From Ordinary to Flourishing:
How coaching can benefit your ministry
By Rev. Betty Bolerjack
People often ask, “What is coaching?” Their only point of reference is sports, so they are puzzled when I tell them I am a coach, and even more so, when I tell them I coach clergy. You may be wondering the same thing. Just what is this coaching thing all about anyway?
Coaching takes many forms. It isn’t just sports. For several years, I coached teens in Bible quizzing and later, when our daughter became eligible for Children’s Bible Quizzing, I coached elementary aged children. I helped them learn the material, memorize Bible verses, and practice answering questions. Sometimes, I just helped them strategize to win a quiz or nail getting a memory trophy. It was a fun time for me. I loved working with those kids. It was encouraging to see them hide the Word of God in their hearts as I had done as a teen and become more grounded in their Christian walk.
Tamara Bolerjack with her Gold Award at the 2012 Regional Quiz at Southern Nazarene University
My daughter has many trophies from Children’s Quizzing and even received the highest award at a regional quiz. As a young adult now, she loves studying God’s word and memorizing Bible verses. And those teens? It’s heart-warming to know that they, too, are faithfully serving God as adults.
Life Coaching
Life coaching is a broad term that describes coaching that helps people navigate the sometimes tricky game of life. Just as an athlete or Bible quizzer needs a coach to guide them to be their best, so many people have learned that life coaches can help them play this game called Life to the very best of their ability. In fact, that’s really what all types of coaching are for… helping one to be the best they can be in whatever area they desire, and most coaches specialize in a specific area of life coaching.
- Executive coaches help busy professionals stay on top of their game. They coach them to achieve higher levels of performance than they ever thought possible. Achieving goals in the workplace is not always easy and executive coaches help CEOs and other top leaders achieve the goals they set for themselves and their organizations.
- Another type of coaching is Health and Wellness. This type of coach works with people to achieve their goals to be healthy and fit. They work on areas such as diet, exercise, and mental and spiritual well-being, always keeping the preferences of the client in mind.
Coaching at Inspired Shepherd
There are many other types of coaching that are ultimately all life coaching but focus on certain specialties. Here at Inspired Shepherd LLC, we combine two areas of specialized coaching, clergy coaching and ADHD coaching. Clergy coaching is just that, a form of coaching that helps clergy to meet their goals for themselves and their ministry, no matter what form that ministry might take. Ministry can often feel thankless. With the help of a coach, a clergyperson can work through the tough challenges and create the ministry that they feel God has called them to while maintaining healthy relationships in their lives with both family and friends.
ADHD coaching is a specialized form of coaching that helps those with ADHD to better understand the effect that impaired executive functions can have on their lives and to develop systems and strategies to improve their performance and succeed where they never thought they could. When ADHD collides with ministry, as it often does, there can be discouragement, depression, anger, and hurt feelings, both for pastor and parishioner. The results can be devastating, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
While Inspired Shepherd LLC works with neurotypical clergy, it is when we work with ADHD clergy that our efforts really shine. As the founder and coach of Inspired Shepherd LLC, I have walked in your shoes. I have ADHD myself and was diagnosed late in life. I didn’t have the benefit of knowing about my ADHD when I was pastoring and didn’t even know anything about coaching at that time. While I sought the counsel of my peers and superiors, I realize now how coaching could not only have improved my performance as a pastor but could have helped me improve relationships both in the church and at home. My mission is to help other clergy avoid the pitfalls that I experienced and have flourishing ministries.
If you are a minister and would like to know how coaching with Inspired Shepherd LLC can benefit you, I invite you to contact me for a complimentary session to better understand what coaching is and what it can do for you. And if you are a clergyperson with ADHD, I encourage you to not delay! Contact me now so that your ministry can be the fruitful ministry that God desires you to have!