Whole Life App Coach Tutorial
Welcome
The mission of the Whole Life app is to help followers of Jesus support one another’s spiritual lives in a way that’s fun, doable, and fruitful.
This orientation is experiential, so you can lead others through the app after you’ve experienced it.
What is a Coach?
In this app, a coach organizes a pod, with one or more people, and takes first responsibility to care about the spiritual growth of others.
Coaches aren’t necessarily church leaders or pastors. A coach could be anyone who has been seriously following Jesus for years and has the availability and emotional maturity to walk with someone else.
In this app, coaches are participant-coaches. You’re on the journey with those you’re coaching, and you’ll participate in all the same ways they do. You’re not expected to have all the answers. This app expects you to respect God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, respect the Bible as God’s Word, participate fully, and pray sincerely for those you coach.
As a coach, you can choose to meet with someone you consider a peer, or someone who hopes to learn from you. What’s important is for everyone to be supported in the spiritual life, and as many people as possible supporting others’ spiritual journeys.
App Overview
At the bottom of the app, you’ll see icons for the main sections of the app.
In the People section, you keep track of the people, pods, your profile, and prayer requests.
In the Convos section, you’ll keep track of what conversation guides you have done and will do.
In the Actions section, you’ll keep track of what action steps you plan to take as part of your own spiritual growth.
In the Photojournal section, you’ll build a spiritual photojournal, with entries from your spiritual history, your stories of God at work in your life, and the insights you capture along the way.
In the More section, you’ll find resources to help you get thos most out of the app. The best way to learn how to use the app is by doing it.
So in this coach pod, we’re going to go through a simple journey to help you get familiar with the app. We’ll first get our pod ready. Then we’ll have a brief Starter Convo together, the same convo you start with any pod. Then we’ll walk through a sample Generic Convo together so you can get familiar with how this app does spiritual growth. Finally, we’ll take a brief look at the Celebration conversation that rounds out a pod spiritual journey.
Pod Setup
Go to the People tab.
Tap the Profile icon on the top right. This is your profile. Tap Edit to add your information.
Go back to the People tab, and tap the plus-square icon to add a new pod. Add the details. You should see yourself in the pod.
Go back to the People tab, and tap the plus-person icon to add a new person. Add the details for one of us.
Finally, tap on your pod to open it. Tap Edit, and next to Members tap Edit. Add the person to the Pod and tap Done.
You should now have a working Pod. Now go to the Convos Tab.
In the top right, tap the plus-talk-bubble icon to browse available convos.
Tap the Starter Convo to view its details. Tap Add To… in the rop right, and select your new pod. Do the same with the Celebration Convo.
In the Topics Browse page, you’ll see there are 20 topics that cover every major aspect of Christian life. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find Any Situation, as well as Coach Pod topics. We're currently doing Coach Orientation, which has all the notes from today.
The Any Situation generic convo has no specific topic, but is helpful for any situation, or in case something comes up that doesn’t fit in the other topics. We'll use it today for practice.
Add the Coach Orientation and Any Situation convo to your pod.
Go Back to the Convos top page, and you can see all the upcoming convos for this pod.
The Basic Convo Journey
The Starter Convo
Tap on the Starter Convo, and read through it together. This is how you will orient others to the app. The Convo Tap on the Any Situation convo. You should see a cross of empty tiles (or a list of with tiles). This is the basic order of every convo. As you do each section, the tiles will fill in with images. Tap on the green question mark in the top right. These icons show information and tips to guide you through the convo. Let’s walk through a basic convo!
Basic Convo
My Story
Tap on My Story. Here you can add snapshots (metaphorically and literally!) of your spiritual history. For now, add a quick note and a photo from your phone. Then tap on it to select it for this convo. It has a yellow outline when it’s selected. This will be the piece of your backstory that you will share with the pod. Ideally you can add backstory entries before you meet. Tap Done to go back to the convo main view.
Pod Connect
Tap on Pod Connect. Here is where you’ll start your pod meeting. Greet each other, catch up, and then start sharies your backstories. You don’t need to share your entire history on the topic when you share. Just give us one glimpse of your history. You’ll get to know each other over time, and each part of Your story is valuable. Someone share their backstory now. Sharing from our backstories is a time for learning about where each other is coming from, without judgment. We’re all growing from where we’ve been. In a real convo, everyone would share a piece of their history with that topic. Since this is a generic topic, the backstory can be pretty broad. If you’re using this topic to go into a specific issue not listed, you can ask the group to share a little of their history with the issue you’re going to discuss.
God Connect
Tap on God Connect. In this section, we’ll turn our focus on the presence of God. You’ll see the title of a suggested meditation. Tap on it to see the details. As the coach, you can slowly read aloud the meditation, pausing for about 10 seconds after every paragraph. Others can close their eyes or look at the candle. When you’re done, you can ask if anyone wants share what happened for them during the meditation. The last question in the meditation is a good prompt, but you can share whatever you want, or not share anything if you prefer. The God Connect meditation helps us practice noticing God’s presence and movement within us. Tap Done.
Word Connect
Tap on Word Connect. In this section, you’ll do a relational Bible reading. The first questions focus on our relationships with God and one another, and our life situation. The questions are the same for every convo, and they’re useful any time you’re looking at the Bible. Let someone select a passage. It’s important as a coach to let others do as much choosing as possible, through this app, so that it’s a more active experience. Everyone tap on the passage. Tap it again to open it in YouVersion Holy Bible app. It will open to whatever version you have on the app. Someone read the passage. Now let people choose one question from each rectangle. Everyone doesn’t have to answer the same question. If there’s time, let each person choose a conversation starter, and everyone else can respond to the question they chose. Tap Done.
Action Prayer
Tap on Action Prayer. Here you’ll prayerfully consider an action step you can do before the next time you meet that can help you grow in this topic area. Tap on the Listen meditation. Again, let everyone close their eyes or look at the candle. Slowly read the meditation, leaving 10 seconds between paragraphs. Now return to the Action Prayer Page. Did anything come to mind you feel prompted to do? If so, type it in the My Action box and tap save. If not, tap Browse ideas. Notice if any action stands out to you. Tap on it to see its details. Tap Add to My Actions to select it. Now close the group in prayer, and decide when you’ll meet next.
Do & See
Imagine now you’re back in your life and you’re going to try your action step. Tap Do & See. To see instructions, tap Instructions. Once you’ve tried it, tap Tried Action. Now it’s time to add a God Story. What did God do when you tried your action step? Tap Add God Story, and write notes. Add a photo if possible. Tap Done.
Followup
Now imagine you’re back together for your next Pod meeting. Tap Followup. Here’s you’ll see guidance through a convo to explore and share what happened when you each did your own action steps. Start by sharing God stories. Then have a God moment, noticing God’s presence. Then have discussion as time permits. Leave significnt time to pray for one another. And that’s a basic convo! As a pod, you can decide on your topics together. You can stay on one topic for a while, or move around. Each time you repeat a topic, add the topic to your pod again from Browse, because each time will have different backstories, Bible readings, God connect meditations, and action steps, so it’s like a whole new convo experience.
Celebration Convo
After a journey (after a few convo cycles or maybe a 12 week season), you’ll do a Celebration Convo. Tap on the Celebration Convo. Here you’ll see lots of options for reviewing your journey together, sharing what God is doing in your life, and considering next steps. And that rounds out the journey with the Whole Life App!
What Makes a Good Coach?
Being a good coach goes beyond walking through the app. It’s also about setting a tone, creating a space where people can grow spiritually. Find out more at Setting the Tone for Spiritual Growth.