Coaching is about exploring where God is inviting you to grow or go, discerning the next steps, and then empowering the client to follow through in following where God is leading. This is about you gaining clarity and momentum to move forward to whatever is next. Generally speaking, coaching relationships have a meeting cadence of every-other-week and are generally online.

"Coach" has many connotations, and the emergence of a highly unregulated "coaching" industry in the West has led to a lot of confusion as fitness influencers, entrepreneurs, happiness experts and relationship gurus promise results that they can't in good conscience guarantee.

A coach is really a trained process and transition expert who helps you uncover what God has already given you so that you can move forward with hope and momentum into whatever is next. All of our coaches have been trained in programs certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), the world standard in coaching training and credentialing, and several of our coaches hold ICF credentials. You can learn more about coaching by visiting coachingfederation.org.

Spiritual direction, mentoring, coaching, and counseling are all important ministries for the people of God, and each has a distinct place in the life of faith.

Each of these ministries uses skills like listening well and asking great questions to help create clarity, but they are looking in different directions.

• Counseling generally focuses on looking backwards at the past in order to create opportunities for healing.

• Coaching and Mentoring generally focus on looking forward to what’s next in order to generate momentum.

• Spiritual direction generally focuses on looking around in the present for God’s movement in order to increase awareness and intimacy with God.

That’s a good point of discernment because sometimes coaching is NOT what we need! Coaching covers ground in a lot of areas of our lives, but the primary focus of coaching is on areas of growth or areas where you are stuck. Some key questions to consider are:

- Am I looking to gain clarity on my goals, vision, values, and what truly motivates me?

- Do I wish to feel a renewed sense of momentum and progress in both my personal and professional life?

- Would I like to experience a stronger connection between my efforts and their impact on the Kingdom?

- Am I looking for a greater sense of empowerment in my life, making decisions that align with God’s purposes for me and my contribution to God’s mission?

- Do I long for a balanced and flourishing life, where my spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being are all nurtured and cared for?

If you can answer any of these questions with a resounding "Yes!" then coaching might be a great fit for you in this season.

The standard frequency of coaching is roughly every other week or twice monthly. This gives space for you to take action on what you uncovered in the coaching conversation while not dragging it out so long that you lose clarity or momentum. However, the frequency is incredibly flexible depending on the goal and the need, so working directly with your coach to find a schedule that meets your needs is part of the process.

That’s a good question! However, a better starting place might be "What is it costing me to not work with a coach?"

Studies have demonstrated time and again that working with a coach helps guard against burnout, increases job satisfaction, builds up personal agency and ownership, and can help create clarity around transitions that we experience on and off the clock.

In addition to all this, the average cost of coaching in the United Staes is over $200 per hour. In out attempt to keep costs down, we simply charge what makes the ministry work!

Our coaches are generally bi-vocational and take time away from other forms of work in order to provide this much needed ministry. As such, we want to honor their training, their contribution, and their time by offering fair compensation. Other than directly paying the coach, a portion of each direction fee helps underwrite the provision of pre-field training, debriefing retreats, and other ministries we offer to global workers.

We have a short, painless scholarship application that we use to help us steward the resources God is giving to us and make sure as many people as possible can receive the help they need. Contact us at coaching@traininternational.org to request the application link.

Simply put, we believe in this ministry and want to see others benefit from coaching just like we have and, hopefully, just like you will. We want to empower each person who receives coaching from us to be able to pay it forward by connecting another cross-cultural worker or ministry leader with this resource at the right time.

We never want to trap anyone in coaching, so there is always an opportunity to reassess. However, we have found that it takes about 6 meetings to really get the most out of coaching. That’s why our agreements are in six-session intervals: to create a natural opportunity to assess how the relationship is going and discern if there will need to be a change. That said, we have had very few people ever request to switch coaches.

If you end up in that situation, you can reach our program director at coaching@traininternational.org or you can speak directly to your coach about it - they aren't shy and they aren't going to take it personally!

That’s wonderful! Your coach would be the first person to really talk to about that. Our team has a list of trusted training organizations we have been trained by or have connections with that we would be happy to share with you, but the first step is really to discern in prayer and community if God is calling you to this kind of ministry. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) also has a list of certified training organizations that could be a great first step. You can find that listing through this link.

You certainly can if you and your coach are in the same place and agree to it! We find that often our coaches are on different sides of the globe from our clients, so online is often the only option. However, if there is proximity you and your coach can work that out!