One of the challenges of working in our communities is knowing that it is never enough – there always seems so much more to do.

Community ministries, large and small, usually attract passionate, dedicated and committed people. At times they plague themselves with questions. What if I worked longer hours? Had more funding? What if the church was more supportive? And so on.

Sometimes the task can just appear to be too hard and volunteers drop out, managers move to a better paid, potentially less demanding, more supportive role, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find suitably qualified people to keep the show on the road.

Key questions for churches, NGOs and community organisations are: 'How can we keep our eyes on the horizon with our feet on the ground? How can we be in a mode of continuous improvement, proactivity, and dedication to our vision and mission in the face of our day-to-day realities? How can we sustain a culture of hope, confidence in God, encouragement, innovation and creativity?

For such organisations who are involved on a daily basis with challenging situations, the reality is messy, sometimes chaotic, complex, constantly changing. It involves both the macro and the micro, where it's difficult to measure success and easier to see where we've failed. Add to that the fact that most community ministries run on the smell of an oily rag and a pile of goodwill, mainly rely on volunteers, often pay their staff a lowly rate, and on occasions expect an arm and a leg in return, if you get my drift. Passion, love, grace, a sense of justice and a heart for needy people is usually the glue that holds such organisations together.

Critical to good leadership in all these situations are coaching and mentoring.

I am keen to gather information about how our community initiatives, churches and NGOs involve themselves in coaching and mentoring, and I welcome your feedback. What's working for you within your organisation? Do you intentionally develop and support a culture of mentoring and coaching? What does it look like? Have you seen changes through your mentoring and coaching? How do you train people? Is it mostly informal? Are Trust members involved as mentors and mentees?

I am aware of mentoring and coaching initiatives which are focussed on the community outside the churches. One of our churches has about 200 people involved in mentoring. Numerous Baptist churches are operating the Fresh Perspective family mentoring programme. Some are involved in Side by Side Mentoring, an initiative involving mainly Presbyterian, Anglican, Catholic and a few Baptist churches. Others are involving their people in Big Brother Big Sister, PILLARS, CViC, Presbyterian Support's Kewl M8Z ( got it?),and various youth mentoring initiatives.

And I have no doubt that there will be many stories of informal mentoring where good people have taken others under their wing to journey with them for a season to tautoko them and help bring them into stronger and healthier places.

But at this point I am hoping that you will respond with information about the place and shape of mentoring and coaching within your faith community, your NGO, community ministries teams etc. I hope you can find time in your busy lives to assist us so that others can learn from your experiences. My contact details are below.

Blessings

Lyn

Please contact Lyn if you would welcome assistance and if you have brilliant innovative ideas which you want to progress into initiatives which will transform our communities.

You can contact her by cell phone 027-528 7725 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it