MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Pastor Derek Hollis wants the congregation at Covenant Harvest Church to understand something clearly: his coaching business is not a distraction from ministry.
It is ministry.
"I want to name the elephant in the room," Hollis said from the pulpit last Sunday, during what he later described as "a scheduled transparency moment." "Some of you have asked about Kingdom Aligned Coaching. You've seen the website. You've seen the retreat pricing. And I want you to know: every single dollar I earn through that work funds the advancement of the Kingdom. Which is the same thing you're doing when you put your check in the plate."
Hollis launched Kingdom Aligned Coaching eighteen months ago. He currently offers three tiers: a $500 single clarity call, a $3,000 six-week intensive, and a $12,000 annual coaching relationship he calls the "Covenant Partner Program." He has had fourteen paying clients this year, all of whom are pastors, church planters, or Christian business owners. He said the client list was "growing, by grace."
The coaching content draws from what Hollis calls "Kingdom economics," a framework he developed over two years of studying Proverbs, Deuteronomy 8, and the parable of the talents. He has also cited Dr. Myron Golden, whose BOSS Moves curriculum he called "foundational."
When asked what distinguished his coaching from secular business coaching, Hollis said: "Prayer, and the Holy Spirit." He was asked if there were any practical distinctions. He said: "We close every session in prayer."
Congregation member Phil Garrett, 52, who owns a plumbing company and has attended Covenant Harvest for six years, said he did not have a problem with the coaching business. "He works hard," Garrett said. "I just wish I knew when he was working on his sermons versus when he was working on the coaching content." He said he noticed the Sunday message had been shorter lately.
Hollis said sermon length had no correlation to his coaching workload. He said the Holy Spirit sometimes calls for a shorter message.
He said the congregation had received the transparency moment "with a lot of grace." He said he would address the retreat pricing "at the appropriate time."
The Covenant Partner Program currently has two active clients.
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