Nobody Journeys Alone: ELCA Coaching Shares 2025 Impact Report
The ELCA Coaching Ministry has released its first-ever impact report, highlighting how coaching is helping leaders, congregations, synods, and communities discern God’s call with greater clarity, courage, and connection.
The 2025 ELCA Coaching Impact Report shares a growing story of accompaniment across the church — a ministry rooted not in providing quick answers, but in listening deeply, asking faithful questions, and helping people discern where God is already at work. In a time of change and uncertainty, coaching is increasingly becoming a meaningful ministry of support for rostered leaders, lay leaders, young adults, congregations, and ministry partners.
“This impact report reflects more than growth in numbers,” writes Jill Beverlin, Program Director of ELCA Coaching Ministries. “It tells a story of widening circles of trust—across synods and congregations, among young adults and those that come from historically marginalized spaces, and beyond the church’s traditional walls.”
The report highlights a record-setting year for ELCA Coaching in 2025:
96 coaches reporting, up from 65 in 2024
6,889 coaching hours logged, up from 6,431 in 2024
1,507 coaching relationships, up from 1,350 in 2024
An 85% increase in coaching relationships since 2022
Coaching ministry is reaching a broad range of people and communities, including young adults, people new to or outside the ELCA, LGBTQIA+ communities, individuals not currently connected to a faith community, and historically marginalized groups. The report also highlights coaching work in congregational vitality, first call ministry, seminary formation, youth ministry, global mission, prison ministry, grief and end-of-life care, and care for creation.
One coach described accompanying a pastor discerning a new call who moved from fear and uncertainty toward renewed confidence in their gifts for ministry. Another shared how coaching supported reconciliation between an incarcerated father and his estranged children. These stories reflect coaching’s deeper purpose: helping people discover clarity, belonging, and renewed purpose in the midst of life’s complexity.
As Lutherans, we understand ministry as something we do together. Coaching offers one way of embodying that shared calling — walking alongside one another with curiosity, compassion, and trust in the Holy Spirit.
The 2025 ELCA Coaching Impact Report is available here as PDF or on the ELCA Coaching website homepage under the heading “The Difference Coaching Makes!” and may be especially helpful for congregational leaders, rostered ministers, and ministry teams exploring discernment, leadership development, or congregational vitality.
