I am also convinced that the best coaches are other pastors who are leading or have led effective ministries that are more advanced than those of the ones they are coaching. They also need to be people who not only do ministry with natural and supernatural ability but possess the capability to know how to equip, train, mentor and explain, and to model that which they are communicating to those they are coaching.  

Good coaches offer quality help to those pastors who may have the ability to exercise leadership behavior but do not know what to do. First, they bring good experience to the relationship. Effective pastors have suffered and succeeded. That is a rare combination. Too many pastors have just suffered without succeeding. Effective pastors have learned from their mistakes while also learning to often act without making mistakes. They possess the knowledge of what effective ministry looks like and how to implement it in the life of a congregation. These effective coaches know what the ones they are coaching do not know. They are able to help pastors develop the skills needed to influence people to follow so that congregations join God in God’s mission for the Church. They provide those skills needed to generate enthusiastic responses from individuals while also generating collective excitement from groups, including entire congregations. Finally they know how to produce accountability with those they are coaching so that work actually gets accomplished, ministry happens and new disciples are made for Jesus Christ.  

Such coaches also provide help with the character of the pastors they coach. They force pastors to act with integrity, both in how they motivate individuals and the congregation and in how they model Christianity. Good coaches are interested in the character of the pastors they coach and the way those pastors relate to their spouses and families. They also provide the pastor with a proper listening ear. They let the pastor complain, express grief or share whatever emotion the pastor is experiencing without condemning the pastor. However, they always bring the pastor back to what the appropriate behavior is, regardless of feelings or how others are treating the pastor.  

I would like to encourage effective pastors to find someone that they can connect with in order to coach them. In this day and age an effective pastor is one that has broken the two-hundred barrier (which means you are averaging at least 250-275 in worship) and is also seeing a steady stream of people becoming new disciples through the ministries of the congregation the pastor is leading. Most congregations never get past the two-hundred barrier, and many that do so succeed by the transfer of sheep. Effective pastors know how to lead a congregation to growth through evangelism. Such pastors have so much to offer to so many because most pastors never experience the spiritual success effective pastors do. Obviously you can only coach those who desire such a relationship and are willing to do the work; but when such a connection happens, the Church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God can be advanced significantly because effective pastors are helping other pastors become effective in leading their congregations.