We tend to have a misplaced expectation of superior athletes in this country. We look at people like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or Serena Williams and think, “They have a great career ahead of them as a coach. After all, they’ve obviously mastered their sport and have a lot of wisdom to share, right?” While the wisdom part is likely true, the ability to coach doesn’t necessarily follow. On rare occasions, top athletes make solid coaches, but it seems to have a lot less to do with raw talent and success and more to do with possessing an unrelated set of skills.

The same goes for business. I’ve worked with some phenomenal individual talents who, when they dipped their toes in management (which has the inherent aspect of coaching to it), quickly learned that being a rock star performer doesn’t always translate into being a great leader. As is the case in the sports arena, the best leaders aren’t always the most talented individual performers. What they are great at is ensuring that those around them achieve maximum performance.

Coaching is a unique talent. We humans like to focus on individual performance (arguably more today than ever) in evaluating the contributions of others to a team. This cannot be applied to coaches because their success is evidenced by how well those they lead perform. Team performance is a coach’s metric.

This paradigm exists in the spiritual life, too. We might look to church leadership, for starters. Paul openly berated himself as an individual performer, considering his own record as worst among his peers.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
- 1 Corinthians 15:9-11

Even late in his spiritual career, Paul never laid claim to being the greatest individual believer of all time (For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate – Romans 7:15). But you see, that’s not even what Paul was focused on. He was too busy focusing on others to perseverate on how well he stacked up as an individual. It is we believers who seek to label the Apostle with superlatives.

Once converted, Paul spent his life coaching others in the faith. First, he would invite them to join the team and then, if by God’s grace they became members, he’d teach them the fundamentals and be inspired, himself, at how God sanctified them through His Word and Spirit.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
- Philippians 4:1

A coach’s true joy is the success of others. They understand failure all too well (as players), so they are immediately empathetic. While their tactics may seem harsh at times (pushing others is never easy – 2 Corinthians 12:15), their strategy is founded on a heartfelt desire to see others grow. They understand those whom they’re working with because they were once in their shoes.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Like a symphony conductor, a teacher, a captain, or a mother, the person coaching doesn’t need to have the same level of expertise as the individuals they are leading, they only need to know what success looks like and how to inspire others with the appropriate perspective to pursue it.

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
- Acts 4:13

It’s a very different mindset to wish for the success of others over your own. That’s the primitive aspect of any good coach. Their labor cannot be for self. Their joy is always derived from seeing others grow. Their strength of conviction is amplified by the cumulative result of serving many rather than one (e.g. self). In a very real sense, we should all aspire to be coaches!

Guess what? We are all called to be coaches in our own lives! Maybe you just don’t realize it yet. Maybe you’re still stuck in the past, thinking, “Who am I to assume such a role?” Maybe you don’t realize yet what God’s grace means in your life.

Never underestimate your impact on the lives of others. And never, ever let the kingdom of darkness tell you that you’re unworthy. You are worthy. Share your story, your testimony, your life with others. Be present. Be available. Shed your chains!

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
- Romans 12:2

We’re all part of one team. Christ refers to us as His Church, His Bride, His Body, and His friends. Live and love boldly the way He did, for others.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
- Philippians 2:1-4

Remember, the best coaches are rarely the best players. Jesus already holds both of those titles, so just relax and be yourself. You are valuable to others because you have a unique perspective that only you can share. Be bold, remembering where you came from and how others have coached you. We’re all coaches in one way or another by God’s grace. Let God be the judge of your individual performance while you focus on serving others. Embrace God’s grace economy and then enjoy the resulting freedom.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
- Ephesians 2:1-10

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins