Jesus as Performance Coach

Jesus’ entire ministry involved the development of His disciples. In Matthew 4:18 you find Jesus observing some fishermen, choosing who to develop. In Matthew 5:1 he takes those he has chosen up a mountainside to teach and train. Following his great sermon, Jesus took them out in society to give them examples of living out the kingdom of God. He then gave them opportunities to impact others with the kingdom message and develop disciples as he had modeled and coached. Acts 17:6 records that they went out and “turned the world upside down.”

Like Jesus, serving leaders are performance coaches. They spend significant time teaching, modeling, commissioning, encouraging, and debriefing their followers to help them multiply and reproduce their own success. Based on Luke 9:1-6 & 10 and 10:1-20, performance coaches:
1) Provide clear expectations, give direction, and help set goals.
2) Help their people accomplish goals by observing performance, praising progress, and redirecting efforts that are not on mission.
3) Evaluate their people’s performance by meeting with them to offer positive and corrective feedback.

[Next week we will discuss a leader’s role in partnering with those they are developing to achieve success.]