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1.1 Apprenticeship. The key to developing small group leaders who have no
prior experience.

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Caleb is a LifeGroup director at a large and growing church. He needs new group leaders
for some of his newly forming adult groups. Caleb realized that the first part of the battle is to
find people who are willing to lead. But willingness isnt the only thing he needs. Often, the spirit
is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Caleb knew that in cases where he has someone inexperienced willing to lead a group, there
are more land mines than not to prepare him for. Caleb had such a person in Gary.

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Caleb quickly learned that one of the secrets to overcoming a new leaders inexperience is
using a special apprenticeship method devised specifically for developing small group leaders.
He had Gary spend about six weeks under the tutelage of a proven group leader. Gary was
like a leader-in-training: attending the meetings, carefully observing the first 2-3 weeks. The more
mature leader, Todd, would turn over leadership to Gary about midway through. At that point, it
would be Todds turn to observe.
It kind of came about by accident, Caleb shared. I had guys who had been leading and
growing groups for years, who themselves seemed to have a knack for developing leaders within
their groups. Todd was one of the most prolific at doing that.
By the end of the six weeks together, if Todd sees that things are going well, he can get out
of the way and let Gary be the undisputed leader. But Todd had been instructed by Caleb to
make sure to spend the final 3-4 weeks of the apprenticeship helping Gary recognize any
shortcomings and make whatever tweaks necessary to move the group forward.
My group was kind of diverse. It was all guys, but they were at various stages of life, Gary
revealed. We met early Monday mornings at a local Panera Bread before our business day
started. Im 31, and of the six guys that made up our group, we had one over 60 and another
slightly younger than me. Most were married but one was single. Our common bond was that we
all had offices within a two-mile radius of each other.
It really was the perfect group, Caleb mused. Here you had these basically mature guys,
who were more comfortable in a LifeGroup with other business men than in a mixed company
setting. And they had influence in the business community, so we knew that growth and
evangelism coming from that group was highly probable.
And newby leader Gary found Todd to be a tremendous help. Under Todds supervision,
Gary felt more equipped, encouraged, and supported than he would have had he started leading
the small group alone. Todd also provided Gary a cheat sheet for structuring the time together
and finding the right materials for the various seasons.
Gary also enjoyed peeking behind the leaders curtain, seeing how Todd planned for the
upcoming periods of time. If Todds LifeGroup went on a hiatusnot meeting because of
summer vacations or end-of-year holidaysTodd was intentional about planning parties and
other unique get-togethers to prevent fellowship drought.

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Because Todd invested his time in developing Gary, we had a two-fold benefit, Caleb
declared. Not only was Gary a better leader right out of the gate, but I also knew that Gary
could be the next Toddthe next guy developing the next leader. He could take on apprentices
and help them lead new groups.
In this way, leaders like Todd (and eventually Gary, too) make Calebs job so much easier.
Caleb enjoyed recruiting small group leaders, but knew that he didnt have the time to train all of
them. Caleb had several men (and women) like Todd, who he liked to call leaders of leaders.
This type of internal training helped the church grow in maturity and size in a way it would not
have otherwise.

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WORK SHEET

1.1

Apprenticeship:
The key to developing small group leaders who have no prior experience.

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1. What challenges does Caleb face as someone who is trying to grow
his small groups, and how can you currently identify?

2. Who are the Gary"s in your church that you can call upon to lead a
new group? Who has already volunteered to lead a new group?

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1.1

3. Name at least 1-2 Todds in your church that you know can help
develop the Garys in a small group leader apprenticeship.

4. Name the very next action you need to take to develop a new small
group leader using Apprenticeship.

Other Notes