan-Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash.

Two years ago many churches moved the whole of church life online because of the pandemic. Pastors and congregations felt the frustrations associated with physical distancing and tech trial and error. They also, though, found freedom from “the way we’ve always done it,” new outlets for creativity, and broader reach.

At this point in Covid (which I recently heard one colleague aptly refer to as “pre-post-Covid”), a lot of churches are continuing some aspects of online worship and community. For some this is just for now, since not all constituents are yet comfortable returning to the church campus. For others this is an experiment with what will become a permanent supplement to in-person congregational life. And for a few this is a precursor to full-blown hybrid church, a unified online and offline community that offers belonging, space to ask big questions, and opportunities to create and lead to everyone who is involved.

Constructing this hybrid congregation will take a lot of reflection on and intentionality about everything from the core of congregational identity all the way to the nuts and bolts of day-to-day operations. This week and next I will offer some coaching questions to help your church discern whether hybrid is right for you and how to move into this new way of being a faith community.

Congregational identity

• What are our congregation’s core values, the commitments that define who we are and what we do?

• What has this congregation been put on earth to do? To what future is God inviting us?

• For whom are this purpose and future story good news? Among these populations, who is currently not connected to our congregation?

Pandemic gleanings

• What technology attempts during the pandemic have worked well? What did we learn?

• What technology attempts didn’t work as well? What did we learn?

• What surprised us about what did and didn’t work?

• Who engaged with our church online? In what ways, and how frequently? What has their engagement added to our faith community, and how has our faith community enriched their lives?

• What lasting shifts have we made in our understanding as church as a physical place during the pandemic?

• What new gifts among church members were uncovered during the pandemic?

• What extra responsibilities did our pastor take on during the pandemic? What role renegotiation is now needed?

Preparatory self-reflection

• What does belonging look like for us? What will we need to attend to in order to extend that same sense of belonging to those who primarily engage with us online?

• What assumptions do we continue to make about people who connect to church online (indeed, who conduct much of their lives online)?  Offline? How do we dispel the myths?

• How will we respond if someone who has been an in-person participant pre-pandemic decides to engage primarily in the online aspects of church?

• How do we want to respond if people who have engaged primarily online decide to become in-person participants, acknowledging that that person might know more about the church than the church knows about them?

• How can we encourage those who have returned/intend to return to in-person participation to engage with online constituents to the benefit of all?

• What excites us most about the possibilities of hybrid church? What questions or hesitations do we have?

• What are we willing to give up (e.g., power, particular ways of doing church) in order to give hybrid church room to work?

• What are touchstones for our congregation, in addition to values and purpose, that it would be important to educate about and build welcome around for those who never set foot on the church campus? Examples might include rituals or narratives about the church’s history.

• How could a truly hybrid church help us live more fully into our values and purpose? What might be possible that otherwise wouldn’t?

Stay tuned next week for questions about the practical side of planning for hybrid church.

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash.

Every year the International Coaching Federation observes International Coaching Week, a global celebration that educates about the value of working with a professional coach. One of the ways ICF does this is by encouraging coaches to offer pro bono sessions to those who haven’t yet experienced the power of coaching. I happily participate because I love coaching, I know coaching offers results, and I get to meet new people!

If you are a minister and have never been coached by me, I invite you to sign up here for a free 30-minute session by phone or Zoom next week (May 17 & 19). You are welcome to share this link/post with others who might be interested as well.

I look forward to talking with you soon.

In one sense, not much changed when 2021 rolled over into 2022 a few days ago. Many of the same challenges and opportunities are in front of us. There is not anything magical about the ball dropping in Times Square or switching from one planner to another.

Still, there is something about turning the page that feels different. Perhaps it’s the Anne of Green Gables sentiment that "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it," and a new year offers us 365 fresh tomorrows. In church life there’s a bit of time to catch our breath after Advent and Christmas and before Lent. The fiscal year might have rebooted. New leaders may be bringing renewed energy to meetings. Many church members are coming off time with family or time away from work. All of this contributes to a vibe of possibility, making this a prime season for doing some intentional reflection and planning to set your church up well for the coming year(s). Here are some of the areas in which congregational coaching can help, along with key questions coaching can give you the structure to explore:

Leader retreat. Whether your lay leaders have just turned over or have had a few months to gel and find their footing, they could use additional support. What exactly do their roles in your church entail? What equipping do they need to partner well with staff for the good of the congregation? How might they both broaden their imaginations about what is possible and ground their work spiritually?

Pandemic-prompted conundrums. Unfortunately, Covid is still very much with us, and we can no longer afford to wait until it is “over” to mull key questions. What might a more dispersed or hybrid model of church look like in your context? What does membership look like in these changing times? What engagement is needed to nurture the discipleship of constituents and provide them with community?

Visioning. In lieu of a strategic plan, a business model that never really worked well for the church (and really doesn’t in these uncertain times), how might your congregation name its lived and aspirational values and identity as the basis for holy experiments? What evaluation and celebration might you build into your efforts in order to look for the surprising ways that God is showing up?

Reflections on staffing models and pastor searches. Given the changing shape of the Church and your local church, what kind of pastoral leadership do you need? How and where might you find these kinds of leaders and then support their ministries?

In the past year my congregational coaching work has included:

• Training a pastor search team, with the end result of thoughtfully calling a pastor who is a “first”

• Creating spaces for lament and discernment so that church leadership could answer, “Where do we go from here?”

• Guiding a congregation through identity work so that it could make big decisions about its property out of its values and purpose

• Helping a congregation think through a staff re-structure that honors the gifts of current staff and seeks skills needed for new possibilities and challenges

• Facilitating conversation between a new pastor and church leadership to develop understanding, mutual trust, and excitement for ministry together

Congregational coaching can be done via Zoom, making the schedule more flexible, meetings more accessible and less affected by potential Covid spikes, and the cost more affordable. If you’d like to talk about your church’s needs and ways that congregational coaching can help you start 2022 with momentum, contact me or visit my calendar to set up a time to talk.

Photo by Isabela Kronemberger on Unsplash.

Pastors, you rock.

You really do. As unbelievable as it sounds, I think 2021 has been an even harder year to be in ministry than 2021. There has been so much more ambiguity. Some people are vaccinated yet others are not, whether by choice or circumstances such as age. What does that mean for what we can safely do? There has been more unpredictability. The Covid numbers were good in many places in May and June, then Delta brought us to our knees starting in late July. Statistics have improved in some locations since then, but many experts predict upticks as the weather turns colder. How will that impact Advent and Christmas observances? There has been more fatigue. Yours, for sure. But your church folks are also weary of hearing about Covid, living with Covid, and changing precautions at Covid’s whims. How will you persist in keeping people safe, and where will needed rest come from? There has been grief. Some of the people we had hoped to see back in the pews by now are not and might not ever be. The shape of the church we’ve known and loved is being fundamentally altered. What will it ultimately look like?

Despite all these trials and more, you have hung in there. Thank you for your faithfulness and hard work! AND, make sure you have the support you need as you continue to lead through ongoing challenge. Every December I offer a “round up” special: I will round the amount left in your professional expense line item up to the next session value. My intent has always been to keep you from leaving any of your hard-earned benefits on the table and to encourage you to invest in your leadership growth for the coming year. I can’t imagine a better time to hit both of these marks. While it’s important to steward your church’s money well in these uncertain times, it’s also essential to use your available resources to prepare to pastor in a rapidly-changing world. Coaching is a great way to do that, because it

• is done remotely,

• takes place at your pace and on your schedule,

• is geared toward reframing your situation in helpful ways,

• helps you make positive steps forward, and

• can be completely customized to your goals, leadership style, and context.

If you are looking to make progress in such areas as

• finding a good oscillation between caring for others and caring for yourself,

• developing and grounding yourself in your pastoral identity when others are projecting their anxieties about the state of the world on you,

• searching for a new call and/or leaving your current one,

• helping your church members engage well among themselves when some are in person, others are online, and a few have disappeared into the ether,

• addressing conflict that has been exacerbated by the troubles of the past 18 months,

• dreaming about what is now possible that wasn’t before change was thrust upon us,

coaching can help.

The round-up special is valid in December only. Contact me or schedule a free exploratory call by December 30 to take advantage of this offer.

I grew up Southern Baptist. I didn’t know there were other kinds of Baptists until I went to college, much less that there were lots of Christian denominations other than the United Methodist Church, which was my dad’s upbringing.

Seminary was like a denominational playground where a church nerd like me could excitedly sample several expressions of faith. (Oooh, this church has a book full of beautiful prayers and rituals! That one really delves into Advent and Lent!) Even so, when I graduated, I was still a (no longer Southern) Baptist. I am still one to this day because of the central tenets of Bible, soul, church, and religious freedom.

And yet, I have worked mostly outside of Baptist contexts. I have held staff positions in PC(USA), United Methodist, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in which I have ministerial standing. This ecumenism is due in equal parts to being the trailing spouse of a United Methodist minister in a state where my kinds of Baptists are hard to find and to building relationships with pastors of many denominations through Young Clergy Women International. I have both had to be and had the delightful opportunity to be broad in focus.

When I began coaching, then, I had a pretty big pool of ministers and churches to work with. That has translated into ongoing work with clergy and/or congregations of at least 17 faith groups:

• Alliance of Baptists

• American Baptist Churches (USA)

• Anglican (Canada)

• Assemblies of God

• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

• Church of the Brethren

• Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

• Mennonite Church (USA)

• Methodist Church in the United Kingdom

• Moravian Church in America

• Presbyterian Church (USA)

• The Episcopal Church

• Unitarian Universalist (congregation affiliated also with a Christian denomination)

• United Church of Canada

• United Church of Christ

• United Methodist Church

The list above does not include one-off coaching that I have done as part of group mentor coaching cohorts.

This variety makes my Enneagram 5 heart so very happy. I learn from every minister and church I coach. The benefits aren’t only my own; I take insights from one denomination and congregation into others I work with.

I’m a long way from the understanding of Christianity’s scope that I had as a young person. I can’t wait to be invited into more new-to-me spaces.

Photo by Lama Roscu on Unsplash.

Over the past several months I’ve seen a big uptick in inquiries about congregational coaching. Usually these requests stem from a pastor or lay leader knowing that something is changing or needs to change but not knowing how to go about making that transition as positively as possible.

I can help with that. In congregational coaching I work with leadership teams or entire churches on moving forward with faithfulness and curiosity. This work begins with listening for a congregation’s gifts, circumstances, and yearnings. Based on what I hear, I design the parameters, process, and prompts for congregations to have fruitful conversations among their members and with God. While I carry over some tools from one church to the next, I largely start my approach from scratch because I believe each church’s story is one of a kind.

Here are some of the coaching conversations that I have had recently or are in process:

• Creating structure for a congregation to rebuild trust and imagine its way forward as a result of renewed relationships.

• Rediscovering purpose as a church after years of neglecting or eliminating needed procedures and in the aftermath of major damage to the physical plant.

• Helping a newly-called pastor and church begin their journey together with expectations and boundaries that lay a good foundation for mutual ministry.

• Searching for a new pastor, with complicating factors overlaid on the search process.

• Designing a new pastoral staffing model that better meets current and future needs.

• Making difficult decisions about church buildings and land and the accompanying debt in ways that contribute to identity and mission.

• Identifying how best to regather after lockdown, using this transition to ease into bigger-picture discernment.

I can coach your congregation through transitions like these, encouraging you and broadening your sense of what you’re capable of and what God might be inviting you to consider along the way. These coaching conversations take place by Zoom, making them easier for your leaders to schedule and lowering the cost of processes that can have a big impact on your church.

Is your congregation facing a change with a bit of uncertainty and trepidation? Let’s talk.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash.

By sheer force of demographics, there is likely to be a big wave of pastoral retirements in the next few years. That number will be augmented by the strain that the pandemic has placed on clergy. After navigating the tensions around safety precautions and noting that some version of online ministry is here to stay, many pastors who have the financial means will, understandably, decide that the time is near to enjoy the fruits of their labors and spend more time with people they love and activities they haven’t had time for previously.

This retirement can be a celebration, a forward-propelling moment for both the pastor and the church. When clergy retire with intentionality, it

• Allows the ministry pastor and congregation undertook together to carry forward

• Shows care for the church

• Gets the departing minister in a good head and heart space for what’s next

• Helps set a helpful tone for the transition period, including the pastor search

• Strengthens congregations’ connections to bodies itself useful in the transition and beyond

• Paves the way for next minister to get off to a smooth start

• Can be spiritually transformative for all involved

In short, pastors can do as much leading in the ways they retire as in all their time leading up to their departures, setting themselves up to enter a new chapter with fulfillment and hope. Thoughtfulness, though, is key. That’s why I’m introducing a new coaching package for those clergy who are considering retirement. Over a series of 6 one-hour sessions, we will develop a plan to address the Ps of finishing well:

• Processing. What aspects of your identity are bound up in being a pastor, and what might be some healthy ways to have those needs met in retirement?

• People. How can you show grace to those you’re leaving behind?

• Priorities. What big picture pieces are you holding that you need to follow through on, pass to others, or set aside?

• Preparations. What logistics need to be tended to and by whom to pave the way for a good transition?

• Promotion. Whose voices, inside the congregation and beyond, need to be heard now in order to broaden the church’s imagination about what will be possible after you leave?

• Personal planning. What financial support will you need in retirement, and where might you find it? Where will you continue to find purpose, routine, and support once you are no longer the pastor of your church?

The cost for the six sessions plus a planning sheet organized by the 6 Ps of retirement planning is $900, and you can schedule a free exploratory call to talk about through your questions and hopes for retirement coaching here.

A significant slice of my coaching involves working with clergy in search and call. Some of these coachees are just beginning to think about exploring other possibilities while others have already begun interviewing. Almost all of them experience anxiety, though, when it comes to the compensation negotiation part of the process. Is what I’ve been offered fair based on my experience and skills, the responsibilities of the position, the church’s budget, and the cost of living in the area? What changes is it appropriate to ask for in a counter-offer? How do I go about making these requests?

It’s hard for candidates to answer these questions in a vacuum. That’s why I am adding a new service: a one-off, one-hour coaching session that provides candidates with:

• a larger context for what fair compensation looks like based on my work with clergy and congregations,

• questions to help the candidate name the aspects and amounts of compensation that they deserve and that churches can sustainably offer, and

• coaching and encouragement around the negotiation process.

Candidates should be prepared to bring into the call information they have available about the church with which they are negotiating, such as budget/financial trends, previous pastor’s compensation, the availability of church-owned housing, and church or judicatory policies around various kinds of leave, salary recommendations/requirements, and other benefits.

Working toward fair compensation offers a candidate the opportunity to begin showing up as a pastoral leader during the end of the search process and allows the newly-called pastor to square away practical concerns, thus enabling her to turn her focus more fully to the work ahead. And in the longer view, pastors who are paid what they are worth are more likely to feel valued and as a result stick around longer, leading to fruitful mutual ministry.

If you are interested in this service, you can find the current rate here (see “base rate per session” at the top of the page) and schedule your coaching session here.

Sure, I’m biased. But I believe coaching is more valuable now than ever. Pastors are facing so many new situations for which there is no expert advice. We are all feeling our way along, and coaching can help you think through your gifts, needs, resources, and context so that you create a path that fits you and the people in your care. For example:

Is your church continuing to meet online for the foreseeable future, yet you’re exhausted and not sure how to make this means of ministry sustainable? Coaching can help you think through goals for this time, cull the to-do list down to the tasks that make accomplishing those aims possible, and a make plan for tackling the tasks.

Are you undecided about how to approach the traditional start of the program year in this very untraditional season of social distancing? Coaching can help you tap into your creativity and place this program year in a larger spiritual formation trajectory, making it easier to focus on and get excited about what is most important.

Are you looking for a new call during this pandemic, wondering whether churches are searching for pastors and how a candidate can tell her story well in these changed circumstances? Coaching can help you identify the added opportunities and challenges of being in search & call right now, enabling you to capitalize on the former and manage the latter.

Are you scratching your head (or, let’s be real, panicking) about how to balance supervising your child(ren)’s virtual or blended school while staying faithful to your ministerial role? Coaching can help you name how you want to show up for your family and your church, then make an actionable plan for how to operate that way.

Do you want to explore a new self care strategy since many of your usual outlets are unavailable to you? Coaching can draw out the characteristics that make self care effective for you and broaden your thinking about tactics that meet those criteria.

Has your pastoral position been downsized from full- to part-time because the offering has tailed off during the pandemic? Coaching can help you make the transition to being truly part-time - not just full-time with part-time pay - and to discover additional income streams if needed.

Is the polarization over mask-wearing morphing into political debate in your congregation - with a U.S. presidential election looming - and leaving you caught in the middle? Coaching can help you discern how to self-differentiate so that you can tend well to relationships rather than get hooked by arguments.

Not only can coaching assist in these areas and more, but it is fully customizable to your goals and your schedule. If you had professional development funds earmarked for conferences you can no longer attend, there is no better use of that money than to contract with a coach who can help you navigate all that 2020 is throwing at us. I welcome you to schedule a free discovery call here to learn more about how I approach coaching and to ask any questions you might have.

Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash.

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on almost every area of our individual and corporate lives. Our resilience, resourcefulness, and relationships have been stretched to their limits as we’ve managed ongoing drastic changes in our professional and personal lives over the past 3+ months. As we’ve been doing all the things and caring for all the people, ministers serving congregations with tenuous finances have wondered how much longer their church budget would support the amount of work they’ve been putting in. (Although, let’s be honest, many ministers were and are already underpaid for the fullness of their efforts.) At this point in an ongoing pandemic, some congregations have had to make tough choices, including cutting back the hours and pay of their minister or eliminating a ministry position entirely.

Are you a clergyperson who finds yourself in this situation? Maybe the amount of work to be done has not changed - nor has your care for your parishioners - but the paid scope of your position has. Or you suddenly find yourself searching for a new call in the midst of Covid-19. These are not easy transitions to manage without help.

I’d like to offer encouragement and partnership to you. During each week in July I am making two one-hour coaching sessions available at no charge to clergy whose positions have been cut or eliminated entirely. You can sign up for one of these sessions here. Together we’ll strategize next steps for making your responsibilities fit your salary or starting the search for a new ministry position. Your leadership is too valuable to the church and world for you to be doing work you’re not paid for or spinning your wheels!

Please share this information with colleagues who could benefit.

As I imagine is true for most coaches, the bulk of my new clients come from current coachees’ outreach to colleagues who might benefit or casual word-of-mouth recommendations. I am very grateful for these referrals! I want to make it easier for people to tell others about the value of coaching and reward their efforts in doing so.

To that end, I have made this referral sheet available in PDF format, and you can click on the image below to save it as a PNG file. It names the people and groups I work with, details my vision for and approach to coaching, differentiates coaching from counseling and spiritual direction (two disciplines that are distinct from but dovetail nicely with coaching), and provides information on how to get started. Page two, should you choose to keep reading, provides some testimonials.

When potential clients sign up for a free discovery call, I ask where they found out about my coaching services. If they name you specifically, you get two free one-hour coaching sessions. If you’re a current coachee, those two sessions get added to the end of your package. If we’re not coaching together right now - and even if we never have! - you get two sessions to use at your convenience. That’s a $200-300 value, because referrals are that important.

Thank you to all who have recommended my coaching in the past, and thanks in advance to those who will. It is a privilege to serve the church and its leaders in this way.