THE ART OF INFLUENCE
In that one moment, he solidified something I had witnessed my mother doing over and over. He did not think of himself as higher than he should, but taking on the very nature of a servant, served others. He was following the example of the One he had dedicated his life and ministry to—Jesus. People need to see action, not just hear about it.
Leading through Coaching
That first year of ministry under his leadership, I made my fair share of mistakes. Through each mistake, he guided me much as a coach would. He didn’t fix the issues I had created. He encouraged me and guided me to work the problem and build a solution.
He was incredibly patient with me and with so many others he led. He knew every aspect of the church. He took me on visitations to the hospital, houses, and even places of business. I watched and heard how he spoke and cared for the people we went to see. He turned to me and asked me to pray, to read a Scripture, or just to lay a gentle hand on someone to show we cared. Later my wife called this the “Pastor-Hand move.”
He helped me develop the confidence in relationship with others where it did not matter that we made mistakes; it mattered how we handled them when they were made.
Little did I realize in that first year, the only year I worked alongside Pastor Coetzee, that he was grooming me to take on a role that was going to come as a surprise to me, but not him. Pastor Coetzee had begun to struggle with a disease that eventually took him from us, Parkinson’s Disease.
An Example of Family
Pastor Coetzee invited me into his home on more than one occasion. He and Suzanne had created a family space that would amaze most people. Not only did he have a heart for people, but he and his wife had a huge heart for kids—kids that had been abandoned by their parents because of physical or mental disorders. They were foster parents for children that had special needs.
I remember Marcus. He was just a toddler. His mother had been addicted to drugs, and he didn’t have a father to speak of. They took in Marcus, this child that lived with Down’s Syndrome and many physical complications that required much time and attention. They loved Marcus like one of their own. At any given time in their home, you saw kids running around, Marcus climbing into Pastor Coetzee’s lap, and the love pouring from them. Anyone that was brought into their