APRIL SPECIAL EVENT
Ben Olsen-Director of Western Seminary's Coach Training Program
Please join us for the CCNI April 2025 Coaching in the Church community group meeting on April 16th at 3 pm ET. We are pleased to have Ben Olsen as our guest speaker for the meeting. Ben Olsen is the Director of Coaching Education & Training at Western Seminary.
Ben will share a history of Western's coaching program (the first seminary to have an ICF accredited program) and how it's evolved and changed over the years. We will also learn about their instructors, the program's faith-based approach to coaching, and how Western Seminary coaching graduates use coaching in their own Church and faith communities. There will be plenty of time for Q&A as well.
Ben Olsen's impressive background includes spending 16 years as a professional actor before leveraging his training and insights into the helping professions and pastoral care. For over 20 years, Ben has been facilitating seminars and workshops, teaching, consulting, pastoral and addictions counseling, and coaching in various contexts. He holds degrees from Western Seminary, Midwestern State, and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts NYC, along with various other certifications.
Ken Kessler and Bob Weinkle will host and facilitate this event.
Your Facilitators
Ken Kessler
Ken has a great love for the local church. His thirty-five years of ministry have been built around ministries of the local church. He loves to see the church live to its full Kingdom potential and has devoted his life to find ways to assist churches and their leaders.
Ken presently serves as Director for the Empowering Coaching Network at the Baptist General Association of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. Ken has been coaching church leaders and churches since 2004 and has earned his PCC status through International Coach Federation. In 1995, Ken earned a Doctor of Ministry from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His learning emphasis has been on coaching church members and leaders to grow in their learning capacities in personal, spiritual, and leadership areas.
He has served on the BGAV staff and lived in Richmond area since 2008. Ken is known best as the husband of Teresa Vaughn of Greenville, SC, and the father of three sons, Kevin, Bryan, and Jacob.
Bob Weinkle
Bob is an award-winning leader with over 35 years of experience in the military, corporate, federal government, and non-profit sectors. Bob is a published author, speaker, instructor, facilitator and served as an Associate Professor of Leadership and Management at Georgia Institute of Technology and Morehouse College. Bob holds credentials as a CCNI Certified Professional Christian Coach (CPCC), ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and a NCDA Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP)™. He is the founder of Trifecta Coaching and Leadership Consulting where he provides leadership and career coaching services.
Bob’s educational background: MS in Organizational Behavior & Executive Coaching; University of Texas-Dallas; MS in Logistics Management, Florida Institute of Technology; BS degree in Communications, University of Tennessee; and a graduate of Harvard University’s National Leadership Preparedness Initiative (NPLI) executive program.
As a retired senior military officer and a retired federal senior supervisor, he has lived and worked in over 22 countries around the world and found God’s love for people in each location.