Hey, ELCA coaches:

Here we are with our second video update from ELCA coaching ministry. We hope you're enjoying using the data collection tool we sent with our last update. We've received some great feedback so far and hope to continue to share additional helpful resources, more on that in a minute.

My main update today is to announce a change in our weekly Wednesday gathering for leaders. For the month of August, our courageous leadership events will be doing something new. Feedback we've received has let us know that many leaders really value the small group coaching time that we do in the breakout rooms. With that we've decided to dedicate all of August to this format; meaning - no guest speakers and a majority of the time will be spent in the breakout rooms, coaching the live topics our leaders bring. We hope you'll join us each Wednesday, 1:00 to 2:00 PM central and help support these breakout room conversations.

Back to the second thing. We are recommending a new resource. Here's fellow coach David Hively to share more about it.

Hi, I'm David Hively. And I want to introduce you to a resource that's been really helpful to me as a coach and as a parish pastor. So this is the book Free Time by Jenny Blake. Jenny is a coach herself and her goal in the book is to help you manage your work in such a way that you minimize or offload the life-draining parts of your work and free up time for you to do the things that bring joy and maximize your effectiveness. If you're starting your own coaching practice or managing a small team, it can make a huge difference on how you work and how you lead. So check it out!

If this sounds like something you'd like to take advantage of our ministry is gifting 10 of these resources to our coaches. Here's how to get one. The first 10 coaches to email me and let me know you'd like this book will receive either a hard copy or a Kindle copy. I will send instructions after it's confirmed that you're one of the first 10 to reach out.

Last we went to encourage you in the good work you're doing. Did you know that we receive on average, at least five coaching requests from leaders each week? And across the denomination, there are experiments happening where coaching is being paired with the candidacy process, first-call pastors, closing congregations, and more. Keep up the good work friends, and plan on joining us Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 PM central. And of course, coach on! You're changing the world one sacred conversation at a time.

Bless you.