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Welcome to

the Bright Star

Care Group

Training Site

Here you will learn the basics and requirements for the mechanics of running an Adult or Youth Care Group of any kind. You will also learn about coaching or mentoring a Care Group Leader and how to do the work of a Care Group Apprentice. There are six Training Options. They are...

                                                            Care Group Leader                         Youth Care Group leader

                                                            Coach                                                 Youth Mentor

                                                            Apprentice                                        Youth Apprentice

    How to use this training:

Read through each section to the end of the each page. Once you scroll down through the material and find the next web page link, click it to advance to the next page of text. If you need to stop the process before reaching the end of the course, add the link to your favorite places to book mark where you left off so you can return to the last page you visit. Some of the information is needed for all the above listed positions, so every person will need to review the introductory section of this training. Once you reach the Leadership Development Page you will be given an option to pursue a specific course to learn about one of the six positions listed. You will find forms demonstrated on pages that will also be available for download so you can print them for your personal use. Just right mouse click the link and save the Adobe PDF document file to your computer for each form and print as needed.

 

If you chose to continue with this Web Based Training please click the following email link and indicate your interest in being considered for any of the positions listed above. Send me an email so we can start the process of support and encouragement in coaching you to successful church ministry through Care Groups. Write and tell me your vision for your Care Group, age level, Care Group service, task you would like your Care Group to accomplish or curriculum you are considering. Please include your personal contact information and best time to call. Congratulations on taking this bold step in serving God and neighbor through Care Group ministry. I will begin entering into prayer for you on a regular basis throughout your work in Care Group ministry.

 

donaldvphillips@hotmail.com

 

 

    Care Group Training

While a certification course is recommended for the sake of recognizing people who have been set aside for Care Group leadership, a lot of the training will be happening within the Care Group on the job. Many of the future Care Group leaders will come from the group of people known as apprentices that are identified within the Care Groups that already exist. But a certification course is important for discovering the basics of what Care Group Ministry is all about and what your church leadership has in mind as the Holy Spirit has moved the church to a vision for growing this church. Certain elements are necessary for Care leader’s to understand what works best in leading Care Groups. There are some basic mechanics and boundaries to understand, but more importantly there are some basic skill sets and spiritual gifts that are needed to be a Care Group leader. The training should include helping Care leaders discover how to develop skills in leading a Care Group that cares for every member of your community. As well, the training should also help the Care leader discover his or her spiritual gifts for the ministry. It is essential to discover the gifts so that if any should be lacking, the person can bring another alongside them who has the gift so that the ministry can continue in the care group.

Questions: What knowledge, wisdom and experience do you bring from the secular world that God can use for Care Group ministry? What do you feel are your strengths for leading a Care Group? What are your weaknesses in leading a Care Group? How will you work through your weaknesses to make sure all members of your Group will be cared for? Do you know someone who has strengths where you are weak that would be willing to come and help you lead your care group? When will you contact this person?

 

Web based training provides another opportunity to make the church available 24 hours a day to an unlimited number of people to participate in helping grow the church. As a part of the training, there must be a requirement that Care leaders connect very early on with either a Care Leader Coach or Youth Mentor. This coach/mentor will monitor the progress of the Adult/Youth Care leader in training and help this person identify what kind of Care Group will be the best for this person to lead. As well, you will discover a caring system that will be modeled in applying this principle of structure and leadership. The Coach or Mentor serves the purpose of encouraging, equipping, holding accountable to the ministry, and providing the much needed leadership over the Care Group ministry. As well the Care Leader Coach will be able to identify other Care Leader Coaches "in the making" as they are connecting with Care Leaders. At the end of the Web Based Training, the Care Leader Coach will bring the Care leader to a celebration of Care Ministry to present the person with a certificate of completion and a commissioning of the Care leader for Care Group ministry. The new Care Group will be considered online when they have three essential elements. First, the Care leader will have completed training and obtained an apprentice, second the Care leader will be connected with a Care Leader Coach and third the Care Group will have a definite meeting time and beginning date.

Questions: Help us evaluate this web based training... What ideas would you include in creating a Web Based Training program for Care Groups at your church? What other leadership training would you like to see implemented on the Website? What other parts of Care Group ministry would you like to see here to help prepare you for Care Group Leadership and Pastoral Care? Send me your comments and questions.

Rationale for Care Groups

As with all things spiritual, Care Groups and the role they will play in building

Christ's Church must come out of the vision

inspired and lead fully by the Spirit of God.

Jesus gave us the model for the simplest and smallest element of the body of Christ. He showed us the size that works best when training, exploring, trusting, caring and building the church. He chose 12 men to become disciples who were as unclean as the fish they were trying to catch. He loved them, trained them, encouraged them, empowered them with His Holy Spirit and sent them out two by two as men who had matured in faith. They brought back reports of great things they accomplished by God working through them.

Before Jesus ascended, He bestowed His power and authority to lead upon these men and called them apostles. They lead with holy boldness. The Holy Spirit came upon them and upon all who believed. Yet not everyone was maturing in the Church. Guidelines were set to make sure people were cared for and the church would grow. Just as Apollos was taken aside and shown the better way of Jesus Christ by Priscilla and Acquilla in the intimacy of fellowship, so many were instructed in the way more precisely by meeting in their homes.

The Apostle Paul instructed the church at Corinth to answer questions about Jesus at home while people were in a situation that best suited inquisitiveness and opportunity to answer. Paul gave his testimony of doing the work of God by spreading the message in the Synagogues and from house to house. (Acts 20:20). From this verse, Dale Galloway the director of the Beeson Institute for Advanced Church Leadership at Asbury Seminar is famous for coining the phrase, "20-20 Vision" which is the title of his book encouraging Care Group ministry.

Today, all around the world, God continues to build His Church with one new decision at a time. Often this is accomplished in the intimacy of small groups of friends, relatives or those who have the greatest influence. Some of the largest church groups that make up the church today are sustained by way of pastoral care at the small Care Group Level through one another ministry.

These Care Groups of various denominations and sects have common denominators. First, they have a leader that is perceived and proven to be the best care giver among the group members. Second, they are dedicated to meeting needs of every member in many different ways according to the calling, gifts and movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

The Holy Spirit has blessed the church through the gifts that are bestowed upon believers. These gifts are necessary for building the Church. The Holy Spirit directs, moves, enables, breathes life into, and fills each believer with the spiritual power that enables them to touch others for the edification of the Body of Christ.

Every Care Group has within it, the spiritual "DNA" to build the church. The instructions of the Holy Spirit are bestowed through discernment within the group as it is made apparent for the sake of teaching, prophesying, interpreting, healing and caring. The small group also gives the best opportunity for people to mature in their spiritual fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as enumerated in Galatians 5:22. In the small group arena, these fruits are modeled by mature Christian leaders and experienced close up by new disciples and to the full view of the community which is connected to the church.

Questions: What is the purpose for my particular Care Group? What specific instruction is the Holy Spirit giving us as a Care Group?

 

Larger groups of people can and should come together and celebrate in worship of God in the "big meeting" several times a week. It is very impractical for individuals to call out to the leader of the "big meeting" to ask for an explanation of what they are seeing or to ask independent questions as curiosities and need for clarifications arise. Besides the dynamic of the flow of the Holy Spirit, information, teaching, and preaching is unidirectional in the big meeting. While we all need to hear the preaching, experience and participate in the big meeting worship experience, there are other needs that can only be addressed by the small group experience.

The small group is ideal for one on one and one another interaction. This experience must take on a different dynamic than the "big meeting." In the small meeting, everyone gets a chance or should have a chance to ask questions, add to the discussion, lend their personal giftedness, knowledge and wisdom to the whole body. In this way, many people are helping each other learn, love and serve as God has called us to be the church.

Once a Care Group grows beyond 12 something strange begins to happen. You begin to squeeze out opportunity for every member of the group to interact and therefore limit the meeting of needs. It's only natural then for talkers to talk and non-talkers to sit quietly. This actually works against individual growth and group building. The only exception to this dilemma is when God gives an extraordinary gift of leadership to an individual who is able to create an atmosphere of interaction in a larger group setting, say of 40-50 or even up to groups of 100. This means that there is something going on besides one way communication which is common when groups grow larger than 17.

Questions: Have I ever experienced a situation where I needed to ask a question, but the size of the group prohibited me from speaking up? Have I ever been in a situation where I needed someone to hear my concerns where the size of the group was too large and time too short to address my personal needs?

 

While pastors have been set aside for meeting the needs of the congregation, any one person can only realistically care for 8-12 people. Many churches remain small because they have no vision for adding leadership. Most small churches grow as leadership grows and meets the needs. Consider the work of Moses as he struggled to meet the needs of a nation standing in line waiting for a decision on their personal situations. His father-in-law came and gave him great wisdom by instructing him to break up the work into manageable bites of 50's, 100's, 1,000's, and 10,000's. In this way, many more people were getting their needs met by the work of God than they would have received by waiting in line for Moses.

Questions: Have I ever been in a situation where I needed pastoral care but felt personally distant from anyone in the church to help? Have I ever been in a situation where I felt I could help someone else, but was limited because I was not the leader of the group?

Congratulations! You made it to the end of your First Page of Training!

Now its time to move on to the next step. Lets begin looking at the different types of groups that can make up a church care group ministry.

To Advance to the Next Page, Click Here --->     Types Of Care Groups

Donald V. Phillips © 2005 all rights reserved

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