Postkiwi

I’m preparing a briefing paper for people training as coaches in the Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod, focusing on the distinctive theological setting in which we work rather than attempting a generic approach that fits all. However there will and should be some resonance with other traditions. I’ve included quotes from the Uniting Church in Australia Basis of Union (1977).

1. Relational Framework.

We enter into one another’s lives aware that God is relational in nature. As Christians we perceive the being of God expressed in the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, or, in a non-gendered framework, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. We see in that relationship the relational characteristics described by Paul in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. In our coaching, we are called to take part in God’s reconciling engagement with the world in which we live, doing so with respect for boundaries, seeking to empower rather than control, aware of our own strengths and limitations, always recognising that we are witnesses and supporters of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

“Jesus of Nazareth announced the sovereign grace of God whereby the poor in spirit could receive God’s love. Jesus himself, in his life and death, made the response of humility, obedience and trust which God had long sought in vain. In raising him to live and reign, God confirmed and completed the witness which Jesus bore to God on earth, reasserted claim over the whole of creation, pardoned sinners, and made in Jesus a representative beginning of a new order of righteousness and love. To God in Christ all people are called to respond in faith. To this end God has sent forth the Spirit that people may trust God as their Father, and acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The whole work of salvation is effected by the sovereign grace of God alone.”

2. Incarnational Framework

Our participation in the people of God is founded in the life of Christ. Just as Jesus entered the every day challenges of life, filled with the Spirit, we are called to participate in the mission of God in every part of our lives. This is explored in processes that engage body, mind, spirit and soul.

“The Church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life; it also confesses that Jesus is Head over all things, the beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity. God in Christ has given to all people in the Church the Holy Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation. The Church’s call is to serve that end: to be a fellowship of reconciliation, a body within which the diverse gifts of its members are used for the building up of the whole, an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself.”

3. The Whole People of God

We believe that participation in the ministry and mission of Christ is open to people of all ages, whether employed or not, whether in a recognised position or not. Coaching is a process that can be used to support people in their unique way witnessing, worshiping and serving.

“The Uniting Church affirms that every member of the Church is engaged to confess the faith of Christ crucified and to be his faithful servant. It acknowledges with thanksgiving that the one Spirit has endowed the members of Christ’s Church with a diversity of gifts, and that there is no gift without its corresponding service: all ministries have a part in the ministry of Christ.”

4. Faith as a Journey

We are a pilgrim people. Together we are discerning what it means to follow Christ, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. Faithfulness, perseverance, courage and humility are required as we constantly reassess our response to the dynamic leading of the Spirit. Coaching pilgrims involves listening, recognition of movement and progress, the capacity to encourage steps of faith in times of ambiguity and uncertainty.

“The Uniting Church’s Basis of Union draws on the motif of our being a people on the way: “The Church lives between the time of Christ’s death and resurrection and the final consummation of all things which Christ will bring; the Church is a pilgrim people, always on the way towards a promised goal; here the Church does not have a continuing city but seeks one to come.”