Adam Bishop here, Small Groups Pastor at The Journey.  Nelson asked me to post today about how to get your full staff involved in Small Groups.

In Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups, Nelson and Kerrick mention that The Journey has a scalable structure for our small group system, including “Coaches.”

Sometimes we’re asked who makes up that “Coach” level of the system and what purpose they serve, so first, let me clarify the language we use at The Journey.

In our system, we have Growth Group Leaders, Team Leaders, and Coaches:

• Growth Group Leaders lead the Groups- providing leadership, communication and care to the Group Members.
• Team Leaders provide communication and care to the Group Leaders on their team.
• Coaches provide communication and care to both the Team Leaders and the Group Leaders on their team.

At The Journey, our Coaches are our staff.

This goes back to Big Idea #9 from Activate – Think Full Staff Participation, Not Staff Specialist…

The “Coaching” level of the structure provides a clear plan to involve all of our staff in the leadership of Groups at our church.

Now, from one staff person to the next the amount of time spent on groups varies, but everyone spends at least some time working on Groups.

No matter the size of your church right now, you can build this full staff participation into place as you increase the number of Groups and staff at your church.

The key to successfully implementing the Activate system (or any healthy small groups system) is to get away from having one “staff specialist” who does everything Small Groups, and develop a plan to involve your entire staff in the process.

You’ll find that this increases buy-in and excitement about groups, across the board, at your church.

I hope this helps!

P.S. For an in-depth training resource that’s all about the Activate, semester-based Small Groups System, check out The Small Groups Intensive.