– Dick Gourley, Sol Duc Leadership
You’ll be trained in a hybrid model blending the best of gold standard coaching standards with missional frameworks.
You’ll get live feedback on your actual coaching so that you can improve your impulses and grow as a coach.
By integrating a coaching dashboard and missional theology, you’ll know when to listen and provide just-in-time input.
The Church Planter Coaching Certificate features 7 interactive online courses. For each course, cohort members complete a workbook for which Fuller staff provides written feedback.
Each cohort member can log in and track their own progress in the course. If you’re an organization, you can use this scalable platform to train all your coaches. Get access to all the course content, facilitator guides, and instructor feedback.
Each cohort member can log in and track their own progress in the course. If you’re an organization, you can use this scalable platform to train all your coaches. Get access to all the course content, facilitator guides, and instructor feedback.
Once a cohort member completes all of the course material, Fuller will issue a professional church planter coaching certificate.
Becoming an effective church planting coach requires a healthy dose of training and feedback. With this coaching certificate, you get the combined wisdom of two church planting organizations investing in your development as a coach: Cyclical INC and the Church Planting Initiative at Fuller Seminary, the world’s largest interdenominational seminary with 110 denominations representing 90 countries. As they graduate over 1500 students each year, they have learned that partnering in the formation of leaders is one of the best ways they can join in God’s mission for the world.
In this coaching certificate, Cyclical INC and Fuller Church Planting Initiative will bring the best of their frameworks and experience to develop you as an effective church planting coach.
Bethany Labue, Strong Second Wellbeing
COURSE 1
1. Recognize how the format of this Certificate is a response to the urgent need for effectively coaching missional planters.
2. Establish the biblical and theological foundations for coaching church planters.
3. Participate effectively in triads as a peer coaching model as well as actively coach a current church planter and reflect upon those coaching sessions.
4. Create or update an intake process and coaching agreement that establish a solid relational, spiritual, and organizational foundation with the client.
COURSE 2
1. Define what coaching is and identify the primary characteristics of effective coaches
2. Identify the distinctions between coaching and mentoring, and the rationale for a client-centered approach to coaching
3. Review the foundational principles of missional theology and praxis, and apply these learnings to help starters adapt their ecclesiology to their context.
4. Identify the distinctions of the four seasons of church planting, and how to coach planters through each season.
COURSE 3
1. Based on analysis of multiple coaching wheels, develop your own coaching wheel to holistically assess the planter’s health.
2. Learn to discern and illuminate risks and opportunities not visible to the planter.
3. Recognize how and when to ask powerful questions to stimulate growth and positive change, and develop your own set of powerful questions.
COURSE 4
1. Equip starters to grow the leadership team and develop their unique mix of gifts for ministry.
2. Guide planters in helping their team discern vision, set goals, and define healthy metrics.
3. Empower planters to handle inevitable team conflicts and avoid common pitfalls.
4. Identify the unique dynamics of coaching co-planters or entire church planting teams.
COURSE 5
1. Recognize how my own context, gender, and racial/ethnic background impacts my self-understanding and my coaching.
2. Demonstrate the ability to adjust my coaching to promote diversity for the sake of mission and witness.
3. Articulate the dynamics involved in coaching planters of color versus white planters, including how to help planters engage racial justice and equity issues.
4. Recognize the trappings of colonizing theologies and explore ways to help planters both appreciate indigenous perspectives and also decolonize their theologies and ecclesial culture, including gentrification.
COURSE 6
1. Build habits of self-reflection and create strong feedback loops to undergird the coach for lifelong learning and excellence.
2. Forge the connection between the coach’s own formation and the healthy formation of planters.
3. Analyze and discuss case studies of “live” recorded coaching segments.
4. Fine tune your coaching dashboard and your plan to improve as a coach over time.
FINAL PROJECT
In this final course you will synthesize the prior six courses into a cohesive coaching plan:
– Your Coaching Portfolio
– Your Coaching Dashboard
– Your 15 Powerful Questions
– Your Plan to Coach Teams
– Your Coaching Philosophy
– A Synthesis of Your Coaching Feedback
UPON COMPLETION OF ALL MATERIAL
Upon completing all work and the final project, learners will receive a digital and physical copy of their well-deserved professional church planter coaching certificate from Fuller Seminary.
This certificate acknowledges that the certificate holder possesses the formation, training, experience and preparation to coach a missional church planter anywhere in the world.
