Christian Life Coaching: A Biblical Approach

There are three basic principles that all Christian life coaches must integrate into their coaching: faith, truth, and perseverance. These are the principles that make Christian life coaching different from other types of coaching. These principles will help the coach and benefit the coachee by providing deep insights and understanding that eventually promote quality decision making. Let’s take a closer look at each of these biblical principles.

Faith is what really defines human life. On the simplest level, faith is a positive response to something you believe. In Christianity, faith first comes by believing and accepting the good news of Jesus Christ. A person’s thought patterns are often driven by their faith. Faith inspires people to trust and act the way they do. Christians are required not only to proclaim their faith but also to live it and practice it. This is why faith is of utmost importance to every Christian. It is not a performance but a lifestyle. Through faith, Christians live life on an “elevated” level because they see things not as they are, but as they will be. As Hebrews 11:1 states,

Jesus Christ is the epitome of someone who walked and lived by faith. Jesus Christ is the ultimate coach for any Christian leader and the scriptures should provide a clear roadmap for all Christian life coaching.

Faith should be present from the very first interaction with your client. In fact, it is faith that helped your client to take the leap to seek your help. It is by faith that your client believes that your sessions will help them change for the better. Helping your clients realize this from the very outset can help them appreciate the relevance of biblical principles in the life coaching process. Faith can be termed as an active ingredient in the coach-client relationship. It is the main ingredient for fostering trust before the client takes any action towards his or her goals. To put it simply, faith leads to action. This is why the Bible says that you cannot have faith without corresponding action (James 2:14).

One of the greatest benefits of Christian life coaching is that it has an awesome return on investment. Clients are not only helped to achieve their goals, but by the end of the coaching relationship, their faith will have grown and their relationship with God deepened. Christian life coaching helps the client to achieve internal change, which is where real change takes place. This is easily achieved because faith is the driving force to experiencing true transformation, which is what is needed to reach the full potential of the Christian life.

What is true and what is truth does not mean the same thing. What is true refers to what is factual. But what is truth is only established when the quality of what is true is at the center stage. Qualities like sincerity, veracity, honesty, etc., matter when it comes to truth. Truth takes a deeper meaning for every Christian. The truth can only be established if there is a meaningful connection to the person of Christ. This is based on what Jesus said,

Truth helps Christian to see beyond what is considered correct to see what is right. Truth frees the Christian from what besets or enslaves them. Truth empowers Christians to overcome their greatest fears. Truth should, therefore, be integrated into the Christian life coaching process; it is a predominate principle that every Christian client needs.

In order to incorporate truth in the Christian life coaching process, the coach has to be true to who they really are. Clients are most interested in authentic relationships. If the coach is not authentic, the client will have a hard time embracing the truth that is disseminated in the coaching relationship. The reason crowds thronged to Jesus is that he exuded authenticity in his interactions with people. He was never afraid of the truth, even when it meant taking an unpopular stand. People knew they could count on him to mean what he said and to say what he meant. Similarly, clients notice when a coach runs his or her practice by being true to who he or she really is.

A good Christian life coach focuses on “being” rather than “doing.” It starts with embracing who you truly are: your personality, style, gifts, skill set, and more. Instead of trying to be like someone else, you learn from teachers and mentors but maintain your uniqueness. This is how you become unique in your life coaching. You cannot be a transformative Christian life coach if you hide your true personality behind the mask of another Christian life coach. Building a healthy Christian coaching relationship—and business—starts by being true to your self. Truth will help to create an environment of honesty, which is how a relationship based on trust is formed. Keep in mind that trust is the most important currency in any relationship and especially so the client-coach relationship. Without this trust, the client may never open up to you and you will only ever work on a superficial level, with no real transformation happening.

Truth is what makes the difference on the path to transformation and positions the client to transition from where they are to where they want to go. Through truth, clarity is ignited that helps the client to focus on what really matters. A client who sees and embraces truth can move forward more easily, because he has greater clarity regarding who he really is and what he wants to achieve in life. When a client is coached based on truth, it helps her to see beyond temporary challenges and focus on eternal goals. Truth has the power to propel your client towards her desired goals, values, ideals, relationships, and much more!

There are many important qualities for success, but perseverance is the catalyst. When Napoleon Hill studied the top 500 richest men in the world, he discovered that all of them had one thing in common: perseverance. Perseverance is what separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. A Christian life coaching professional must seek to incorporate the principle of perseverance in his or her coaching relationship in order to get the best outcomes.

From the biblical perspective, perseverance is used to develop character in people. Words like endurance, steadfastness, patience, trials, longsuffering, and others are used throughout the Bible to emphasize this principle. It is impossible for any Christian to attain spiritual maturity without having to go through some form of suffering in order to develop perseverance. James 1:2-4 (NKJV) tells us,

As a Christian life coach, you will most likely come across clients who misunderstand the concept of perseverance. In fact, they might have hired you to help them avoid suffering. Therefore, it will be your role to help them understand the importance of going through hard times. God seldom saves us from hard times, but he saves us through hard times. Every Christian must appreciate the importance of enduring hardships like a good soldier of Christ (2 Timothy 2:3).

On the flip side, perseverance is not an excuse for stubbornness, which can lead to making stupid decisions. Many problems can easily be avoided by having the wisdom to know when and when not to persevere. A good Christian life coach must help his or her clients to understand the difference.

Faith, truth, and perseverance are three of the most important biblical principles for all Christian life coach-client relationships and will lead to inspiring positive change and transformation. Yes, other life coaching skills such as active listening and powerful questions must be incorporated. But what makes Christian life coaching unique is that the biblical principles help the Christian life coach incorporate all the core coaching skills. This is mainly because the world of Christian life coaching understands and appreciates that God is interested in the wellbeing of clients.

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