How coaching helps church planting wives

By Heather Bond

3 Ways Coaching Helps Church Planting Wives

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!” This quote from Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Goencourages us to be all we can be. But as a church planter’s wife, how many hats do you wear, plates do you spin and places do you go in the course of a day? How many people depend on you to be their go-to person? You probably hold the titles of mom, ministry assistant (to your darling husband), housekeeper, taxi driver, disciple maker, friend and many more. Why would you add one more thing? Coaching may seem like an extra thing to add to your stressful, never-done list. But, in actuality, coaching can provide life-changing benefits to that chaotic schedule you manage. Here are 3 ways coaching helps me get where I want to go:

1) Having a coach helps me focus my attention on God’s tasks, not my tasks.

By encouraging me to listen to the Holy Spirit, my coach helps me weed out distractions so I can prioritize, strategize and accomplish my goals. Instead of feeling constantly overwhelmed by chaos and becoming a slave to the “tyranny of the urgent,” I use coaching to guide me to rational organization and confident decision making.

Coaching may seem like an extra thing to add to your stressful, never-done list. But, in actuality, coaching can provide life-changing benefits to that chaotic schedule you manage.

2) Coaching improves my communication with others while lessening my frustrations.

By learning and using good coaching questions, I can help others around me discover what God wants. This is true whether I’m helping my husband with ministry, teaching my children important life lessons, or discipling a younger woman. I feel less frustrated as I rely on the Holy Spirit—instead of myself—to speak to others about what they should do next.

3) Coaching helps me minister to others and contribute to Kingdom work.

This has two parts. As a coachee, I’m directed to listen and discern what God is calling me to do. I can set goals, work through a plan and accomplish His will. As a coach, I’m playing a small but important role in prompting fellow church planter wives to discover God’s will for their lives and accomplish it.

By learning and using good coaching questions, I can help others around me discover what God wants.

So, I encourage you to give coaching a chance. I encourage you to find a coach and someone to coach. If you’re actively coaching, keep coaching and impacting the kingdom! For more information on coaching visit the Send Network Coaching page, talk to your Send City missionary and look for coach training opportunities in your city.


Published February 5, 2016

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Heather Bond

Matthew and Heather Bond moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, three years ago to plant Ekklesia Community Church (www.ekklesiabc.ca) in Sidney, BC. They have two boys: Ethan, 17, and Joseph, 15.