One of the questions that I had for other groups pastors when I began leading group life at Grace was, “How do you do leadership training?”  Honestly, I didn’t get any satisfactory answers.  Some said that they do an intense, all-afternoon training once/month, 2 all-day trainings/year, and even more training for new leaders.  Whew!  It wore me out just hearing their plan!  Other leaders only take their group leaders to conferences for training.  Some churches don’t do anything.  I wasn’t satisfied with any of those plans.  I’m always trying to think of outside-the-box ideas on how to train small group leaders here at Grace Community Church.  This week, I’m leading a training, and I’m pretty excited about it.  Here are some of the highlights.  If this is something you can apply in your setting, feel free to use it!  If you’re a small group leader, consider sharing this with your groups pastor.  I’ve laid out the general idea/direction that we’re going.  I haven’t included specifics, because I haven’t completed the training yet, and want leaders to feel like they’ll get new information by coming!

Here are the guiding principles I developed for leadership training:

1. Do training on the night that groups meet.  By offering training on the nights that each of our groups meet, I ensure that they’ve got the night available.  In other words, if your group meets on Tuesday nights, then you’ve set aside every Tuesday night already, so the excuse of, “I’ve already got something else planned on that night” doesn’t work.  In addition, this pushes group leaders to find an apprentice to lead their group that night.  Group leaders must ask someone in their group to lead while they attend the training.  This helps us to locate potential leaders, and gives those potential leaders the chance to actually lead the group for a night.

2. During the training, give leaders time to talk with each other.  You do that in small groups, right?  Then why should leadership training be any different?  If your small groups are driven by discussion (and not by a teacher behind a lectern), then why should your training events be vastly different?  Leaders can connect with each other, be encouraged by each other, and learn from successes and failures that they’re all having.

3. Make the training worth their time. I’m presenting new information, new stuff that they could not get elsewhere.  It’s not stuff that I could simply share by email.  It’s much better to communicate these things with them face-to-face.  If the leaders feel like it’s a waste of their time, they won’t come.  I need to make sure that what I’m sharing is helpful for them and their group, both immediately and as they’re thinking about how to grow their group in the future.  If what I’m sharing could be shared in an email, I’d share it in an email…that would be much easier, quicker, and cheaper.

4. Honor them.  They’re leading groups for you on a regular basis…at least get them some food!  Let them know how much of a difference they’re making in the lives of those they’re ministering to.

5. Cast vision.  I’m going to change their minds about something.  I want them to leave with a different view on small groups and the church than when they came.  If they don’t leave with a different thought, then why did they come?  If I don’t work to change their minds about something, then I’d say the training wasn’t worth their time.

I’m honored to have the opportunity to sound the trumpet for small groups here at Grace.  My prayer is that others would hear the trumpet and come on board.