Spain | Supporting Everyday Disciple Makers Through “Coaching Circles”
Coaching has been a value at Novo for decades, as a key way to maximize the health and impact of leaders in ministry around the world. Now, Novo leaders have put together a new initiative to support everyday disciple makers (people working toward gospel movements in their places of influence who aren’t ministry professionals), called Coaching Circles. Because strategy and group encouragement has been hugely important for Novo staff working toward gospel movements, we wanted to provide similar support to those doing this work as lay leaders. Everyone gets discouraged or needs fresh creativity for ministry from time to time, and we really want our network of everyday disciple makers to succeed at following Jesus into mission!
After participating in the Activating Prayer Cohort and the Disciple Making Cohort, people are given the opportunity to commit to disciple making and join a Coaching Circle. These Circles are made up of 3-5 everyday disciple makers and a facilitator. When the Circle meets, there’s space for sharing, strategizing, and brainstorming together, and also introspection and listening to Jesus. The group provides accountability to both seeking Jesus regarding ministry and follow through on doing what he says! Right now there are 35 everyday disciple makers in about a dozen Circles scattered across the United States.
Texas, where they currently have three different Coaching Circles, has been an interesting context for evaluating the effectiveness of this initiative. A lot of people in Texas have gone through both the Activating Prayer and Disciple Making Cohorts; those who’ve gone on to join Coaching Circles have seen more traction (ministry fruitfulness and multiplication) than those who’ve gone it alone. Being connected to like-minded people living on mission has been crucial.
Prioritizing time for the inner work of spiritual formation during the Circle gatherings is a strong value for the Coaching Director, Novo staff member Matthew Talley (who also serves on a Gospel Movement Team in Malaga, Spain). “At the end of the day, we're sent to make disciples, and we're replicating who we are,” he says. “If we're not healthy people, then we're not replicating healthy disciples. That's just the fact. We can't reproduce what we are not, so that internal piece is really important.”
You can learn more about Disciple Making Cohorts (the precursor to Coaching Circles) here.
