BONUS: 5 Powerful Reasons to Press Play & Transform Lives

0:00 [Music] hi friends welcome back I'm Stacy belward the host of the connected families podcast Welcome to our community we are people committed to pursuing God's grace and truth for ourselves and then daily working to pass that Grace and Truth onto our children I'm so glad that you are here today well today is a bonus episode because we have a question to ask you have you ever thought of leading a small group through one of our video courses we've got quite

0:31 a few of them now but we're gearing up to do a promotion for sensitive and intense kids in the next couple of weeks you know one of our ministry Partners Union Gospel Mission in Washington state said this they said we are loving these courses and are on our third group together facilitating is very easy the way that you guys designed it you just play the video and answer the discussion questions this person also said I found

1:01 it helpful to print out some of your other resources and handouts that might fit into the day's teaching too did you hear that you guys leading is pressing play and leading the discussion okay that's just a teaser for what's coming well we have many Ministry Partnerships and we're so grateful to come alongside the ministry of the Union Gospel Mission in Washington state you know tap through to the show notes to get more information about organizational Partnerships but if

1:34 you are just a person that's like hey it's just me out here I want you to know there are small groups happening all the time and some of them are listed on our website so if you wanted to just jump in as an individual participant you could do that but today's episode is all about thinking about leading a small group so that's the question will you consider leading a small group in the next couple of months

2:00 all right push down those stress hormones that could be coming up we're going to walk you through this I invited Pam Thompson one of our connected family's certified parent coaches who has led many groups to come on to the show you can find all of her contact information in our show notes and I also invited Jackie Den she's on staff and she's the point person to serve small group leaders so Pam welcome to the podcast again thanks I'm happy to be

2:29 here Pam I know you're getting past laryngitis I am but you are so much better than two weeks ago we're so glad that you're here today and Jackie welcome this is your first time on the podcast hey you've been on staff for so many years already yes I'm excited to be here it's fun being on the in kind of behind the scenes but it's exciting to be on the podcast so Jackie does so many things she puts together our graphic she

2:58 puts together the weekly email mail it's so great to have her on the team okay you guys in this bonus episode we're going to try to make it concise and short we're talking about small groups so let's start off our podcast today talking about the biggest barrier that we have when we're asked to lead a small group I I think it sounds something like me I am not qualified I am not an expert I'm the one that needs the help oh I

3:25 don't have it together I need the information myself so C what would you say to that person well I love that the course is already done so as a leader I don't need to have all the answers because Lynn and Jim and Lydia are giving us the content and so we just get to discuss it yeah I think it's more like we it's called small group leader but it is really more facilitator you don't have to leave these people you're

3:55 facilitating this group to encourage and support each other and you're part of that too so that's right so we're going to go through the top five reasons to lead a small group and Pam's going to lead us through those Pam what's the first one the first one is either this course has been so impactful for me and I know that others will get help from it as well or I want this course I know it'll be impactful for me and I want to

4:22 do it with other people yeah that's right we find that quite a few people who've already gone through the course want to do it again so they grab a friend or two or maybe even more to go through it and that's not to say though that there are many people who facilitate the group on their first time through okay what's number two number two we learn information on a deeper level when we lead other people through

4:46 it and I know for me I've gone through I've gone through discipline connects I've gone through sensitive intense kids Grace and Truth for moms multiple times yeah and every time I lead it every time I go through it again I get something new from it and it becomes more a part of who I am and that's true isn't it Jackie because we know these courses are deep it was you and I that did all of the behind the scenes production there's

5:12 a lot you could be taking that course over and over again for years and and still uncover new things yeah and I love that about the course the content is deep but so practical there's always something to apply today and more to learn Pam what's number three number three the cost for the course is significantly lower when we do it with a group yeah that's right Jackie what are the costs yes so it is significantly lower if you take the course sensitive

5:42 and intense as an individual it's $140 but if you take the course in a small group it's $55 per household license so it gets a little complicated so a household license would be like a husband and wife if they're taking it together that's a household so they would only pay $55 for that course so it's a significant savings yes and we should add that you have lifetime access for it okay next one Pam number four in

6:11 the groups that I personally led the parents have gone deep really quickly and have been a great support to each other and they've also mentioned that doing it with a group provides accountability to keep up with the team with the lessons so I have a quote from from a parent that said the sensitive and intense small group was a powerful encouragement for our parenting we felt genuinely seen and our burdens lightened thanks to authentic relationship with

6:37 parents who are navigating many of the same challenges it was a tremendous gift to be held accountable for implementing new skills with compassion and Grace for the process in the Unseen moments of daily life I could practically hear the hope and encouragement being spoken by our group it's the best connected families course we've taken that is really sweet wow you know I've done a lot of paying attention to the research and what parents are experiencing many

7:03 parents are feeling isolated they're feeling alone they're feeling overwhelmed and they're feeling like they just don't know how to deal with the unique struggles that are happening in their home that's actually one of the really big reasons why we're doing this bonus podcast right now because we believe that Christian Community and people coming together and saying I don't have all the answers I need people to come around me let's please walk through this together that's God's plan

7:32 for alleviating isolation and personal growth right we are not meant to do Life by ourselves we move forward faster in community it's good okay Pam last one last one you're not on your own you get support from connected families Jackie is an amazing support for this and you also have the option inviting a connected family certified parent coach to join you for one session to answer questions that parents may have oh I think that's great I love that a

8:05 certified parent coach could come to your group I love that we do that and yes we take seriously that we want to support small group leaders that's why Jackie is on the podcast today so Jackie tell us more about how we support the leaders yes so we have a lot of different resources available to support small group leaders I would say the most important and the the greatest resource that you have is our sensitive and intense small group leader guide it is

8:35 filled with all sorts of tips and suggestions on how to navigate a small group it has email communication samples of like how to start initiating those initial contact points with your small group and it also lays out a really fabulous template for each session so it will walk you through even with timing suggestions of questions and activities to do for each session so there is um you're not doing it alone you don't have to come up with you know

9:05 ideas or questions or activities there is so much there to guide you through each session of the course um that it isn't it isn't up to you to do it we're we're there to help you we also provide you with group time notes so your group participants can take notes as they're going through the group you also can be taking notes as well we have a really good video on kind of navigating difficult group scenarios and Dynamics

9:31 so if that's something you're concerned about like what happens if somebody's talking too much what do I do we've got a lot of good tips and suggestions for that as well so there's just so many resources that we have for you if you read through everything and you still have questions you can come contact me I will help you get whatever it is that you need to to get your group going to support you throughout your group if you

9:53 go to the contact us page and we can put that in the show notes if you go to the contact us page there's like a little radio button that says small groups you click on that type your message and send it and then that will come to me directly and then I can help you with whatever questions that you have as you start leading your group or if you've got questions about how to lead your group I'm here for you so I can I can

10:15 help you all of your questions and Jackie is the best helper ever I tell you Jackie are there other common questions that people ask yes I would say one common question I get is is the content the same as our individual course and the answer is yes it is exactly the same however as a small group leader you do get additional resources that the individual course does not have so you get that small group leader guide that I talked about

10:45 you get the navigating difficult situations you get a lot of resources to support you as a small group leader so those are in addition to all of the course content that is exactly the same as the individual course the second very common question I get is how to register a group and this can be a little confusing for people like if you're just a mom and you're getting a bunch of friends together to take this course you

11:09 don't all go in and register for the course this is where it gets a little confusing you can just designate one person whoever that is that's going to be your small group leader that person will purchase all the household license for the group so if you've got 10 people that are taking the course you would purchase 10 licenses once you've made that purchase you receive a welcome email that has all of the information you need including a unique registration

11:33 link that you will then send to all of your group members so that they can register on our Learning Hub and receive access to that course because as you know like we talked about the participants we receive the course access when they're in the small group and then ongoing after the small group as well so they do need to register for that so you as a small group leader will be making that initial purchase of the

11:55 licenses a sub question of that is if I've taken the sensitive and intense kids course before do I need to purchase a license again or do other people in my group they've taken it in the past do they need to purchase it again and the answer is no if they've already taken it you do not need to purchase a license for them if you've already taken it you do not need to purchase a license for yourself and Stacy I would say that is

12:18 the other very common question I get is what's the best way to run the group and I kind of tell them what you you have the freedom to run the group however it's going to work best for you and the parents in your group whether that's virtual in person maybe a mix of both maybe you meet once a week maybe you meet once every other week it's really up to you to make it work for your group

12:39 so I think that's what's great about these courses is we give you a lot of information and a lot of ideas but it's really up to you to customize it to make it work for for you my favorite part is to see the change in the parents the change in their hope the hope they have for their family their parenting to see the change in their perspective of being able to really give focus on giving kids

13:06 the messages that they're safe loved called in capable and responsible rather than focusing on their behaviors and the change in that the parents are actually seeing in themselves and also in their kids yeah you know we get testimonials so often people often say that their family's trajectory has changed I get so excited about that I know it's the holy spirit's work but I'm also just so happy that he uses this podcasts the free PDFs

13:39 that the team puts together online courses coaching all these things even the connected families framework all of it to bring trajectory change for families but I know also that it happens faster in small groups that's for sure so friends I'm going to ask again will you consider leading a small small group whether it's just two people or 10 people will you consider leading one in the next couple of months okay everybody I promised a short bonus episode today

14:09 so a really big thank you to Pam for coming on the show again yeah thank you yeah it was fun to be here Jackie thanks for coming on thanks for working with me every day I appreciate you all right well thanks for tuning in today friends we will have links to the small group page and other resources that we mentioned today it will all be in the show notes you know connected families is a nonprofit Ministry made possible by

14:37 the table and other donors the table is a group of people from around the world who are committed to Christ centered transformation in families their monthly giving equips parents with Biblical and research informed resources that cut the overwhelm and guide parents well for more information about connected families follow us on Instagram Facebook YouTube all the places or go to Connected families.org I will see you next time

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