Discipleship Through Life Coaching: A Case Study of the Impacts of Life Coaching on Christian Pastors

December 3, 2025

Discipleship Through Life Coaching: A Case Study of the Impacts of Life Coaching on Christian Pastors’ Ministry Practices

Maddison Ashleigh Frye | 2025

Abstract

Churches and pastors have historically focused on helping individuals recognize the general will of God though the teaching of the Word. Many are ill equipped to shepherd the process of self-discovery of the specific will of God in the lives of their congregations (DeYoung, 2009). Therefore, this study sought to understand how life coaching training impacts the efficacy of discipleship in the ministry of active Christian pastors. Alexander-Ashley (2018) recommended that future research should explore the effect of life coaching across many different demographics; therefore, participants in this study were lead or executive pastors who also received life coaching training 3 or more years from the time of being interviewed. Theories of primary consideration in relation to life coaching within Christian discipleship included transformational learning theory and transformational leadership. Data were collected through 1-hour one-on-one interviews with 10 participants who met the sample criteria. These individuals were asked a series of eight interview questions in the context of semistructured interviews, allowing relevant topics to arise through dialogue. These interviews were then analyzed through a two-step coding cycle, the first step of which was process coding which involved using action labels ending in -ing. The second step was thematic coding which involved grouping codes by similar themes to see what topics of consideration were prevalent. The findings from this study included that life coaching implementation resulted in increased discipleship outcomes, cultivating trust and safety was foundation to transformation, life coaching training increased transformational leadership behaviors, and life coaching implementation resulted in transformed relationships. Results from this study can inform future research pertaining to how life coaching works in the Christian discipleship context and serve as a starting point for a new area of exploration. Results from this study can also inform current pastors and practitioners by highlighting the positive impact coaching training can have on discipleship, transformational leadership, and transformational learning.

Keywords: Discipleship, Life Coaching, Transformational Leadership, Transformational Learning

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