Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Church missions coaching is a process that teams up a coach with a church to assist the church in developing and executing its global missions vision.

Through a series of workshops, the coach walks alongside church leadership in order to train, encourage, support, and advise the church in the development of a focused vision for global outreach. 

The goal of the coaching process is to help a church design and use its unique gifts in partnership with others to make Christ and His kingdom known among the nations through word and deed ministries.

Church missions coaching provides a way for a church to objectively evaluate its global outreach ministry and to design a plan to greater impact the world for Christ.  Imagine a church that...

-- Increases its missions investment.
-- Pursues focused strategic activities.
-- Experiences congregation-wide mobilization.
-- Becomes more focused locally as well as globally.
-- Aligns with what God is doing in fulfilling the Great Commission

Church missions coaching concentrates on facilitating a process rather than promoting an agency's program or leading a wider congregational strategic planning process.  Missions coaching acknowledges and respects the unique characteristics and calling of the local church while focusing in on missions - global, cross-cultural, and local.  As such, the work can be seen as complimenting the work of other organizations that do coaching such as Christian Reformed Home Missions.

A coach is someone who helps a team...

-- Understand its purpose.
-- Assess its current situation.
-- Set clear goals.
-- Develop a game plan.
-- Implement the plan.
-- Make mid-game corrections as needed.
-- Assess the outcome and repeat!

To find out if church missions coaching is right for your church, see if you identify with any of these statements.

-- "We're stuck and having trouble overcoming the 'We've always done it this way' syndrome."
-- "We need fresh eyes - an objective perspective."
-- "We're restless and want to have a greater impact on the world."
-- "We have taken the shotgun approach to missions...we want to be better stewards of what God has given us."
-- "Our church's mission involvement is at best marginal."
-- "We want to move from a supportive role to an active role in missions."
-- "Missions interest in our church spikes once or twice a year driven by special events and then it fades."
-- "We don't know where to begin."
-- "We want missions to be at the center rather than the periphery of the church."
-- "We have a missions team or missions enthusiasts with 'pet agendas' and not a unified congregational direction for missions."
-- "Our church's leadership is conscious of the gap in missions and wants to address it."

-- Time to meet once every 4-6 weeks for 6 to 9 months.
-- Commitment to the process (key leadership required for 2-3 sessions of the Discover Phase).
-- There is no cost for the Introductory Workshop.  Subsequent workshops are charged at $50/hour or $150 for each 3-hour workshop.  This includes the costs of all travel, lodging, and materials.

The 3-D Process refers to the three phases involved in the overall coaching program.  These phases include the Discover, Design, and Deploy phases.  The process unfolds through three-hour workshops over a period of between six and nine months.  While the same basic format is used, the process is customizable for the unique circumstances of each church.  Your coach walks alongside you and guides you through the entire 3-D process.

16:15 Church Missions Coaching is an organization based out of Albuquerque, NM that is on the cutting edge of church missions coaching.  Christian Reformed World Missions and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee have joined an alliance with 16:15 to train coaches in the Christian Reformed Church and to help local CRC congregations to enhance their vision for missions.

For more information, check out the 16:15 website.

 To find out how to start the coaching process, click on Getting Started.


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