My Story
Four years ago, in a Famous Dave’s BBQ in Columbia, MD a good friend gave me some advice that changed my life forever. He had planted a church several years earlier and had been in ministry for many years. Ron told me that the best decision he ever made was finding a pastoral coach to help him work through issues of ministry, family, and life.
Leaving that lunch, I called a Christian counselor, Fred, who had helped me in the past. He and another therapist had come to my church and dialogued with me about the impact of Lust on a family. This dialogue was our sermon that Sunday morning. I knew Fred had been a pastor so I called his office to see if he did pastoral coaching. His practice said he did, and we scheduled time to be together. Four years later, I still visit with him regularly. He has helped me focus my life, understand who I was created to be, who I am, and how to deal with the issues life, ministry and family through at me.
In addition to the formal relationship that Fred and I have, I also have informal relationships and deep friendships with others whom I seek for advice. But I always look forward to spending time with Fred. There is something about this coaching relationship that exceeds all others.
Over the years, as I’ve spent a lot of time with people and whether it was formal or informal, I discovered myself either being coached or coaching people. It came natural to me. As an informal/formal coaching relationship, I coached them, trained them and mentored them in some area of ministry, life, or family. In addition to that, I spent five years formally as an IT administrator and programmer and am even Microsoft Certified. During those years, I found myself doing the same thing, just in a business and IT setting.
Over the past year, as I have narrowed down what I felt I was designed to do, I have come to understand that I was wired to teach, train, coach and mentor. As a result, part of the next phase of my life, moving from success to significance, will involve me formally engaging in coaching and teaching relationships.
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David Phillips has served as pastor of Mission Fellowship Church in Middletown, DE for the past five years. During this time, he has led the church to move from an attractional ministry strategy focused on numbers and attendance to a missional strategy focused on personal ministry in the community. The church has sent out over 100 missionaries to all parts of the country ingrained with this mindset. Prior to that, David served as pastor or staff member in the areas of evangelism, youth and music in churches in Alabama and Louisiana. He has also served as a short-term missionary to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in Panama City, FL. In addition to currently serving as pastor, he assesses church planters and is president of Missional Press, a hybrid publishing company focused on Missional Thought, Theology and Practice.
David has a BS in Computer Information Systems from Athens State College in Athens, AL, a M.Div in Biblical Languages from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry, Leadership in the Emerging Culture from George Fox Seminary where he learned under Dr. Len Sweet. His doctoral dissertation focused on the integration of theology and emerging sciences to discover how people learn and unlearn behavior. He has done post-graduate studies in the area of Organizational and Mass Communications at the University of South Florida and the University of Alabama.
He has published one monograph, Chaos in the Church and one book, Kept: a Devotional Commentary on Jude. He is nearing publication of Holy Rewired: Science, the Gospel, and the Journey Towards Wholeness and is also writing a book on Missional Theology based on the Trinity called The MIROR Church: The Church Reflecting the Heart of the Trinity. Finally, his first true ebook, Reframing Success: Missional Metrics for Ministry Success is due out in July 2009. He blogs at http://www.wdavidphillips.com.
In addition to his ministry-related experience, David is a Microsoft Certified Professional and has seven years of IT development and networking experience for several startup firms in Florida and a media publishing division of Time Warner.
David benefits from the The Coaching Leader from Next Level Leadership and years of experience coaching, training, and mentoring people.
Brenna Phillips has served as bi-occupational children’s minister of Mission Fellowship Church in Middletown, DE for the past five years in addition to being a teacher at Kiddie Academy, a daycare center in Middletown, DE. During the past 15 years, she has also served as children’s minister at churches in Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana, in addition to public school and private child development teaching. She has served in children’s ministry at traditional churches, missional and contemporary churches, small churches, and large churches. In addition, she was an adjunct professor of Children’s Ministry at Southeastern Bible College in Birmingham, AL.
Brenna has a BS in Elementary Education from Florida Southern University and a Master’s of Arts in Christian Education from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She has also been accepted into a PhD program in Education and hopes to start soon.