Life Coaching

Last week we talked about Passionate Stewardship and the benefits and requirements of it. This week we are looking at Life Coaching which goes along with stewardship in that coaching requires giving of our lives and particularly our time.

All my life I have loved sports. Real sports like football, basketball, and track and field, not water polo, badminton, or baseball. Just kidding, sort of. Anyway, I figured out in high school that I was decent at football, and in track and field, the shotput. I loved throwing that 12 lb steel ball as far as I could. The main reason I liked it was that the guys that threw the shotput were always at least 100 lbs heavier and 6 inches taller than I was. I guess I had a bit of a complex and wanted to prove that I was as strong as anyone else. Well, in high school we had a coach, if he could be labeled a coach, who would come around about once a week and attempt to show us a few exercises that we could do to improve our strength for our event. We would do what he said during his 20 minute visit and then when he left, we would continue to do whatever we felt was more important, such as playing hacky sack. Needless to say, our shotput skills did not improve and some of us even got worse!

During my senior year, we were doing horribly as a group and my personal shotput distance was worse than during my sophomore year. Sensing that he could help, this coach came up to the shotput ring and handed us each three pages of instructions on how to throw the shotput. It included exercises and techniques to get us doing things correctly again. He was trying to help us, not by coaching us, but by merely giving us information. This was extremely frustrating to me though I didn’t say anything immediately to him. Instead, like a real man, at the end of practice I went to the head coach, told him I was quitting, went to the locker room and got dressed, then went home.

At Vintage Life Church, discipleship is very important to us. It is commanded by the Lord in Matthew 28:18-20, that we make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them the commandments of the Lord. We call it “Life Coaching” because it goes beyond giving out information to new believers and wishing them luck. No, life coaching involves investing in someone’s life in order to see them mature in Christ.

Paul summarizes what our desire to do in Life Coaching is: “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” Colossians 1:28-29

The first thing we see is that Paul emphasizes the importance of proclaiming Christ to everyone. Thus, Life Coaching begins with evangelism. It begins with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers. It seems to me that this is implied in the term discipleship, but I think many churches overlook this in their discipleship efforts. Our discipleship must be Christ-centered, cross-centered, and thus gospel-centered. It should not be need-centered, emotion-centered, or information-centered. These are things that are important components of discipleship, but they are not what we want to base the entire process of discipleship on.

Another thing that we see in these verses is that we are to warn and teach everyone with all wisdom. This brings us back to our first core value: Biblical Authority. Remember in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Our major tool for discipleship is Scripture. God has given us His Word for these purposes. Paul, led by the Spirit of God, instructed disciples, corrected them, and trained them with Scripture. We are to have Scripture be our guide and our content in all of our coaching efforts. A good coach knows the game and its rules. We need to know Scripture in order to coach people and see the fruit of our labor.

The purpose of Life Coaching or discipleship is to “present everyone mature in Christ.” Our goal is to come alongside people and see them grow. We will not be content with just having crowds of people show up to our services. We will not stop with drawing people to Jesus without investing in their lives to see them to maturity. This is a difficult task, but one that we as Christians are called to. Our success is not based on the number of people in the crowd, but on our obedience to Christ in our labor for Him. We are called to plant and water, but God causes growth. Pastor Jeff Evans says that “It’s all junior high ministry.” I think he says this because it is a struggle to see people grow. We want the best for them, but inevitably they will fail, and they will fall. This does not reflect our efforts in coaching them, but it does weigh on us. There will be those who grow slower than others, or maybe even get stunted early on, but Scripture says “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

Even Paul recognizes that this work is a struggle. He says that he “toils and struggles.” The Greek word for toil (kopio) shows that “his work for Christ is a severe and exhausting burden.”[1] It means that we will be beaten down at times in this work. But, Paul explains also how we are sustained, by “his [Christ’s] energy that he powerfully works within me.” Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 that He would be with us always as we are fulfilling the Great Commission. He promises to sustain us in the work He has prepared for us. We can do this work with His strength (Philippians 4:13), but without Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5)

Getting back to my issue with my track coach, word got around quickly that I was quitting. The coaches were trying to get me to come back, but I was persistent in my decision. I was just tired of doing the same old thing without any support. Well, an old football coach of mine called me into his office the next day and told me that he didn’t want me to quit. He said he would take the time every day after school to work with me and get me up to speed on the shotput. This is a guy who was not going to be paid for his time, but merely wanted to invest in my life and see to it that I was not deemed a quitter. Working with him I did improve and ended up placing 3rd in our league my senior year. I still look back at what he did for me, not merely in helping me improve my shotput ability, but in showing me what it meant to stick to your commitments. He also showed me what it means to take time for other people simply because you want them to succeed. In that respect, he succeeded in being one of the greatest coaches I ever had.

The question we need to ask ourselves as individuals and as a church is, “what is our legacy going to be.” Are we going to be a church that sees people to maturity by investing in their lives, while being committed to the gospel, submitting to Scripture, and being empowered by the Spirit of Christ? Or are we going to be content with drawing crowds, handing out literature, and hoping people get it? I hope that we will recognize the importance of Life Coaching in the work that Christ has set before each of us today.

Prayer

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[1]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vols. 5-9 Edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 Compiled by Ronald Pitkin., ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey William Bromiley and Gerhard Friedrich, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964-c1976), 3:829.