“We Don’t Need an Apprentice, Our Group is Staying Together For Life”

As a group, your purpose is to nurture one anothers’ spiritual health. When you love and nurture the spiritual health of your group partners, they will do the same for you.

It’s important to begin with the end in mind, and the end goal is creating healthy groups that produce healthy spiritual lives. This often demands that the group leader ‘partner’ with another member or members, supporting one another in the leadership role and in their personal jouneys with the Lord.

This can be a big job at times. This is where the importance of having an apprentice comes in. When I say “apprentice”, some of you get real uncomfortable because you hear things like splitting and breaking up your group. These things come to mind for good reason. However, let me redefine what “apprentice” might mean to you right now. The apprentice is the leader's partner. They are the ones that could take over the group when the group leader feels called to lead elsewhere (notice I did not say they were certainly leaving). What happens when the group leader goes on vacation or on a business trip? Does the meeting get cancelled or rearranged because the group is so reliant on them that it would fall apart if it were not for their presence at every function?

An apprentice may be or may not be the future leader of another group that births from your current one. For the moment, consider them a leadership partner.