If you want to influence more students in your ministry you need to influence those who spend time with them. Training leaders is one of the most important aspects in order to make our small groups successful. There is no way I can effectively minister in a small group setting the 15 guys in my group right now if I need to minister to the rest of the group in a small group setting as well. How do you influence more students? Influence their leaders who spend time with them.

We believe so much in making sure all of our leaders are screened and trained through HSM because we know that without them there is no way our students would grow in the ways they are growing. Training our leaders throughout the year is key to success in small groups. Here are some reasons why training leaders are so important:

Back ground and screening process.

  • All of our leaders go through a back ground check and interview process. We want to make sure that we do not get any creepers around our students and we always want to make sure they have a heart for students before they even get a chance to lead.

Leader handbook

  • We give out a leader handbook with all the answers to any possible questions a leader would need to know. What does a typical night of small group look like? What does an email to parents look like? What are some good ice-breakers? And many more. All these can be found in our handbook so they can find out certain things for themselves before they let us know.

What to do if someone is hurting themselves or been abused.

  • We train our leaders every year on what are some things they can possibly deal with when it comes to cutting, eating disorders and suicide. I cannot tell you enough how important it is for your leaders and your ministry to be able to handle something like this correctly. Do your leaders know how to deal with it?

How to lead a small group discussion.

  • For the most part, most new leaders think they need to talk the entire time. That is not the case. We train our leaders how to lead a group and how to facilitate a discussion rather than dominate it. We want groups to be a place where students are doing the talking and leaders are there to help move it along or clarify certain things.

Resource them.

  • Not only do we want to train them but we want to give them resources so they can lead, teach, counsel, advise, etc better. We want to make sure we provide our leaders with material that will not only help their students grow as Christ followers, but it will help our leaders do the same. If our leaders are growing we know our students are growing. Whether you have a budget to buy books or if you do not and you need to get free things you find on the internet, showing your leaders you care for them and want to help them grow means a ton to them.

Why they are so important.

  • We do training to let our leaders now we could not do what we do with out them. We want to let them know they are so valued by us so we will feed them, train them and sped time with them. Because we are taking time for our ministry to train them it gives them a sense of importance and belonging and they will feel valued and will be willing to do anything for the cause of seeing their students grow.

If you train your leaders effectively, you will be able to minister to your students more abundantly.