Coach, Mentor or Pastor

Do we need all three?

Life is complicated and full of unknowns. Wisdom tells us it is good to have a guide. But how do we know which guide to choose? Sometimes these three (Coach, Mentor and Pastor) are used interchangeably making difficult situations more complicated. While there is a natural fluidity amongst these disciplines, the methods and objectives of each are distinct. Understanding the differences between them is important. See below.

  • Coach:

    • Independent to industry. (can be internal or external)

    • helps Identify and overcome obstacles

    • helps identify and achieve goals

    • Typically compensated for services by the client

  • Mentor:

    • Subject matter experts

    • Focuses on decision making, professional development and networking

    • Engages mentee with an unspecified agenda.

    • Reward is organizational or industry health and personal fulfillment (i.e. not financially compensated)

  • Pastor:

    • Independent to industry. (peer driven rather than hierarchal)

    • Emphasizes eternal narratives

    • Contextualizes the sacred and secular

    • Compensation is independent to services


No competition

If we think of work, even hard work, as an opportunity for worship, then some really cool changes happen to our perceptions of Coach, Mentor and Pastor.

  • Coach: freed to challenge us without artificial religious attachments (scoring a touchdown or dropping a pass)

  • Mentor: develops our career under a banner of providence. (showing up on time or getting a raise)

  • Pastor: equips and encourages a Christ centered life where all of life’s work is balanced in Christ’s economy. (We are his ambassadors everywhere)

Coaches, mentors and pastors each serve important parts of helping us live a redemptive narrative.

so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
— Colossians 1:10-12
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