Let’s say your child wants to play basketball. You want them to play well enough to get a college scholarship—maybe even a shot at making an NBA team. Incredibly, you have the opportunity to choose either Michael Jordan or LeBron James as their coach. Who would you choose? I would recommend neither. Instead, I’d recommend moving to Orlando and having your child play under Coach Kevin Boyle at Montverde Academy.
I’m not much of a basketball fan, nor was I ever much of a player. I’m always fascinated by how much energy you can generate in a room by asking who the GOAT is in basketball. (In case you’re like me, GOAT stands for “greatest of all time,” and fans are divided on whether it is Michael or LeBron.) There should be no debate about who to choose as a coach. The best players rarely make the best coaches. Kevin Boyle, on the other hand, is a great coach who has helped develop more than 50 NCAA Division I scholarship athletes and more than 15 professional players.
It’s counterintuitive, but there are reasons experts struggle at coaching beginners. The first is what’s called the curse of knowledge. It is virtually impossible to forget what you know or imagine what it is like not to know it. An expert in any field has learned too much to remember what it’s like to be a beginner. The second is they have unique gifts and talents. They don’t know how to teach certain skills because they never had to learn them. It turns out the best coaches are good at coaching.
At Multiply Project, we help pastors call, equip, and send church planters from within their congregation. We are not looking for superstar church planters to partner with. We are looking for pastors with the ability to be great coaches. They are people who:
- Listen well
- Communicate effectively one-on-one
- Ask great questions
- Give actionable feedback
- Build trust through empathy
They lead healthy and growing churches by building strong teams. The biggest challenge is they may not see themselves as good enough to call, equip, and send church planters. They might be living with the false premise they must become a superstar player before they can be a great coach. We want to see them become effective equippers by helping them be good at coaching.
If you know a pastor with the characteristics of a great coach, forward this email to them. We want to connect with them. If this is you, just click the link. Let’s talk.