I was leading a development seminar for leaders this week, introducing various schools of psychology and their application to coaching thinking and practice, when a colleague challenged me. ‘How does Christian spirituality fit with the models you are presenting?’ It was a great question. How to develop an effective, integrative and authentic coaching approach that is consistent with Christian beliefs and values and, at the same time, draws on the best of psychological theory and coaching practice. Let me call this ‘pastoral coaching’.
The reflective practice model I’ve developed in coaching over the years could be depicted as three interlocking circles: (a) theology and spirituality, (b) theory and research, (c) experience and practice. The coach enables the client to explore and respond to these domains. The theological dimension could be conceived of as what the client and others believe about God and, thereby, as an existential metaphysic, what he, she or they believe about everything else. Spirituality could be conceived as living out personal and shared beliefs. The theory dimension is concerned with principles or conclusions drawn from experimentation, observation and critical reflection in relevant fields of thinking and practice. Research is concerned with on-going exploration, experimentation, analysis and learning. Experience is what happens when the client acts in the world. This could be conceived of in phenomenological or rational-scientific terms. Practice is about the client enacting decisions about behaviour, action and engagement in real-life relationships and situations. I was influenced some years ago by Foskett & Lyall (Helping the Helpers, 1988) who wrote an excellent book on developing supervision in the pastoral care arena. Foskett was a psychotherapist, Lyall, a university lecturer in practical theology. They proposed that Christian development tends to deal with issues from one of two perspectives: ‘applied theology’ which entails application of Biblical principles to practice or 'theological reflection’ which entails critical reflection on Biblical material in light of experience. Green in Let's do Theology (1990) illustrates the former as the ‘Swedish Method’ of engaging with biblical material. It entails posing a number of questions, e.g. what things in the passage illuminate or inspire you; what things don’t you understand; what things in the passage surprise you; what things to you agree with and approve of; what are you turned off by, reject or question; can you name something like it from elsewhere in the Bible; can you name something like it from your own life and experience; what are you now prompted to do? In contrast, Lyall in 'Pastoral Action and Theological Reflection' (Spiritual Dimensions of Pastoral Care, 2000) illustrates the latter approach through a case study. In effect, he proposes starting with a real-life experience and posing questions to it, e.g. what are the components of the situation; who is involved; what policies or protocols applied; what ethical issues did it raise; how did the past influence the present; what did decisions taken reveal about wider social or systemic values and decisions; where were the signs of God’s grace? The first approach starts with God and works out towards reflection and application; the second starts out with experience and works out towards reflection and God. Green’s book expands the theological reflection method by drawing on Kolb’s learning cycle (1984) which combines experience, perception and reflection and cognition and behaviour, and applies it to pastoral contexts. In a later text, Graham, Walton & Ward published a new book (Theological Reflection, 2005) that explored a range of theological reflection methods including theology-in-action or praxis which insists that ‘proper theological reflection cannot be formed independently of practical engagement.’ It’s this praxis model that I find most compelling. Much of the Bible itself depicts God engaging actively with people and communities in the midst of the clarity, confusion, joy and struggle of normal life. If theology as an enterprise is about knowing God and not simply knowing about him, it’s difficult to see how it can be properly developed in the abstract or in an isolated classroom environment. The challenge is how to understand and relate to God authentically without superimposing our own assumptions onto him. This is where the coaching task and agenda become significant. How to enable a person or team to make sense of complex, ambiguous experience in order to act with personal and professional integrity and to influence positive change. This is particularly important for leaders of organisations operating in fast-moving fluid environments. It’s easy to feel confused or paralysed, to lose one’s nerve, to feel draw into regressive behaviours or to sacrifice integrity for short-term expediency. Holistic coaching can play a role in helping leaders navigate turbulence and stay well. So how does this work in practice? I may start with inviting a Christian client to share an issue. It could be an issue from the Bible or an issue from experience. I may pose questions for reflection, e.g. of all the issues we could have spoken about, what is it about this issue that feels pressing or significant for you at the moment (i.e. why this, why now); how are you feeling now as you talk about it; what would you like to move towards as a result of this conversation; what questions or issues is it raising for you; what role would you like me to play? As the conversation progresses, I may pose more questions, moving around the theology and spirituality, theory and research and experience and practice model as a conceptual backdrop. Weeson in his article, Theological Reflection on Practice (The Foundations of Pastoral Studies & Practical Theology, 1986) offers a number of particularly helpful pointers for the theology and spirituality dimension that draw on his experience or mentoring students. Since this dimension is the main focus of this blog, I will quote him fully here: "Where is God's activity to be found in the situation we are exploring? Is the client's understanding of God limited so that he or she looks for His activity only in the (say) institutional framework or charismatic (personal) experience? What characteristics of God dominate the client's thinking? Can the client relate events and encounters with people to a theology of creation, providence or redemption? Does the client show theological imagination in forging an understanding of God's activity that is both true to Christian beliefs and relevant to the context? Is there a link between the experience encountered and some biblical character or situation? Can the client make connection with (say) a relevant issue which is addressed in a New Testament epistle or with the experiences of an Old Testament or a Gospel character? Are such links drawn with integrity and with due hermeneutic rigour or has the client a speculative tendency to make the Bible fit? How do proper connections throw light on an appropriate Christian strategy for engagement? How is a particularly painful or baffling situation handled? Can the client face and deal with ambiguity and complexity? Is there an ability to work with a doctrine of God or an understanding of humanity that will make some sense of the complexity? Or does the client show a tendency to run back into tidy formulations? Can the client ultimately retain convictions and yet live with areas of uncertainty? Can he or she handle this ambiguity in an encounter with a baffled person? How has an event or encounter affected the level or pattern of the client's prayer life? Has the client learned how to incorporate an ambiguous situation into his or her intercession? Has an experience resulted in a deeper meditative understanding of God and His purposes? Has the context promoted some new biblical insights which have fed personal devotion? What theological material demands further study as a result of the reflection on practice? Is there now an area (e.g. life and death, sin and salvation, justice and forgiveness, grace and truth, personal and corporate, freedom and responsibility, suffering and hope, holiness and incarnation, humility and leadership, discipline and love) where more work should be done? Has the client identified books, materials or people to help that further study?" The challenge for the coach is how to help the client or client group develop and move forward without projecting the coach’s own theological and spiritual constructs onto the client or the client’s situation. This demands high levels of self-awareness, sensitivity, wisdom, discernment and skill. The coach needs to pay close attention to his or her own intuition (‘inner voice’), the voice of the client, the indirect voice of the client’s world or system through the client and, ultimately, the voice of God.
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Christian organisations in the UK are experiencing challenges with redefining their identity in a 21C secular environment, particularly in light of legislation prohibiting the exclusive employment of people who share these organisations’ Christian beliefs. What do these changes mean for Christian organisations? What does it mean to be a ‘Christian organisation’ anyway? How can such organisations embrace greater diversity and, at the same time, retain their unique Christian distinctiveness?
Take organisation X: in now employing non-Christian staff alongside Christian staff, is it essentially a Christian organisation that happens to employ some non-Christian staff or really, at heart, a new type of hybrid organisation – a mix of Christian and non-Christian? The implications of this distinction are very significant. For instance, has X implicitly changed its core identity, even if its mission is still intact? What does it mean for teams staffed predominantly by non-Christians? What are the implications for X's brand? There are parallels with the current social-political debate about what it means to be ‘British’. How is X to relate to those who don’t share its core Christian beliefs? Should its approach be characterised by, for instance, reluctant tolerance (e.g. accept that it has to employ non-Christian staff owing to legislative requirements but focus on ‘containing the problem’), positive assimilation (e.g. welcome non-Christians as part of the organisation but expect them to adapt to its current cultural norms) or active accommodation (e.g. change its own cultural norms to embrace greater diversity)? These questions press right to the heart of Christian identity at individual, team and organisational levels. What is critical to nurture and safeguard and what is negotiable? How are such organisations to conduct themselves in relation to others? What are the key ethical principles involved? To what degree should secular or alternative faith perspectives now be represented alongside Christian perspectives in their policies and practices? What should be the spiritual practices of those teams in which non-Christian staff are employed alongside Christians? In which specific respects should such organisations be distinctive? This situation isn't new. In fact, there has been a debate for some time in Christian organisational circles about the nature and practice of Christian distinctiveness. I believe the debate could be framed differently and more helpfully, however, around Christian authenticity. When Christians are authentic, there will be dimensions in which we are distinctive (e.g. faith in Christ as Saviour). There will also be dimensions in which we are not distinctive but which are, nevertheless, consistent with our faith (e.g. commitment to social justice). We need to consider what it means for non-Christians to be authentic in shared organisational environments too. At leadership levels, organisations need to decide which dimensions of their Christian beliefs, identity, mission and values are fundamental and thereby non-negotiable. This releases them to identify which other dimensions (e.g. cultural expressions) are flexible and open to modification or negotiation. They need to safeguard and nurture those things that are non-negotiable and adapt those things that are negotiable in light of current circumstances. They also need to live out their beliefs, identity, mission and values in order to be congruent. This is true at individual, team and organisational levels and poses cultural challenges where those beliefs etc. are inconsistent. The problem with ‘distinctiveness’ is that it necessarily focuses on difference, separateness, division. An alternative biblical model is the incarnation in which we see Christ share our common humanity whilst retaining his unique divinity. This model illustrates in a very radical sense how sharing common ground and experience with others can build bridges, whilst holding onto specific distinctives too. It also provides a relational platform from which those dimensions that make us distinctive can be more easily and readily understood. This may be a useful model for organisations like X to explore further in terms of its practice implications. This issue is important but not unique to any one Christian or faith-based organisation. Other faith-based organisations in the UK and elsewhere are grappling with similar issues and seeking to act with wisdom and integrity too. We could learn from one-anothers’ practices and experiences. We could create spaces for dialogue, experimentation and learning. This could be a key issue for the Christian leadership agenda. We have the opportunity now to consider future implications of current actions in order to help ensure we develop in the way and direction we intend and hope for. |
Nick WrightI'm a psychological coach, trainer and OD consultant. Curious to discover how can I help you? Get in touch! Like what you read? Simply enter your email address below to receive regular blog updates!
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