IMEA Dr. Rivers Worldwide

Rita Enos

Rita is a Certified Master Christian Life Coach. She obtained her education online from International Coaching School, Founder, Prof. Clyde Rivers and Director and Co-Founder, Prof. Donella Pitzl. Her certification is  authorized and accredited by UACCMI, United Association of Christian Churches and Ministers International, Founder, Dr. Martin Wisor. This is her testimony regarding her coach training.

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First, this program has challenged me, mostly in the way I go about helping people. Being a Pastor for twelve years, you become accustom to counseling people, especially when circumstances arise in their lives. I have learned to give them knowledge and wisdom in what it is I believe will help them in their situation. As I began this Coaching Course it helped me transition into coaching people instead of counseling. I do believe there are moments in time that counseling is necessary, based on the individual needs.

The differences I experienced between coaching and counseling is the answers are in the people, they just have not discovered it. As I have discussed different situation with clients and used the different techniques, the answer usually comes out. It is being patience with them allowing the client to express their thoughts and feelings. I also liked that it made them responsible to their situation, instead of me trying to get them out of the circumstance. Coaching clients brings a more openness, and an atmosphere of discovery. I have seen that this has really made an impact on our church today. People feel that they have a voice to express themselves in a safe environment. I have enjoyed transforming into a coach verse a counselor.

Secondly, having the ability to apply God’s word, in different situations, is a huge component for me. The obstacles I dealt with the most are peoples thought processes. I am learning to help them combat their thoughts with the word of God and allow the client to express their thoughts as I keep notes. Noting what their thoughts are about themselves and/or their situations.

I have implemented the training I received from the International Coaching Schools (ICS) in our Women’s Ministry that I am currently leading. Our Women’s Ministry meets once a month. This has given me the opportunity to increase my skills I have received in the Christian Life Coaching Program. This is the material that I use in teaching, training and ministering to the women.

The ladies were asked, “How would they like to see themselves at the end of the year?” I came up with 10 questions to ask. This gave them insight on how well they full fill a goal they would set for themselves. Each lady answered the questions given. Using the open-ended question guidelines. What were your goals last year? What areas did you challenge yourself? What have you overcome? Where did you grow the most? Looking back at your goal from last year, what evidence do you see in your life that is congruent with the goal? Where would you say your state of mind is? What are your goals for this year? What is it going to take to get you to apprehend your goal? What areas do you feel hold you back from obtaining these goals? How serious are you about obtaining your goal?

I have continued to meet with the ladies twice a month, encouraging them and also e-mailing throughout the week, keeping them accountable and coaching them through this process. This has been beneficial to the ladies and also to me. It has established trust, unity, new relationships and spiritual connection. This has created an atmosphere for coaching.

Using a group exercise I learned in the training, the ladies had an opportunity to learn the difference between facts and fiction in their lives. Hebrews 4:12 NLT says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is shaper that the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul, spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.” I explained to the ladies the importance of the power of God’s word, how it exposes our thoughts. I had them pair up with other women and had them share their thoughts that they struggle with. Then they had to get in the word of God and counteract those thoughts.

It was explained to the ladies that knowing God’s word is vital to your Christian walk. It is important to get in His word daily, memorize scriptures. It combats those wrong thoughts that we have towards ourselves that are contraire to God’s word. I also, gave the ladies some facts about our mind. We have approximately 30,000 thoughts on an average day. We have a different thought every 1.2 seconds. We have 21 thoughts per minutes. Eighty seven percent to ninety five percent of the illnesses, that plague us today, are a direct result of our thought life. Our thoughts are a powerful thing. Proverbs 23:7 says, “ For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

To build trust, I created an exercise that would help the ladies understand that we all need help and we need to trust others. In this exercise I gave the ladies a chance to experience hands on learning. Once we completed the exercise we debriefed. I asked open-ended questions to see what they were feeling. What were your feelings? What emotions were you dealing with? What was going through your mind? Where you having a hard time trusting? What did you learn about yourself?

It was interesting to see what the ladies shared and a lot of them had great moments of learning about who they were. Most people don’t know how to ask for help or to trust others; this was a great exercise to teach exactly that. The moral of this exercise is you need help along the way, whether it is Jesus himself, or people He puts into your life that you can trust.

         As I prepare for the Women’s Ministry I do take into consideration the things I learned from ICS, and see how I could use it in the message that I would be bringing forth. I am teaching the ladies the skills that I have obtained through Christian Life Coaching. Also through this year of teaching the women, I have been asked by some of the ladies to coach them personally on some things that they need help with. This training has opened up doors for me that would not have been available to me without the schooling I received. As the Women’s Ministry grows, I would like to start teaching other women how to Life Coach using the material and training that I received. Also, with this training, my hope is to help each women individually and to see them walk into their destiny.

       These are just a few examples of what I have used from the training I received. I am going to continue to use the exercise of setting goals at the beginning of each year to give other ladies the opportunity to work with me in obtaining their goals.  I will also use some of the ladies that have completed the process this year to help me with the new ladies coming in next year.

Using these different techniques has opened me up to a unique way of helping and dealing with people. It is gratifying to see a client transform, right in your midst. These tools have also helped our pastors, leadership and congregation get to the next level in their ministry. Setting goals and holding them accountable has released a lot of responsibility on me. I will continue to use these tools that I have learned in taking this Coaching Program with ICS.

Submitted by Rita Enos, California, USA