Working to build an effective coaching structure?  I referred to a new concept from Great by Choice, Jim Collins’ most recent book in a recent post.  It turns out to have tremendous application for anyone working on their coaching structure.  Let me take a paragraph to bring you up to speed.  Then, I’ll show you how we’re applying it right now.

Get Up to Speed

A SMaC recipe is the code for translating a high-level Hedgehog Concept into specific action and for keeping an organization focused in the same direction, thereby building flywheel momentum (p. 186, Great by Choice).”  Greek so far?  You can get more in my previous post, but the essence of a hedgehog concept is simply the thing your organization is really designed and equipped to do and the flywheel effect is the product of repeated efforts to build momentum.

What does SMaC stand for?  Specific, methodical, and consistent practices.  One of the companies that Collins’ studied was Southwest Airlines.  A shortened example of their SMaC recipe is that they’ve determined to:

• remain a short haul carrier, under two hour segments
• utilize the 737 as their only aircraft
• stay out of food services
• keep the passenger as their #1 product. Don’t carry air freight or mail

A Recent Memo to My Team:

Hey guys…want to make sure we’re all thinking the same way about coaching and coaching assignments.  Here’s where we should be from a principle standpoint:

1. Everyone needs to be cared for by someone and no one ought to be caring for more than about 10.  This is referred to as span of care and is the principle that ought to be driving our awareness of a shortage of coaches (i.e., if you have 236 groups and anything less than 24 coaches…you cannot expect to have a 1 to 10 ratio).
2. As we build an effective coaching structure (with a suitable span of care and maturing capabilities),  flexibility is an essential trait for a coach.  As much as we will always prefer consistent coaching assignment over the life a leader (ideal), there will of necessity be shifting coverage from time to time (real).
3. Existing groups (older than 3 to 6 months) are very hard to retroactively assign to a coach.  They will only rarely accept coaching.  Their thinking is almost always, “Why do I need a coach?  I know how to lead a group.”  This understanding ought to be driving our awareness that the critical need isn’t to provide equal care for all leaders.  Instead, we ought to be paying the most attention to newer leaders.  Seasoned, existing leaders, who “know” they don’t need a coach need to be contacted, but not coached.
4. New group leaders (whether beginning as hosts or connection leaders) are especially open to coaching and ought to be our first priority for coaching assignments.
5. New coaches (launch phase coaches) ought to be given one or two groups (1 or 2) during their toe-in-the-water phase.  Once they successfully completed the 10 to 13 week test drive, assuming they are both fruitful in the task and fulfilled doing it, we can give them an opportunity to opt-in to full-fledged coaching.

These five principles should define our coaching assignments (both right now and going forward).

Great question from a reader today.  Bet you’ve had the same question.  Here it is:

I’m having a tough time reconciling two approaches to coaching and that makes it hard to decide on the right role and job description for a coach.  Loved Jim Egli’s recent book Small Groups Big Impact which highlighted an effective coaching structure as the dominant factor correlating with the success of the small group ministry.  Egli recommends the coach care for and support about five leaders, meeting with them and pulling together in huddles.

I also read and like Steve Gladen’s new book Small Groups with Purpose.  There he describes how they’ve eliminated the ‘coach’ level in the structure and have gone to a community leader overseeing 25 small group leaders, providing customized care for each one to the degree that they need, which will vary from leader to leader.  The main factor he cites is that many leaders want nothing to do with a coach, no matter what you say their role is (which leads to burnout of volunteer coaches). We have seen this pushback from leaders when we tried (without success) to implement coaching a few years back.  We’re a small to midsize church with 25 groups whose leaders have been highly independent and without much care or direct oversight for a while now.

How can I reconcile Egli’s findings with Gladen’s recommendations?  Which parts of the two approaches are key to consider when trying to (re)start a coaching system in a culture resistant to coaching?*

Before I even respond…let me say you’re asking a great questions!  Right on target for many, many of us.

Here’s how I’d break it down:

• First, I think Steve would agree that a 1 to 5 ratio is an ideal ratio.  Carl George pointed this out years ago and talking about span of care said, “Everyone needs to be cared for by someone but no one can really care for more than about 10.”  Few, if any, within the small group community would argue with that wisdom.
• Second, it should be acknowledged that as long as we live in free countries (welcome to my readers from around the world!)…you can’t really force small group leaders to respond to a coaching assignment.  Right?  You must put this into your equation.  None of us doubt Egli’s findings in any way.  It has way more to do with the willingness of the leader to accept the relationship.
• Third, I’d want to point out that one of the greatest challenges in small group ministry is the attempt to retroactively assign coaches to existing groups.  In my experience, once a group has been meeting longer than about three months without a coach, it is very difficult to assign one.  After all, they’ve survived on their own.  In their minds, they can do it without help.  Of course, that reasoning really misses the point.  Once they’ve been meeting that long, they’ve probably figured out many of the most obvious coaching concepts (Coaching FAQ: How Much of Coaching is about Technique? will provide some helpful detail on this point.
• Fourth, along the same lines, Steve would point out that while some small group leaders will accept the kinds of care (read: accountability, challenge, shepherding) that they really need in order to grow spiritually, the majority will not.  Their reaction ranges from failure to prioritize and avoidance, all the way over to pushback.  What is the wise course of action at this point?  Providing a level of care that they will accept.

What should you be doing, given the scenario you describe?  First, I’ve written two articles that may provide some help with the prickly issue of providing coaching for group leaders that are resistant: How to Implement Coaching for Existing Groups and Coaching FAQ: What to Do When Your Leaders Don’t Want Coaches.  And second, I’d suggest that you thoroughly diagnose the coaches who are currently serving and carefully evaluate any new recruits.  Diagnosis: The Coaches in Your System and Recruiting Coaches: When Not to Compromise will help you do that.

What do you think?  Got a question?  Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

*I’ve edited the readers questions slightly in order to provide clarification.

You’ve taken the challenge and you’re beginning to work your way through the three immediate action steps that pay off big time.  Or you’re at least thinking about it.  You might be all the way up to recruiting the additional coaches you’ll need for this fall’s church-wide campaign.

If you are…good for you.  There’s still one thing you need to do before you take another step.  You need to clarify the win for the launch-phase coaches you recruit.  Here are the wins I’ve identified:

Launch Phase Coach Wins (These are the actual coach wins)

• Every host has a great experience.  Note: It’s not essential that every group make it for this to happen.  A host can have a great experience even when their group never has a single meeting.  It’s all in how they’re treated by their coach.
• 70% (or more) of the groups that actually launch are still meeting into the 3rd curriculum.

Small Group Pastor/Champion Wins (These are the wins for the ministry overall)

In the same way every host who is recruited only makes a six-week commitment…but the hope exists that all will have a great experience and choose to continue, every launch-phase coach is making a 10 to 13 week commitment…but the hope exists that many will discover that they are a perfect fit for this essential role (i.e., that they are fruitful and fulfilled).

That said, here are the wins I’ve identified:

• Careful observation of each launch-phase coach’s performance evaluates their fruitfulness and identifies the true hundred-fold players.
• Skillful exit conversation with each coach (remember, they’ve only made a 10 to 13 week commitment) assesses for fulfillment.  Note: Fruitfulness and fulfillment is required.  Fruitfulness without fulfillment will never go the distance.  Fulfillment without fruitfulness is coaching in name only.  Only the two together will get the job done.
• Every coach has a great experience.  Note: This makes the role of the small group pastor/champion essential in doing for the coach whatever you want the coach to do for the leader (and by extension, whatever you want the leader to do for the member).

Need help with this?  Sometimes the best move you can make is to bring in a strategic outsider with fresh eyes to join the conversation.  I’d love to help you.  Why not Email Me to find out how easy it is to get started?

One of the most exciting aspects of a church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy is that they make it possible to start waves of new groups.  Almost every other strategy is addition (i.e., your apprentice is finally ready to leave the next, so you go from one group to two).  A church-wide campaign using the HOST strategy, on the other hand, allows you to start 30 new groups at a time (or 300…depending on the size of the church).

And that is a very good thing.  But like I often say, there’s an upside and a downside to everything.  In this case, you’re multiplying the number of leaders, the number of groups, and the number of people in groups.  That’s a big upside.  You’re also multiplying the number of leaders who really need to be cared for…right now.  And that brings us to the downside.  It means that instead of adding 1 coach this year, you might need to add 6 (or 60 depending on the size of the church and the span-of-care you’re comfortable with).

Then again…since there is no problem-free, that’s a very good problem to have.  Don’t you think?  Who would’t want the problem of having to recruit more coaches (or come up with other care strategies) because you were adding so many groups it was overextending the capacity of your current coaching team?

But how to find the number of coaches you need?  Where will they come from?  What will motivate them to say “yes?”  Can you find enough?  I think you can if you are looking in the right places and asking the right way.  We talked yesterday about how to find potential coaches.  Today, I want to talk about a special technique that makes it easier to recruit what I call launch-phase coaches for church-wide campaigns.

Recruiting Launch-Phase Coaches for Church-Wide Campaigns

There are three keys to this strategy:

First, make a list of 100-fold players that if they would say “yes” would provide a great experience for every new host in their care.  Don’t compromise on this.  If you take 30-fold players, you will be providing a 30-fold experience (and that is not the kind of thing that sustains new groups).

Second, develop a launch-phase job description that makes your expectations crystal clear and at the same time expertly addresses the big concerns of 100-fold players.  Here’s the one I used just this past fall when we did 40 Days of Purpose.  Go ahead and click to open it note a few things:

1. I’m recruiting them to a limited term (10 to 13 weeks) commitment.  That is really big.  When you recruit for a church-wide campaign, you need lots of help right away.  But…you really want to get them in the door with an easy first commitment (note the similarity to the way we think about recruiting hosts which is a 6 week commitment).
2. I’m recruiting them a specific time commitment that is significant (2 to 5 hours), but with explanation that “most weeks it really will be more like 1 to 2 hours.  Just imagine though, what might happen if as you’re making your calls you come across a really tough situation.  That might add to your commitment that week, but it’s for a limited duration (10 to 13 weeks).
3. I will be providing full training (see the second page of the job description).  This is a big thing.  Note that I’m providing 4 conference call training sessions.  They’re not driving in to do these centrally.  They’re in the evening after the kids are down.  They can even be in their pajamas.

Individually meet with the prospective coaches on your list for coffee, breakfast or lunch.  It will be tempting to call them.  It will be even more tempting to hold a centralized meeting and recruit them all at the same time.  That is much less effective.  Here is a script I’ve used to recruit launch-phase coaches.

You can do this.  You’ve got the people.  There are no exceptions to the rule that every church has untapped (or at least out of position 100-fold leaders) who will respond and make a huge difference if they’re just given an opportunity.

What’s next?  Be sure and read Life-Threatening Situations Call for Extreme Measures.  Did you miss yesterday’s post?  (Three Immediate Action Steps That Pay Off Big Time)

Bill Donahue has been one of the most influential voices in small group ministry for almost two decades.  As a key player in the grouplife ministry at Willow Creek Community Church and the Willow Creek Association for 18 years, Bill was involved in many of the developments that have influenced so many of us.

I recently had an opportunity to ask him for some insight into the leadership secret that helps turn meetings into moments.  Here’s how it went:

Mark: Building a Church of Small Groups has been a real source of inspiration for many of us over the last 10 years.  One of the sections that continually pops up in conversation explores how to turn routine meetings into moments.  Why do you think the idea of turning meetings into moments has been so important to so many people?

Bill: People are tired of having meetings that seem to be trivial, scripted or just too routine. And many people think that a “group” = “meeting” instead of seeing the full range of community experiences and relationships that could exist.

I consider a group meeting successful, regardless of content and format, if people meet God and one another in significant, meaningful ways.  That means we leaders must guide a meeting in such a way that creates an environment for spiritual growth, and a place for connecting with God at the personal and group level.

Mark: You point out that Jesus led his group into spiritual community by creating moments.  Can you give an example of a time when Jesus created a moment?

Bill: Jesus created a moment when he picked up the towel and washed their feet.  It caught them off guard and challenged them to think out of the box.  My wife and I were leading a group and she placed a pile of small rocks in the middle of the room.  Each had a character quality or attribute of God on it.  Then she asked, “Complete the sentence: ‘As I look back at the week I just experienced, I am so glad that God is _________________.’”

As people answered she invited them to take a rock that had that quality or attribute.  Then we discussed who God was, worshiped using a CD, and then she invited people to take a stone home with them to place on a desk at work or some visible place as a reminder.  It created a very powerful and memorable moment around God’s character.

Mark: There are also times when an opportunity to “seize a moment” presents itself.  What did that look like for Jesus?

Bill: As Christ was teaching in the upper room (John 13:33ff) we see he mentions his departure, then talks about love.  But the disciples are not listening.  They are still stunned by his reference to his leaving.  So instead of asking, “Tell us more of this love,” Peter says, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus, instead of saying, “Hey—I was talking about love!” sees they are worried.  So, in John 14:1ff he begins to comfort them.  He has seized a moment of fear and anxiety, and addressed it.

When leading a group, try to remain aware of not just the content you are discussing, but the reaction you are seeing – body language, tone of voice, distracted comments.  These may indicate that there are other things going on.  Step into that moment and see what the Holy Spirit is doing.  Perhaps there is fear, or misunderstanding, or some other theme that is in conflict with the content of the discussion.

Mark: And then, there are times when Jesus marked moments.  In the book you refer to the last supper, when Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” providing an indelible reminder of his death every time they ever celebrated it again.  How can we mark moments in that way?

Bill: Marking moments is simple.  Take some time to pause and reflect on the work of God in your group.  Create a celebration for what he has been doing, either at the meeting or at a favorite restaurant.  Or pause and pray to give thanks for a new insight, a heart that has just opened for the first time, or a relational risk someone has taken.

You can ask people to write on a large sheet of paper the work they see God doing in the group.  Allow each person time to write some thoughts or draw pictures.  Then allow each one to describe the words or images, naming the specific work of God that has been done in the context of the group.  It will become a memory, a tangible way to chronicle God’s grace and goodness.  Memories matter!

Mark: This is great stuff, Bill!  Thank you so much for sharing with us all!

————-

You really need to subscribe to Bill’s blog and follow him on twitter or connect with him on Facebook.

His books, Building a Church of Small Groups, The 7 Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry and Walking the Small Group Tightrope (with Russ Robinson), along with Leading Life-Changing Small Groups and Coaching Life-Changing Small Group Leaders (with Greg Bowman) have been essential reading for all of us.

Today we have the continuation of yesterday’s interview with Steve Gladen on Saddleback’s Leadership Pathway.  If you’ve ever wondered how Saddleback helps people who simply sign up to host a six-week small group become a full-fledged leader…you’ll find a lot of answers here.  If you missed part one of the interview, you can read it right here.

Here’s Part Two:

Mark: So they’ve moved from the baby steps of a 6 week commitment to a decision to continue, attended a 3 hour course and now are connected with a mentoring community leader.  What happens next?

Steve: The third step along the leadership pathway is Leader Training 2.  This five-module training course is led by the H.O.S.T.’s community leader and is often held in the CL’s home. It focuses on deepening the five purposes in the lives of the leaders and showing them how to balance the purposes within their groups. These five modules can take up to two years to complete.  We don’t want H.O.S.T.s to take the next module until they are actually putting the previous one into practice.  The five modules are:

• Health—developing discipleship and helping your group and individual group members to be balanced.
• Character—deepening your heart toward worship.
• Skills—diving below the surface to understand true community.
• Empower—helping you do ministry inside your group or with other groups, believer to believer.
• P.E.A.C.E.—directing your group toward the P.E.A.C.E. Plan, which is our church’s mission arm and is done personally, locally, and globally.

Mark: It’s my understanding that in the same way your coaching structure is designed to provide a kind of customized level of care for each leader, the way Leader Training 2 plays out is different depending on the maturity of the leader.

Steve:  That’s correct.  As H.O.S.T.s enter the Leader Training 2 phase, they start the discipleship module called Health. This them the value of balancing a group in the five biblical purposes. Once they have completed LT2 Health, they proceed down one of two paths. If they are leading a new group, they will focus first on the LT2 modules of Character and Skills, which compliment the new journey they are on. If their group is more seasoned, we direct them toward LT2 Empower and P.E.A.C.E.  These modules are a bit more challenging and designed for the small group with a strong foundation in place.  Once H.O.S.T.s have completed Leader Training 2, they are official leaders.

Mark: So once they’ve completed Leader Training 2 they’ve had quite a journey.  They might’ve invested as much as a couple years in the process.  What happens next?

Steve: The fourth step along the Leadership Pathway is our Gatherings where we show our leaders how much we care about them.  These gatherings also keep them tied to the vision.  Remember, if you have multiple sites (one church in different locations), you can also use Gatherings as a way to unify the sites around the common vision.

Mark: It’s been a great privilege and an honor to have your insight on this, Steve!  Thanks so much for your willingness to contribute your wisdom and knowledge to our growth!

About Steve Gladen: I’ve said this a number of times, but I want to be sure and say this again. Steve is a couple of things. First, he’s one of the smartest GroupLife guys on the planet. He’s also one of the most helpful small group experts on the planet. Seriously. While we’re on the subject, I want to suggest again that all of you pre-purchase Steve’s upcoming book. Here is the link: Small Groups with Purpose and here’s more info about the book.

In a recent two-part series Steve Gladen talked about Saddleback’s Small Group Coaching strategy.  In that previous series Steve mentioned their Leadership Pathway and I asked him if he’d be willing to provide some insight into the way they help people who have volunteered to simply host a group grow over time into a committed group leader who is truly invested in their members’ spiritual growth.

Mark: We know that many of the small groups that form at Saddleback begin as H.O.S.T. homes during a church-wide campaign.  What does the Leadership Pathway look like at the very beginning?

Steve: To start it’s important to know the philosophical premise of our training.  We see Jesus called the disciples in Matthew 4 with a requirement of “Come and see”.  Three years later in was “Come and die”.  Jesus took them on a pathway that took them from “come and see” to “come and die”.  Slowly letting them see they may bring more to the puzzle than they think.  Most churches start with “come and die” recruiting and scare everyone anyway—no leadership development process is in place.  In our language we want to start with crawl and help them run, not start with run.  Now back to your question.

New H.O.S.T.s often take their first steps on our pathway without knowing it.  In this initial stage we look to make sure they have a commitment in faith as Christ as Lord and Savior and call Saddleback their home.  Notice there’s not a member requirement, yet.  We give them the opportunity to lead a small group with very little commitment.  We provide a New H.O.S.T. Home Kit that includes everything they need to get their new group started, including a DVD entitled “How to Start a Small Group.”  In addition to the kit, we also give the H.O.S.T.s access to 8 online training sessions (each lasting less than 10 minutes), which are available through our small group website.

Mark: So they get started with very little formal training, but they’re in the game.  They meet for the 6 weeks of the campaign series.  What happens next?

Steve: Two things happen if they want to continue past the initial H.O.S.T. stage.   First, we start the process of getting the new Hosts to be members of the church.  And second we invite them to Leader Training 1.  This is a basic training session for all of our continuing H.O.S.T.s.  It’s held several times every year and consists of one 3-hour session.  We offer the session both on campus and online.  Interestingly, less than a year into offering it online we’ve had more students in our online training than in our on campus training.  The course gives new H.O.S.T.s a strategic overview of our small group ministry, explains a few basic survival techniques for hosting a group, and shares the support structure we have in place for them.

After they’ve completed Leader Training 1 and signed the document with the small group guidelines and leader values, the church sends the H.O.S.T. a letter of congratulations and a certificate that marks their completion of this first step. Because relationships are a vital ingredient in the success of our small group leaders and we want them to know they will not be alone in their journey, the next important step is connecting each H.O.S.T. with a mentoring community leader (CL) —a seasoned member of our small group ministry who gets it and lives it.  From that point on, each H.O.S.T.’s community leader starts playing a key role in his or her growth process. The CL walks with the H.O.S.T. through each remaining step of the leadership pathway.

Mark: So they’ve moved from the baby steps of a 6 week commitment to a decision to continue, attended a 3 hour course and now are connected with a mentoring community leader.  Sounds good so far.  Do you have a sense for the percentage of your hosts that go on to the next step in the Leadership Pathway?

Steve:  I can tell you that prior to our latest Fall Campaign, 82% had continued past the Campaign for 3,736 groups.

Don’t Miss Part Two! You can read part two of this interview right here.  If you’re not signed up to get my updates, you can do that right here.

About Steve Gladen: I’ve said this a number of times, but I want to be sure and say this again. Steve is a couple of things. First, he’s one of the smartest GroupLife guys on the planet. He’s also one of the most helpful small group experts on the planet. Seriously. While we’re on the subject, I want to suggest again that all of you pre-purchase Steve’s upcoming book. Here is the link: Small Groups with Purpose and here’s more info about the book.

Yesterday, Steve Gladen began talking about how Saddleback provides coaching and care for over 4500 small group leaders.  If you missed part one, you can read it right here.  In today’s continuation he’ll be talking about providing coaching and care for the group I sometimes call…well, I think I’ll let you fill in your own name for this group!

Mark: Okay, so tell us about the stubborn groups in your system. How do you care for them?

Steve: We call this Persistent Care. And oh boy do we have to be persistent! These are the late adopters—groups who have probably been doing small groups for many years. They may have been at the church before you, and they are not hesitant to remind you of that fact. They are often reticent to try new things you suggest. The only thing they want to know is who to go to if they have an issue. Beyond that, they usually just want to be left alone. Here we just leave a prayer monthly on their voice mail…seriously!

Mark: So you’re really providing different levels of care for different groups — kind of personalized care concept. How did you guys arrive at this strategy?

Steve: For so long, small group theory has dictated that we need to give equal care to each group, but we have found that line of thinking is faulty—not every group needs equal care. Some groups are going to thrive with or without a community leader, and some groups are going to drain the life out of any community leader assigned to them. So we ask our community leaders to categorize their groups into one of the four categories above and proceed accordingly. We encourage them to spend 80 percent of their time with groups in the first two categories—priority care and personal care—so they are working with the people who want their assistance. This is proactive care, and we encourage them to stay on top of these leaders, work with them, and keep a close eye on them. The other two categories are more reactive care. We stay connect to them through email or voice mail and when they need us, they know who to call.

Mark: I know a questions lots of folks will have is about your term Community Leader (as opposed to Coach). Can you describe this role? Are they paid or volunteer? How many groups are they caring for?

Steve: Wow, there is a lot to say on this. We started with 4 paid Community Leaders (CL’s), built it to 52 paid CL’s (with still over 100 volunteer CL’s) and then took the whole thing totally volunteer. Most ask, if I could do it over the same, would I? In a heartbeat! Nothing wrong with paying some and having some volunteer, but at some point it isn’t scalable, which is why we went back to all volunteer. Every church is different, just know if you start paying people, it won’t last forever. CL’s would generally oversee 25 groups. Obliviously, if they had all groups in the first two categories, their ratio would be less; but generally 1:25. The job description is simple, lead people relationally down our pathway. Once they can implement, then you can move on.

Update: I asked Steve if he’d provide some information about Saddleback’s Leadership Pathway.  You can read part 1 right here.

About Steve Gladen: I’ve said this a number of times, but I want to be sure and say this again. Steve is a couple of things. First, he’s one of the smartest GroupLife guys on the planet. He’s also one of the most helpful small group experts on the planet. Seriously. While we’re on the subject, I want to suggest again that all of you pre-purchase Steve’s upcoming book. Here is the link: Small Groups with Purpose and here’s more info about the book.

In last week’s series of articles on small group coaching I shared an idea that I got from Steve Gladen and my friends at Saddleback.  Wanting you to get the info straight from the source…I’m really honored to have Steve’s responses to some questions I emailed him last week.  Here’s how it went:

Mark: Saddleback gets a lot of attention for the large numbers of groups launched as a result of church-wide campaigns (40 Days of Purpose, Life’s Healing Choices, Decade of Destiny, etc.).  But, I don’t think you get as much attention for the way you provide care for as many group leaders as you have.

By the way, how many groups do you have currently?

Steve: We have 4,576 adult groups coming out of our Fall Campaign, but we know that number will drop….

Mark: One of the things I really like is the thinking you guys have done, recognizing that not all groups are the same; that there really are four kinds of groups.  How have you classified them?

Steve: As we looked at our groups, we started to see a pattern. We found the groups could be classified in one of four categories: (1) new groups, (2) seasoned groups, (3) veteran groups, and (4) stubborn groups. Looking at these categories, we realized all of the groups required some form of care, but not all groups required the same type or amount of care.

Mark: Makes sense.  How does that affect the kind of care you provide for new groups?

Steve: We launch a lot of new groups at Saddleback. We give them what we call Priority Care. They are full of questions and unsure of themselves in the beginning, so we stay in close contact with them to give all of the support they need. They love the connection with community leaders and the community leaders love serving them. The goal here is to get them through Leader Training 1 (Steve talks about the Saddleback Leadership Pathway right here) to get the strategic overview, their survival guide and the systems we support them with.

Mark: What happens once they make it through those early days?  Do you do anything different?

Steve: Once they know the ropes, we provide Personal Care.  Seasoned groups are often early adopters and are still open to connecting with their community leader in person.  They are excited and ready for direction and encouragement. Here we teach them “how” to balance the purposes in their small group and develop a plan. They are good enough to be dangerous!

Mark: What about the Phone Care category?

Steve: These are the groups that have been in the game for quite a while and they know what they are doing. They’re not immune to issues.  But when a problem comes up, they’re veterans and know to whom they should go to. These are the groups who want communication to be done primarily through phone or email, they tell us which. They are also typically mid-adopters. They have been meeting together for quite a while and are doing our continued education which we call Leader Training 2 (Steve will be sharing about their leader training strategy in an upcoming article).

(You can read part two right here!  And if you want the whole story, be sure and read about the Saddleback Leadership Pathway.  If you’re not signed up for my updates you can do that right here.)

About Steve Gladen: I’ve said this a number of times, but I want to be sure and say this again.  Steve is a couple of things.  First, he’s one of the smartest GroupLife guys on the planet.  He’s also one of the most helpful small group experts on the planet.  Seriously.  While we’re on the subject, I want to suggest again that all of you pre-purchase Steve’s upcoming book.  Here is the link: Small Groups with Purpose and here’s more info about the book.

In yesterday’s post I described what I think are some key aspects of the end in mind when you’re developing a coaching structure.  Today I want to help you imagine your coaching structure as a finished–but steadily developing–product.  Sounds like a contradiction in terms, I know, but I just follow me for a moment.

I want you to imagine that in your congregation with an average worship attendance of 325 adults you’ve got 28 groups.  You want to add more groups this year, because you know that your Easter adult attendance of 475 adults means that you’ve got a lot of people who don’t come every week.  And you want to get as many of them in a group as you can.

I also want you to imagine that in addition to your 28 small groups you’ve got a coaching structure that’s coming along.  In fact, over the last two years you’ve built a team of 5 coaches and they’re all doing great.  They really are focused on encouraging and caring for their leaders in a way that helps the leaders experience first what you want happening at the member level in your groups.

Don’t forget that before you even got started on your two year effort to build this coaching team you had to do a few things first.  You had to develop and implement a coaching job description and then meet individually to talk through responsibilities and expectations with the 4 coaches you inherited.

If you remember, you were a little squeamish about it at the time.  It was more than a little uncomfortable setting up the 4 meetings.  But you worked through those conversations and then over a 6 month period helped 3 of the 4 realize that they were a better fit for a different role.  In fact, 2 of the 3 that you helped reposition are now really excited about their new ministry opportunity.  One’s not your friend anymore…at least right now…but that’s the life of a small group champion.

So you actually had to recruit and test-drive 8 coaching candidates in order to end up with the 5 that are doing great.  But…you were smart.  When you recruited potential coaches you invited them help you with an upcoming church-wide campaign and assured them that it was a 10 to 13 week commitment.  You gave them the launch-phase job description and evaluated their effectiveness during the campaign.  When the campaign was over you met individually with each of your launch-phase coaches, expressed appreciation for their efforts and commended the ones that had worked hard and done well.  Then, you asked them the key questions:

• What did it feel like to know that 2 of their 3 campaign groups had decided to continue?
• Did you enjoy working with these new leaders?
• Is this a role in which you’d like to continue?

If they said yes, you got really excited, and began going over the responsibilities and expectation for an ongoing coach.  If they said no, you thanked them for helping and that was that.

And then there a few (3 of the 8 you recruited) that really didn’t do what they were supposed to during the campaign.  They came to the training.  They came to the new leader orientation.  But they really didn’t make their phone calls or follow up with their new leaders.  So…when you had their exit interview, you thanked them for helping with the campaign but didn’t offer them a chance to continue.  And they really didn’t care, because it wasn’t a good fit for them anyway.

And now, here you are!  You’ve got 5 coaches that are doing a good job.  But you’re hoping to add another 8 groups at the upcoming small group connection.  And you know you’re going to need at least a couple new coaches.  So what do you do now?  That’s the subject of the next post in this series.  We’ll cover that aspect next.  If you’re not signed up to get my updates, you can do that right here.