Gospel Coach: Shepherding Leaders to Glorify God

Scott Thomas · Tom Wood

May 2012 · Zondervan

Ebook

256

Pages

Eligible

Ratings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More

Switch to the audiobook

About this ebook

In order to help pastors and other Christian leaders to lovingly lead God’s flock to Jesus Christ and into God’s mission, Scott Thomas and Tom Wood clarify a process of coaching and shepherding that is rooted in the patterns of the Good Shepherd himself, a process in which leaders stir up the gifts, passion, and calling upon others’ lives. This book addresses the needs of the leader, his or her sinful tendencies, and church leadership issues. It directs the leader to the person and work of Jesus. It provides a system to intentionally shepherd leaders to glorify God in their personal, spiritual, and missional lives. Many ministry leaders serving in churches find themselves overwhelmed, disillusioned, and depressed by the enormous and challenging task of leading and ministering in a congregation. As a result, the ministry suffers, the leaders suffer, and the result is often an unhealthy church existent with little or no Gospel influence. These leaders need someone to shepherd their soul so that they can lead others to the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. We suggest that coaching for the church leader looks less like corporate consulting or humanistic psychology and more like biblical-shepherding. We suggest that every church leader needs a Gospel Coach to come alongside with words of truth, wisdom and experience to encourage, admonish, comfort and help—words drawn from Scripture and godly wisdom, grounded in the gracious saving work of Jesus Christ, and presented in the context of a trusting relationship. Gospel Coaching is an intentional relationship to skillfully care for others with four ancient shepherding principles: 1) Know the sheep, 2) Feed the sheep, 3) Lead the sheep, and 4) Protect the sheep. A Gospel Coach both inquires about the personal, spiritual, and missional aspects of a ministry leader’s life in a loving yet focused manner, and also probes the church leader for compulsive unbelief or selfish motivation, or disobedience and sin, and leads the ministry leader back to the Gospel, through belief, repentance and obedience. Churches that desire to be rich in a Gospel application toward their city, their relationships with one another, their communication and worship, as well as their service, will benefit to a greater degree by having their leaders being coached by a Gospel-centered leader.

About the author

Scott Thomas created the Gospel Coach Training and Certification system and has coached hundreds of pastors. Scott has served as president and network director of Acts 29 Network and as an elder at Mars Hill Church. Scott has a Masters in Missional Leadership and has been married for thirty years to Jeannie, with whom he has two sons. He planted and replanted churches for sixteen years as a lead pastor. Scott has taught for Resurgence Training Center in Seattle and is a conference speaker in the US as well as a consultant for both Western European church planting and Canadian church planting. Scott wrote Theological Clarity and Application (Zondervan, 2010) and has written blogs for Acts 29 Network, The Resurgence, Mars Hill Church and ChurchPlanting.com.

Tom Wood is the President of Church Multiplication Ministries and serves as Director of the North Georgia Church Planting Network, the Nashville Church Planting Network, and leads Church Planter Assessments for the PCA and Grace Network of Canada. He has planted two churches, served as Director of Church Planting for Perimeter Ministries in Atlanta and as Southeast Regional Church Planting Coordinator for the PCA. Tom has D.Min. and M.Div degrees and has been married to Rachel for 33 years. He coaches and consults with pastors and churches throughout the US, Canada and London, UK.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Report illegal content