Our vision is to make disciples who will also make disciples. At first a disciple primarily listens, absorbs, and gets the healing and foundations needed for their Christian life. But as you gently encourage them down the Road to Maturity, they hopefully come to the place where they busy themselves in an area of ministry.  No cell should stay the same forever!  Members eventually leave the weekly attendance of your cell and either join a new cell launch, find a place of service, or even better, begin begin emulating your example making disciples through leading a cell of their own.

However, everyone still needs the care of their fellow believers.  Everyone needs community.  Even cell leaders need constant encouragement, instruction, and help in their ministry.  We call the leader who provides this encouragement, accountability, and equipping “the coach.” 

 Coaching a cell leader is primarily a personal relationship. You should act as a pastor would act for the person you are coaching. You should do your best to be concerned for the individual and his/her spiritual life and growth.  As coach, you are charged with helping someone build the ministry God has called them to lead.  You are a servant who helps them fulfill God’s call.

You are also a connection to the overall ministry at Central Assembly. You should make sure any leader you coach is aware of important events, hold them accountable to be in-the-know.   When a leader has a crisis, a need, a marriage, birth, or important life event, you should make sure their cell surrounds them and they get the care they need. In short, you care for them, you help them develop their ministry and help them be accountable to the body of Christ and the vision God has given us.

Coaching traditionally involves 3 types of time spent together.

1. One-on-one meetings.   Personal, informal times in order to pastorally care for and develop the leader.

2. Huddles.  Small group meetings with all the people you coach, in which you lead and model our vision.

3. Cell group visits.  These are the occasional times in which you visit the leaders group in order to affirm them and constructively observe.  (See chapter 12 in “How to Be a Great Cell Coach”)

Coaching is even more about regular communication than about meetings. Phone calls, emails, and making the point to chat before or after church will help you stay connected relationally to the leader you are coaching.

Recommended Requirements of Coaching Care

Every Day

 Pray for the leaders under your care. Even if it’s just a few moments, pray for them.

Every Month

Personally touch base with each of your leaders. This will primarily be by phone. It may also be, e-mail, note of encouragement, private chat at church).  Have some kind of personal contact every week. Give them a chance to share anything on their heart. Pray with them when it’s appropriate.

Every Month

Huddle with all your cell leaders together. This can be done at a home (where it is easier to pray together) or at times at a convenient public place.  (see “Huddles” below.)  This gives you a chance to strategize as a group, support one another, and it allows your leaders to enjoy being part of YOUR leadership cell.

Every quarter

One on one meeting. At least every 4-8 weeks, you will need to have some personal “face-to-face” time with each cell leader under your care. This needs to be unhurried, and should be casual and personal, but with the purpose of building the leader.

Occasionally

Visit you cell leader’s group on occasion. (Be sure to let them know you are coming, and ask if it’s a good time.)  Use the opportunity to evaluate the group, encourage the leader and reinforce him/her as a leader before the group. You will also learn a great deal about the group and be better equipped to help coach.

At least once per year

Celebrate and throw a party in response to what God has done, i.e. salvations, growth, raising up new leaders, acts of service, people getting free, discovering their gifts, and the birthing of new groups. Every milestone should be celebrated.

What do I do in Coaching Meetings?

What do I do in One-on-One Sessions?

One-on-one coaching is flexible and personal. It can happen over dinner, fishing or (ladies) shopping together, or in whatever setting you can have one-on-one mentoring time.  Start by asking about family, work, and the leader’s spiritual life.  Listen (LOTS!), encourage, and demonstrate care. At least half of the time should be spent listening.

 Look for areas to affirm and praise them. Be sure to emphasize their calling and God’s hand upon their life. Build their faith.

Later, you can move into developing and strategizing. Because of the flexibility of one-on-one coaching, you can target the leader’s needs. One leader needs help with evangelism, while another needs to know how to ask effective questions. In a group huddle setting, it’s impossible to cover the specific needs of each person.

When the need arises, a coach can speak the truth in love with his/her leader, thinking of the leader’s long-term development. Discussing personal issues in front of a group destroys trust and prevents leaders from raising concerns or questions, but privately it can be done more easily.

You should also seek other opportunities to further build relationship.  When you see the leader at weekend services or in social setting, take time to chat, or occasionally invite the leader to eat with you.  

You might also:

Meet for breakfast before work.

Travel to an event together.

Visit a group meeting together.

Take them with you when you go to minister to someone.

The single most important thing a coach can do is maintain regular contact with his group leaders whether by phone or face-to-face. If a coach doesn’t quickly establish a good line of communication, he will not be very effective. Even something as simple as a five-minute phone call can be very effective in maintaining the relationship between coach and leader, especially if the conversation includes prayer.

What do I do in my Huddle?

The huddle is the “cell group” your cell leader is a part of.  As such, it needs to have some of the basic elements that any cell has.

 Fellowship.  Try to have some coffee or refreshments. If the huddle is in a home, refreshments are great to get people talking and to wait for everyone to show up. You might give your leaders an information update at this time (e.g., next meeting, planned activities, prayer requests from a leader who couldn’t be there). Contacting your leaders individually before the huddle will allow you to keep the information current.  Let them talk and share freely with each other. Cell leaders feed off the experiences of other cell leaders and minister to one another, much like cell members minister to the needs of other members.

Welcome the Holy Spirit. Prayer (and possibly worship) should start the gathering.

Listen, encourage, care.  Get a quick update from your leaders. Ask them about their week, their groups, and what God is doing in their lives. Let them share the “state of their flock.”  Listening in the group huddle means listening to the leader’s prayer requests, hearing about difficulties in the cell, or areas of personal struggles. Take time to write down and pray for those requests. Occasionally, you might want to go around and personally pray for each leader, sharing what God may give you. You might ask the other leaders to join you as you pray.

Speak the Word. Have something fresh from God for your group. Get it from heaven, and your cell leaders will love the huddles. Like a cell meeting, this does not need to be more than just a few minutes.

Develop and train them in ministry. We must be dedicated to growing and becoming better at our vision. Often you will have something that YOUR coach/overseer/apostle has shared with you to pass along to them. Perhaps you might be reading a book together, or some materials to help them grow in their gifts and callings.  You might occasionally read an article or book chapter together, and during the huddles ask stimulating questions to jog memories, while adding additional infor­mation. Leaders want to go away feeling that they’ve learned something. Take advantage of opportunities to teach your leaders new skills and knowledge.

Strategize and challenge.  You are like a general meeting with his commanders. There should be a brief time in the huddle of dealing with specific strategy for growth and multiplication.  Hold leaders accountable to making sure disciples are walking the Road to Maturity. 

Energize them in the vision. 

Encourage them to remember the basics and values of our vision.  Close the meeting with a visionary challenge to press on in cell group multiplication to reach a lost world for Jesus. This is very much like the vision casting time in a cell group. Challenge your leaders to go forward to reap a greater harvest

Basically, during the huddle, be sure to:

Ask how each leader is doing.

Give input on specific problems leaders are having.             

Allow the leaders to share with each other to exchange ideas and information.

Teach/refresh leadership skills.

Strategize, plan, and hold them accountable

Have a word

Challenge the leaders to grow spiritually.

Celebrate what God is doing.

Cast vision

Pray for each other.

Make a note of things you will want to address during one-on-one time

Remember to be flexible with the agenda. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you during each huddle meeting.

Where should a huddle meet?

Huddles can theoretically meet anywhere. Your only limitation is the suitability of the location to meet the goals of the meeting. For example, the food court is not the best place to seriously pray, but can be a good huddle location on occasion. As it is a “closed” cell, huddles do not always need to meet in the same location.

If all of the leaders you’re coaching came from the same cell group, the leader might want to ask them to come one hour before the cell group begins (and some might want to stay for the cell meeting in order to stay in touch with former members).

Another great time to have a huddle meeting is before or after an already established church service. However, please be sensitive to the specific location at the church. Some huddles might be conducted successfully in offices or classrooms, but please make sure use of that area is approved.

Like a cell, the ideal location is probably a home.

The success of our vision depends upon each of us being committed to encourage and equip others for the work of the ministry. It requires a lifestyle of sacrifice. As you pour yourself into equipping others, you will truly be the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4.

How many people can I coach?

In our vision, we recognize that we need to carefully balance our lives and ministries. If you are coaching too many people, it will be hard to have quality time with each one while still leading your own cell.

For this reason, we generally recommend that anyone working full-time limit themselves to a goal or three and a maximum of 7 leaders that you personally coach at any given time.  When you have multiplied more leaders than this, you can place your newly emerging leaders “downstream” in the care of one of your existing leaders.  The ideal time to do this is as they enter the School of Leaders. This allows them to build a relationship with the pastor who will coach them while in the SOL.

For more information on placing leaders “downstream”, see “Building a Spiritual Family Tree” at www.cellpastors.com/generations.htm