13-Week Small Group Leader Training

The 13-Week Small Group Leader Training (SGLT) creates new small group leaders and increases the skills of current ones by modeling a small group over a period of 13 weeks. This comprehensive training includes "co-teaching" lessons with the group leader and ends with each participant actually launching their own small group.

How Do I Launch A13-Week SGLT In My Church?

There are three options for beginning this training in your church.

1. Attend one of our seeJesus Conferences and go through the Small Group Leader Training.
2. Attend a Small Group Leader Training (seminar format).
3. Host a Small Group Leader Training (seminar format) in your church and go through it as a participant.

It is important that you first go through this training yourself in order to be able to lead it effectively. Our Small Group Leader Training will sharpen your own skills in teaching interactive Bible study, giving you a Biblically based vision for vibrant small groups. You'll then be equipped to lead it in your own church.

The 13-Week SGLT begins with you selecting ten people from your church to go through this training. Some may already be small group leaders and some may be people who have never taught before but have potential to lead small groups in your church.

The Co-Teaching Model

Each person co-teaches one lesson. By "co-teaching" we mean that they will teach the first 25-30 minutes and the leader will teach the final 10 minutes. At the end of the session the person teaching that lesson will be asked to do a self-evaluation, other participants give their input, and finally the leader assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson.

The Training Schedule

The schedule begins with eight weekly meetings where you model what a small group looks like. At the end of the eight weeks, each participant or participant couple will begin leading a small group in your church. The SGLT training continues to meet but switches to a monthly meeting for five months. Typically, a church based SGLT will be thirteen sessions-—meeting together eight consecutive weeks (mid-September through mid-November) and then five monthly meetings in December through April. The switch to monthly provides mentoring for the Small Group Leaders as they launch their groups. See a sample 13-week schedule.

A Sample Evening Training Schedule for the Weekly Meetings

7:00 Opening & Fellowship
7:15 Interactive Bible Study
8:00 Prayer Time
8:15 Evaluation
8:30 How to Lead Small Groups
9:00 Closing

• The first hour and fifteen minutes of each session should model a typical small group meeting as closely as possible.
• The next 45 minutes consists of evaluating and training them in small group leadership.
  • They participate in an evaluation for fifteen minutes.
  • The final half hour is teaching them the basics of small group leadership.
• An outline of topics to teach during this time will be available for download soon.
  

Instructions for Co-Teaching Lessons

The ten lessons selected from the Person of Jesus manual for co-teaching were chosen because they are a good representation of the manual as a whole, and the lessons themselves tie in directly with issues in small group leadership. In order to give more preparation for each co-teacher, the following download has a list of all ten lessons and personalized teaching instructions for each lesson. Outside of these ten lessons, the leader will teach two lessons at the beginning and one at the end for a total of 13 lessons. See Instructions for Co-Teaching Lessons.

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