WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? You asked God to send a leader. You began to look around for the leader God sent. You began observing the life of the leader and spending time with the leader doing life and class ministry together. When you were sure the leader was ready, you asked him/her to join you. When the leader said yes, that is a teachable moment. There is openness to learning and being led. Take advantage of the interest!

WHAT DO I DO? Consider the following:

• pray for and with the leader,
• write out a list of the major areas of responsibility,
• share the list with the leader,
• work through each item on the list (do them),
• after carrying out each item on the list, ask questions and debrief the experience,
• make assignments to the leader, asking him/her to enlist someone to help with each,
• debrief the assignments, who helped, and how he/she did,
• listen well, be generous in your affirmation, and offer ideas for next time (when there are areas for improvement),
• increase the frequency of assignments, and
• encourage taking initiative to carry out the assigned area of responsibility.

EXAMPLE. For each area of responsibility, the above list will look different. For instance, when training an apprentice teacher, you will focus conversation and practice on teaching, reaching, and caring duties. And you might give them one Sunday per month to teach at first but work toward 3-4 weeks per month before sending them out to teach their own class.