How Coaching Pastors Helps Everyone
Pastor Craig recently attended a special service at One Voice Fellowship in Northern Virginia, where 44 men, women, and children from 12 countries took membership vows to join this new, multi-lingual church. The Garriotts have been coaching One Voice church planters Chris and Naomi Sicks, and this was an exciting celebration of God’s work.
Pastor Chris was an associate pastor and widower with three teens when he and Naomi married in 2017, and Naomi is the legal guardian of her 18-year-old nephew, who has significant autism. New marriage, new family, new church plant!
In One Voice’s target neighborhood, 80-90% of elementary school children don’t speak English at home. How does a church bring the gospel to such a diverse area? Pray hard and raise up diverse leaders!
In addition to English, the leadership team of OVF speaks French, Farsi, Amharic, Arabic, Spanish, Punjabi, Uyghur, Chinese, Ewe, Azeri, Turkish and Urdu. Pastoral intern and director of music Clement Tendo speaks French, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, and English. Small groups will soon meet to pray and study scripture in their heart languages.
Bulletins were available in 8 languages. Pastoral intern Clement preached from Eph. 4:4-6. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Craig said “the message flowed from a heart rich in the gospel, and Clement’s culturally rich illustrations and applications included many of the cultures present. It was a wonderful sign of the Kingdom of God.”
During communion, a man named Mo approached the table. One of the leaders had invited him, saying Mo is his best friend at work. Mo asked Pastor Chris, “I’m Muslim. Should I do this?” Chris smiled, and said, “Not today. But may I pray for you?” Mo asked for prayer that God might guide him. Chris says, “I began to pray with awe and joy that God would provide such an opportunity.” The two men agreed to have coffee together this week.
Gospel-to-Life coaching is one key way BALM fulfills its mission to multiply Christ-centered, cross -cultural leaders for disciple-making movements.Pastor Chris appreciates the coaching he has received. “Craig’s experience as a church planter in a diverse community has been extremely helpful. He asks me questions I wouldn’t have thought of, and affirms when we are on the right track. Clement and I have also benefitted when we’ve both met with Craig, so we can learn how to work together as a team.” (Naomi's testimony and the Sicks' profile was featured in our Annual Report, available here. ) Coaching helps Chris and Naomi and their leaders more effectively reach their community with the gospel of Jesus.
