Transforming Church

Assessing the volunteers spiritual gifts and passion for the ministry come first. There is nothing more deadly than having a person with the wrong gifts and no passion for that part of the congregation's ministry to do it out of a sense of duty. Taking the time to assess what this leader brings to this ministry will almost always, if a good connection is made, increase the chance that the leader will follow through on what she promises to do.

Next is to negotiate both the vision and hoped for outcomes for the ministry, and a commitment to periodic times for coaching the volunteer. Too often, one of the reasons that a volunteer seems unaccountable is that they have been given a quick verbal "ask" to do the task assigned. The outcomes are not specifically spelled out, and there is no negotiated expectation about how often pastoral leader and volunteer leader will stop and assess how the leader is doing and how the ministry is developing.

The greatest enemy of accountability is the tendency of the church to understaff congregations, and for pastors to take on more than they can truly handle. Even in the business world, the number of persons one can directly manage is much smaller than what a pastor is expected to do in her relationships, and volunteers don't have the stimulus of a paycheck to be accountable.

There is no process in today's church that offers more hope for creating a quality leader to leader relationship, and engender accountability than the coaching model.
Coaching assumes that the coach/pastor is not responsible for the ministry, but rather it is owned by the coached leader. He, not the pastoral leader, is the one who needs to have the freedom and latitude to develop the most effective and creative way to get the job done and meet the expected outcomes.

The ELCA (elca.org) is committed to teaching the leaders of the church to develop coaching skills that can be deployed to build the ministry leadership network of the local congregation. Many synods have trained coaches, and coaching workshops can be found, both through the resources of the national offices of the church, and through many of the synods. In addition, coaching is a neutral skill. One can easily take a coaching course in many local communities. However one picks up the skills, the genius of coaching is that it is built on a process of negotiated meetings with a very specific goal of intentionally developing the leader and his or her ministry.

In a coaching meeting, ministry outcomes are chosen, the process of creating change and establishing a new ministry are outlined, resources of the congregation, the wider church, and resources in the community are identified. When there is a problem, or the coached leader gets in a bind, the coach both knows about it and helps the coached leader to become active in problem-solving and getting the developing ministry back on track.

How do you work for greater accountability in your congregation? What would happen if you were intentional about choosing and coaching those who are called to your ministries, and they consistently carried through and were fruitful with the results. How would your own ministry change if you knew that you could count on the people who work with you in the parish you serve?

Read other related articles by the same author:
“Coaching Isn't Just for Little League!”
“Coaching Part 2: How to Coach”
“Coaching Part 3: Practical Approaches to Coaching”