Becoming A Coach

We LOVE our coaches! We intentionally invest in their growth and are careful to gather women who are seasoned in ministry, wise in their walk, and cultivating a love for Jesus (and ministry wives) in their everyday life. If, after looking over our process, taking it to the Lord, and talking it over with your spouse, you are interested in hearing more about our Coach’s Pipeline, please contact Coletta Smith at coletta@alongsideministrywives.com and we’ll set up a time to chat.

Because we value creating a culture of …

  • vulnerability, where we will not be judged
  • humility, where we can authentically wrestle with our next steps
  • God-focus, where we continually point to what God is doing in the midst of joy and hardship
  • wisdom, where we can become women who walk with grace and discernment
  • running well, where we are encouraged to seize the Kingdom opportunities that come with this calling

we will be intentional about Discovering, Developing, and Deploying coaches by…

Discovering – through cohorts, outside relationships, and our individual initiative (by our Leadership Team, primarily through shoulder-tapping)
Developing – through our Coaching Pipeline process
Deploying – at the discretion of our Leadership Team

An Alongside Cohort is a group of 8-10 Pastor’s Wives that gather together with 2 coaches for the purpose of taking the next step in embracing the unique opportunities of this God-given role. The Cohorts will engage in 4 topical discussions around the Discussion Series of that cohort. We provide detailed discussion guides for our coaches which give them the railroad tracks to get to the deeper heart conversations that are often missed without intentional directing questions. They also contain the teaching nuggets that we hope are covered in the discussion, either by participants or by the coaches. Coaches are encouraged to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in the conversation, but that these railroad tracks will get them where they need to go.

We are looking for Cohort Coaches who display:

  1. a growing relationship with Jesus and a desire to see His hand working in ever-increasing ways in her life and in the lives of those God brings into her sphere of influence.
  2. an understanding and ability to articulate a commitment to a one-flesh Calling in ministry, seeing her role as crucial in the ministry that she and her husband have been called to.
  3. a well-seasoned maturity, exhibited in wisdom gained through a diversity of difficult ministry experiences yeilding transferable lessons that she is able to distill and share with others (at least 15 years in pastoral ministry, with some of that being in the Lead Pastor space). She should be able to apply her knowledge of scripture to new situations presented by participants in order to give sound, Biblical input.
  4. an ability to listen well, be reflective in conversation, pose questions that get to deeper issues and choose her words well.

A Cohort Coach is committing to:

Training:

  1. Alongside Coach’s Pipeline process
  2. Coach’s Team Meetings – twice a semester (via Zoom) for mentoring, connection and prayer
  3. Alongside Leadership retreat – once a year (3 day/in person)

Cohort Leadership

  1. Cohort Management – Each coach will contribute to sending initial introduction, monthly reminders, additional communication emails as needed as well as contributing to connecting through GroupMe app. The content will be supplied to you – just in need of adding your personal touches. This responsibility can be divided among the two co-coaches.
  2. Cohort Meetings – 8 hours (over 1 semester)
    Each cohort meets monthly for four months. Each session will last 2 hours. The discussion topics and discussion guide will be developed and provided to you by Alongside as the basis for your conversations. You will work with your coaching partner to facilitate the conversations.
  3. One-On-One Coaching – 4 hours (over 1 semester)
    Meeting with individual women (via Zoom). This should be shared between the Coach and the Asst Coach (or co-coaches). If this exceeds what the Coaches are able to do, the Coach will let the Director know of the needs of this particular cohort and they will devise another way to meet the need.
  4. Meet with Co-coach – 2 hours (30 minutes/month)
    Talk through the conversation content and decide who will lead which pieces. Pray for your women.

Becoming A Coach

SEMESTER 1

  1. Participate in a Cohort
    Why? When we lead, we create culture. We want all of our coaches to share the same DNA, to use similar language and to encourage the same heartbeat. When we lead, we determine:

    • whether someone feels safe or judged,
    • whether the conversation is focused on where God is moving or disintegrates into whining and focusing on the negative
    • whether someone is challenged to dig deeper and press in or continue putting up pretenses of having it figured out
  2. Meet with the Alongside Director
    Why? Coaches don’t just share information, they share their experiences and the lessons they have learned from them. We want to get to know you a bit and hear about the lessons that you’ve learned.

SEMESTER 2

  1. Coach Training – online video curriculum (about 3 hours), Coach’s Calls (quarterly), outside reading, yearly multi-day retreat (TBA)
    Why? We want our coaches and cohorts to have the best experience possible, everytime. We want our coaches to:

    • skillfully practice layered questioning to get at the heart of the issue
    • employ both encouragement and truthtelling in every conversation
    • carefully choose which nuggets of wisdom to share
  2. Co-Coach with a veteran Alongside Coach – Assist in leading a cohort, meet with co-coach for prayer and becoming better acquainted with content (about 7 hours/semester)
    Why? We believe in mentoring, the process of passing along skills and wisdom. We also believe that we are all in need of being on the pouring and the absorbing end of these relationships. Assistant Coaches can expect to

    • take on pieces of leading the conversation
    • receive coaching re: formation/layering of questions, Zoom management, communication management
    • learn to manage the details (reminder emails, setting up zoom calls, follow up emails, 1:1 signups)
  3. Meet 1:1 with Cohort participants – meet with half of the participants one-on-one, connect with them beforehand to get their questions/issues they’d like to talk about in their 1:1, use the Call To Coach questions to help guide the 1:1 time (see Call To Coach Training module)

For the best experience, we recommend using a desktop device to fill out the form,
as some responses require extended answers that may be cumbersome to complete on a mobile device.