by Ircel Harrison, Summit Coach Training Team Leader
Most of us got into ministry because we wanted to help people and be problem solvers. What if we reinvented ourselves as coaching leaders? What difference would it make?
As a coaching leader, we exercise skills that assist staff members in learning how to help themselves and develop their gifts to solve their own problems. Transitioning from institutional “boss” to developmental companion requires mastering three fundamental practices:
1. Ask Powerful Questions Instead of Supplying Instant Answers.
Pastors are conditioned to provide answers. When a staff member walks into your study describing a breakdown in youth ministry, a worship conflict, or an administrative bottleneck, the natural reflex is to solve it.
A coaching leader resists that impulse. When you provide the immediate answer, you keep the staff member dependent on your problem-solving capacity. When you ask powerful, open-ended questions—What options have you explored? What does wise stewardship require here? What outcome are you seeking? —you build their self-awareness, situational discernment, and spiritual maturity. You equip them to think critically within their own ministry context.
2. Provide Radical Clarity Around Boundaries and Possibilities.
Every pastoral staff position includes routine, non-negotiable tasks that simply must be executed. A coaching leader is honest about these operational essentials, providing clear guardrails so staff know exactly where their responsibilities begin and end.
Once the boundaries are defined, however, the coaching leader offers freedom within them. Clarity liberates creativity. By clearly defining expected outcomes together while stepping back from micromanaging the method, you give your team the autonomy to experiment, take calculated ministry risks, and find joy in their vocational contributions.
3. Offer Accountability as a Developmental Gift.
In many church offices, accountability feels punitive—something exercised only when a ball is dropped, or a crisis emerges.
A coaching leader frames accountability not as institutional surveillance, but as a covenantal gift. With your staff, you establish predictable checkpoints, identify meaningful ministry milestones, and help staff discern what support systems they need to succeed.
When assignments reach completion, you pause to celebrate growth and kingdom impact. Accountability becomes a shared rhythm of mutual encouragement rather than fear-based monitoring.
The payoff for the coaching leader is seeing the growth and development of others. Pastoral leadership is fundamentally about multiplication. Supervising keeps the machinery running today; coaching develops the leaders who will sustain the mission tomorrow. Coaching leaders reject the pressure for superficial quick fixes in favor of deep, lasting investments in human and congregational vitality.
Are you presiding over your staff as a supervisor, or walking beside them as a coaching leader? The choice directly shapes the culture of your congregation.
We can be of help to you in two ways through Summit Coach Training:
First, Dr. Laura Stephens-Reed provides training to equip ministry leaders for the hard, holy work of supervising staff. She is available to work with individual church leadership teams online. Participants will:
Learn the basics of coaching and their usefulness in supervision as well as the limits of coaching in supervision.
Discover their supervision style and construct their own coach approach to supervision.
Consider how to shape a culture of supervision that is rooted in coaching skills.
For more information, go HERE.
Second, Summit Coach Training offers a 64-hour certificate program for ministry and not-for-profit leaders to learn and practice coaching skills. More information on our website or contact Ircel Harrison.
