Coaching
The Building Capacities Project begins with two focal points: individual and group coaching opportunities. Through this work and after some careful listening, continuing education events will be structured to help our alumni become better ministerial leaders. The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation Grant funds work with alumni around leadership development.
Coaching is partnering with alumni in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires maximization of personal and professional potential. Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives. Coaches are trained to listen, to observe, and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has. (Taken from the International Coach Federation Website, August, 2008)
Alumni can participate in the start of this new project by beginning a coaching relationship. Coaching happens by phone, two times a month, and one hour each call. The Building Capacities Project provides significant scholarship monies for coaching. Participants cost is $25.00 per month for the first year. Please contact Melissa Clodfelter for details.
As a recently ordained clergywoman, life coaching has been critical to my vocational and ministerial development. I have worked with Melissa Clodfelter, a certified Life Coach, for more than 5 years now. The past two years of coaching occurred while I served as the Director of Membership and Missions for a vibrant and diverse Baptist church in downtown Washington, DC. Specifically, life coaching enabled me to effectively navigate the continuously changing world of congregational life and urban ministry in a church setting. It also provided the structure and resources I needed to establish my ministerial identity. In general, coaching provides the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about the places in your life sometimes left unattended such as your hopes, dreams, fears, and challenges. Coaching conversations allow you to hear yourself and where you are in your life’s journey. At present, I am engaged in the exciting adventure of discerning the next steps in my ministry and my vocational development. I couldn’t imagine taking this step with the support of a life coach.
Rev. Mary Andreolli, WFU Divinity School Class of 2006