Biblical Equipping: God's Word in Your World
Price: $11.95

Me, an Evangelist? Every Christian's Guide to Caring Evangelism
Price: $11.95

Nuts & Bolts Issues for Small Group Leaders
Price: $11.95

Caring for Inactive Members Leader's Teaching Kit
Price: $49.95

God's Love in Action Brochure--Customizable
Price: $5.00

ChristCare Group Leader Training Overview

The ChristCare Series provides 24 training sessions (listed below), that Equippers use to train their congregation's ChristCare Group Leaders. The first 16 sessions provide the initial training, which prepares trainees to do a great job leading their small groups. The remaining 8 sessions provide continuing education to expand the knowledge and skills of ChristCare Group Leaders after they begin leading their groups.

ChristCare Group Leader training uses a group-based model that allows trainees to experience the joys and challenges of belonging to a small group while they gain the insights and skills that will make them effective and inspired leaders. In both initial training and continuing education, trainees have the opportunity to integrate their own life experiences and knowledge into the training process.

Initial Training

Session 1--How to Get Your ChristCare Group
Off to a Great Start

In this initial module, ChristCare Group Leader trainees begin to catch a vision for ChristCare Group Ministry as they begin to engage in the four basic activities of a ChristCare Group: community building and care, prayer and worship, Biblical Equipping, and missional service. Trainees also learn how to use the Beginnings course in a ChristCare Group.

Session 2--Building Community
in Your ChristCare Group

"Community" is often an overused, misunderstood term. This session explores the biblical origins of Christian community and why it is important. Trainees learn the stages small groups pass through as they mature and what they can do as leaders to help the group move positively through each of these stages.

Session 3--Caring in and through
ChristCare Groups

One of the essential purposes of Christian community is for members to care for one another. This is the first of several sessions that deal with this topic, helping trainees better understand the kinds of needs people have and see how Jesus ministered to similar needs. Trainees learn various ways ChristCare Groups can help meet people's needs for care and explore how to coordinate group members' care for one another.

Session 4--Listening Skills
for ChristCare Group Leaders

A central component of ChristCare Group care is listening. This session teaches trainees important listening skills that they can use to facilitate better communication among group members. Trainees also learn how to pass these skills on to others to help their groups become a more caring, nurturing, trusting environment.

Session 5--Confidentiality in ChristCare Groups

Confidentiality is a cornerstone to trust and community in a small group. This session lays out how important confidentiality is, how to educate group members about confidentiality, what the exceptions to keeping confidentiality are, and what to do in the event that confidentiality is broken.

Session 6--When and How to Make
Referrals for Additional Care

Although small group members can provide a great deal of care and support to one another, there are limits to how much and what kinds of care a group can appropriately provide. This module helps ChristCare Group Leaders understand these limits and to know when, how, and where to refer a member who needs additional care.

Session 7--Prayer and Worship
in ChristCare Groups

Prayer and worship make up one of the four main activities of a ChristCare Group. This session provides trainees with the tools and insights to lead or to coordinate leadership of these activities in their groups. ChristCare Group Leaders learn how to help group members become comfortable praying aloud and how to develop worship activities appropriate to group members’ needs and comfort levels and to their own denominational traditions and understandings.

Session 8--Missional Service by ChristCare Groups

ChristCare Groups exist to minister beyond themselves. This session details what missional service is, why ChristCare Groups need a missional focus,  how ChristCare Groups do missional service, and how to organize and lead their ChristCare Groups into missional service effectively. The training group also decides on and commits to a missional service project for the duration of training.

Sessions 9 and 10--How to Use the Bible
as an Equipping Tool

Biblical Equipping is a focused way for ChristCare Group members to encounter the Bible, apply it to their daily lives, and grow as Jesus' disciples both in and outside of group meetings. This two-session module teaches ChristCare Group Leaders the eight-step Biblical Equipping cycle and how to lead Biblical Equipping in their ChristCare Groups. Trainees have been practicing Biblical Equipping throughout training; these sessions allow them to prepare and present their own session of Biblical Equipping in a small group. The book Biblical Equipping: God's Word in Your World is part of the preclass reading for this session.

Session 11--Being a Process-Oriented Leader

A process-oriented leader focuses on building relationships and frees group members to grow, allowing results to come naturally. A results-oriented leader is the opposite, someone who pushes to achieve personal goals, impose ideas, and control group members. This module lays out this distinction and helps trainees realize the importance of being process-oriented leaders within their ChristCare Groups--a concept that runs counter to the way our society usually functions.

Session 12--ChristCare Group Facilitation Skills

Facilitation means "to make easy or easier." In this module trainees learn 16 specific skills related to fostering effective communication, encouraging participation, building trust and cohesiveness, and helping the group through the decision-making process. During the session, trainees practice these skills in a number of challenging, yet enjoyable, role-play exercises.

Session 13--The Nuts and Bolts
of Leading a ChristCare Group

Leading a successful small group requires careful attention to detail. The book Nuts & Bolts Issues for Small Group Leaders is the preclass reading for this session and provides trainees with a broad awareness of what ChristCare Groups are and how they work. This session helps trainees realize that every decision they make affects the group’s mission and service to God and others.

Session 14--How to Build Membership
in Your ChristCare Group

Building membership is a team effort coordinated by the ChristCare Group Leader. This session equips trainees to lead the effort to invite, welcome, and assimilate new members into the ChristCare Group and to involve group members in doing the same. Trainees also learn how to overcome many of the challenges associated with inviting and welcoming new members.

Session 15--How to Participate Effectively
in a SEA Group

SEA (Support, Encouragement, Accountability) Groups are essential to a thriving ChristCare Group Ministry. They provide necessary mentoring and support for ChristCare Group Leaders, bring valuable information back to the Equippers Team, and keep ChristCare Groups focused on the vision of the church. This session teaches trainees about the SEA Group process and includes a practice SEA Group where trainees apply what they have just learned.

Session 16--Circles of Care
with Christ at the Center

In this last session before commissioning, trainees review key parts of their training as well as look ahead to important continuing education themes like apprenticeship, birthing, and closure. This session focuses on the biblical vision for Christian community. Trainees also receive their first ChristCare Group and SEA Group assignments.

Continuing Education

Session 17--How to Identify, Nurture,
and Work with Apprentice Leaders

A strong flow of Apprentices from existing ChristCare Groups into ChristCare Group Leader training is important for the continued growth of a congregation's ChristCare Group Ministry. This session helps ChristCare Group Leaders understand the value of Apprentices and teaches them how to identify, motivate, nurture, and work with an Apprentice.

Sessions 18 and 19--Assertiveness Skills
for ChristCare Group Leaders

This two-part session, based on the book Speaking the Truth in Love: How to Be an Assertive Christian. It gives ChristCare Group Leaders a thorough understanding of the biblical basis for assertiveness and teaches them how to model and promote assertive behavior in their group. The classroom session provides group leaders with opportunities to practice assertiveness skills in a variety of small group situations.

Session 20--Birthing New ChristCare Groups

Birthing--forming two new groups out of an existing one--is perhaps the most challenging aspect of any small group ministry, yet it is vital if that ministry is going to grow and fulfill Jesus' mission to make disciples. This session helps ChristCare Group Leaders understand the crucial role they play in the process. They gain insights on identifying when it is time to birth, how to build group consensus for birthing, and how to step their group through the birthing process.

Session 21--How to Bring Closure
to ChristCare Groups

All groups end eventually. The process of closure allows them to end in a healthy way. In this session, ChristCare Group Leaders explore what closure is, why it is so important, what feelings members experience during closure, when it is time for closure, how to bring a group to closure, and ways to involve members in closure activities.

Session 22--Evangelism in and through
ChristCare Groups

ChristCare Groups are ideal communities for evangelism. In this session ChristCare Group Leaders learn the concepts of process-oriented evangelism and caring evangelism and how to foster those approaches in their ChristCare Groups. The book Me, an Evangelist? Every Christian's Guide to Caring Evangelism is the preclass reading for this module.

Session 23--Dealing with Strong Feelings
in ChristCare Groups

ChristCare Groups are places where feelings are welcome, even when the feelings are painful. That is one of the reasons why ChristCare Groups are caring, healing places. This session provides ChristCare Group Leaders with an understanding of what feelings are and how to create an atmosphere where members can safely express their feelings. It also provides valuable information about how to recognize and respond appropriately to particularly strong or sensitive feelings.

Session 24--Being a Servant Leader

This session uses the example of Jesus in Philippians 2:3-11 to help ChristCare Group Leaders understand the value and effect of servant leadership and to know the characteristics of a servant leader. It encourages them to trust God to transform them into servant leaders.

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