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Q & A

Q & A Discussion: Sam O'Neal

Our church's monthly training meetings with small-group leaders have become stagnant. How can we make training a helpful and beneficial experience?

Sam O'Neal responds in our Q & A discussion.

Topics:	Coaching, Developing, Empowering, Training
Filters:	Coach, Director, Pastor, Train
Purpose:	Ministry
References:	None
Date Added:	June 06, 2011

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Total Reader Responses: 0 (see below)

That's a great question, and actually a pretty complex issue. So I'll tackle it in a few different ways.

First, I would encourage you not to view this training time for your small-group leaders as primarily an "academic" experience. Meaning, it's best that most of your monthly meetings are not centered around funneling information to your leaders. Your goal should be to nurture your group leaders, not necessarily to inform them.

And the best way to do that is to gather your leaders in a more intimate setting where they can interact with you and with each other. Have them worship together. Have them go through a devotional experience together. Have them pray together. Incorporate some icebreakers, or something else that's fun. Provide some food. Allow a time for questions and answers where group leaders can vocalize the issues they need help with, or the recent events they are excited about. And if you have a large group of leaders (more than 10 or 12), I would recommend subgrouping for most of those experiences.

Now, at this point you may be thinking: You're just telling me to have a small group for my small-group leaders. And you would be correct. Your monthly meetings are a great opportunity for you to model how an effective small-group meeting can look. And I'll bet your leaders will enjoy a chance to focus on receiving from the small-group experience, instead of giving most of the time.

Second, I do think your church can supplement these "leader groups" with training where the express goal is more academic—more information-based. This could be quarterly or twice a year, depending on how receptive your leaders are and how much training you think they need.

There are a couple things you should keep in mind when planning a meeting with the goal to "train":

Have a plan. Make sure you have one specific point or skill that you want your leaders to learn. This will keep the training focused and give everyone a better chance of retaining the most important information. It also keeps things from going too long. (In terms of time, I think two hours is a good mark to shoot for, give or take). And plan out the various sections of the meeting so that things run as smoothly as possible.
Keep your training personal. Identify the areas where your specific leaders need to grow, and focus on those.
Make your training interesting and fun. Use role-playing and icebreakers. Use video presentations from great speakers. Try to be as creative as possible to keep people focused and interested.
Keep training relational. Make sure people are interacting and combining their knowledge/skills.
Make your training applicational. Help your leaders see specific ways that they can incorporate what you've taught them into your groups.