Measuring the effects of personal coaching on the implementation of a journey
plan for personal spiritual growth at Daybreak Church
This study was undertaken with the intent of addressing a ministry problem
common to the present researcher’s local church and the church in general. The present
researcher followed the guidelines provided by the staff at Alliance Theological
Seminary to conduct the study and write up the results. The intent of the study was to
determine if personal coaching could help people experience spiritual growth at higher
levels than people who were not coached. The research showed that spiritual stagnation
is a prolific problem in the church in the United States that needs to be addressed not just
by the theorists but also by the practitioners in the local church. New catalysts need to be
discovered that propel Christ followers out of stagnation and into vitality in their spiritual
journey. Could personal coaching be one of those catalysts? This study was designed to
find out if coaching is one of the methods that could address the problem of spiritual
stagnation in the church in the United States.
The Ministry Problem and Purpose of Research
For the past 20 years of his life, the present researcher served as a church planter,
having worked with mothering churches to launch new congregations. This type of
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ministry is exhilarating, as there is the privilege of seeing people coming to faith in
Christ and taking their first steps of growth as a Christian. God has blessed the
researcher’s life by wiring and calling him to engage in this kind of Kingdom work, and
for that he will always be grateful. After having planted and launched two churches, and
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the initial first few years of growth had passed, a nagging thought would occur, we are
helping them get into the Kingdom, but are we helping them grow in God? While
multiple avenues were being provided for people to grow – small group studies, courses
on spiritual growth, workshops, and seminars on healthy relationships – the present
researcher was still being asked, Pastor, people are coming to faith in large numbers,
which is great, and we are offering them a lot of ways to grow; but how do we know that
our efforts are bearing fruit? How can we know if people are really experiencing
transformation?
In 2010, Daybreak Church launched a second campus. To prepare for the launch,
a number of key ministries were updated, including the membership course that is
offered, called the Journey Class. Using the process provided by the book, Simple
Church, the present researcher took the time to work with his staff to thoroughly redesign
the Journey Class to reflect a new vision statement and developmental pathway. At that
time, he was also doing a significant amount of personal study on developing a rule of
life that helps a Christian grow in their faith, not for their own sake, but “for the sake of
others.” The present researcher observed that most Christians do not have an achievable
plan to guide them in their growth in Christ, so he chose to integrate the development of
a rule of life into the nine-week Journey Class. The rule was named My Journey Plan
and it was based it on the four movements of Daybreak’s vision statement that is derived
from Acts 2:42-47. The four movements of the vision are: (1) helping people discover a
life-changing journey with Jesus, (2) celebrating God’s grace, (3) connecting with God’s
family, and (4) contributing to God’s work. The new Class was developed with the
Journey Plan component and the Daybreak Church staff began to teach the Class. To
date, 258 people have graduated from the Class and developed a Journey Plan as a rule of
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life. At the conclusion of the Class, participants engage in a one-time coaching session to
help them develop their Plan and begin to implement it. Even with all of this work
complete, and seeing people leave the Class with a Plan in place, again the same question
arose both inside of the present researcher and from the feedback of others, how do we
know if people are really implementing their new rule of life and are experiencing
transformation?
From the beginning, the desire was to provide ongoing coaching for participants,
but there were not leaders available to undertake that task. Given the dilemma, the
question was asked, what would happen to people’s development if they not only had a
coaching session at the end of the Class, but also engaged with a coach for a crucial
period of time after they graduated? Would ongoing coaching help them be able to more
fully implement and adjust their Journey Plan, so that it could serve as a catalyst for
spiritual growth in their lives? As these questions were researched, it was discovered that
this problem was not only something that Daybreak Church was encountering, but it was
a problem shared by many churches.
A Church-Wide Dilemma
In 2004, Willow Creek Church of South Barrington, Illinois, engaged in a
threeyear study entitled Reveal to help them determine where their people were
experiencing spiritual growth and where they were not. For decades, Willow Creek
Church had led the way in being a culturally relevant, missional church that was reaching
suburban Chicago with the gospel in a way that few other churches were doing. After
more than thirty years of growth, however, they engaged in this study to see what people
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needed to grow after they came to faith in Christ. To their amazement, even though they
had poured lots of resources into discipleship through high quality mid-week services
and small groups, not many people were growing to the extent that they thought the
study would reveal. It raised the question, why is that? Why is it that people come to
Christ, but only experience minimal life-changing growth after the first few years of their
Christian life?
The Reveal study shed considerable light on the problem of information verses
transformation when it comes to helping people grow as Christ followers. The study was
truly revealing when the results were published. Although Willow Creek Church had
addressed spiritual stagnation in various ways, people were still not experiencing deep
transformation in their spiritual lives.
Upon further exploration, the present researcher discovered that this is not only a
problem common in churches within the United States, but also a universal problem in
education in general.
A Universal Educational Problem: The Behavioral Gap
Between 1949 and 1953, educator Benjamin Bloom developed a teaching matrix
or taxonomy designed to help teachers develop lesson plans that would assist students to
not only learn the content of teaching, but also to be able to apply what is learned
through reflection on and adjustment of the information being taught. Bloom contended
that in order for students to really learn, they need to be engaged in all three learning
domains: the cognitive, the affective, and the sensory. He then developed a taxonomy
that was designed to help in teaching the curriculum and in testing the engagement of
students in the three domains. Bloom noticed something that remains a universal
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educational problem: the behavioral gap. The behavioral gap occurs when people learn
content but are unable to translate what they have learned into information that they are
able to apply to real life. The students understand the material, but they are unable to
internalize it, own it, or in some sense contextualize it into their own life. Robert
Marzano’s work, The New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, bears witness to the fact
that educators still see the behavioral gap as a force to contend with. Robert Marzano,
co-founder and CEO of
Marzano Research and co-author of Awaken The Learner: Finding the Source of Effective
Education, is a leader in education reform. Awaken the Learner, attests to the universal
problem of getting people to move from understanding to applying and owning
lifechanging information.
In their classic work, the Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith, Janet
Hagberg and Robert Guelich define these six stages of faith, as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. Stages on the Journey of Faith. Janet O. Hagberg and Robert A. Guelich, The Critical Journey:
Stages in the Life of Faith (Salem: Sheffield Publishing Company, 2005), 17.
The specific location of the Wall in the spiritual journey has been disputed many,
including pastor and author Peter Scazzero, but the fact of the Wall remains. Every
Christian comes to a point or points in their journey where the way they have understood
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and lived faith to that point no longer works for them and they hit the Wall. At that point,
they have a choice: they can take the journey in and go deeper with God, or they can let
the Wall serve as a separation between them and a richer, fuller relationship with God.
The Wall challenges us to move beyond the tip of the iceberg, to take steps into the
unknown pathways of faith, by taking a leap of faith across the behavioral gap moving us
from knowing about God to being transformed into Christ-likeness by the Father. The
fact is that many Christians don’t move beyond the first three stages of faith, because
they never find ways to address the behavioral gap in the journey of faith. “Not everyone
goes through the Wall. Some stop or get stuck at earlier stages in the journey and never
get to the Wall. Others decide at the Wall to return to an earlier stage. Still others get
stuck in front of the Wall, not wanting to submit to God.”
In his latest work, the Emotionally Healthy Leader, Peter Scazzero speaks to the
crucial nature of addressing the behavioral gap as we progress in the life of faith.
Scazzero provides some poignant insight into the dilemma of the behavioral gap.
Building on Bloom’s work, he contends there are five stages that we go through, to not
only learn, but to experience transformation. The five stages he speaks of are: aware,
ponder, value, re-prioritize, and own. The behavioral gap causes a huge chasm between
value and re-prioritize. In conversations with Scazzero, the present researcher has been
able to discern that the addressing behavioral gap is the crucial missing piece for leaders
to move beyond valuing the principles of emotionally healthy leadership to owning them
to the extent of making lifestyle changes.
The larger problem in the church is that endless resources are spent to educate,
train, and equip people, but very few experience the transformation that Christ spoke of
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when he walked the earth. The behavioral gap remains one of the biggest challenges to
going deeper in the life of faith. This study does not solve the problem of the behavioral
gap, but is rather designed to address one step in the long journey from one side of that
gap to the other. The aim was to determine if personal coaching, when applied to the
execution of a rule of life, is a catalyst that would help the coachee find some headway
across the behavioral gap. This study was designed to help determine if personal
coaching helped people progress from simply valuing a Christian rule of life to actually
implementing it in a manner that brings life change.
The study assessed the problem to determine if people were progressing in their
spiritual journey by introducing the practice of personal coaching. All aspects of
transformation were not addressed in this study, but it provided, in a measured fashion,
the introduction of personal coaching to the implementation of a rule of life.
The goal was to conduct a controlled study of thirty graduates of the Journey
Class. These people had not only completed the Class, but also had developed a simple
rule of life based the Acts chapter two vision that Daybreak Church states this way:
helping people discover a life-changing journey with Jesus (evangelism), celebrating
God’s grace (worship/discipleship), connecting with God’s family (fellowship) and
contributing to Gods work (service). The study was designed to see if six months of
personal coaching would help people better implement their Plan and exhibit that they
are more spiritually vitalized than those in the study who did not receive coaching during
the six month period, but simply attempted to implement their Plan on their own.
The present researcher was not trying to develop a particular curriculum to
address the problem. Many discipleship pedagogies already exist. Rather, his focus was
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more on the process of implementation of a person’s Journey Plan. Specifically, the
present researcher wanted to ascertain how personal coaching, given by a minimally
trained, yet mature Christian, effects how a person goes from knowing the right
information, to doing the right behaviors, to being the person God is developing them to
be, shaped, or formed in the image of Christ. The attempt was to discover the answer to
the questions: (1) is personal coaching a significant catalyst that helps people address the
behavioral gap as it relates to implementing a rule of life in the process of personal
spiritual formation? (2) to what extent does personal coaching help a person feel more
spiritually vitalized than someone who does not receive personal coaching?
Dissertation Overview
This dissertation consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1: The Introduction gives an overview of the entire study.
Chapter 2: Literature Review. The literature review defines the problem of stunted
spiritual growth and considers coaching as a possible catalyst to move people out of
stagnation.
Chapter 3: Method. The methodology section describes how the treatment and effects
study was set up in order to determine if the participants who were coached would
experience more spiritual growth than the non-coached participants and how the focus
group interviews were conducted to ascertain any noticeable difference in the spiritual
growth between the two groups by looking for areas of growth that the coached group
experienced that were not reflected in the DSGS and then seeing if the non-coached
group grew in those same areas or different areas.
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Chapter 4: Results. The hypothesis that coached participants would score at higher
levels of spiritual growth than non-coached participants was not supported by the results.
The data showed that both groups scored at the same level of growth with no significant
difference when t-tested.
Chapter 5: Conclusions. The final section of the dissertation describes the conclusion
about the present study and suggestions for related studies that could help address the
problem of spiritual stagnation in the United States church.
Context
Daybreak Church, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Daybreak Church was launched in 1999, when Immanuel Alliance Church interviewed
and set apart 60 people to begin a new church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, to
intentionally reach a portion of the community that the traditional churches were not
reaching. During the initial years of its existence, Daybreak followed the philosophy and
basic structure of the Purpose Driven Church paradigm developed by Pastor Rick Warren
of Saddleback Church. However, when Daybreak chose to launch a second campus in
the fall of 2010, the leaders engaged in a process of evaluation and adjustment that was
derived from Simple Church. After the lay leadership and staff thoroughly read and
processed the book, a new vision statement was developed, no longer based on Rick
Warren’s five purposes, but on the four movements of the early church derived from Acts
2:42-47. This exercise was completed so that the new campus would be aligned in
vision, values, structures, and strategies. The new vision statement was used to unify
both campuses, so that Daybreak would be one church in two locations.
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In order to ensure unity, the present researcher worked with the staff to develop
the new Journey Class membership course that would be based on the new vision
statement and pathway that came out of the Simple Church Process. The new vision
statement was:
Helping people discover a life-changing journey with Jesus by:
•Celebrating God’s Grace
•Connecting with God’s Family
•Contributing to God’s Work
The Journey Class was structured to reflect and emphasize Daybreak’s new vision
statement. The other key component that was added to the membership course was the
Journey Plan. The Journey Plan was developed to reflect the vision of the church in a
simple rule of life that could be personally tailored to each member, dependent on where
they were on their spiritual journey.
This study was limited to sixty people who live in South-Central Pennsylvania,
from various walks of life. They had all engaged in attending Daybreak Church and
completed the Journey Class. By completing the Class, they constructed a thumbnail
rule of life based on the church’s four part vision to help others discover Christ, celebrate
Christ both personally and corporately, connect with Christ’s family, and contribute to
the work of Christ in the church and the world. Those are the people that are particular
to the study that come out of this demographic in South-Central Pennsylvania.
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All participants in the study were graduates of the Daybreak Church Journey
Class in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The Journey Class was comprised of nine
weekly ninety-minute sessions, the completion of multiple inventories, and an ongoing
assignment to develop a Journey Plan as a rule of life. In the first week of the Class,
students were taught what a rule of life was and how the Journey Plan served as a
template for them to be able to develop their own plan for their personal spiritual growth
alongside of their spiritual family at Daybreak Church. All participants were eighteen
years of age or older. The goal of the study was to have sixty total participants, thirty in
the control group and thirty in the effects group.
The pre-test and post-test survey were e-mailed to the participants of the study
who graduated from the Journey Class and developed a Journey Plan as a simple,
adjustable, personally tailored rule of life. Participation was voluntary and anonymous.
Hypothesis and Model of Research
Hypothesis
The hypothesis of the study is that, “Participants with a Journey Plan at Daybreak
Church who receive coaching will have higher spiritual growth than participants who do
not.”
Model of Research
This study was based on the experimental research model called treatment and
effects and utilized a secondary research model of focus group interviews. The study
was intended to understand the effect that intentional coaching had on the
implementation of a Journey Plan for spiritual growth, or a rule of life, over a six month
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period by using a treatment and effects approach that utilized a control group and a
treatment group.
Two groups were used for the study; all people in both groups completed the Journey
Class and developed a Journey Plan as a rule of life. The first group was the control
group, who took the Daybreak Spiritual Growth Survey (DSGS), both pre- and post-test
period, but received no coaching during the six month period. The second group was the
experimental group, who also took the DSGS both pre- and post-test period, and in
addition received six months of coaching by a trained coach who was also a member of
Daybreak Church.
A focus group interview methodology was employed in order to compare the
spiritual growth of the six coached and eight non-coached participants that completed the
present study. This method was helpful since it could gather data that the treatment and
effect model of research could not supply.
A spiritual assessment tool was used to help the present researcher measure each
participant’s spiritual growth before and after the six month period to determine the
spiritual growth level of both groups. The tool had been modified in order for it to better
fit the parameters of the study by using terminology from the Journey Class, the
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality book and the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Church
Assessment 1.1.
The project used a modified version of the SGA developed by Lifeway to
measure the impact of the six months of personal coaching on the implementation of the
participant’s Journey Plan. A copy of Lifeway’s original SGA is attached for review in
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Appendix 3. The survey was adapted in the following ways: (1) format changed to a
Survey Monkey, which is an online data gathering tool, (2) content included
demographic data, (3) some questions were added and or modified to fit the context and
verbiage of the Journey Plan, while other questions were used with permission from Pete
Scazzero from the EHS Church Assessment 1.1. The modified tool had a total of
seventy-one questions that were all answered by indicating one of five responses: Never,
Seldom, Occasionally, Frequently, or Always. A copy of the modified tool, Daybreak
Spiritual Growth Survey, is attached for review in Appendix 4.
Empirical Unknowns
In order to prove the hypothesis, the present researcher needed to know if the
members of the effects group had experienced more spiritual growth during the six
months of coaching than the members of the control group, who did not receive coaching
during the research phase. This was determined by comparing the before and after
results of the Daybreak Spiritual Growth Survey. After the research period was over and
the participants had completed the before and after assessments, the mathematical testing
and statistical analysis was completed.
But can the hypothesis be supported that six months of coaching increased the
spiritual vitality of the control group participants? Responses were assigned a value of
one through five, as follows, to convert the responses to numerical values: Never=1,
Seldom=2, Occasionally=3, Frequently=4, Always=5. Converting the results in this way
gave the present researcher the ability to conduct statistical analysis, which included
comparisons of scores and t-testing. Doing this allowed for the qualitative data that was
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collected to be turned into quantitative data, and therefore support or disprove the
hypothesis.
Delimitations and Limitations of the Study
Delimitations
All participants in this study were consenting adults who volunteered to take part
in the research project. All participants were graduates of the Daybreak Church Journey
Class and all had developed a Journey Plan during the Class. A random selection process
was conducted to assign fifteen people to the control group and fifteen people to the
effect group. The study was anonymous and took place through the ministry of
Daybreak Church, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, for six months between May 2015 and
November 2015.
Potential Limitations
One of the goals of the study was to have sixty participants, with thirty in the
control group and thirty in the effects group. However, only thirty people volunteered to
participate in the study. In statistical analysis, the larger the number of participants, the
better the opportunity to measure the results of the effect, in this case the coaching. If the
present researcher would have been able to recruit participants and let them self-select
being part of the coached group or the un-coached group, it may have yielded a higher
amount of participants in the study, but that also would have skewed the treatment group
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because of their predisposition toward being coached. The number of participants is a
possible limitation, especially related to the statistical testing and analysis.
A second possible limitation is that not all volunteers completed the study. This
also limits the amount of data that could be compared, tested, and interpreted. Of the
thirty initial participants, six of the coached participants and eight of the non-coached
participants completed the study. Having all thirty participants complete the study would
have provided more data.
A third possible limitation is the coaching itself. Although the coaches were
trained in the same process and parameters of coaching, and given the same resource
book, there is no way to know if they all engaged in the coaching process in a consistent
way. The unknown factor of coaching inconsistency is also a possible limitation to the
study.
Theological Framework
The Reveal study conducted by Willow Creek Church, and the latest study by the
Barna Group both indicate that the church in the United States is not helping people
move along on a transformational journey. Churches need some new approaches that are
catalysts to help people address the behavioral gap in spiritual formation. Perhaps faith
coaching is one of those catalysts. For the faith catalyst to help address the behavioral
gap, it needs to accomplish one or more of the following things. A catalyst for spiritual
growth that helps people address the behavioral gap involves the factors of:
awakening, journey, reorientation, and family. Although the Bible is replete with factors
that lead to transformation, the present researcher only considered these four factors that
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are related to the limitations of this study yet are universal in scope within the present
study.
Awakening
Ever since Adam and Eve put their souls to sleep when they rebelled in the
Garden, God has been calling souls back to life. God awakens the sleeping soul. People
who lived during the time of the Old Testament awakened to God: Abraham had a faith
awakening when he puts his prized possession, Isaac, up on the altar. Moses woke up to
God’s presence at an encounter at the burning bush. Isaiah caught a vision of God’s
glory, his sin, and awoke to God’s calling on his life. As a boy, Samuel hears God’s
voice and his soul awoke to the living God. Elijah experienced a soul awakening
through the whispering voice of his creator. In history, the prophets the writing the Old
Testament, time and time again wrote of people who had souls that were sleeping, and
the suddenly awoke to and connected with their God.
When Jesus arrived on the scene, he called His followers to awaken, calling out,
“come, follow me” and people woke up and gave their lives to the master. In Luke
chapter 15, Jesus tells three stories of lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.
The stories have three things in common: something of great value is lost, an expansive
search is launched to locate what was lost, and when the lost thing was found a great
celebration erupted. The stories have in common one distinguishing factor: a sheep
cannot experience a soul awakening and a coin cannot awaken to God, but a son is
altogether different, as a son’s soul can wake up to the embrace of his Father.
Of all the stories that Jesus told, this one might be the most engaging, as it
illustrated the need for the human soul to awaken to its maker. Jesus told the story of a
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young man who was far from God and experienced five awakenings as he found his way
back to the embrace of The Father. In their latest book, Finding Your Way Back to God,
Dave and Jon Ferguson explore the story of the wayward son and trace the five
awakenings he experiences. As the wayward son finds his way back to the Father he
experiences five awakenings:
1. An awakening to longing: “There’s got to be more.”
2. An awakening to regret: “I wish I could start over.”
3. An awakening to help: “I can’t do this on my own.”
4. An awakening to love: “God loves me deeply after all.”
5. An awakening to life: “Now this is living!”
An awakening of the soul must first take place for people who are stalled out
spiritually and need a catalytic encounter with God to jump start their journey.
The parable of the lost son (also known as the parable of the prodigal son) is
widely considered to be one of the greatest short stories in all of literature. The
reason Jesus told this story is to show us how to find our way back to God. After
all, that was Jesus’ life mission — “to seek and to save the lost.”
The lost son’s story is my story. It’s your Story. It’s our story.
God’s Word puts the call to awaken this way in the book of Ephesians, “Wake up,
sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Journey
The concept of embarking on a spiritual journey runs through the whole of
scripture. Moses led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt on a forty-year journey to
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freedom in the Promised Land. Their faith was forged in the desert of Sinai and they
learned how to live in freedom while following God, rather than living in the slavery of
sin. Pastor and author Jeff Manion helps us see the faith lessons that are common to all
of us in a study of the Israelites wanderings in his book, the Land Between.
The ancient Israelites recounted the songs of ascent as they made pilgrimage to
Jerusalem. In his helpful volume, A Long Obedience in The Same Direction:
Discipleship in an Instant Society, Eugene Peterson reflects on the Psalms of ascent to
help us see that spiritual formation is achieved when we take a long view of the journey
we are on, as God leads us from a foreign place to our homeland.
Psalm 84:1-7 speaks to the need to be on a journey that leads the soul back to
God. Verses five through seven sum it up for us:
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 6 As
they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs; the
autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7
They go from strength to strength, till
each appears before God in Zion.
In his book, Finding Joy, Pastor Jim Bender expounds on some of the rich
meaning behind the words we find in these verses.
The people who traveled through this region began to realize that during the
autumn months rain would fall and water the desert. They began to make use of
those autumn rains by digging wells in the ground and leaving them behind so
they would get filled up when the autumn rains came. The travelers who went
through this region began to dig wells periodically along their journey with the
hope that they would be filled with water the next time they passed by. They also
knew others who followed them would find the wells and use them to give life
and healing.
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The title of Robert Mulholland’s classic volume on spiritual formation reminds us
that God is awakening the soul, not for an instant, but to embark on the journey of a
lifetime. Mulholland reminds us that God is not inviting us to a destination but, in fact, it
is an Invitation to a Journey that God calls us to. The only way people will make
headway across the behavioral gap is to embark on a journey with God and a group of
called out companions that stay with each other for the long haul.
Reorientation
Even from his youngest years on record, Jesus was modeling the need for God’s
people to awaken, journey the journey, and set their life on a new orientation. As a boy,
when he was asked why he lingered at the Temple for days, even when his family was on
their trip back home he replied, “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t
you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
Jesus had an other-worldly orientation that he was calling others to build their life
around as they stopped trolling for perch and set sail for and eternal catch, as is
illustrated in Matthew 4:18-20: “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw
two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into
the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you
out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.” The words that
Jesus uses, “Come, follow me,” are words of reorientation, an invitation to repent, to turn
from our way to God’s way.
Jesus called for a whole new trajectory to be considered when he said, “But seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
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In this passage, Jesus is setting up the contention between the empires of this world and
the Kingdom of Heaven. He seems to be saying that if you are going to follow the King
of the Kingdom then you’ll need pledge allegiance to not only the King, but also to his
kingdom.
In his classic book, The Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the
Kingdom of God, George Eldon Ladd reminds us of the prominent nature of the
Kingdom in the life of the believer. He also reminds us that the Kingdom is the reign of
God which can be realized to some extent now, but in the future will be fully experienced
when God’s reign comes in all its fullness. Ladd’s volume gives us a reorientation, a
Kingdom rule of God grid work through which to read, interpret, and apply God’s Word
to our lives so that the Kingdom comes in us and through us. He calls us to not only look
forward to the Kingdom coming but to count on the Kingdom that is here and now.
A call to enter the Kingdom comes with a reorientation to all of life, both here
and now, as well as in the future. The words of a Christian classic sum it up this way,
“This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”
Family
We are born into families; in fact, our family, whatever the configuration, is our
forming center. In her book, Family the Forming Center: A Vision of the Role of Family
in Spiritual Formation, Marjorie J. Thompson tells us that our families make an indelible
mark on us at an early age. She suggests that unless faith brings congruence to our lives,
our children will perceive it as contrived and irrelevant. Our families serve as our
forming center because studies show that before the age of seven most of us have formed
our baseline of beliefs that inform the rest of our days.
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It is no wonder that Jesus spoke so strongly about the need to transfer your
allegiance from your family of origin to the family of God. Peter Scazzero reminds us of
the crucial step Jesus spoke of when he told us we could not enter the Kingdom family
unless we are willing to leave the anti-Kingdom patterns and practices of our family of
origin.
The New Testament describes becoming a Christian as a spiritual rebirth through
which we are adopted into a new family—the family of Jesus. God does forgive
the past, but he does not erase it … We all come into the family of Jesus with
brokenness and wounds from being born into a broken world and imperfect
families. God’s intention is to heal us, but we must first become aware of what
needs to be changed in us.
Most of us simply pass by the difficult words of Jesus in regards to our family
and the family of God when he used words like those in Mark 3:31-35:
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in
to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and
brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he
asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are
my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister
and mother.”
Scazzero reminds readers of the uneasy nature of Jesus’ command to leave their
families and follow Him. In his books and videos, Scazzero urges readers to trace the
roots and limbs of their family trees so that they can exchange unbiblical family
commandments for redemptive ones that come from the heart of the Father.
In her book, Healing Your Family Tree, Beverly Hubble Tauke gives practical
guidance in how to deal with the difficulty of defeating old family patterns and
developing new healthy patterns in the family of God.
22
Engaging in Christian community is deeper than coffee, donuts and an exchange
of opinions about a passage of scripture or the latest book. Making the transition from
the old family to the new family is a tightrope walk that challenges us to address the gap
in our lifestyle. We can learn new family values, study and memorize them but until we
are willing to exchange the old for the new we are not owing the values that will
transform us.
Summary
Discovering whether or not coaching has a positive effect on spiritual growth will
help to determine if developing a coaching ministry is a worthwhile venture for
Daybreak Church. The present study will not solve the church-wide problem of a
predominance of stunted spiritual growth, but it will help Daybreak see if personal
coaching could serve as a catalyst for personal spiritual growth. The next chapter will
review the literature related to the present study in a manner that helps to see how this
study may contribute to the larger problem of stalled out spirituality in the Church.
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL COACHING ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF A JOURNEY PLAN FOR PERSONAL SPIRITUAL
GROWTH AT DAYBREAK CHURCH
Introduction
Christian education and secular education share a common problem: students are
taught a lot of information that does not lead to application and transformation. Recent
studies from the megachurch, Willow Creek, as well as Barna Research, show that the
church is failing to help people experience lasting life change. The purpose of this review
is to further define the problem, consider coaching as a part of the solution, and give
support for the study on the effects of coaching on the coachee. This review will help
clarify that there is a developmental problem when applying information learned into
application and transformation, that coaching may be a part of the answer, and that further
research in the field of coaching is needed.
Carol M. Roberts Dissertation Journey, chapter nine, Reviewing the Literature, was extremely
helpful in the forming of this chapter.
24
26
Literature Related to the Behavioral Gap in Spiritual Formation
A Church-Wide Problem
In 2007, Willow Creek Church released the findings of their multi-year research
project called the Reveal study. The report was a three-year project taken on by a world
class marketing expert, Eric Arnson. Over six thousand Willow attendees completed the
survey, along with three hundred people who had left their church. An additional five
thousand surveys were added to the study in 2007, completed by attendees of Willow and
six other churches within the United States, covering both independent and
denominational churches. The study also included one hundred twenty in-depth
interviews with people about their spiritual life. The resulting issue was that involvement
in church activities does not promote spiritual growth. Many outsiders did not realize that
Willow had developed many means of discipling their members. One of their most
resourced initiatives was their midweek believer’s service, in which master Bible teacher,
John Ortberg, and others would teach the Word with mastery to the thousands that would
attend. But the study was revealing as it helped Willow and other churches see that even
a church as strategic and intentional as Willow was not helping people grow as much as
they would have liked.
The study classified people in one of four categories as they moved along the
spiritual growth pathway: Exploring Christianity, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and
Christ-Centered. What Willow found out was that they were good at helping people in
the first two stages of growth, but were failing to help people move into stages three or
25
four of the developmental journey. Indeed, over twenty-five percent of those who took
the survey said they were spiritually “stalled or dissatisfied” in their spiritual growth. The
question remains though, as to if Willow and its band of seeker sensitive churches were
the only ones failing at helping people move into the deeper levels of faith in Christ?
In 2008, Willow released the findings of their second study, Follow Me:
What’s Next for You? This research study garnered information from over two hundred
congregations through eighty thousand surveys. The study used the same four categories
as the first study to classify people as they moved along the spiritual growth pathway:
Exploring Christianity, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centered. Willow
then classified individual’s daily factors and beliefs into four categories of spiritual
catalysts to assess their impact on spiritual growth: Spiritual beliefs and attitudes;
Organized church activities; Personal spiritual practices; Spiritual activities with others.
Within the study, they note that they needed to “incorporate next-step coaching into
everything we did.” Willow even began to develop an online spiritual assessment and
coaching tool, but found that that was not enough to help people grow. Three major
changes came out the of study: (1) a church-wide emphasis on becoming a disciple of
Jesus Christ, (2) a morphing of their midweek believer’s service to more of a Bible
institute, and (3) offering a broader scope of serving experiences that fit into one of two
categories: building community or growing in Christlikeness.
In 2009, Willow published a follow up study called Focus: The Top Ten Things
People Want and Need from You and Your Church. Building on what they had learned
from Reveal, and subsequent research, Hawkins and Parkinson pointed out the top four
things people are looking for in a church: (1) Spiritual Guidance, (2) Belonging, (3)
26
Accountability / Impact, and (4) Ownership. The findings of Focus are based on a survey
of 376 churches in 2008-2009.
Most recently, Hawkins and Parkinson released a new book, Move: What 1,000
Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth. While Move is mostly a compilation of the
research and results that were formerly documented in Reveal, Follow Me, and Focus, the
present researcher could not help but notice that Willow’s attempt at coaching was to
develop a web-based process called Engage. Engage is intended to help people develop
“personalized spiritual growth plans in response to a short REVEAL survey that gauges
the best next steps for their spiritual development.” Could it be that Willow was onto
something with the coaching, but failed to see the impact that face-to-face coaching
might provide? Could it be that coaching itself is a catalyst to spiritual growth in a
person’s journey with Jesus?
In December 2015, the Barna Group released a study that was commissioned by
NavPress for the Navigators entitled the State of Discipleship. The in-depth study
included a survey of over eight hundred pastors and leaders and over two thousand
congregational members from various protestant church backgrounds. The results were
sobering; while fifty-two percent of congregational members thought the church was
doing well in helping new and young believers grow, only one percent of pastors agreed!
Only two out of every ten people reported that they were involved in some sort of
discipleship activity. When surveyed about what method they prefer if they were
involved in discipleship, thirty-seven percent of respondents said on their own, twentyfive
percent said with a group, twenty-one percent would prefer a mixture of group and one-
on-one settings, and sixteen percent said they prefer one-on-one only.
27
Figure 2. Barna Group, “New Research on the State of Discipleship,” (accessed January 26, 2016).
In the last decade, two in-depth, well designed, published research studies have
shown that the church in the United States is in crisis when it comes to helping its
members grow into the deeper stages of faith. But this is not really a new challenge for
the church, as even the writer of Hebrews admonished early Christians, “For someone
who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food
is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the
difference between right and wrong.”
Getting people across the divide when they become stalled out in their faith is
really not a new challenge at all. The Critical Journey defines and describes the six
stages in the life of faith, and something that the authors refer to as the Wall. They go on
to describe in detail what each stage looks like and what it will take for the disciple of
Christ to move on from one stage to the next. The words they use to describe the stages,
and where they place the Wall in the critical journey, show that the Wall represents a
“sticking place” for the Christian Pilgrim. At the Wall, the faith that brought people to
28
that point needs to be put back up on the altar of God for them to continue. The Wall is a
place of reckoning with God, and a place of either surrender to God or retreat back into
the old life of self-control. The Wall marks the divide that can only be crossed over in the
life of faith through a leap of faith. “The Wall represents our will meeting God’s will face
to face. We decide anew whether we are willing to surrender and let God direct our
lives.” The Stages on the Journey of Faith, as Hagberg and Guelich outline them, are:
Stage 1: Recognition of God
Stage 2: Life of Discipleship
Stage 3: Productive Life
Stage 4: Journey Inward
The Wall
Stage 5: Journey Outward
Stage 6: Life of Love
Peter Scazzero slightly adjusted Hagberg and Guelich’s original work to make the
point that the life of faith is made up of stages and the Wall. He adjusted their original
paradigm as shown in figure 3.
29
Figure 3. Stages of Faith. Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
2006), 119.
Scazzero’s work has thankfully helped Christians to see that in order to grow in
Christ and move onto the next stage of faith, they need a combination of slowed down
spirituality and emotional maturity. Scazzero, as well as others, have helped shed the
light for people to not only see that there are stages to the life of faith, but also sticking
points. Understanding and exploring each stage or season of a person’s faith is vitally
important, but just as important is the ability to address the sticking points of faith which
usually arise during the transition in life from one stage to another.12
However, one of Scazzero’s most intriguing discoveries might be one that has yet
to be fully explored. It is the concept that while Christians are learning new information
about God, themselves, others, and how this plays out in the Kingdom of God, they go
through a process from learning the information, to the internalization of that information,
which leads to transformation. In the Emotionally Healthy Leader, Scazzero lays out five
stages that are travelled through in the process of learning and growing, and where the
behavioral gap falls in those growth stages: (1) Aware, (2) Ponder, (3) Value, Behavioral
30
Gap (4) Prioritize, and (5) Own. Stage one would entail becoming Aware of a new piece
of knowledge. After the stage of awareness, if a person is intrigued, they begin to Ponder
and to look at the newfound knowledge from various angles. The next stage, Value, is to
begin to talk with others about that information in a way that shows
12 Other notable resources, authors, and classic books speak to the seasons and sticking points, such as:
Mark Buchanan, Spiritual Rhythm: Being with Jesus Every Season of Your Soul (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2010); R. Thomas Ashbrook, Mansions of the Heart: Exploring the Seven Stages of
Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009); Bruce Demarest, Seasons of the Soul:
Stages of Spiritual Development (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009); James Fowler,
Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (San
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981); Teresa, of Avila, Saint, Interior Castle, ed. E. Allison Peers
(New York: Sheed & Ward, 1946); John of the Cross, Saint, Dark Night of the Soul, Rev. ed.
(Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003).
they believe and value this new knowledge. But this is where the sticking point arises,
the Behavioral Gap. The behavioral gap is the cavern between valuing, re-prioritizing,
and eventually owning. Scazzero’s contention is that many Christians learn Kingdom
information that never leads to their transformation because they perceive valuing as the
final goal and never address the gap between “information and transformation.”
A Shared Problem in Sacred and Secular Education
The five stages of learning and the behavioral gap are based on the pioneering
work in the field of education done by Benjamin Bloom and his contemporaries,
published in 1956. Bloom noticed that students in the educational system could be helped
to progress from simply knowing information being taught to them to deeper levels of
processing when the teachers planned to engage the students at a deeper level. Over the
years, educators have built on this foundational work by enhancing and adjusting it to
make room for the domains of educational learning: Cognitive / Knowledge; Affective /
Attitude; and Psychomotor / Skill. Although there are many summaries and updates to
31
his work, most would say that Bloom’s Taxonomy can be summed up in these categories,
which lie “along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract.” Figure 4
best sums up Bloom’s work and may give the basic underpinning for the five stages of
growth that Scazzero speaks of in the Emotionally Healthy Leader.
Figure 4. Bloom’s Taxonomy. Patricia Armstrong, Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching,
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ (accessed January 26, 2016).
Contemporary education reformers still build on the groundbreaking work that
Bloom and his contemporaries pioneered in the forties and fifties. In Awaken The
Learner, Darrell Scott and Robert Marzano argue that a teacher needs to reach the heart
(attitude), head (knowledge), and hands (skill) of their students in order to awaken them
to their role in the world. Marzano’s books, articles, and consulting work rely on the
stages of learning that Bloom discovered and documented in the early fifties. After all
these years, educational systems both public and private still struggle to adequately
address the stages of learning in a manner that can help students get traction and hurdle
over the behavioral gap.
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The problem of the behavioral gap in learning appears to be universal in that it
exists both inside the church and also in secular education. Could it be that there are
catalysts that need to be further explored, experimented with, and researched to see if they
can help people address, not only the stages of faith, but also the sticking points along the
way? Could faith coaching be one of those catalysts that help to address this problem in
Christian education and spiritual formation? “The believer’s God-ordained improvement
story doesn’t always go that well. An individual gets lazy, runs up against obstacles, or
sometimes becomes confused about which way to go and what to do. To reach full
potential, a believer might need some help.” Could it be that leaders need to look to new
catalysts to help get disciples over the behavioral gap and into the later stages of faith as
outlined by Hagberg, Guelich, and Scazzero? In the next section of this literature review,
the present researcher will consider the benefits of coaching as a catalyst in spiritual
growth.
Literature Related to Coaching
The History of Coaching
In the myriad of books and related resources about coaching, little is recorded about the
history of the discipline. Chad Hall looks back in a short section of chapter one of Faith
Coaching: A Conversational Approach to Helping Others Move Forward in Faith.
1980s Coaching begins to gain some traction. Thomas Leonard, a
financial planner, began to coach his clients, almost by accident
when he realized that they needed more than financial counsel in
order to process life and come to better decisions. The fields of
personal development, psychology, counseling, and consulting
begin to ask, “what if the answers to people’s developmental
questions are locked inside themselves?”
1990s A few schools begin to teach coaching. Coaching is seen as
successful because people are not feeling controlled by the coach,
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rather the coach is helping them unlock their potential. The
International Coaching Federation is launched in 1995.
2000 to Present ICF grows to 17,000 members in 95 countries. Coaching
certification is seen as obtainable and credible. Coaching research
and development grows exponentially.
At the start of the 1990s, you could hardly find a single book on either coaching
or mentoring in the library of Templeton College—at that time Oxford
University’s only Management College. At the millennium, Templeton’s librarian
would now need a small transit van to carry all the books, journal articles, news
stories and Internet references.
The Developmental Pathway of Coaching
If you pick up any book on coaching today, you will find that, for the most part, it
will teach you some ratio of theory and practice regarding the rapidly growing discipline.
Not much time, if any, is given to explain the roots of the movement or the research to
support its growth; no, for the most part, most books on coaching are very pragmatic and
development oriented. This section of the literature review will focus in on the
developmental pathway of coaching that is found in most texts about the subject.
Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work
and Life, is probably the most well-known coach’s training curriculum today. “The term
‘co-active’ refers to the fundamental nature of a coaching relationship in which the coach
and client are active collaborators.” The nature of coaching, according to the authors, is
to work together with their client to help move them from where they are to where they
would like to be, both in work and in life.
The authors of Co-Active Coaching spell out their developmental pathway by
using the center and five points of a star. In the center of the star is the clients’
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fulfillment, held in balance with the process of coaching. Each of the five points of the
star represent another part of the growth pathway for their client:
•Listening: Hearing both the words and the meaning behind the words and
concepts that the client is conveying.
•Intuition: Forming a feel for the client and what they are searching for.
•Curiosity: Asking good questions that lead the client into the discovery process.
•Forward and Deepen: Making sure that action and learning are combining in a
way that affects change for the client.
35
•
Self-Management: Being well-differentiated enough to get close to the client
without forming strong opinions about what they should do to achieve their
outcomes.
The rest of the curriculum fleshes out the center of the star and each point of the
star in detail, which helps the coach learn and follow the developmental pathway which
makes co-active coaching an avenue of change and growth for the client.
In Leadership Coaching: The Disciplines, Skills and Heart of a Christian Leader,
Tony Stoltzfus defines coaching as “…practicing the disciplines of believing in people in
order to empower them to change.” He then goes on to lay out his process for the coach
to empower change when he talks about the four parts of every coaching conversation, to
listen, ask, act, and support. Listening is similar here to the way it is defined in Co-
Active Coaching, which is for the coach to make sure they pay attention to the “music as
much as the lyrics” in what is being communicated. Asking is finding the questions that
give the client the keys to unlock their own answers. Acting is helping the client transfer
their goals into concrete action steps. Support is when the “coach provides consistent
accountability for action steps, celebrate progress, affirm their client’s abilities, and help
them get off the ground and try again when things don’t work out.”
In Coaching People: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges, The Harvard
Business School Press provides a brief coaching training manual for the business
professional; in their definition, “coaching is an opportunity to contribute to another
36
person’s development.” For the Harvard Business School, the developmental process
entails these six ingredients: active listening, asking questions, advocating your opinions,
giving feedback, receiving feedback, and building agreement. While their method is
streamlined, the pathway is similarly designed to help the client develop and move from
where they presently are into a preferable future.
In Christian Coaching, author Gary Collins lays out this pathway for the coach to
follow in order for the coachee to develop: ask focused questions, listen carefully,
increase awareness, and make assessments. Collins is drawing from his vast expertise as
a counselor and mentor and gives a simple set of coaching behaviors that set the client up
for growth and development toward their destination.
Coaching 101: Discover the Power of Coaching by Robert E. Logan and Sherilyn
Carlton is another brief, but helpful volume on coaching. They define coaching as
helping people find out what God wants them to do and then discover ways to do it.
Logan and Carlton give these five practices to guide the coach in the coaching process:
Relate: Establish coaching relationship and agenda
•Reflect: Discover and explore key issues
•Refocus: Determine priorities and action steps
•Resource: Provide support and encouragement
•Review: Evaluate, celebrate, and revise plans
All of these publications are intended to set the coach up for success by
equipping them with the resources that allow them to help their client move along a
simple, developmental pathway that can convey them from where they are to where they
37
•
want to be. However, the present researcher found the content of Faith Coaching to not
only be educational, but also transferrable; therefore, this piece was selected to be the
main resource for training the coaches involved in this study.
The authors of Faith Coaching define coaching in the light of an old terminology
for coach, which is to transport something or somebody from one place to another,
helping them arrive at their intended destination. “A limousine is a form of
transportation that moves a person from one place to another. It’s a great way to think
about coaching: coaching is a relationship that gets you from where you are to where you
want to be.” In light of the present study, this definition best fits the context. After a
person completes the Journey Class and develops their Journey Plan the desire is to
coach them from where they are in their spiritual journey, to their next stage, passage, or
transition. Journey Class coaching is intended to get the coachee to take steps across the
behavioral gap in their spiritual life and grow closer to Christ and like Christ in the
process.
Hall and his colleagues also provide a simple set of guidelines for the coach so
that they can facilitate a developmental pathway for the coachee. In chapter four of
Faith Coaching, he describes these three characteristics that should mark each coaching
conversation: Listen, Ask Questions, Guide the Process. From the present researcher’s
review of coaching resources, of which six have been summarized, Hall’s pathway was
both the most comprehensive, yet simple and replicable for this study.
The three movements of Hall’s coaching conversation were adopted for this
study, and one additional movement was added, that of building faith through prayer.
38
The developmental pathway the coaches were trained on were based on these four
coaching practices:
•Active Listening—Being fully present and focused in on the coachee. Listening
to the music bed beyond the words being said.
•Powerful Questioning—Asking questions that had the coachee process, not
getting information for the coach.
Guiding the Process—Providing support through accountability and
encouragement.
•Building Faith—Praying for both the coachee the coach while moving through
the entire process, but especially when meeting with the coachee for sessions.
Imagine the Kingdom gains if the church figured out the ideal way to parent or
coach Christ-followers all along the spiritual continuum. Imagine the impact if
all those stalled and dissatisfied people were put back on track and moved into
higher stages of spiritual maturity and productivity. Imagine what would happen
if the church could create passageways that urge those who are growing and
close to Christ to begin leading truly Christ-centered lives. The data from this
study [Reveal] “suggests that the church provides minimal support for those who
are most devoted to Christ. Since these people are the best equipped and most
motivated advocates for Christ, providing them with increased coaching and
encouragement could only reap great gains for the Kingdom.”
The Research on Coaching
Since the field of coaching is growing at a rapid rate, so is the research in this
discipline. The present researcher was able to find two articles that gave a summary of
the research in the area of coaching, one written in 2004 and the other in 2011. Both
articles are helpful to see that coaching is growing, and with it the accompanying
research. Much, if not all of the research utilized either a case study or program
39
•
evaluation research methodology. Very few, if any, could be found that employed the
method of treatment and effects or any other method that could produce empirical
evidence regarding the effect of coaching on the coachee. Also, very few, if any, focused
on evaluating or measuring whether or not the coaching itself was effective in helping
the coachee get from where they were to where they wanted to be. With that in mind, the
following pages provide a summary of pertinent articles related to research in coaching
and its effect on the coachee using various research methodologies.
The International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring is a
valuable resource for both the researcher and practitioner in the field of coaching and
mentoring. In 2004, an article was published that gave a summary of the first sixty-five
years of development in coaching. The authors of this article did research that showed
that the number of dissertations and citations in Ph.D. studies decreased from fifty
between the years of 1937 to 1994 to forty-nine between 2000 to 2003. They also
document that the majority of research up to 2004 was done with “Uncontrolled groups
or case studies.” Indeed, it was not until the late 1990s to early 2000s that organizations’
research about coaching took place on a large scale. “In terms of life coaching the
empirical literature is almost silent.” This summary brings the reader up to date to the
year 2004.
In 2011, Jonathan Passmore and Annette Fillery-Travis published an article that
summarized the developments in research in the past decade preceding the article,
40
essentially 2000-2010. The intention of the article was to summarize coaching research
for both the researcher and practitioner, with an eye to what may be coming in future
research. The summary is divided into three sections. The first two sections give a
summary of the research. The third section gives insight into what might be coming in
coaching research. The authors point out that in the past ten years, since around 2000,
coaching research grew exponentially and they projected that it would keep growing in
the coming years. The research methodology had still remained quite limited, “The
overall focus however was coaching as a management skill and with a case study led
methodology as opposed to quantitative methods comparing different interventions and
using control groups.” The authors hoped that by 2021, there would be more empirical
based studies that would use control groups, treatment and effects research model.
One of the most intriguing studies the present researcher located on the effect of
the coaching on the coachee was conducted by Elke Hanssmann who serves on the
Global Leadership Staff of Operation Mobilisation, United Kingdom.
The present researcher held a Skype interview with Elke Hanssmann, which
provided some of the information summarized from the study that Hanssmann
conducted, as follows.40 Hanssmann conducted her research as part of her requirements
for her Master’s degree in Professional Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes
University, Oxford, United Kingdom. She self-selected the coaches, based on the fact
that they showed their coaching was transformational, and they were from diverse places
in the world. All of her coaches were trained in practices germane to their culture and,
41
for the most part, served their clients on a volunteer basis. In her study, Hanssmann
evaluated the effectiveness of six coaches identified in Table 1.
Nationality Age Pseudonym
and gender
8 +
years
with
OM
Leadership
Development
Religion Years working
crossculturally
Malaysia 38 Joy, F 8 Yes Christian 8 years
Xhosa/
Namibia
41 Thabo, M 14 Yes Christian 13 years
South Africa 56 Pat, M 24 Yes Christian 23 years
South Africa 50 Preety, F 21 Yes Christian 25 years
UK 61 Ian, M 27 Yes Christian 34 years
USA 61 Al, M 17 Yes Christian 17 years
Table 1. “Providing Safe Passage into a Larger Life: Supporting Clients’ Transformational Change through
Coaching.” Elke Hanssmann, special issue, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and
Mentoring 8 (June 2014): 26.
Hanssmann used a research method known as Interpretive Phenomenological
Analysis (IPA) to conduct semi-structured interviews and performed analysis that helped
her determine three master themes that the coaches employed in their transformational
coaching. The three themes in the transformational coaching her subjects were engaged
in were: Hospitality, Future Orientation, and Metamorphosis. Again, Hanssmann notes
that “little empirical research” had been done to substantiate the effects of coaching on
the coachee.
40 Elke Hanssmann, interview by Joel Smith, Skype, February 5, 2016.
All six of the coaches that were interviewed spoke of coaching as “an act of
hospitality.” For them, this was an act of listening and engaging deeply, without
becoming codependent with their client. To do this, the coach had to work on being well
42
differentiated and developing a “loving disinterest” in the person they are coaching. In
short, they did not own the responsibility for change but were fostering the relational
environment in which change could take place for the coachee. They were coaches that
were well differentiated but still empathetic toward their clients.
The second overarching theme she discovered was inviting clients into their
future. This transformational method helped the coachee see their potential and use their
imagination to picture a preferable future for themselves. Often the coach would take on
a “yes, you can” attitude and use their interactions to breed courage in the client. During
this part of the coaching process, the coach provided companionship and helped the
coachee “hold their turmoil” as they were confronted with the choice to change or
retreat.
The third theme Hanssmann uncovered in her research was The Mystery of
Metamorphasis. This stage of development was when coachees experienced an ‘Aha’
moment, much like the one described in the research done by researcher and author
Leigh Longhurst who wrote the article, the ‘Aha’ Moment in Co-Active Coaching and Its
Effect on Belief and Behavioural Changes. Her article will be discussed in the
conclusion of this chapter as it relates to the theoretical and theological underpinnings of
this study. One of the coaches, Al, described this part of the process as helping the
coachee move from a “life negating stance to a life-embracing outlook.” Hannsmann
claimed that this was where faith came into play as both people did their part, but it was
in fact God who was the change agent, who eventually brought the person out of their
chrysalis into a new stage of faith.
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Hannsmann and others have been on a quest, looking for research that provided
empirical evidence affirming the value of transformational coaching because they have
found it hard to find. The lack of research is what David B. Drake refers to as the black
box of coaching, that when finally found, will open up insights and discoveries that are
hidden to this point. Drake hopes that locating the black box will accomplish three
things: assist both further research and develop new practices, provide a common body
of knowledge in the realm of coaching, and support the development of standard
practices in the field of coaching. But the fact remains that up to this point the black box
still remains a mystery to be tracked down, researched, documented, and shared.
Literature Related to Treatment Effects Research Model and Coaching
As the present researcher studied the various methods of research laid out in
Handbook for Doctor of Ministry Projects, the selected method best fit both the ministry
problem and the context in which he ministers in at Daybreak Church. After new
members completed the Journey Class and developed their Journey Plan, they were left
on their own to implement their new rule of life without any structured support. For
years, staff and elders have wondered if providing ongoing coaching would be the
answer to helping these new members better implement their rule of life and experience
deeper spiritual vitality. So with the help of the reading and interaction with Dr. Frank
Chan, the present researcher chose the treatment effects model because it best fit the
context and was the best indicator as to whether coaching could serve as a catalyst for
spiritual development.
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Unfortunately, there was not much research that was able to be located in the
field of coaching, or Christian coaching, that studied the effects of coaching on the
coachee using research methods. There were, however, studies regarding coaching in
general that indicated that coaching can be used to bring about change or growth in
people when used over an extended period of time. The hope was that by choosing the
treatment effects research method and interpreting its results, some empirical data will be
researched that measured the effects of coaching on the coachee, related to spiritual
growth. If the research would support the hypothesis, that coaching acts as a catalyst to
spiritual growth, then a simple strategy could be developed to integrate coaching into the
formational ministries of Daybreak Church.
The Theological or Theoretical Basis for the Proposed Solution
Could it be that coaching could be used as a catalyst to spiritual growth, helping
people awaken to the spiritual life, discover a journey orientation, become reoriented by
adopting a Kingdom lifestyle, and begin to see God’s family as the first family? Linda
Miller and Chad Hall provide this definition of Christian coaching, “Christian coaching
is a focused Christ-centered relationship that cultivates a person’s sustained growth and
action.” Their definition makes this type of coaching something that leads to growth and
action, carrying a person from where they are into a preferable future. They define
coaching in light of the old word for coach, as a carriage that helps transport people from
one place to another. Perhaps coaching is one of the missing catalysts to propel the
church in the United States out of stagnation and into spiritual formation leading to
revival.
45
Later on in Coaching for Christian Leaders, Miller and Hall parallel coaching
with the ancient Celtic practice of “Anam Cara—A Soul Friend.”
The ancient Celts used the term Anam Cara to describe what the Bible calls “a
friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). Such a spiritual friendship
is between two equals who walk alongside each other for the purpose of helping
each other grow in the image of Christ. Rather than being a pedagogical
approach to discipleship, the soul friendship is a relational approach to growing
in faith.
Could it be that coaching in some ways mimics, or even joins in with, the work of
the Holy Spirit, who is at times in scripture referred to as the paraclete? The Greek term
paraclete means to come alongside someone for the sake of building them up. Perhaps
the best a Christian coach can do is to join with the Holy Spirit in His building up work
by listening well, asking questions of the soul, guiding the process, and building the
coachee’s faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The present researcher was able to locate an intriguing study that measured
catalytic change in the coaching process. In, the ‘Aha’ Moment in Co-Active Coaching
and Its Effect on Belief and Behavioral Changes, researcher and author Leigh Longhurst
presents some interesting findings related to what precipitates behavioral change in
people being coached. She explains that an ‘Aha’ moment is “Experienced somatically
and emotionally as well as cognitively…” and leads to greater cognitive and behavioral
change in the person who experiences the moment.
Using a Qualitative, Phenomenological Approach methodology, Longhurst used
client and coach diary entries, questionnaires, and interviews to gather her data. For her,
the ‘Aha’ moments are what drive the process of co-active coaching and take the coachee
46
to new levels of life change. She claimed that her study demonstrates “…mind, body,
soul and spirit or a combination of these…” are engaged at a heightened level during the
‘Aha’ moment. The findings of her study are interesting in light of the behavioral gap
that Bloom noted in public education and Scazzero points to in the area of spiritual
formation. Could coaching, then, be a catalyst for spiritual formation because it provides
the interactive environment for those moments to take place in?
In Leadership Coaching, Tony Stoltzfus defined coaching as a change agent
process that propels people forward. “Coaching is practicing the disciplines of believing
in people in order to empower them to change.” For Stoltzfus, coaching was not simply
helping people get from one place to another. He emphatically said that coaching should
breed and bring forth transformation in the life of the coachee. He stated his case clearly
a little later in the book:
Coaching transforms people because it zeros in at the place God is at work in the
individual’s life: The transformational experience. It is these teachable moments,
when circumstances put us under pressure, that we are most receptive to radical
change. And when you combine a teachable moment with a transparent, growth-
oriented coaching relationship, the potential for transformation is enormous.
Conclusion
The literature outlined in this section revealed that there is a universal problem in
education; both in secular fields and in Christianity, individuals were taking in
information, but not being transformed. The present researcher also discovered that
coaching provided a developmental, transformational, and catalytic approach that might
serve to get people beyond their sticking points to the next stage of their faith journey.
The hope was to make a small contribution to the large dilemma of spiritual stagnation in
47
the church in the United States by studying the effects of coaching on the spiritual
growth of people in within the present study. Perhaps others would consider coaching as
a part of the answer to the spiritual growth problem, defined in both the Reveal studies
and
Barna Group findings.
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL COACHING ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF A JOURNEY PLAN FOR PERSONAL SPIRITUAL
GROWTH AT DAYBREAK CHURCH
Introduction
The empirical unknown of the present study was, after the six months of the
research is complete, will there be any measurable difference in spiritual growth between
the coached and un-coached groups of participants? In other words, will the coaching
effect more positive change on the participants who were coached than the participants
who did not receive coaching during the study?
The research project was intended to understand the effect that intentional
coaching has on the implementation of a Journey Plan for spiritual growth over a six
month period by using a treatment and effects approach that utilizes a control group and a
treatment group. Two groups were used for the study; both groups have completed the
Journey Class and developed a Journey Plan. The first group was be the control group,
who was surveyed both pre- and post-test but received no coaching during the six month
period. The second group was the experimental group, who was be surveyed both pre-
and post-test, in addition to having received six months of coaching by a trained coach
who is a member of Daybreak Church.
49
54
The DSGS results were be converted to numerical values by using a simple one
through five scale for each question: Never=1, Seldom=2, Occasionally=3, Frequently=4,
Always=5. Converting the results in this way gave the ability to conduct statistical
analysis which included comparison of scores and t-testing. The testing for accuracy and
comparison of numerical scores determined if the coaching made any significant
difference in the spiritual growth of the participants or not.
Participants
Participants were all graduates of the Daybreak Church Journey Class,
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania who were all eighteen years of age or older. The goal was
to have sixty total participants, but since they were not allowed to self-assign to the
coached or non-coached groups, the number dropped to half of what was anticipated,
resulting in thirty participants total.
Recruitment and Selection
An e-mail was sent out to graduates of the Journey Course within the previous
three years, explaining the present study and inviting them to participate in it. The goal
was to have sixty total participants, thirty in the control group and thirty in the treatment
group. Originally the present researcher wanted to have the participants self-assign,
meaning they would decide if they would like to be in the coached group or the
noncoached group, however when this was submitted on the IRB request form to Alliance
Theological Seminary, the Institutional Review Board required that the participants who
volunteered for the study not be allowed to self-select which group they would be in. Not
allowing participants to self-select caused the study to be more scientifically valid, but
50
contributed to a smaller amount of participants, since only thirty participants in total then
volunteered for the study.
After the participants volunteered, they were then randomly assigned to the
coached or non-coached group using an online random selection system. No
remuneration was offered and the participants remained anonymous for the length of the
study. The researcher was trained in and received a certificate of completion for the
course “Protecting Human Research Participants” from the National Institute of Health.
Date of completion of the training was March 9, 2015, certification number 1719901.
Characteristics
The demographic information on the thirty participants was gathered by asking them
twelve questions at the beginning of the DSGS. Figures 6 through 8 summarize the
answers that reflected the demographic make-up of the groups:
Table 2: Demographics of the gender of coached and non-coached participants.
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51
Table 3: Demographics of the marital status of coached and non-coached participants.
Table 4: Demographics of the age-ranges of coached and non-coached participants.
Intervention: The Nature of the Coaching Component
The fifteen coaches were trained by the present researcher before the coaching
period began in a three-hour training module that was held two times and was identical in
nature. The coach was not expected to be an expert, but a facilitator who invited the
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52
Holy Spirit to bring focus and discernment to each coaching session and to the overall
coaching process. The coach was responsible to facilitate the coaching process while the
coachee was responsible for the content being processed. The content being processed
was determined by each participant’s Journey Plan that they developed when they took
the Journey Class. In the coaching module, the coaches were taught these four coaching
activities:
1. Active Listening
2. Powerful Questioning
3. Guiding the Process
4. Building Faith
The coaches were trained to engage at three levels of focus with the coachee
during the six months of coaching:
Level one: Looking at a problem together
Level two: Coach focuses on coachee while coachee focuses on problem
Level three: Both the coach and coachee focus on the coachee’s development
Much of the training was based on the book, Faith Coaching: A Conversational
Approach to Helping Others Move Forward in Faith. Each coach was given a copy of
the book for their own reference and along with direction to the Coach Approach
Ministries website, www.coachapproachministries.org.
The coaching sessions themselves were to be between one and two hours,
depending on how much time the coach and coachee determined was needed. These
53
sessions took place for a six month period between May 2015 and October 2015. They
were encouraged to have the session face to face and meet where they decided would be
appropriate. If they could not meet face to face they were encouraged to Skype or use
telephone communications. The coaches were encouraged to send a short e-mail to the
present researcher after each session, informing the present researcher that they had met
with their coachee.
The coaches and coachees were allowed to determine how much interaction they
would have between sessions, and what form that interaction would take (phone, Skype,
e-mail, text, etc.)
Instrument: Daybreak Spiritual Growth Survey modified from the Lifeway
Spiritual Growth Assessment
The tool selected was originally developed by Lifeway resources to be used in
conjunction with a larger spiritual growth assessment process to help people discover
where they were in their spiritual development and then develop a subsequent plan to
move them forward.
The DSGS assessment tool was voluntary and anonymous. It was administered at
the beginning and the end of the six month test period. The measurement tool was
modified in three ways so that it would better fit the language and context of the Journey
Plan that each participant developed. The assessment was adapted by the present
researcher in the following ways: (1) format was changed to a Survey Monkey, which is
an online data gathering tool, (2) content included demographic data, and (3) some
questions were added and or modified to fit the context and verbiage of the Journey Plan
54
and some questions were used with permission from Pete Scazzero from the EHS Church
Assessment 1.1.
•SGA Demographic Information Questions were changed in the DSGS to fit
Daybreak Church demographics.
•SGA headings were changed as follows in the DSGS, to line up with each
participant’s Journey Plan:
•Abide in Christ, Live in the Word and Pray in Faith headings were all changed to
the heading of Celebrating God’s Grace
•Fellowship with Believers was changed to Connecting with God’s Family
•Witness to the World was changed to Helping Other People Discover a Life-
Changing Journey
•Ministry to Others was changed to Contributing to God’s Work
•Questions in the SGA that were removed from multiple sections of the DSGS:
•I practice a regular quiet time
•When God makes me aware of His specific will in an area of my life, I follow His
leading
•I believe that Christ provides the only way for a relationship with God
•My actions demonstrate a desire to build God’s kingdom, rather than my own
•I regularly read and study my Bible
•I believe the Bible is God’s Word and provides His instructions for life
55
•I expect to grow in my prayer life and, if needed, intentionally seek help to
improve
•I admit my errors in relationships and I humbly seek forgiveness from the one(s)
that I hurt
•I seek to live in harmony with other members of my family
•I am gentle and kind in my interactions with others
•I encourage and listen to feedback from others to help me discover areas for
relationship growth
•I encourage others by pointing out their strengths rather than criticizing their
weaknesses
56
•
•
I share my faith in Christ with non-believers
I make my faith known to my neighbors and / or my fellow co-workers
•I intentionally maintain relationships with non-believers in order to share my
testimony
•When confronted about my faith, I remain consistent and firm in my testimony
•I help others understand how to effectively share an effective testimony
•I make sure that the people that I witness to get the follow-up and the support
needed to grow in Christ
•I encourage my church and my friends to support mission efforts
•I am prepared to share my testimony at any time
•My actions demonstrate a belief in and a commitment to the great commission
(Matthew 28:19-20)
•I share my faith in Christ with non-believers
•I understand my spiritual gifts and I use those gifts to serve others
•I sacrificially contribute my finances to help others in my church and my
community
57
•
•
•I expect God to use me every day in His kingdom work
•I regularly contribute time to a ministry at my church
I help other identify their ministry gifts
I help other become involved in ministry
•Questions added to multiple sections of the DSGS that were not a part of the SGA:
•I practice a regular daily rhythm devotional time with God
•I practice a weekly rhythm of Sabbath rest & reflection
•I often sense that I am on a spiritual journey with God as my guide
•Trusting in Christ’s atoning work for me gives me a sense of security
•My actions demonstrate my dependence on Christ
•I regularly read and reflect on God’s Word
•I set aside time each day to silently reflect on God’s love letter to me
•In difficult circumstances, scripture that applies comes to mind
•I routinely pray for neighbors, friends, co-workers and family members to come to
faith in Christ
•Small group community is important to me
58
•
•
•I freely ask for forgiveness when I hurt someone or make mistakes, and I extend
forgiveness freely
•When I suspect miscommunication is happening, I initiate conversations to check
out assumptions and expectations
I speak clearly, respectfully and honestly with the people around me
I know when to help carry someone else’s burden and when to let it go so they can
carry it themselves
•As I reflect on my family of origin, God is teaching me how to have healthier
relationships
•I understand my unique mix of spiritual gifts, passion and style, and use them to
serve God and others
•I serve at weekend worship
•I show God’s love by meeting the practical needs of people in my community
•I serve through my community through one of Daybreak’s local partnerships (New
Hope Ministries, Capital Area Pregnancy Center, Heart of Harrisburg
Church, Helping Hands Ministries, Stop the Violence Ministries, The Bair
Foundation, God’s Helping Hands)
59
•
•
•I am available for God to use me every day in His kingdom work
•I serve on a ministry team at Daybreak
•I regularly invite non-believers to Daybreak
•I am open about my faith with my neighbors and / or my co-workers
•I intentionally share my faith story with non-believers that I have a relationship with
I am prepared to share my story at any time
I bear witness to Christ in word and deed
•I take what I learn at church and apply it in the workplace
•I believe that my current occupation is as important as being a pastor or a
missionary. All “jobs” are expressions of full-time ministry for Christ
•I am engaged in Daybreak’s short-term missions trips through praying, giving, and /
or going
•My beliefs and actions reveal that I am on mission with God
•I generously contribute of my finances to forward God’s work in this world
•I give to world missions through other organizations
60
•
•
•SGA Self Evaluation section and questions within the section removed from the
DSGS:
•I write down or keep a journal of the works and intervention of God in my life
•Individually, what would you say is your greatest strength
•Individually, what area would you say needs more attention
Data Collection
All thirty participants of the study were assigned a participant number, one
through thirty. Using an online tool, Research Randomizer, two sets of fifteen unique
61
unsorted numbers were requested. Set one included participants 1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 15,
16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 28 and 29; these participants were labeled as the non-coached group.
Set two included participants 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27 and 30; these
participants were labeled as the coached group.
Within the coached group, there were eight female participants and seven male
participants. This aligned with the number of female and male coaches that were
participating in the study.
All the female participants were assigned an additional number, labeled as a
gender number, one through eight, and all the female coaches were assigned a coach
number, one through eight. Using Research randomizer, one set of eight unique unsorted
numbers was requested. The set paired gender number 1 (participant 3) with coach 7,
gender number 2 (participant 8) with coach 1, gender number 3 (participant 9) with
coach 2, gender number 4 (participant 14) with coach 3, gender number 5 (participant
22) with coach 5, gender number 6 (participant 23) with coach 8, gender number 9
(participant 27) with coach 4 and gender number 8 (participant 30) with coach 6.
All the male participants were assigned an additional number, labeled as a gender
number, one through seven, and all the male coaches were assigned a coach number, ,
one through seven. Using Research randomizer, one set of seven unique unsorted
numbers was requested. The set paired gender number 1 (participant 2) with coach 3,
gender number 2 (participant 4) with coach 2, gender number 3 (participant 13) with
coach 4, gender number 4 (participant 17) with coach 6, gender number 5 (participant
18) with coach 5, gender number 6 (participant 20) with coach 7 and gender number 7
(participant 26) with coach 1.
62
The thirty participants within the study were all people who had graduated from
the Journey Class, developed a Journey Plan, and agreed to participate in the present
study. It was made clear that participation in the survey was voluntary and anonymous.
The DSGS was administered at the beginning and the end of the six month test period
using an online Survey Monkey format. Participants of both the coached and
noncoached groups received personalized e-mails with links to their respective online
Survey Monkey surveys on May 22, 2015. They were asked to complete the DSGS
within two weeks of receiving the link.
The inventory had a brief demographic section followed by seventy-one
questions or statements which were answered with one of the following five responses to
each question or statement: never, seldom, occasionally, frequently, and always. In order
to convert the answers to numerical values, the present researcher assigned a value of
one through five to the responses as follows: Never=1, Seldom=2, Occasionally=3,
Frequently=4, Always=5. Converting the results in this way gave the ability to conduct
statistical analysis which included comparison of scores and t-testing.
At the end of the six month test period, on November 30, 2015, participants of
both the coached and non-coached groups again received personalized e-mails with links
to their respective online Survey Monkey surveys to be able to complete the DSGS.
They were again asked to complete the survey within two weeks of receiving the link.
The pre-test DSGS scores were collected and compared to the post-test DSGS
scores for each group. Also a comparison was made of the change in DSGS scores
between the two groups to determine if the coaching treatment made any noticeable
difference in scores between the control group and the treatment group.
63
Focus Group Interviews
A focus group interview methodology was employed in order to compare the
spiritual growth of the six coached and eight non-coached participants in the present
study.
Two group interviews were held with the participants that completed the study.
The first interview was held with the coached participants and the second with the
noncoached participants. The goal was to see if there was any noticeable difference in
the spiritual growth between the two groups by looking for areas of growth that the
coached group experienced that were not reflected in the DSGS and then seeing if the
noncoached group grew in those same areas or different areas. Both groups were e-
mailed four questions to help them prepare for the group discussion. If they could not
attend the focus group interview, they were asked to return their responses to the
questions via email. All six of the coached participants were able to respond and six of
the eight noncoached participants were able to respond for a total of twelve responses
received out of the fourteen participants that completed the present study.
The results of the feedback received by the present researcher were summarized
and evaluated to look for indicators of spiritual growth in the coached group that could
be stronger than the non-coached group. The present researcher looked for types of
spiritual growth that were not indicated on the DSGS that was used within the treatment
and effects methodology. The present researcher compared the feedback of both groups
and gave a summary of the findings of the interviews.
64
Summary
Treatment and effects was the methodology that was selected for this study
because it seemed to fit the context of the problem and there seemed to be enough
graduates of the Journey Class to have enough participants. After the present study was
complete, the focus group interview methodology was employed in order to obtain more
data of the participants that completed the study. However, one problem that arose was
that the inability to have people self-assign themselves to a coached or non-coached
group, which did limit the number of people willing to volunteer for the study. In the
end, the limited amount of people who were involved and completed the study does bear
some weight on the outcomes that are recorded in chapter four.
Two resources that were very helpful at selecting and setting up the methodology
of the study were Handbook for Doctor of Ministry Projects by Robert E. Davies and
Qualitative Research by Tim Sensing. The present researcher found both texts to be very
helpful.
The next chapter in the thesis will reveal the results of the study that give answer
to the question: Will the coaching help the coached participants in the study grow more
spiritually than the un-coached participants?
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS
MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL COACHING ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF A JOURNEY PLAN FOR PERSONAL SPIRITUAL
GROWTH AT DAYBREAK CHURCH
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to determine if personal coaching helped people
grow more spiritually as opposed to people who do not have coaching. Thirty graduates
of the Daybreak Church Journey Class volunteered to participate in this six month long
study. Fifteen coaches were trained in a classic style of coaching that included: listening
well, asking good questions, guiding the process, and building faith. The study used the
Lifeway SGA, which was tailored to work with the Journey Plan of Daybreak Church.
All thirty of the participants were to take the assessment at the beginning and the end of
the six month period. The tool was used to measure their personal spiritual growth over
that six month period to see if the coached group would experience significant growth,
more so than the non-coached group. This chapter sets forth the findings of the study.
The question that is being addressed here is, did the study reveal that that coached
participants grew more spiritually than the participants who were not coached?
Based on the paradigm of coaching found in Faith Coaching, Co-Active Coaching and numerous
other coaching texts and resources.
66
71
Results
The hypothesis of this study is as follows: “Participants with a Journey Plan at
Daybreak Church who receive coaching will have higher spiritual growth than
participants who do not.” The following summary charts show the evidence that was
collected; the results of the survey do not disprove the hypothesis, but the result do not
support the hypothesis either. The findings reveal that neither group grew more than the
other, with their scores on the DSGS showing no significant difference. The study began
with thirty participants, fifteen in the coached group and fifteen in the non-coached group.
In order to complete the study, participants needed to: take the DSGS at the beginning of
the study, be coached or not coached, and take the DSGS at the end of the six month
period of the study. Of the fifteen participants in the coached group, only six completed
the study. Of the fifteen participants in the non-coached group, eight completed the study.
The following charts show the results of the anonymous participants that completed the
research and the scores that were reflected in the beginning and ending DSGS scores.
The DSGS data was converted from text to numerical data using a one through
five scale as follows:
Never=1
Seldom=2
Occasionally=3 Frequently=4
Always=5
67
Converting the results to numerical values gave the ability to conduct statistical
analysis, which included simple comparison and t-testing of scores for reliability. The
following charts provide the data on comparison and testing. The paired t-testing was
done with the help of L. Marlin Eby, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics and Statistics,
Statistical Consultant, Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania. Dr. Eby used Minitab
17 for the testing. The present researcher conducted the non-paired t-testing of the
group’s final scores by using Social Science Statistics.
Summary Charts
Coached Group Scores and t-testing Results
Within the coached group, the value of t is 0.639234 and the value of p is
0.275401. The data has been rounded to two significant figures in showing the end
results, but was not rounded when calculating the values of t and p. The significance
level is 0.01 and it is a one-tailed hypothesis.
Treatment 1 Treatment 2 Diff (T2 – T1) Dev (Diff – M) Sq. Dev
228 241 13 9.17 84.03
344 334 - 10 - 13.83 191.36
269 256 - 13 - 16.83 283.36
241 239 - 2 - 5.83 34.03
238 248 10 6.17 38.03
228 253 25 21.17 448.03
M: 3.83 S: 1078.83
Table 5: Coached group scores and t-testing results
Difference Scores Calculations
Mean: 3.83 μ
= 0
S2 = SS/df = 1078.83/(6-1) = 215.77
S2m = S2/N = 215.77/6 = 35.96
Sm = √S2m = √35.96 = 6.00
T-value Calculation
68
t = (M - μ)/Sm = (3.83 – 0)/6.00 = 0.64
The result is not significant at p ≤ 0.01.
Non-Coached Group Scores and t-testing Results
Within the non-coached group, the value of t is 1.354919 and the value of p is
0.10877. The data has been rounded to two significant figures in showing the end results,
but was not rounded when calculating the values of t and p. The significance level is
0.01 and it is a one-tailed hypothesis.
Treatment 1 Treatment 2 Diff (T2 – T1) Dev (Diff – M) Sq. Dev
258 252 - 6 - 17.75 315.06
345 321 - 24 - 35.75 1278.06
238 282 44 32.25 1040.06
223 237 14 2.25 5.06
309 347 38 26.25 689.06
245 271 26 14.25 203.06
240 256 16 4.25 18.06
268 254 - 14 - 25.75 663.06
M: 11.75 S: 4211.50
Table 6: Non-coached group scores and t-testing results
Difference Scores Calculations
Mean: 11.75 μ
= 0
S2 = SS/df = 4211.50/(8-1) = 601.64
S2m = S2/N = 601.64/8 = 75.21
Sm = √S2m = √75.21 = 8.67
T-value Calculation
t = (M - μ)/Sm = (11.75 – 0)/8.67 = 1.35 The
result is not significant at p ≤ 0.01.
69
Cross t-testing of both groups scores to check for significant variation
Within the cross t-test of both group’s scores to check for significant variation, the
value of t is -0.69815 and the value of p is 0.249195. The data has been rounded to two
significant figures in showing the end results, but was not rounded when calculating the
values of t and p. The significance level is 0.01 and it is a one-tailed hypothesis.
Treatment
1 (X)
Diff
(X – M)
Sq. Diff (X
- M)2
Treatment
2 (X)
Diff
(X – M)
Sq. Diff
(X - M)2
13 9.17 84.03 - 6 - 17.75 315.06
- 10 - 13.83 191.36 - 24 - 35.75 1278.06
- 13 - 16.83 283.36 44 32.25 1040.06
- 2 - 5.83 34.03 14 2.25 5.06
10 6.17 38.03 38 26.25 689.06
25 21.17 448.03 26 14.25 203.06
M: 3.83 SS: 1078.83 16 4.25 18.06
- 14 - 25.75 663.06
M: 11.75 SS: 4211.5
Table 7: Cross t-testing of both groups scores to check for significant variation
Difference Scores Calculations: Treatment 1
N1: 6 df1 = N – 1 = 6 – 1 = 5
M1: 3.83 SS1: 1078.83 s21 = SS1/(N – 1) =
1078.83/(6-1) = 215.77
Difference Scores Calculations: Treatment 2
N2: 8 df2 = N – 1 = 8 – 1 = 7
M2: 11.75 SS2: 4211.5 s22 = SS2/(N – 1) =
4211.5/(8-1) = 601.64 T-value
Calculation
s2p = ((df1 + df2)) * s21) + ((df2/(df2 + df2)) * s22) = ((5/12) * 215.77 + ((7/12) *
601.64) = 440.86
s2m1 = s2p/N1 = 440.86/6 = 73.48 s2m2
= s2p/N2 = 440.86/6 = 55.11
t = (M1 – M2)/√(s2m1 + s2m2) = -7.92/√128.58 = -0.7 The
result is not significant at p < 0.01.
70
Both the t-testing and cross t-testing showed that the results of the testing is
reliable but show no significant variance in scores. This means that both groups scored
about the same in reference to spiritual growth. The result of no significant variation in
scores between the two groups does not support the hypothesis that that coached group
would show more spiritual growth after the six month research period than the group of
participants who were not coached during those six months.
Focus Group Interviews
A focus group interview methodology was employed in order to compare the
spiritual growth of the six coached and eight non-coached participants that completed the
present study. This method was helpful since it could gather data that the treatment and
effect model of research could not supply. The following summarizes the research
procedure and the results of findings after employing this research method.
Coached Group
The present researcher met with the coached group in a meeting on March 16,
2016, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm in the office of Pastor Joel A. Smith of Daybreak Church,
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The discussion revolved around a set of four questions
that the researcher sent to the participants in advance of the meeting. The meeting was
recorded on audio and was facilitated by the present researcher using a flip chart with
each of the four questions at the top of each of four flip chart pages.
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The four questions that guided the interaction of the coached participant’s focus
group interview were:
1. In which areas of the Journey Plan have you experienced noticeable spiritual
growth?
2. How did the coaching contribute to your growth?
3. How did the coaching not help your growth?
4. Why do you think you scored yourself the way you did on the DSGS?
A summary of the coached participant’s responses to each of the questions follows:
Question 1: In which areas of the Journey Plan have you experienced noticeable
spiritual growth?
•Participant 2: I’m taking time to slow down and see how God is working in my life.
I’m seeing my life as an enriching journey that I need to enjoy, rather than thinking
that I need to “have already arrived” at some spiritual destination.
•Participant 13: I’ve experienced a more consistent quiet time with God and more
connections within my church family.
•Participant 14: I feel as though my relationship with God has changed some. I make
time on a regular basis to read the Bible, a devotional and pray. I have conversations
with God rather than just speaking to Him. I make space to hear what He has to say
or for Him to show me things. I have learned more about how my family and friends
can affect my relationship with God.
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•Participant 22: Shortly after I started participating in this program, my father was
diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. His prognosis in June was ten to twelve
months; this has added a lot of stress to our family in more ways than one. I feel like
coaching enabled me to maintain my spiritual growth and practices, rather than
backsliding. Typically, when I am stressed I tend to draw inward and my introverted
nature increases dramatically. When this happens I shy away from social settings,
like: corporate worship, Bible studies, etc. I feel like the support I got from my coach
lessened these introverted tendencies.
•Participant 9: Within the Celebrate section of the Journey Plan, I think my times of
reflection and seeing God working in my life on a daily basis and through some tough
times saw noticeable growth. Although I did not spend time in God’s Word everyday,
I did spend time journaling and more deeply and intentionally reflecting on God’s
presence and guidance in my life.
Within the Contribute section, I also felt like I became more in tune with the
Spirit and the gifts and burdens He has given me. I took a bold step to discuss
some of these with Pastor Shawn [Ministry Pastor at Daybreak Church] during the
months I was being mentored and am now in the process of developing a new
ministry that will allow me to put my heart into action.
•Participant 3: In giving, encouragement, faith, and prayer life. I have always been a
giver and I enjoy giving more. My desire is to have Jesus use me to bring others to
Him. There are a lot of people that need to be encouraged; I enjoy encouraging them.
I love to share with people how important our faith is. Prayer is key for me. Being in
touch with God throughout the day is wonderful. I feel close to God when I pray.
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Question 2: How did the coaching contribute to your growth?
•Participant 2: It provided the accountability I needed in a non-judgmental way; it
helped me consider how to invest in my marriage; it helped me explore and discuss
my faith openly; it helped me learn how to slow down and listen to God; it taught me
to value the journey over the destination; t provided a companion for the journey; it
prompted me to intentionally hang out with people who also want to grow spiritually;
it helped me see that God is actively working in my life and changing me; it helped
me develop my reflective side.
•Participant 13: It provided an accountability that I needed in a relational way; it
dovetailed with my growth in the men’s group that I am involved with; it helped me
navigate a job transition with my wife; it helped me understand myself better; it
encouraged me to engage more with people; it helped me see that God speaks in
the common places of life, not just the big ‘Aha’ moments; it helped me develop a
more consistent quiet time; it helped me discern God’s voice and His leading.
•Participant 14: I feel that the coaching held me accountable for my actions. It also
gave me the space to simply talk about where I was without judgment or being
interrupted. It was helpful to talk through the steps and goals I wanted to achieve.
When I wasn’t sure how to get there I could get some good input from my coach who
helped me find my way.
•Participant 22: I think my coach did a great job of keeping me accountable to the idea
of deferring to God’s will and prayer. I can be incredibly independent and need to be
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reminded to take a step back and let God resolve my problems as opposed to me
charging in and trying to handle the issue by myself.
•Participant 9: Having a coach who I could verbally process life with and who was
intentionally invested in my life and growth was invaluable. She was able to confirm
God’s hand in my life in times where I was not necessarily able to. She challenged
me to honestly dialogue with God about my struggles and to see those moments as an
opportunity for God to work in me, to make me stronger, and more reliant on him.
My coach was also able to provide support for my initial discussion with Pastor
Shawn and give encouragement when I felt hesitant and less than confident about
being a “spokesperson” for foster children.
•Participant 3: My coach was a wonderful young lady who loves the Lord. She did an
extraordinary job to assist me. At first I wondered if the coaching would work, but
prayer helped me see that we could both grow together. She did a good job
encouraging me through the conversations we had and the prayer times we shared.
Question 3: How did the coaching not help your growth?
•Participant 2: It only helped.
•Participant 13: It only helped.
•Participant 14: I was pregnant during the coaching period, so we needed to cram a lot
of sessions in before my due date. Therefore, we did not have enough time to address
all that I wanted to achieve. Since we were both introverts, there were times when we
struggled with what to say or discuss.
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•Participant 22: I think that I might have received more benefit from meeting more
regularly, at least at the beginning. Sometimes it was difficult to remember things
from one session to the next, particularly in the chaos of getting my dad relocated for
his chemotherapy.
•Participant 9: It only helped.
•Participant 3: It only helped.
Question 4: Why do you think you scored yourself the way you did on the DSGS?
•Participant 2: The assessment was hard to engage with because it spoke to many
practical areas, while I was focusing my growth in areas that were more abstract and
not as measurable by the inventory.
•Participant 13: The assessment was difficult because it emphasized how you relate to
others in many areas of spirituality. Because I am more introverted and suffer from
some Asperger’s syndrome, I struggled with many of the questions related to my
interactions with others.
•Participant 14: I did not compare my initial test scores before I took it at the end of
the study. I answered as honestly as I could.
•Participant 22: From what I can remember, I was trying to be as honest as possible,
but it was kind of intimidating that one of my spiritual leaders would be looking at
my answers; that made me want to be more optimistic than truthful (like, “on my best
day as a Christian, this is true…”) I did feel like the Likert scale made defining an
answer easier.
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•Participant 9: Answering the questions in the midst of hardship led to some negative
but honest scoring. I hope that I’ll continue to grow into a place where I am more
spiritually steady despite my circumstances.
•Participant 3: No answer.
Non-Coached Group
The present researcher met with the non-coached group in a meeting on March 20,
2016, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm in room WC 313 of Daybreak Church,
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The discussion was focused on responding to a set of four
questions that the present researcher sent to the participants in advance of the meeting.
The meeting was recorded on audio and was facilitated by the present researcher using a
flip chart with each of the four questions at the top of four flip chart pages.
The four questions that guided the interaction of the non-coached participant’s focus
group interview were:
1. In which areas of the Journey Plan have you experienced noticeable spiritual
growth?
2. Since you did not have a coach, what did you do that contributed to your growth?
3. If you could have had a coach, what area would you have selected to be coached
in?
4. Why do you think that you scored yourself the way you did on the DSGS?
A summary of the non-coached participant’s responses to each of the questions
follows:
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Question 1: In which areas of the Journey Plan have you experienced noticeable
spiritual growth?
•Participant 7: I set aside intentional time to develop the spiritual rhythm of the daily
office with God. This kind of spiritual development is totally new to me. I pray, read
the Bible, and discuss it with my husband. It has made a big impact on our home and
I wish I would have done this before we were empty nesters so that it would have
impacted my children.
•Participant 1: I posted my Journey Plan where I could see it everyday, as a reminder
and accountability tool. I noticed growth in the areas of Celebrate and Connect but
not in Contributing. Contributing actually lessened during this time. I gained ground
in the area of meditation and prayer.
•Participant 11: Praying throughout the day helped me bring God into every aspect of
my day. I became more self-aware as I did the daily office and experienced some
‘Aha’ moments.
•Participant 21: The Journey Plan helped me be more accountable as I connected with
God’s family more through small group and volunteering in ministry. I had not had
this kind of connection with a church family for some time. My small group
connection became much deeper. I feel more like I am an essential part of this church
now.
•Participant 4: It helped me develop my prayer life, along with reaching out to others.
It influenced my counseling ministry as I shared God’s Word with clients and spoke
with them about the concepts of forgiveness and trust.
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•Participant 24: It enhanced my connection with God’s Word and helped me apply it to
my everyday life through prayer and communication with my family, friends, and
business partners.
Question 2: Since you did not have a coach, what did you do that contributed to your
growth?
•Participant 7: During this time I also took the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Course and The Story of Hope Course that helped me stay on track with the daily
office. I also started regular giving to the church. “This was just the right time for me
for change and for growth.”
•Participant 1: As a small group leader, I shared with my group what I was doing and
the interaction about that helped keep me on track. I would say that posting the
Journey Plan in a prominent place and interacting with my small group is what kept
me accountable to grow. Doing the assessment the first time was also a motivation
for me.
•Participant 11: Taking the assessment the first time provided a lot of motivation for
me, as I really was able to consider my spiritual life and what was needed to get me
growing again. I dedicated myself to reading and to study of the Bible, and I felt
successful in that.
•Participant 21: Overall, I was just more consistent because I did not let myself off the
hook. I set up my devotional readings to come in my daily e-mail and didn’t let
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myself clear my e-mail without reading my devotions first. I love to clean things up,
especially my inbox, so this was a daily way to stay on track with reading the Bible.
•Participant 4: I reviewed and reflected on the class notes from the Journey Class
notebook and also my Journey Plan. My passion and work with counseling also kept
me engaged. I intentionally listened to more Christian music. I applied what I was
learning to counseling and prison ministry.
•Participant 24: My small group helped me process as did my husband. I was also able
to make time to connect with other believers to discuss what I was learning.
Question 3: If you could have had a coach, what area would you have selected to be
coached in?
•Participant 7: I would have liked to have someone help me both process what I was
learning and to help me stay focused by not trying to work on too many things all at
once.
•Participant 1: To provide me some regular accountability with a non-judgmental
person.
•Participant 11: To help me process by asking me good questions and by listening to
me.
•Participant 21: The interactive dialogue with a coach would have been helpful for me.
•Participant 4: I would have liked to have had a coach for an accountability partner to
check in with me about goals in my journey with Jesus. My goals would have
included the areas of witnessing, Bible memory, and reading and reflection, especially
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related to the Bible and other Christian books. I think the coaching might have
assisted me to make other ties to the church.
•Participant 24: Praying for myself and others more openly.
Question 4: Why do you think that you scored yourself the way you did on the
DSGS?
•Participant 7: The first time I took it, I became more aware of how much I needed to
grow. The second time was more accurate because I had something that I was doing
to compare it to.
•Participant 1: I could not recall how I scored myself the first time, so it would have
been helpful to have some reminder for me to look at when I took it the second time.
•Participant 11: “Sometimes you don’t want to admit where you are spiritually.”
•Participant 21: It was kind of daunting to take the assessment.
•Participant 4: I scored myself in light of my activities with counseling, music, prison
ministry, my personal journey with Jesus, and the other areas I had set goals in.
•Participant 24: I scored myself on where I was spiritually at the time and used it as a
way to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses related to my spiritual life.
Comparison of Interview Feedback
Two spiritual growth themes arose in the focus group interviews with the coached
participants that could not be indicated or measured on the DSGS: empowering
accountability and embracing the journey. All six of the coached participants indicated
that the coaching helped them to grow spiritually by providing a healthy accountability
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environment and helping them to see their spiritual growth developmentally. These two
characteristics of the coaching are the two key findings of the focus group interviews and
will be described and discussed in the following paragraphs.
Both groups reflected that they believed that they experienced spiritual growth by
participating in the study; however, there was a notable difference in how the two groups
viewed their spiritual growth. The non-coached group tended to see their growth in terms
of how well they followed through on the spiritual growth disciplines and pathways they
indicated on their Journey Plan. Following up on their disciplines and pathways indicated
to them that they were experiencing spiritual growth. Indeed, many of them did seem to
be excited about the growth that they experienced. The coached group was not as driven
by spiritual disciplines and pathways as much as they were by the process of change that
came to them through the coaching relationship. The group as a whole indicated that they
experienced accountability that helped them embrace their own spiritual journey, which
led to growth. The present researcher reviewed the characteristics of these two spiritual
growth engines.
Coached Group: Empowering Accountability
During the focus group interview with the coached participants, both Participant 2
and Participant 13 indicated that the DSGS was difficult for them to engage with because
it did not align with what they were attempting to achieve within their Journey Plan and
the coaching they received. In some sense, they were not as driven by goals related to
how often they engaged in a discipline but how much they engaged in their own spiritual
growth given the healthy and empowering accountability that the coaching afforded.
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Their comments, as well as the input from the other coached members, seem to relate this
back to two parts of the coaching process: listening well and asking good questions.
Listening Well and Asking Good Questions
Most of the coached participants felt that they were understood because their coaches
listened well and this engaged them in the spiritual growth process that was tailored to
each of them. During their focus group, the coached participants were able to articulate
the four practices their coach followed: listening, questioning, guiding, and building their
faith. The coached group indicated that being listened to helped them engage in the
process and therefore lead to spiritual growth.
Participant 2 stated that their coach helped them be accountable by teaming the
skills of listening well with asking good questions, rather than simply offering advice.
They indicated that this got them to reflect on what God was saying rather than simply
analyzing what was going on in their life and becoming more stressed. “He kept asking
me, “What is God saying to you in that?” He kept putting the ball ‘back in my court’
while he was listening to and talking with me. What he did helped me take ownership of
my spiritual life in a way that kept me accountable, but was not judgmental.” Participant
2 reported that in their formative years, the church they attended used quilting and
shaming to keep people accountable, which was not at all appealing or helpful to them.
Participant 22 was challenged when their father was diagnosed with cancer and
given only months to live during the coaching process. “Shortly after I started
participating in this program, my father was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. His
prognosis in June was ten to twelve months; this has added a lot of stress to our family in
more ways than one. I feel like coaching enabled me to maintain my spiritual growth and
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practices rather than backsliding.” Coaching helped Participant 22 hold steady in a time
of great stress, when they normally would have chosen an unhealthy path. This was
growth, but would not be picked up through the treatment and effects approach that the
DSGS tool utilized.
This combination of listening and questioning seems to have built good rapport
between the coach and coachee that fostered spiritual development in the life of the
coachee. “I’m going to keep on meeting with my coach,” reported Participant 2. “We are
on a journey together.” Participant 2 and the others indicated that their relationship with
their coach helped them grow, and most of them would like to keep that relationship
going.
Coached Group: Embracing the Journey
All the coached participants, not only noted that their coach kept them
accountable, but said that the coach also invested in them. Participant 14 indicated that
their coach “held me accountable for my actions…while giving me space to process, set
goals, and make adjustments.” Participant 22 reported, “I think my coach did a great job
of keeping me accountable by deferring to God’s will and prayer.” Participant 9 said,
“Having a coach who I could verbally process life with, who was intentionally investing
in my life and growth was invaluable…She challenged me to honestly dialogue with God
about my struggles and see those moments as an opportunity to work in me, to make me
stronger, and more reliant on Him.” Participant 13 reported that coaching helped them
understand their self better, by providing accountability in a relational way.
Many of the coached participants explained that their ‘Aha’ moment was not one
that led to a dramatic change, but was the realization that they are continually on a
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lifechanging journey, and that meant God was working in the everyday details of their
lives. They reported that their coaches helped them slow down, listen, and look for God
and his work in their everyday activities at work and at home. All the coached
participants referred to the journey with surprise and smiles on their faces. Participant 2
said that seeing their faith in the light of a daily transforming journey also helped them
explore and discuss their faith openly with their coach like never before.
Non-Coached Group: Empowering Accountability
When the non-coached group was asked what they would have wanted the
coaching to do if they had been able to engage in it, the first thing they said was to keep
them accountable without judgment. Participants 7, 1, 11, 21, and 4 all responded that
accountability was on the top of their list if they had been able to be coached. Participant
1 said, “I would have wanted my coach to provide me with some regular accountability
without being judgmental.”
When the non-coached group discussed accountability, they indicated that they
tried to create it by doing things like posting their Journey Plan in a prominent place
where they would see it on a daily basis. Participant 21 had their devotional reading and
reflection sent to their e-mail inbox because they like to keep it cleaned up. They
practiced “you have to read it before you delete it” as a way of keeping their self
accountable to engage in their daily office. Participant 7 talked with their spouse often to
keep them self on track, and also took two other classes at Daybreak Church, including
the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Course, which helped them stay accountable to their
daily office commitment. Participant 4 set aside time to review their Journey Class
notebook and Journey Plan, and then reflect on what they learned. It was apparent that all
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the non-coached participants all wanted accountability, as they sought out ways to
provide it, even without a coach.
During the coached group interview, a discussion arose about the difference
between assigned accountability and an attitude of accountability. The coached group
discerned that the process that the coaches used helped them choose to be accountable,
which led to spiritual growth. The non-coached group desired accountability, rather than
feeling as though they were left to fulfill the Journey Plan on their own; they even found
some creative ways to achieve some level of accountability, but it was not the
empowering type of accountability that the coached group experienced.
Non-Coached Group: Embracing the Journey
The non-coached group’s answers to question three reveal their desire, not only for
accountability, but to have someone to embrace the journey with. Five out of the six
responses speak to the journey aspect of coaching that the coached group experienced.
They wanted people to meet with them “regularly” to help them “process,” to “check in
about goals in my journey with Jesus,” to have “interactive dialogue” to “help me stay
focused.” All of these comments point to the desire to have someone who helped guide
the process and allowed them to be on a spiritual pilgrimage. Their full responses to the
question, If you could have had a coach, what area would you have selected to be coached
in, follow:
•Participant 7: I would have liked to have someone help me both process what I
was learning and to help me stay focused by not trying to work on too many
things all at once.
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•Participant 1: To provide me some regular accountability with a non-judgmental
person.
•Participant 11: To help me process by asking me good questions and by listening
to me.
•Participant 21: The interactive dialogue with a coach would have been helpful for
me.
•Participant 4: I would have liked to have had a coach for an accountability partner
to check in with me about goals in my journey with Jesus. My goals would have
included the areas of witnessing, Bible memory, and reading and reflection,
especially related to the Bible and other Christian books. I think the coaching
might have assisted me to make other ties to the church.
•Participant 24: Praying for myself and others more openly.
Conclusion
The focus group interviews revealed that the coached group grew in a different
way than the non-coached group, as related to the concept of empowering accountability
and embracing the journey of spiritual development. The responses of the non-coached
group revealed that they wanted these same things, but it was not available to them
without the help of a trained coach. The DSGS could not pick up on this difference in
growth between the two groups but the focus group interview was able to reveal this
difference in growth. The focus group interviews did not support nor disprove the
hypothesis that the coached group experienced more growth than the non-coached group.
The focus group interviews did show that the coached group experienced a different kind
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of growth, and this was a type of growth that the non-coached group desired to have, but
could not realize on their own. It could be that coaching helps the coachee grow so that
they embrace the journey, rather than just the spiritual practices and pathways that inform
the journey. This is a nuance, but a very important one. It is interesting to note that while
the coached participants long to continue the coaching, the non-coached participants did
not speak to the concept of continuing to track their accountability to their Journey Plans
on their own. It seems as though that the spiritual growth within the coached group may
be more sustainable because of their strong desire to continue with the coaching
relationship, which provides healthy accountability and a sense of journeying together.
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION
MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF PERSONAL COACHING ON THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF A JOURNEY PLAN FOR PERSONAL SPIRITUAL
GROWTH AT DAYBREAK CHURCH
Introduction
The purpose of the present study was to determine if coaching would help people
experience greater spiritual growth than those who are not coached. The present
researcher attempted to find out if developing a coaching ministry at Daybreak Church
would be a worthwhile endeavor or not. New members take the Journey Class, which
helps them develop a Journey Plan to guide their spiritual growth around a rule of life that
is both church-wide, yet personal. The hypothesis within the present study was:
“Participants with a Journey Plan at Daybreak Church who receive coaching will have
higher spiritual growth than participants who do not.”
Thirty graduates of the Journey Class who had already developed a Journey Plan
took part in the six month study, which was both voluntary and anonymous. All thirty
participants were instructed to take the DSGS at the beginning and end of the six months.
Fifteen of the participants received personal coaching from a trained coach for six months
while the other fifteen participants had to navigate development of their Plans on their
own. The two research methods that were used in the present study were treatment and
effects and focus group interviews. Treatment and effects was used with the goal of
seeing if the coached group would experience greater spiritual growth, due to the
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coaching treatment, than the non-coached group. The secondary research method, focus
group interviews, were held with both coached and non-coached participants who
completed the study to determine if there was spiritual growth within the coached group
that was not discovered by the DSGS.
T-testing of the scores of both groups revealed that there was no significant
measureable difference in the DSGS scores between the coached and non-coached
groups. The results of the study therefore do not support the hypothesis that the coached
group would experience a greater degree of spiritual growth than the non-coached
participants.
The focus group interviews that were conducted revealed an interesting finding.
The coached participants that completed the study were interviewed first and their
responses revealed two key developmental pathways that helped them grow: empowering
accountability and embracing their journey. With that in mind, the present researcher
conducted the second focus group interview of the non-coached participants, but did not
reveal to them the findings of the first group. When the non-coached group was asked
what they would have liked in coaching if they had been able to be coached, it was
intriguing because their responses clearly reflected that they wanted both accountability
without judgment and someone (a coach) to share their spiritual journey with during the
six month period. Therefore, the present researcher has concluded that the information
discovered from completing the focus group interviews does show that the coached group
grew in a different way that was not available to the non-coached group, although the
non-coached group did desire that type of growth. The present researcher determined
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that coaching provides an environment that promotes healthy accountability and a partner
for the journey that leads to more enriching spiritual growth, a catalytic environment that
a non-coached environment can’t deliver.
Surprises
Participant Attrition
It was very surprising that just fourteen of the original thirty participants
completed the study. All of the written and verbal communication about the project was
very clear as to the critical and beneficial nature of the study to Daybreak Church and to
the completion of the present researcher’s degree, yet over half of the participants did not
follow up on their commitment. Evidently, it is common for people to drop out of both
clinical and voluntary studies. There was some attrition that was anticipated, but not fifty
percent. This may reveal something about how much people indicate that they want to
experience spiritual growth, and what they are willing to do in order to attain it. When a
study is both voluntary and anonymous, it makes the study more valid, but it also allows
people to quit the study without any shame or embarrassment since no one knows who
dropped out. It would be interesting to find out the various reasons for people choosing
not to complete the study. The present researcher might try to gather this information by
doing a simple Survey Monkey to the whole group asking questions relative to those who
completed the study and those who did not.
The present researcher met with a fellow minister from Lancaster County,
approximately one hour away from Daybreak Church, to discuss how to implement soul
care into the life of their churches at all levels. As they discussed their shared context, it
became apparent that the context of South-Central Pennsylvania has some characteristics
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that make it challenging. Here are some of their observations regarding the cultural
context of the region as it relates to two people groups, natives and transplants.
Characteristics of Natives
1. Family Pride
People who are native to the region still have strong ties to their family of origin,
even if they are unaware of those ties and their ramifications. Extended families
still engage in many ways, from family vacations, to holiday meals, to weekly
meals, and social interactions. In many ways, this is a blessing and strength to
those who have this supportive family network. Most people are even able to
perceive and even talk about some of the difficulties that come up when families
are always around. The problem with this family pride is that it does not give
people permission to look at their family of origin in an objective fashion, discern
family values that run counter to Kingdom family values and make much needed
adjustments that lead to transformation. In general, people are willing to joke
around about the idiosyncrasies of their family of origin, but seem almost
intimidated to address inherited family patterns in a healthy, developmental
fashion.
2. Suspicious of Outsiders
Although they show respect and even regard to non-natives, most natives
eventually let them know that they are an outsider and do not have much to offer
them when it comes to their emotional health and spiritual growth. One strange
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dynamic that the present researcher has observed is the contradiction between
these two messages that are received from natives: We need you to feed us
spiritually, but we don’t need your help relationally. It appears that a majority of
the native population sees themselves in more of a compartmental way than as an
integrated or disintegrated whole. This type of compartmentalized thinking does
not allow people to deal well with statements like “it is not possible to be
spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.” For the most part,
outsiders are held at bay and have little to offer because they are not from
SouthCentral Pennsylvania. It also appears that higher levels of education are
valued, but with those levels comes more suspicion that that person is more
removed from the native culture because they may think of themselves as being
better than their native peers. There seems to be some suspicion that outsiders
and education leads to ulterior motives that can’t be trusted.
3. Resistant to Change
In general, people seem not to see the need for them or their society in general to
change. People often comment about what a nice area South-Central
Pennsylvania is to live in and raise a family in, which in general, is probably true.
The perception is that we are doing quite well, even though statistics would beg to
differ. In this region, families are not doing better, marriages are not thriving, sexual
abuse is not lower, and emotional and relational health is not higher than in other
parts of the United States. Even in light of these facts, though, there is sediment that
there is nothing going on here that a few slight adjustments won’t fix. Even when
people encounter overwhelming problems or situations related to their family and
they see the need for change, they still resist it. Staying with the known and
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predictable, however unhealthy and uncomfortable it might be, is better than
venturing into the unknown arena of change.
4. Hard Working, Do It Yourself
For the most part, people in South-Central Pennsylvania have a hard working, blue
collar mentality that extends beyond the ranks of the blue collar and influences the
white collar workers too. This strong determination to work hard is a strength of the
region that is coupled with a weakness that is a rugged independence that often does
not allow for outside help, even in dire situations. It is not uncommon for people in
this area, especially men, when asked why they built or fixed something, for them to
reply, I did it because I can. This strong value on autonomy, hard work and a do-it-
yourself attitude often does not allow people from this region to accept help or
guidance. Conversely, people who do begin working on issues related to emotional
health and spiritual growth will often try to do that work on their own, rather than
seeking out the help of a therapist or spiritual director.
Characteristics of Transplants
It is noticeable that most people who are not native, but move into South-Central
Pennsylvania as transplants, often either already have the four traits listed above in some
measure or eventually adopt them if they are going to live in the region for any length of
time. It could be that people that are attracted to relocating to this area were born and
raised in an area of the country or the world that holds to these same tendencies related to
family of origin and emotional and spiritual health.
There is one key difference between natives and transplants that is important to
note. Transplants seem open to exploring and engaging in change in two instances: when
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they have recently moved into the area and when they find themselves in crisis and have
no family of origin to support them locally. Given these characteristics, it might be a
good strategy to focus coaching efforts on transplants when they are new or when they
are encountering a stressful change or crisis, like within the first five years of marriage,
parenting children in a postmodern culture, transitioning to the empty nest, or becoming a
care-giver to parents.
Coach Attrition
Two of the trained coaches did not engage with their participants, but did not
inform the present researcher of the fact that they were not engaging with their
participants while the study was going on. Both are educated and trained in pastoral
ministry, but did not make the time to engage their assigned coachee in the process.
Neither seemed to understand the crucial nature of the study for Daybreak Church or to
the present researcher. It was almost as though they thought they could get around to
engaging with their coachees at some point, even though the parameters of the study were
clearly communicated. Even though they received monthly communication that the
present researcher sent out to them that was relative to their coaching, they did not choose
to let inform him that they were not following up on their coaching commitment. The
present researcher is unsure as to what to conclude about this, other than to deduce that
even though they are professional pastors, they did not see the impact that this coaching
study could have on Daybreak Church and how important their engagement in the process
was. It was disappointing, to say the least, to discover at the end of the study that they
had not followed up on their commitment. Therefore, two of the coachees were not able
to complete their commitment as coached participants either. One of these participants,
participant 4, did follow through on their commitment to work on the development of
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their Journey Plan, even though they did not have a coach, and was able to be interviewed
as part of the non-coached focus group interviews.
No Significant Difference in the Coached versus Non-Coached Scores
The present researcher did anticipate the coached group’s scores on the DSGS
would reflect a greater amount of spiritual growth than those not coached. Therefore, it
was completely surprising that the coached group did not score at a higher degree of
growth. After sharing these results with pastoral mentors, they have indicated that when
people take a spiritual growth assessment before and after a treatment, they often score
themselves lower at the end than at the beginning due to the sobering effect, meaning that
they had not really thought very deeply about their spiritual growth, until they took the
assessment and engaged in the treatment or non-treatment time. In some sense, they may
have developed a deeper awareness that they are not where they supposed themselves to
be in their spiritual growth. Perhaps they actually scored themselves lower the second
time because they are now more aware of where they are in their spiritual journey. If the
sobering effect is in fact present in this study, then perhaps the coached group reflected a
deeper awareness of their need for growth, since they could have been more engaged in
assessing themselves, not only at the beginning and end of the period, but also throughout
the six months of coaching.
Lack of Research Relative to the Effectiveness of Coaching Itself
The present researcher was extremely surprised that there is a large deficit in the
area of research related to the effects of the coaching on the coachee. Even as the
research and documentation regarding the return on investment, paradigms of coaching,
and case studies have grown exponentially in the past decade, the empirical research on
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the effectiveness of coaching has not. Indeed, there almost seems to be more of a black
hole, rather than a black box when it comes to locating helpful research regarding the
effects of coaching on those being coached.
Findings in Relation to Literature
The Common Behavioral Gap
The literature review revealed that the common problem of the behavioral gap in
education, both secular and Christian, does indeed exist. In the secular arena, Benjamin
Bloom discovered the behavioral gap. He developed a taxonomy for teachers that applied
what he had learned, that would help them develop learning plans for students that would
take them to the more complex and creative levels of learning. Bloom’s work was
updated by Lorin Anderson, David Krathwohl, and other co-educators in 2001. Despite
the fact that Bloom’s work had been published for fifty years, the gap still existed. The
problem was still as significant as it had been in 1956. Yet another researcher,
educational reformer Robert Marzano, released the New Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives in 2007 that was built on the work of his predecessors because the behavioral
gap was still apparent and needed to be addressed. Marzano’s book, Awaken the Learner,
also spells out how the educational system is failing to help students truly come alive in
the learning process. Over the past fifty years, secular educators see the behavioral gap as
an ongoing problem in the life of the learner.
Pastor and author Peter Scazzero speaks to the parallel behavioral gap in the
Christian’s spiritual formation. Building on keen observations from Bloom, Hagberg, and
Gulich, he notes that, like secular education, the Christian formational journey has
specific stages, sticking points, and a huge behavioral gap. In his newest work, the
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Emotionally Healthy Leader, he provides a simple yet helpful illustration of the stages of
spiritual understanding and the problem of the gap. Scazzero says that this explains why
the transformational journey takes so long, and therefore requires a long-term mentality.
The original Reveal study by Willow Creek Church, and its companion research
studies, show that the church in the United States is suffering from a common problem
related to the behavioral gap, a stunted spiritual growth. Reveal, Follow Me, Focus, and
Move contain a growing amount of research that points to the existence of the behavioral
gap in the church, as well as in public education. The Barna Group also provides helpful
insights in their new report on the State of Discipleship Report published in December
2015.
The Great Commission is an audacious undertaking all the more so given the fast
and sweeping changes taking place in the broader culture. People are lonelier,
more distracted and more tethered to their screens, and searching for meaningful
lives. As Christians bring the unchanging message of the Gospel to the world,
effective approaches to discipleship become more important, especially in a world
that is increasingly polarized around spiritual issues.
The findings of the present researcher’s study are consistent with what was
learned in the literature review related to the behavioral gap. The results of the present
study, as well as the dynamic of attrition with both coaches and participants, agrees with
both the behavioral gap and the challenge of how to address the behavioral gap in a
manner that engages the learner. To paraphrase Scazzero, we will end up in defeat if we
take a quick fix view to the problem of spiritual development; addressing this problem
calls for an understanding of the “slow work of God.”
“In the spiritual life [God chooses] to try our patience first of all by his
slowness…He is slow: we are swift and precipitate. It is because we are but for
a time, and he has been from eternity… There is something greatly overawing in
the extreme slowness of God. Let it overshadow our souls, but let it not disquiet
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them…We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder
and the lightening, in the cold and the dark. Wait and he will come. He never
comes to those who do not wait. He does not go their road. When he comes, got
with him but slowly, fall a little behind; when he quickens his pace, be sure of it,
before you quicken yours. But when he slackens, slacken at once. And do not
be slow only, but silent, very silent, for he is God.”
The present researcher has to conclude that the findings related to the effect of
coaching on a coachee in the present study and the literature on coaching research are in
line with one another. There are almost no research studies on record that actually
measure and or evaluate the effect of the coaching on the coachee, with the exception of
case studies. The lack of empirical research is astonishing. At this point in time, the
effectiveness of coaching is not measured by empirical research by any means. Rather, it
is universally accepted that coaching works because of its growing popularity and usage.
“The astounding growth of the profession attests to its power and increasing impact.
Coaching is growing because it works.” Perhaps this is why the present researcher was
unable to find one study that resembled the present study, meaning using a treatment and
effects methodology with a control group and effects group and a common tool of
measurement. In the summary of his research compiled in 2011, the author spoke
somewhat prophetically when he pointed out that empirical research is almost nonexistent
and that hopefully we will see more of it by the year 2021! Perhaps the present study will
also highlight the need for more studies that result in empirical data regarding the effect
of the coaching on the person being coached.
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Reflections on the Research Design
The Study Methodology
Perhaps the study method that was selected was too technical for a qualitative
study in a local church, where the context allows for too much attrition. The present
researcher hoped to have a larger amount of participants, but the Internal Review Board
desired to have a more valid study, by not allowing the participants to choose if they
would be coached or not coached. Effectively, this restriction greatly limited the amount
of volunteers because potential participants voiced that they would like to self-assign.
The result was that there were thirty total participants, with fifteen in each group.
Unfortunately, the present study encountered about fifty percent attrition, as fourteen out
of thirty actually completed the study and could supply data to the present study. Could a
less than purest approach in the local church context have yielded better results?
Could perhaps a large megachurch or a parachurch organization have been better
suited for a treatment effects study, since they would have had more potential participants
to draw from? Maybe a church such as Willow Creek, who has already done some rather
extensive research through their Reveal study might be a good candidate for a treatment
effect approach. The present researcher does wonder, “If the present study had more
participants that finished, would the results have supported the hypothesis?”
There is also the possibility to consider if some other approaches set forth by
Davies and others might have better served the present study. Program Evaluation might
have yielded more insights by setting up the coaching as a program and then evaluating it.
Could survey research, like what was done in the Reveal studies, or a simple case study,
have served the purpose better? They might have worked better in some sense, however
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it did appear that the church context and the challenge at hand lined up with using the
treatment effects method. The present researcher does not see the method selection as a
failure but also as a learning experience. By using this method, it was able to be
ascertained how much participants were willing to commit, engage, and follow through.
Using the treatment and effects method provided insights into how the audience
responding to a treatment that involves a concentrated commitment over an extended
period of time.
Gathering Assessment Results
In order to make it more convenient for the participants, and to get the results
more quickly, the DSGS instrument was converted into a Survey Monkey format. In
analyzing the results, it was noted that at least one participant did not complete the entire
assessment, but they were able to log out and send in the partial inventory. Perhaps the
inventory should have been set up to be more foolproof, by not allowing a person to only
take a portion of it. The Survey Monkey format does not allow for a participant to be
precluded from submitting their results when they have only completed a portion of the
survey.
Another thing that could have been done was to have the coaches also
intentionally follow up with their coachee and encourage them to finish the end of study
inventory at the end of the six month period. A third consideration would be to allow the
person to see their score on each item from when they completed the beginning DSGS,
while they are subsequently scoring themselves on the instrument at the end of the study.
Allowing for participants to see their beginning scores might help to address the sobering
effect dynamic that happens when people take an assessment tool like the DSGS. As was
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noted earlier, when people take a self-assessment, it is common knowledge that they often
score themselves lower on the second time than the first because they are more aware of
themselves, whereas on their first round they may have been more idealistic about
themselves and scored themselves higher.
Engaging the Participants During the Process
It may have been helpful to systematically remind each of the participants via
email or some other means during the six month period to continue engaging in the
process. However, this might skew the study and be perceived by other researchers as
coercion or undue influence. The problem is, how do you help people stay engaged with
the study over a longer time period without skewing the results?
The Assessment Instrument
Would shortening the instrument have helped more people complete it at the
beginning and end of the research period? Each section of the inventory could have had
an equal amount of questions, so that results could be compared in the sub categories of
the assessment. If that had be done, there could have been an in depth look at some of the
sub categories of spiritual growth, to see how the two groups compared in that category.
Frequency of Coaching
Would it have made any difference if the frequency of the coaching was more
often? What if the frequency was more often in the first three months and then declined
in frequency in the last three months of the study? If the frequency was more often,
would that have precipitated greater engagement with the participants, thus giving more
data to be analyzed? Would more frequency have had more people complete the study or
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do just the opposite, making more people drop out even sooner due to the commitment
level?
Longevity of Coaching Period
The original intention of the present researcher was to have the study run for a full
year, but due to time constraints and input from Dr. Frank Chan, the decision was made to
limit the time period to six months. Would a longer period of time helped people become
more engaged in the coaching process, or would there still have been considerable drop
off due to the period of time being too long? It is hard to know how long to make a
research period so that it effectively engages the participants in whatever the treatment is
in that particular study.
Random Assignment versus Self-Assignment
Participants were not allowed to choose to be in the coached or non-coached
group in order to follow standard protocols for a treatment effects methodology. What if
the present study had gone against protocol and allowed participants to self-assign, taking
the first thirty volunteers in each group? Would self-selection actually have helped the
study, not only by facilitating more participants, but also as a means of people showing
some readiness to being coached? Many of the coaching resources that were reviewed
advocated that the coach help the coachee assess if they are ready for coaching before the
coaching process begins. Recently, the present researcher’s wife entered into a new
healthy eating plan that involves personal coaching every three days. During the process,
she has to keep a journal of her eating and meet with a paid coach every three days.
Before the process began, they met with her to help her assess not only if she was ready
for the entire process, but that she was ready to engage with the coaching aspect. When
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they came to agreement that she was ready, then she began the process, which has been
very beneficial and successful for her. Could letting people self-select in a study like this
actually be better than random assignment, because of it being an indicator of readiness
for coaching?
Only Use Treatment Effects with a Large Sampling Group
Due to the attrition rate that may be experienced, no matter what method of
research that is selected, the present researcher would advise future researchers to only
use a treatment and effects method with a large sampling group that allows for attrition,
due to the voluntary and anonymous nature of this type of study. A large megachurch,
denomination, or parachurch organization may be the best environment, since it would be
able to get more volunteers from a larger group.
Create or Adapt a Shorter Instrument that Measures Spiritual Growth
It is the belief of the present researcher that an instrument that is briefer, but
includes sub-fields for measurement, will help people more readily engage and also
provide the ability to compare the control and treatment groups both overall and in the
subcategories of the instrument.
Coaching Rhythm
A future study might want to also consider setting up their coaching treatment so
that it is more frequent at the early phase of the study, perhaps even for the first half of the
study, and then decrease the coaching to bi-weekly or monthly after that. The present
researcher thinks that doing so will engage more participants, perhaps help them see the
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benefits of coaching more readily, and therefore engage in the process earlier and stay
committed to the study for its’ entirety.
Develop and Use an “Are you ready to be coached?” Assessment
Most books and coaching resources advocate helping the coachee evaluate their
readiness to be coached. This tool could help a future study engage participants at a level
that is helpful for the study and maybe useful in an ongoing coaching process when the
study is complete. Helping people in getting ready to be become coached could help a
future study, as long as it does not put undue pressure on the participants, as this would
help to look out for their well-being.
Recommendations for Future Research
The following thoughts and suggestions are based on reflecting after having done
this study, gathering, and analyzing the results. The present researcher engaged in this
study to not only to solve a problem in Daybreak Church, but also to contribute to the
universal problem of how to address helping people grow spiritually in a culture where
spiritual stagnation is rampant. The following are suggestions for other research that
could be done to help the church in the United States begin to make some headway in
helping congregational members grow at whatever stage of faith they find themselves in.
Study One: Measuring the Effects of Coaching on the Engage Process at Willow Creek
Research Methods: Treatment and Effects
Summary: Willow Creek Church has a large enough number of people to replicate a
study like this, but not suffer from the attrition rate. Under an initiative called Engage,
they have developed an online personal assessment tool and growth plan template. They
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could have participants volunteer to be part of the study, have them do the assessment,
develop a plan, and then have one group be coached and another group be non-coached.
They would need to train their coaches using their Engage paradigm as a background and
Chad Hall’s Faith Coaching for their coach training module. They would need to
determine how long the study should last and if they would also include a sampling of
personal interviews at the end of the study to gather further data and insights. This type
of research is virtually unknown in the area of coaching and so could serve not only the
church, but also the world of coaching in general.
Study Two: Getting Through the Wall in Spiritual Development
Research Method: Case Study
Summary: A researcher could study the nature of the Wall in spiritual development, also
known as the “Dark Night of the Soul.” Addressing the Wall is crucial to determining if a
person continues to grow, stalls out, or even retreats when they encounter the Wall in their
faith journey. A survey tool would need to be developed to help the researcher identify
perhaps six people who have in the past, or are currently, encountering the Wall in their
journey. It would be good for these people to represent a cross section of the
congregation and at various stages in the life of faith. The stages of faith discovered by
Hagberg and Guilch could be used for the stages. Each person could serve as a case
study on how they are dealing with the Wall in moving through it, stalling out, or
retreating. The results could help the church know how to help people deal with the Wall
in their spiritual development and help other churches not only become aware of the Wall,
but also how to help people in their congregation.
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Study Three: Studying the Effectiveness of Spiritual Growth Adjustments
Research Method: Program Evaluation
Summary: Many churches have used the Reveal tools to do an all church assessment and
then make changes to their programs and ministries. An example of this is Willow Creek
changing their midweek service into more of a Bible institute as a result of the Reveal
study. Churches who have made similar changes might want to know how effective those
changes are in helping people grow spiritually. The researcher could select one of the
major programs that were adjusted or changed to be more effective and do an evaluation
of the program using the Program Evaluation methodology. This would not only help the
individual church determine the effectiveness of the program that was changed, but also
help the church in general consider needed changes and become aware of effective and
ineffective programs related to spiritual growth.
Summary and Conclusion
The present research study was designed to help the present researcher determine
if coaching is an effective tool to help people implement a spiritual growth plan that leads
to deeper levels of spiritual growth. The goal was to know if it was worthwhile for
Daybreak Church to develop a coaching ministry to help Journey Class graduates move
along in their spiritual journey in the months immediately following the course. The
hypothesis was that the coaching group would demonstrate more spiritual growth than the
group that was not coached on the implementation of their Journey Plan. Both groups
took the DSGS at the beginning and ending of a six month period in which fifteen
participants were coached and fifteen were not. Due to attrition, six of the coached
participants and eight of the non-coached participants completed the study. When the
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numerical results were t-tested and compared, they were found to have no significant
difference in scores. So the study did not support the hypothesis, but it also did not
disprove it.
The present researcher’s conclusion is that coaching would indeed be helpful for
some of the graduates of future Journey Classes, but not for everyone. The latest Barna
research reveals that there are still a lot of people who prefer to pursue spiritual growth on
their own, and for them coaching might not be beneficial. However, the same report
reveals that people are lonely, distracted, and lack the tenacity to follow up on their own
and need others to help them grow; the present researcher thinks that coaching may still
serve as a catalyst for this group of people’s spiritual growth. There is probably not one
catalyst or hidden key that will get the church in the United States out of its spiritual
slump and into a time of vitality and growth. There are not magic wands to wave over
people that motivated them to grow, but there just may be a handful of new catalysts, like
coaching, that may spur spiritual growth in a new generation of Christ followers. Chad
Hall argues for coaching as a catalyst for spiritual growth that is organic,
transformational, and brings behavioral change to the coachee. “A coach approach to
spiritual formation will help reverse the curse of mass spiritual industrialization and begin
to open up pathways that are fresh, meaningful and unique to each unique follower.”
Perhaps it time to consider some new means to helping people grow so that people
growth breeds church growth in a way that is both transformational for the follower and
missional for the seeker.
