Faith Coaching: Encouraging One Another

When was the last time you needed some support in your life?

Perhaps you were getting ready to lead a study group and asked a friend to listen to your presentation and offer suggestions or feedback.
Maybe you decided to replant your backyard with new trees, shrubs and flowers and decided to attend a class at your local nursery to get some advice.
Birthing babies is usually a team effort and a labor coach can be a spouse, partner, friend, mom or sister, whoever is up to the task.
Many people use personal trainers to guide them through fitness routines to maximize the benefits of exercising.

Whenever we look to someone else for feedback, direction, advice or support we are acknowledging what we want to bring into our lives and that we need another human being with expertise, training or different skills than our own to help us make that happen. sometimes we simply require someone's candid eye and discerning ear to help us shape our goal before we map out our next steps. Other times we need a hand to guide us on the path itself. We need a coach to point out our best and cheer us through our growth.

Just like making presentations, planting gardens, delivering babies and creating physical health and well-being, working on our faith takes time, attention, planning and support. We all know that worship, prayer, study and fellowship strengthen and nurture our faith, but how much time do we give ourselves to these opportunities for spiritual growth? Where does responding to God's presence in our lives fit in among all the other priorities we must attend to in our daily lives? A faith coach can help us set faith development as a priority in our lives and help us integrate the steps we choose to shape our journey with God.

Faith coaching is about welcoming the best from ourselves as God's creation. It is a partnership between two people of faith, a relationship of encouragement, honesty and receptivity to God's activity in our lives. Faith coaching can also be explored within a group of people seeking to understand God's presence among themselves, in the world and in each other's lives. Specific questions, issues and concerns can be raised and addressed from a faith perspective. Unique ideas and views can challenge participants to consider how God acts, looks, sounds and feels to them, and how those beliefs inform their lives.

Most importantly, faith coaching affirms the reality of what we believe as central to how we live our lives. When we focus in on our faith, give it attention and allow it to expand, we feel more connected with all of God's creation, especially each other. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:23-25)."