New Worshiping Community coaches gather for training, connection
by Paul Seebeck | Presbyterian News Service
Carlos Rivera and Jeff Eddings share communion during the 1001 New Worshiping Communities coaches’ training. (Photo by Paul Seebeck)
SAN DIEGO — More than 100 New Worshiping Community (NWC) coaches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are here this week for their annual coaching training.
Activist, author and Enneagram coach Chis Heuertz is working with the coaches on material from his latest work, “The Sacred Enneagram,” as a way of helping them understand themselves better.
“Already a couple of coaches who have read some of the material told me, ‘This is something I need right now,’” said 1001 NWC coaching associate Jeff Eddings of Presbyterian Mission Agency.
The annual coaches training in January is a way for those gathered during the first days of the new year to connect to God and each other in ways that help them grow as people and coaches.
During opening dinner and worship they were encouraged to come before the God who created them — to listen.
“When I do this, I respond differently,” said the Rev. Dr. Andrew Stephens of Radcliffe Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. “I talk less and pray more. God will show us what we need to know. Let’s get to know ourselves.”
For Eddings, the training is also a way to connect more deeply with associates from PMA’s Racial Equity and Women’s Intercultural Ministries congregational support associates — and with the intercultural coaches who have also gathered here this week.
“We hope to grow our coaching network,” he said. “There are so many wonderful people here from our denomination — we’re going to see how God might use us, as God sees fit.”
The coaches’ training concludes on Thursday.
In 2012, the 220th General Assembly of the PC(USA) declared a commitment to a churchwide movement that results in the creation of 1001 worshiping communities over the next 10 years. At a grassroots level, hundreds of diverse new worshiping communities have already formed across the nation.
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