While my dog, Bear, is obviously a good listener, he’s also a living reminder for me of the value of taking the next best step.

A series of people taking the next best step helped Bear move from being a sick dog in an abusive “home” (and I use the word “home” loosely) to being a much-beloved member of my family.

The next best step.

Good things don’t happen unless we’re willing to take the next best step. We don’t always know where they’re going to lead, but nothing changes without that next step.

My work and training has been a series of next best steps.

I’m seminary trained (MDiv) and have served on a church staff, as an interim pastor, as the first editor of a daily devotional magazine, and as a hospital chaplain. I have an additional masters in pastoral care and counseling (MA), and for roughly two decades have been a licensed therapist in North Carolina.

I’ve done a yearlong training in the creative and insightful methods of family therapy pioneer Virginia Satir. At the invitation of Kubler-Ross’ staff, I trained with them in working with grief.

Working first with her staff, and now continuing the next generation of her work I’ve helped lead grief workshops in California, New Hampshire, Maine, and North Carolina.

But wait, there’s more.

Taking the next best step led me to a year of coach training and certification with Summit Coaching, a part of Pinnacle Leadership Associates. I’ve now joined PInnacle as an Associate, providing coaching for clergy, working with churches and creating grief resources such as Navigating GriefLand.

Why should any of this matter?

I believe that the richness and variety of my next best steps and where they have led have also prepared me well for my work now as a coach. While I don’t do therapy with coaching clients, through years of my work as a therapist I’ve learned a lot about people, about what motivates us and what holds us back., how we change and how we grow.

I recognize the many faces of loss, even and especially those that are seldom understood as “a real loss.”

Having served for nearly forty decades, I understand the unique challenges of ministry.

What also matters is that I believe in our ability to take small steps, even if we’re not at all sure of the destination. And that sometimes those small steps lead us to lives that just right.

Let’s talk.