Coach like Barnabas

The first time you check in on a group you’ve launched, it’s tempting to show up with an agenda — a mental list of what you’d fix, what you’d have done differently, what you’re quietly hoping to hear went wrong so you’d have a reason to step back in. Put the list down before you go.

Three questions, not a status report

Coaching after launch is not complicated. It looks like a phone call, a cup of coffee, a short visit, built around three questions: How is the group going? What challenges are you facing? How are you obeying and multiplying? That’s the whole framework. You’re not auditing them. You’re checking on people you love.

Ask questions, don’t give answers

The posture underneath those three questions matters as much as the questions themselves. Ask questions, don’t give answers. Celebrate obedience, not performance — praise what they did in response to the text, not how smoothly they ran the meeting. Remind them, out loud, that the Spirit and the Scripture are enough without you in the room. And when they struggle — especially when they struggle — resist taking back control. Struggling is not a sign the handoff failed. It’s usually a sign it’s real.

Think Barnabas, not manager

There’s a leader in Acts worth imitating here more than any technique. Barnabas arrived at the church in Antioch, which had started without him and wasn’t doing things his way.

When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. — Acts 11:23 (OTB)

He didn’t reorganize it under himself. He saw what God was already doing and strengthened it. That’s the whole job description: encourager, not manager.

When something needs correcting

Sometimes a coaching visit does turn up something that needs correcting — a question drifting from the passage, an idea that needs sharpening. Do it the way Priscilla and Aquila corrected Apollos: privately, relationally, in conversation, never by lecturing the whole group to fix one person’s misunderstanding (Acts 18:26). Correction that humiliates a leader in public teaches the group to fear you. Correction offered over coffee teaches the leader to trust you.

Recite this

Ask questions, don’t give answers. Celebrate obedience, not performance.

Try it this week

Schedule your first coaching contact with a leader you’ve launched — a call, a coffee, a visit — and bring only the three questions.

I will check in with ________________ using the three questions on ________________.