As many of you know, part of my calling is to Coach other pastors & leaders across the country. Today I want to introduce you to...

Today, I am reposting an article written by one of the pastors I coach in Newark, Delaware, Mark Johnston. Mark is one of the brightest, passionate and articulate communicators I've heard in along time. Our coaching relationship began 2 years ago and in that time, I've seen Mark grow & expand as a leader. The church he leads, "The Journey" has also gained incredible traction in that time as well.

 

Mark & I meet monthly face-to-face on Tokbox.com for about an hour. Mark has also participated in my Next Level Coaching 1.0 Virtual Coaching Group.

 

You can follow Mark's blog at: 

 

http://yourjourney.typepad.com/mark_johnston/

 

Their Church's Website is: http://www.YourJourney.tv

I highly recommend listening to his podcasts... brilliant.

I hope you enjoy this article he wrote on "Coaching."

 

 

Send Me In, Coach

I’m not very athletic.  Okay, I’m not even slightly athletic.  Consequently, I didn’t have much of a chance growing up to interact with a coach.  (I tried out for the basketball team once, in seventh grade.  The coach was kind… but honest.) 

It wasn’t until much later that I began to understand the role of coaching in areas of life other than sports; and it wasn’t until a few years ago that I began to realize the explosive value coaching can bring.

Like you, I’m sure, I have some degree of talent – but I’m not even close to the top of the pile.  And along with my average abilities I also bring lots of naiveté, insecurity, bad habits, wrong attitudes, and ineffective tendencies to the table.  Coaching has helped me tackle (*gratuitous sports reference) all of these: systematically and much more effectively than I could have on my own.

Here’s what I’m learning about coaching:

• A coach doesn’t have to be an all-star player.  On any great sports team, most of the players can out-run, out-tackle, out-hit, or out-pitch their coach.  A coach isn’t just someone who’s great at the game, it’s someone who’s great at pointing out where you are great (and not so great) at the game.  The best coaches are people who blend analysis, encouragement, and discipline into every interaction in a way that leaves you informed, motivated, and determined to change.  When you’re looking for a coach, don’t just pick the person with the biggest successes; pick someone with admirable successes and a proven ability to train others.  You’re not choosing a coach you can brag about to your friends, but someone who can help you grow.
• The best coaches have a niche.  That’s why you’ll usually need several.  I asked one of my pastoral coaches once, “So, what are you doing to grow spiritually?”  His response?  “Probably the same things you’re doing.”  He’s still a great coach for church leadership, but I needed to look somewhere else for the specific spiritual growth stuff I was craving in that moment.  There’s nothing wrong with that!  If you play football and basketball, you probably won’t have the same coach for both (unless your school has some serious budget problems.)  Chances are good that no one person will be able to help you seek excellence in every area at once.  One of my goals this year is to find a parenting coach.  Don’t just seek out a coach, seek out coaches.
• Coaching only reaches maximum effectiveness when it’s paid forward.  I’ve experienced coaching for a few years now, but it’s only over the past several months that I’ve started coaching others.  I’m hugely humbled by the opportunity to spend monthly intentional time with a handful of people who are seeking insight, accountability, and support as they pursue leadership and ministry.  There’s something potent about this, about closing the loop – it perpetuates the growth you’re experiencing.  Look for people you can download from; and then look for people you can upload to.  It will take coaching to a whole new level for you.

I’m not good enough and I don’t have long enough to accomplish everything God has called me to accomplish.  That’s why I need coaching.  How about you?

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come” (I Timothy 4:8 – NLT).

2 Essentials for Leading Strong

Recently, as I started reading the introduction to the book of 1 Timothy in my Bible, which is one of my favorite books, by the way) I was challenged to read with a Leadership Filter on. What emerged from the verses was really, really cool.    
verse 19 says, "...holding on to faith and a good conscience..." which jumped off the page at me in the leadership context because...

In order for a Leader to Lead Strong, they must:

Hold on to Faith & Hold on to a Good Conscience.

1.  Hold on to Faith.

     Without Faith a Leader is dead in the water! It is faith that the job can be done, faith that the mission can be accomplished, faith that the team can pull it off, faith that nothing is impossible with God that makes leading people & influencing others possible! That kind of faith is absolutely essential to Leading Strong! As Leaders, we must never lose our faith in what God has called us to do.

2.  Hold on to a Good Conscience.

     In order to lead strong, we, as leaders, must hold on to a Good Conscience. Nothing will deflate a leader's confidence like a guilty conscience. When a leader's heart is double-minded, or cloudy, or heavy because of secret sin, or improper motives, it deflates their ability to Lead Strong with confidence.

     Leaders, Lead Strong in what God has placed before you to do. Hold on to Faith & your Good Conscience, it's worth it!

My Life and Death Story - Part 8 - The Final Installment... I spend 9 days in the ICU at Lutheran...

(continued)

I spent 9 days in the ICU at Lutheran Hospital. I did have another blood clot form but it was small and it dissolved on its own without needing another surgery. I went home on January 16th, 1995. I had no teeth and a partially shaved head. I had lost about 15 pounds and couldn't wear my contacts. I remember seeing myself in a mirror and thinking I looked like a dead man. On the contrary, I had escaped death, and I was thankful to God to be alive. Seldom a month goes by that I don't remember those days and how God was with me on January 7th.

A good friend of mine at the time, Scott Mills, told me that  

"I am a called man of God, and God's gonna use my life to do something great. There's no way he's done with you yet."

I've never forgotten those words. They marked my life. That and the permanent scar on the left side of my head. Every so often I'll catch myself feeling the dent that remains from where they drilled in that day.

In those moments, I feel like Jacob of the Old Testament must have felt. He wrestled with God in Genesis 32 and at the end of it, God dislocated his hip socket. The Bible records that from that day on, Jacob walked with a limp and a cane. For the rest of Jacob's life, at various times he would stop and lean on his cane as an expression of worship to the Lord. No one else could worship like that. It was a special moment between he and his God.

That's the way I feel about my scar. When I touch it, it's as worship to the Lord. I am reminded of how my life was spared and I'm destined for great things. I'm reminded that God's not done with me yet and that I've been given a testimony to tell of the power of God in my life.

Touching my scar is as worship to the Lord for me. No one else can worship Him like that. It's our thing. It's something special that I'll always share with the God who put his hand between my head and a telephone pole.

January 7th is an anniversary for me. I'm alive, and I'll never be able to forget it.

My Life or Death Story - Part 7

(continued)
I woke up Sunday morning, January 8th, 1995 to my head wrapped in white cloths and a tube sticking out the side. I remember a nurse telling me very loudly as I was coming to that, "Matthew, there is a tube coming out of your head to relieve the pressure from the blood clot on your brain." I just remember her yelling at me, and thinking "gall, that's horrible." She proceded ever so loudly to ask me a serious of questions that at the time seemed elementary. "Matthew, do you know what day it is?" "Who's the president of the United States?" "What's your name?" All of which I answered immediately with no problem. Apparently, there was much concern about what I would remember, if there would be brain damage, and if I would even know who anyone was.

A short time later, Sarah and Alison came in. They had went to church that morning and then straight to the hospital. Before arriving in my room, they asked the nurse for an update on my situation and she had cautioned them to not be alarmed if I didn't remember who they were or their names. She gave them the heads up on the reality that I may have to learn to read and write again, etc.

They came in the room and I was lying there with my eyes closed, all bandaged up like a woman just getting out of the shower with wet hair. They said hello, or something, and then Alison began asking me questions. "Matt, what's 2 + 2?" To which, I'm thinking, "Why the heck is she doing this? I just did this for the nurse." Thinking she was having fun, I decided to play along. I answered her without so much as opening my eyes, "5." She asked another question, "What day is it?" "Thursday." With that, the two of them left the room.

I just laid there. In a moment, the nurse returned with them and again began her loud question asking, "Matthew, who's the president of the United States?" Not having any idea what was going on and becoming a little annoyed at the game we seemed to be playing at my expense I replied, "Hillary!" Which is obviously Bill Clinton's wife. To which everyone in the room burst into laughter and some joyful tears.

It's an absolute miracle that I never had one bit of memory loss or brain damage. Although my staff might tell you differently depending on the day. God was truly watching over me. What a miracle.

My Life and Death Story - Part 6 - 16 years ago, I was involved in a life-changing accident...

Upon hearing the news, mom and dad felt thankful they were still in Fort Wayne and thereby closer to Lutheran hospital where my surgery was being performed. When they arrived at the hospital I was already in surgery and so all they could do was wait. My mom has always been very private about her faith. Where I tend to be more outward in my display of faith, my mother tends to drift toward the opposite.

In conversations I had with my mom after the surgery, the only thing she really ever said to me was, "Matt, I met with Jesus that night in the chapel of that hospital." I can't imagine what it must feel like to have one of your children's life hanging on the edge. My mom is a strong women. My respect for her grew exponentially that night.

The next 24 to 36 hours would be critical to whether the blood clot would reappear or dissolve. They were monitoring my status in ICU.

My Life and Death Story - Part 5 - I'm recovering from brain surgery, my brother has a broken neck & my parents still don't know...

(continued)

Mom and dad had left in the afternoon to go shopping in Fort Wayne before they ended up at a birthday party for my cousin, Darcy. (I don't think my cousin has ever let me forget ruining her birthday that year.) My dad had just gotten his first cell phone the week before and didn't even so much as know the number yet. Once Sarah and her family arrived at the hospital in Angola, they took on the burden of trying to get in touch with my parents. Unfortunately no one knew how to get a hold of them. Alison, Sarah's mom, at one point asked Nick if he knew my aunt's telephone number where the birthday party was supposed to be held that evening.

With his eyes closed, and just drifting above consciousness, Nick rattled off the number. To this day, we have no idea how Nick knew their phone number. It wasn't something my brother or I needed to call, until that day, January 7th. Alison was able to get in touch with my aunt Toni and told her what was happening. Should mom and dad call, have them call her cell phone immediately.

After a few hours of shopping, my dad was anxious to show off his new cell phone to mom and so he stopped around 4:30 pm in the parking lot and wanted to show her how it worked. His idea was to call my aunt Toni, just for illustration's sake on what this new fangled gadget could do. They never could have imagined the news they were about to receieve on the other end of that phone.

The only 2 sons were both in critical condition. 1 in a neck brace. The other in brain surgery.

My Life or Death Story - Part 4 - Brain Surgery

(part 4, continued)

My brother was still being treated at the hospital in Angola. They discovered he had crushed the 3rd vertebrae in his neck 10%. He spent 8 weeks in a neck brace and missed a semester of college. Because of our accident, he had to stay through the next summer to finish his degree. It was during those summer months that he met his wife, Elizabeth. He would have never been there had it not been for our accident on January 7th.

Meanwhile, Sarah and her parents were now 60 miles away. "I've never seen my dad drive so fast in my entire life," she told me later. Sarah actually had a journal that she recorded her thoughts in later that night. She wrote 8 pages of some of the most raw and gut wrenching emotions I have ever heard come out of her.

The helicopter landed at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, IN, and I was immediately rushed into the O.R. Dr. Isa Conavatti. I still remember the doctor's name. He's the only person on the entire planet who has ever seen my brain. That's crazy for me to think about.

They shaved the front left half of my head and then cut a moon shaped incision in my skin. They drilled in to my skull to relieve the pressure and when they pulled the drill out, they later told us the blood shot out and hit the wall of the O.R. 10 feet away. They put in a drainage tube and wrapped my head. I think the surgery took like 4 or 5 hours.

I can't imagine how my parents were feeling... how they got the news was another story entirely...

My True Life & Death Story - Part 3 - "Being Airlifted by Helicoptor"

(part 3, continued from yesterday)

The EMS took us to the nearest hospital in Angola, IN, a small town just a few miles inside the Michigan boarder. Once at the hospital they ran a CT scan on my brain. They discovered I had a blood clot on my brain the size of a softball and it was getting bigger. If I didn't have emergency surgery to relieve the pressure, I would die.

In Northeast Indiana there was only 1 medical helicopter in the entire region at that time. And it was presently tending to another life or death situation miles away. The helicopter was called off of that emergency to come and pick me up and take me to a larger hospital 60 miles away.

At the time, Sarah and I were still just dating. She was only 17 and a senior in high school. We knew we were meant for one another, but that was still a dream for years to come. The guys had called Sarah and her family when the EMS had arrived at the campground, so she was able to come to the small hospital shortly after I had arrived. In those days I wore a gold chain with a cross on it. I guess during the entire ordeal, they took my cross and chain and handed it Sarah and said, "You may want this."

I can't imagine what it must have felt like for her to see the man she would one day marry and dreamed of spending her life with, loaded onto a helicopter with the hope that his life could be saved. She was 17. I was 19. And because this was in the time that cell phones were a luxury not a necessity, we had no way of getting a hold of my parents.

My True Life & Death Story - Part 2 - (Continued from Yesterday)

(continued from yesterday...)

After take off, we rounded a corner and the sled slid out wide to the left going down into the ditch next to the path we were on. (Picture a water skier going out wide behind a ski boat). Unfortunately what none of us saw was the row of telephone poles lining the ditch as well. We were headed straight for a pole at 35 mph. Faces buried in the sled, eyes blinded by the snow, an imminent collision ahead.

The ski rope hit the telephone pole first and then jerked the sled up into the telephone pole. Nick's neck curled up into the toboggan sled and I struck the pole literally "head on" at an estimated 50 mph. The sled shattered and the two of us were thrown 20 feet beyond the pole. The guys came running up to us yelling and cheering until they saw me face down in a pool of blood.

One of my best friends, Taitem, who had been a lifeguard all summer the year before, reached me first and recognized what was happening. He stablized my neck and rolled me over all the while shouting, "Call 911!" Nick was moving around but was experiencing immense pain in his neck. After Taitem pulled my ski mask off of my face he couldn't figure out what the white powdery stuff was all over my mask. The powdery stuff was my 3 front teeth. They had been smashed into the back of my brother's head. and never mind the powdery stuff, I had a golf ball sized bump protruding from my left temple, and blood coming from my ears.

16 years ago today my life changed forever. It's my personal life & death story. (Cliffhanger warning) Read part 1 here...

I woke up this morning with the same words that come out of my mouth first every January 7th. "I'm Alive." I'll never be able to forget what happened 16 years ago. January 7th, 1995.

It was a typical winter Saturday in Indiana. We had gotten about 4 inches of snow on the ground through the night, so my buddies and I decided to go toboggan sledding, like we had the year before. For those of you who know what toboggan sledding is, what we were talking about wasn't your typical toboggan sledding deal, with a track and an hourly waged employee helping you on and off the sled while instructing you to "keep your hands, and arms tucked inside at all times." No, we were going Extreme Toboggan sledding.

We drove to a campground about 30 minutes north of where we lived and would spend the day riding on a toboggan sled tied behind a pick up truck with a ski rope. We used couch cushions to make the ride less bumpy. When we arrived at the campground, my brother and I opened the trunk and started to pull out 2 snowmobile helmets we had from our childhood. At once, all of our friends began immediately mocking. "Did your mom make you bring those?" "The 1970's called, they want their helmets back." "What are you 8 years old?" So without another thought, we replied with a "Just kiddin'" and threw them back in the trunk.

Extreme sledding is quite an exhilarating thing to do on a Saturday in Indiana. It's got all the elements of fun 6 late teen and early 20 something guys look for. Speed, risk, adrenaline, and danger. What we didn't realize, or perhaps more accurately had chosen to overlook was just how much danger it had.

It was late in the day (around 4 pm) and it was my brother and I's turn to ride. Sled, cushions, Nick, and myself. Stacked up one on top of the other like a cold meat sandwich on hoagie bread. Nick's head was tucked up under the curl of the toboggan sled to shield his face from the massive amounts of snow flying toward us. My face was situationed facing down into the back of my brother's head, to shield my face from the snow. Little did we know that snow would be the least of our concerns in about 30 seconds.

I got serious thoughts on the New Year. I'm believing for some big time stuff. And I'm making a huge declaration over this year...

As we move into 2011, I have to tell you, I'm really excited for a lot of reasons. I believe 2011 can be the greatest year we have ever experienced. For Next Level Church and for every single person reading this right now. (Listen to my New Year's Kickoff Message Here)

I am believing God for 2011 to be 3 things:

1.  A Year of Expectation.

     I have high expectations of God this year! My hopes are high on what He's going to do in us and through us in 2011. I'm believing for huge things! Miraculous things! Monumental things!

2.  A Year of Transition.

     This year will be a year of physical transition for us as a church as we take occupancy of our 1st Permanent Location later this Spring which is all kinds of exciting! The facility that is being constructed as I'm writing this is a tool for us to impact and reach more people for Christ than we ever could otherwise. We're gonna see lives changed, marriages healed, leaders trained, kids impacted & the next generation empowered in that facility.

(Click Here to see the latest pictures from Construction)

     I believe that 2011 is going to be a year of transition for the region of SW FL as well. As one of the hardest hit economic regions in the country, we need a transition.

     I'm believing this will be the year that our cities begin to recover.

• That jobs begin to return. 
• That foreclosures decline. 
• That there is a "lift" across Southwest Florida like never before. 

     May God use our church as a catalyst for that.
3.  A Year of Stories.

     Finally, I am believing that 2011 will be a year of stories. I shared with our staff yesterday that when Jesus was challenged by a religious leader, he didn't retaliate with perfectly crafted arguments or statistics or facts or figures. Instead, he simply told a story. A story about a Good Samaritan.

     When Jesus simply told a story, it broke the argument of the religious leader in half. Suddenly, all of the religious jargon was powerless in the face of a story. I am declaring 2011 to be The Year of the Story at Next Level Church. I am believing for thousands of stories this year of how God intervened and changed a life. How God showed up and did a miracle. How God appeared and brought clarity. How God came through for person after person.

     I believe that stories are potentially the single most powerful tool we have at our discretion as leaders and believers. Let's start telling stories this year! Let's let 2011 be The Year of the Story!

1st Monday Prayer & Fasting - January Edition

Today is 1st Monday Prayer & Fasting at Next Level Church. Wherever you are, you can participate. All you do is pray, instead of eat! It's the simple. Turn the desire for food to God today. For more detail go to http://www.NextLevelChurch.com/fasting

Here are a few things to pray through today:

1.  The Construction of our 1st Permanent Facility. We need to pray that the crews will be able to stay on their timetables without a hitch. Pray for safety from injury and that they will sense and feel something different while the workers are on the job site.

2.  The Launch of our new Series this Sunday! "So I want to be a better _____. This is how I do it!" Everyone wants to be "better" in some area of their life this year. Let's pray God changes people's lives over the next 4 weeks.

3.  The January Semester of Connection Groups is just2 weeks away and dozens of people are stepping up and leading! Let's pray that hundreds of people will take the next step of connection and relationship in the new year.

4.  Girls Night Out & Guys' Wing Night - Pray that men & women will find friendship, and be inspired to go deeper in their relationships this year.






5.  Our Pastors & Church Planters Nationwide. We are blessed to have the privilege of training dozens of pastors and churches across the country on how to do ministry more effectively. Specifically pray for:

• Dan & Stephanie Stauffer - Roxbury, NJ. - Pray that God will lead them to the exact right location for their church.

• Shane & Rachel Frasier - Lebanon, IN.They are moving from a movie theater to a YMCA in 2 weeks! Let's pray God's blessing & provision on their move.
• Josh & Tiffany Cossey - Oklahoma City, OK. - They are scheduled to launch their church in less than 4 weeks! Pray for God's blessing and provision and peace in this crazy but amazing time.

6.  Pray for our Missionaries as well.  God has privileged us to be in partnership with missionaries making a difference around the world. Specifically:

• Christ for India - training pastors & planting churches in India

• Mark Pyles - Planting churches in the Dominican Republic

• Kelly & Kathy Johnson - Training pastors like crazy in Kenya

Thanks everyone for praying today,

Pastor Matt Keller