We believe that anyone who has goals they want to accomplish and learning they want to master can benefit from a coaching relationship. The core requirements are a posture of openness, teachability, an openness to reflection, and a desire to work on the part of the client.

Coaching can be used for a myriad of opportunities, including but not limited to:

• Personal leadership growth

• Growing as a head of staff

• Leading as an associate pastor, council president, or stewardship chair

• Skillful handling of staff or congregational conflict

• Council development

• Empowering evangelism

• Congregational transformation

• Worship, Mission, or Stewardship development

• Strategic planning

• Multiplying leaders

• Building ministry teams

Fill out our contact form here to be connected to our Coaching team for consideration.

You will then go through ELCA Level One Coach Training, which includes 20 hours of coach-specific training and a beginning set of skills to use in coaching in the work of ministry, leadership, development, and life transformation.

After you complete training, we ask that you help train the next cohort of Young Adult coaches, allowing the free and reduced-cost model of coaching to continue throughout the ELCA

The initial relationship will be six sessions over the span of 3-6 months, based on both of your schedules. After, you can choose to continue coaching other young adults, or use your coaching skills in your personal, professional, and ministerial contexts.

Nope! Coaching is open to anyone regardless of ordination status.

Counseling: In counseling, the therapist works with the client on places of mental or emotional stuckness, often working through past hurts and relational difficulties, with the goal of reaching emotional or mental freedom and higher relational functioning.

​Consulting: In consulting, the consultant acts as material expert, does the majority of the talking, presenting, and the telling. The posture of the client is one of receptivity and much more passivity.

​Mentoring: Mentoring is a longer term relationship that leverages the knowledge, experience, and wisdom of the mentor for the growth and empowerment of the mentee. The relationship is mutual, and the dynamic of interaction is 50/50.

​Coaching: Coaching is a relational alliance that leverages the technology and art of powerful questions and intentional exploration to produce awareness, change, and transformation for the client. In coaching, the client does 80% of the talking.

All coaches  are accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and abide by the ethical guidelines of the ICF.

The ELCA Coaching network is vast and rich with coaches from all over the country. ELCA Coaching also hosts monthly Coach Connect calls that provide free continuing education and opportunities to practice coaching. Resource packets & training sessions will also be provided to each coach.  

If you are interested in pursuing further coaching education, we have specialty areas in:

• Stewardship Coaching

• Discipleship

• Mission Development/Congregational Vitality

• Care for Creation

• Grief/Loss

• Team/Group

• Intertnational Coaching Federation (ICF) credentialing pathways