As I get ready for a ‘mapping meeting’ (more on what I mean by that in a sec) with a Seoul USA champion tonight, I’m reminded of a line of questioning I receive frequently from ministries:

Do I really need to use a coaching plan form when I meet with a champion? Isn’t it less mechanistic if I just wing it and rely on the Holy Spirit’s direction?

My reply:

Only use a coaching plan form with champions you actually want to see grow. For champions you don’t mind seeing go around and around in circles beeping their horns and chasing their taillights like Shriners in a parade, no coaching plan is necessary.

Yes, beginning to use a form will be an adjustment for you. But in most cases, so will coaching your champion to grow comprehensively in relation to your cause. So why not make all of these adjustments in one fell swoop?

Why is a plan necessary?

I mentioned that tonight I’m having a mapping meeting with a Seoul USA champion. Interestingly, the champion flew into town from halfway across the country at his own expense in order to meet with me so that we could create a coaching plan together. In other words, there is the possibility that rather than your champion finding it mechanistic or awkward to work with you on a coaching plan, he or she could find it exceedingly valuable. After all, if you’re truly taking a Transformational Giving approach, you’re equipping the champion to fulfill their calling and grow in an area of great passion and interest in their life.

That’s why I prefer the term ‘map’ to ‘coaching plan’. A map ensures that you know where you’re going, how you intend to get there, how long it will take, and what you’ll do and see along the way.

Is a map mechanistic? That would feel like an odd word to apply to a map, in my opinion. A map is formal, yes. Disciplined, absolutely. Detailed, you bet. Sometimes it’s even fun.

If instead of creating a map you ‘wing it’ (or you think to yourself, ‘I’ll do a map with this champion…after I build a strong relationship with them ‘), you will likely experience what folks experience when they hit the road together without a map: even folks you like get annoying when you’re lost, or when you’ve been with them for a while and you don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Some may contend that the Holy Spirit can act as a GPS and eliminate your need for a map, enabling you to wing it and enjoy the Spirit’s moment by moment guidance as to the correct next step for the champion, all the way to full maturity in the cause. I’ve heard sermons by people who believe like that, and I never enjoyed their sermons either.