“Our summer outreach programme was a bit of a disaster…”

Rick* is a youth and family worker at a church plant in the Northwest of Ireland. His church has a vision to reach young people who aren’t from ‘church’ families.

Things were going really well for their youth outreach. Almost half of the young people attending programmes weren’t from Christian families. The church was connecting with young people in the local community through initiatives like a boxing club, and a mentoring programme for teenage girls.

Coaching: a chance to reflect

Rick reached out to Innovista for coaching at the start of a new year. He was reflecting and realised that he needed to clarify his role. He wanted help to focus on the long-term impact of his work, rather than getting caught up in the day-to-day busyness of youth work.

Each month, Rick met with Rachel, an Innovista trainer, for a coaching session. Over months of coaching, he says:

“I grew in awareness of my own emotions and thoughts about situations which helped me be more reflective when leading. Coaching made me more aware of what was impacting me. It increased my sensitivity to others and enabled me to be more understanding, patient and humble in recognising my own issues.”

Disaster strikes

Rick faced a real-life learning opportunity in the form of a summer outreach and youth programme, which didn’t go as planned. He struggled to recruit enough volunteers from the church. He hadn’t done all the planning for the youth programme, and the few volunteers that he had were stressed by the lack of organisation. Rick admitted that it was ‘a bit of a disaster.’

A new response

Coaching had taught Rick the importance of honest feedback, so he asked his volunteers about their experience. They were honest with him about the problems. Rick said:

“My sensitivity and defensiveness rose internally. But, coaching helped me reflect on it.  I knew the right thing to do was to model transparency, so I met with the volunteers individually to apologise.

If I’d received that feedback before I’d had the coaching, I wouldn’t have been able to receive it in the same way. I have grown in my willingness to receive and listen to feedback; it’s softened me.”

If you’re involved in Christian ministry of any kind, and would like to grow in your leadership skills, contact us to chat about coaching. Experienced leaders will help you identify ways to grow and tackle problems in new ways.

*Name changed and photo representative