• Personal Issues
• Relationship Issues
• Lifestyle Issues
• Spiritual Issues
• Career Issues
• Purpose & Personality Issues

Counseling follows a path of analysis, diagnosis, and treatment. It often unearths the past in order to determine what is wrong so it may be corrected. Coaching follows the path of discovering personal values, strengths, and desires in order to set goals which will lead to a more positive future.

A biblically-based / faith-based Life Coach is more like a thinking partner who draws out the best in you. He/she will do the following for you:

• Believe in you like no one else
• Listen to you like no one else
• Ask you thought-provoking questions like no one else
• Support and encourage you like no one else
• Test you (through accountability) like no one else

Yes, that’s what makes change predictable. It looks something like this:

• Goals – coaches help you set measurable goals you desire
• Options – coaches help you brainstorm numerous options to attain goals
• Actions – coaches help you take specific actions to accomplish goals
• Launch – coaches help you “blast off” utilizing support and resources
• Sustain – coaches help you sustain the gains you make over the long run

Most coaching takes place by Zoom video or by phone. This is more convenient, very confidential, less costly, and video allows other learning-based features.

Great question! Although it always helps if the coach has life experience with what you’re dealing with, he/she is not an all-around expert about everything in life – that would be impossible. What makes Coaches helpful is that they are CHANGE EXPERTS – they know precisely how change works. So, regardless of what you want in life, they can help you make the necessary changes that will result in you getting what you want out of life.

A mentor is a person who has walked the paths of life ahead of you. They know the perils of the paths, and they can share what worked for them while they were on the journey. But, they cannot take you any further than their own personal knowledge and experience. A Coach does not rely solely on personal knowledge and experience because, honestly, we can receive knowledge from thousands of sources these days. What is often lacking, though, is a thinking partner to travel down the paths of life with you to draw out of you what you already know but just haven’t put into practice. You’re way smarter than you give yourself credit for, and your coach will help you prove that.

That all depends on the client’s motivation, willingness to take action, and obstacles that must be cleared. Action-oriented clients often see immediate results. Those who are not used to setting goals have a slower start, but they quickly learn how change works, and their success gains momentum in just a few sessions.

Beyond seminary training and decades of church work centered on Pastoral Counseling, Dr. Rainey has a life-long passion for spiritual transformation. He is a student of “the ancient paths” as well as new and creative means of transforming the heart in Christ. His favorite book on spirituality is Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard.

Our personality type is a gift from God – it is partly responsible for how we are wired intellectually and emotionally, how we approach the circumstances of life, how we are gifted to succeed, and especially key to the way we relate to others, ourselves, and God. Without full awareness of it, we are handicapped in understanding and controlling ourselves and at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding and reacting to others.

In the larger sense, we all share common purpose as God’s creations: to love God and accept His love, to love others and use our strengths and gifts for their benefit, and to love ourselves. However, in a more personal sense, we are all as unique as a finger print and capable of very special expressions of God’s purpose which no one else can replicate. That’s where coaching comes in: it can provide the discovery process which leads to the personal knowledge of and expression of one’s unique, specialness which is based on personality, deeply-held values, relationship with God, good and bad life experiences, family DNA, strengths and gifts, and deep longings of which few others may be aware. Coaches love the pursuit of life purpose!