Sometimes as we navigate through ministry, we need a tow truck; and sometimes we need a GPS.
We talk a lot about how to know if you need a coach, but I want to take a moment to address the inverse of that... why you should not do coaching with Grats.
If you are stuck and most/all of your problems are not your doing (not your fault), you probably should not do coaching with Grats.
Sit with that last statement for a moment. Next logical question: Why not?
Because coaching with Grats is inherently built around your responsibility and your choices.
So, if you are not responsible for the places in your ministry where your stuck, then you are a victim.
And I don't mean the word victim in a negative tone. I mean it quite literally.
If you were, against your will, put into a place/situation/circumstance that you didn't choose to be in and don't want to be in, you are a victim of being mistreated. It is not your fault and you are not responsible for having been put there. If your truck is in a ditch because someone purposely ran you off the road, you are a victim. You are hopefully able to put the truck in gear and drive out. Not all victims get stuck.
If you are a victim and are stuck where you are, in my opinion, you need a professional Christian counselor. You may also need deliverance type prayer and ministry. Think of them as the Lord's tow trucks.
They get you out of the ditch and back on the road. Remember, you are carrying the gospel... there are people down the road of your life (maybe even the next exit) that need you to get unstuck. Sometimes though, the damage from the ditch prevents you from driving on your own power. The tow truck can take you and your vehicle back to their repair shop and help get it fixed up. The Lord uses them to get you back on the road, and you can then resume driving to where you need to carry the gospel.
I am not preaching here things that I haven't lived myself.
I myself have been the recipient of both types of tow trucks, and have received the Lord's healing through both. And make no mistake, it is the Lord's healing... regardless of how and/or whom He chooses to bring that healing to you. I recently heard Pastor Doug Reed of Partnership International say that "God is the source, and everything else the resource." (Ok, that is a VERY close quote of what he actually said, if not the exact quote). The point is that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17, NIV) All healing is from Him.
Sometimes in ministry, you are wronged, victimized, mistreated, etc. and get stuck because of it. You may find yourself needing God to speak to you through those people whom He has called to be tow trucks.
Grats is not a tow truck.
So what is coaching with Grats?
Again, coaching with Grats is inherently built around your responsibility and your choices.
If you are called to carry the gospel, then you have the responsibility to deliver it to the correct destination... to make the correct turns to reach the audience that the Lord has given you.
Many ministers are stuck because they are lost.
Maybe they didn't ask directions 20 miles back when they should have (responsibility) and now they are in very unfamiliar territory. The vehicle runs fine and they have power and authority to properly navigate the vehicle to the gospel's destination, but they don't know the specific turns to make to get out of where they are.
And it probably isn't for lack of trying - it is just that every attempt to navigate on their own has only lead to being more lost. Most prudent people would have already at least slowed down in this situation and eventually they will probably need to fully stop.
Think of coaching then as a GPS being air-dropped right in front of you.
How do you get lost in ministry, while carrying the gospel? Maybe you made poor choices, discovered mid-way into the journey that you lack the training/know-how to navigate the vehicle down the roads that you are travelling, made normal human mistakes in critical situations, and/or took actions and/or made decisions out of fear or insecurity. Those are most often navigation mistakes that coaching with Grats can help guide you out of.
Let me address that training piece for a moment.
As much as we ministers hate to admit it, we often times find ourselves in situations beyond what we have been trained for.
Were you formally trained to market and run a business? Were you formally trained to identify your ideal client and tailor your product to solve their problems? Were you formally trained to build a sales team or a customer service team? Were you formally trained in finance, HR, legal, etc.? Do you realize that you truly need to be? I used secular business words in many of the examples above, but each of them have church equivalents.
Do you realize that in America, most lead pastor's are CEO's of 501(c)3 businesses?
Surprisingly, most secular CEO's know that they need help in these areas and they often ask for it. In fact, their asking for help is what powers the massive business consulting industry (of which I have been a part of).
Unfortunately, most ministerial "CEO's" know they need help and hide it.
If you know that you are stuck in ministry because you are a tad (or totally) lost, then you are most likely a good candidate for coaching.
And coaching doesn't always need to take a long time. I have found myself lost a number of times while driving, and am almost always surprised at how quickly I get back on track when I turn the GPS on and get directions from a voice who knows the way out.
Now, this isn't to say that if you need a GPS, that you don't ALSO need a tow truck. Nothing in this post is ever intended to rule out your need of a tow truck. In fact, you may be in a ditch because you drove your vehicle into the ditch as a result of being lost and driving in the dark. You will need a tow truck to get you out of the ditch, and assuming your vehicle is still functional, then you can use the coaching GPS to make sure that you and the gospel stay on the road, and heading at top speed to the destination that the Lord has for you.
I want to close this with three additional thoughts:
Not everyone who is lost and/or stuck truly WANTS to be shown the way out. In fact, in John 5:6 Jesus asks a man this poignant question: "When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'" (NIV) Some people feel more comfortable in the stuck that they have come to know and accept. If you truly don't want to change and get unstuck, don't choose coaching.
If you are not a victim and are stuck because you are lost, there is the temptation of pride to just keep driving until you find your way out. Most people run out of gas trying this (read "burn-out"). We needlessly lose great ministers to burn-out. And then the cargo of the gospel that they are carrying and the people with them, may never reach the intended destination.
The pride of not acknowledging that you are stuck (for any reason) AND not asking for help out, will almost always keep you stuck. The devil takes joy at driving by and seeing that you are still stuck. And you are rarely stuck alone. If you choose to stay stuck because of pride, you choose that for those with you as well. Choosing for other people to be stuck is called oppression... and that is most certainly NOT what God called you to. Your calling is the exact opposite.
Please take a moment right now to truly evaluate where you are, on the road of ministry. If you are stuck, reach out to the right person to help you get unstuck. Grats is here to help.
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