Introducing LifeGroup Coaches (Jess Greer Introduction)

If we want to multiply disciple makers, we also need to multiply the people who support disciple makers.

That is why we are beginning to build out LifeGroup coaching.

We want to make sure the Group Leads who are leading, discipling, developing co-leaders, and carrying responsibility for others are not doing it alone.

As our Disciple Maker Groups grow, our support for their leaders has to grow with them.

So, What Is A Coach?

A coach is someone who comes alongside a leader to encourage, support, ask good questions, help them process what is happening in their Group, and help them keep moving toward the mission.

Sometimes that looks like a phone call. Sometimes it looks like coffee. Sometimes it is checking in after a difficult Group night. Sometimes it is helping a leader identify a co-leader.

Sometimes it is simply asking: How are you doing? Where are you seeing fruit? Where are you stuck? Who are you investing in? Who might be ready for more?

The goal is to help leaders become stronger, healthier, more intentional disciple makers who are increasingly able to develop others. That is the pattern we are trying to build into our Disciple Maker Groups: not just carrying responsibility, but helping others learn to carry it too.

Our leadership process is designed to move people from watching, to helping, to leading, to eventually being released to lead others. We see this equipping pattern outlined by Paul and the early church (Ephesians 4:11-16; 2 Timothy 2:2)

Why Add Coaches Now?

Because growth creates both opportunity and responsibility. As more people begin leading Disciple Maker Groups, more leaders will need encouragement. More co-leaders will need to be identified. More future leaders will need to be invited, challenged, equipped, and released. And if all of that depends on one person making every call, having every conversation, solving every problem, and developing every leader, we will eventually hit a ceiling.

Coaching helps break that ceiling. It gives us more people who can come alongside leaders. More people who can recognize potential. More people who can encourage faithfulness. More people who can help leaders think beyond the next meeting and toward the person God may be preparing them to invest in.

That is why our support for leaders must multiply. And when support multiplies, leadership can multiply too.

Meet Our First Disciple Maker Group Coach: Jess Greer

I have asked Jess Greer to step into this role as our first Disciple Maker Group Coach.

For those of you who know Jess, you know she lives and breathes discipling. Jess has been serving on Next Steps since it started a year ago. Since finishing the Disciple Maker Group training, she has led a Disciple Making Group for women for the past three semesters. 

She has lived it.

She has led our Disciple Maker Group format through a full cycle. (Typcially 3-4 semesters)

She has walked with women in her Group all the way to baptism and into taking their own next steps.

She has brought on a co-leader and intentionally mentored, equipped, and prepared that person to step into leadership themselves.

She has sat in on QA's for other Disciple Maker Group trainings because of her knowledge and experience, and provided invaluable insight to those considering leading Disciple Maker Groups themselves.

She has demonstrated the kind of leadership we want to see reproduced: making disciples who make disciples.

She is stepping into coaching because she has a legit track record.

She has carried the process herself, learned from it, seen fruit from it, and is now in a position to help others do the same.

What Will Jess Be Doing?

Jess will begin making rounds with different Disciple Maker Group leaders, and prospective leaders.

That may mean connecting over the phone.

Meeting for coffee.

Checking in in person.

Following up on a challenge.

Talking through what is happening in a Group.

Helping a leader identify someone worth investing in.

Encouraging a leader who feels stuck.

Or helping someone see that there may already be a future co-leader sitting in their Group.

Jess' efforts will support the current leaders, strengthen our leads, and help those leaders develop others.

Why This Matters For The Future?

If disciple making is really going to become part of the culture of LifePointe, then it cannot depend on a few people doing everything.

It has to spread. Leader to leader. Disciple to disciple. Group to group.

With more coaches willing to come alongside all of them.

That is how multiplication stops being an idea and starts becoming normal.

So here is a question worth asking: Who helped you become the leader you are now?

And then another: Who are you helping become the leader they could be next?

That is the heartbeat behind coaching.

Jess said yes to being developed. She said yes to leading. She said yes to developing someone else. And now she is saying yes to helping other leaders do the same.

Maybe November 13–14 is your next yes. 
Our next Disciple Maker Pilot Training is November 13–14.
This training is for people who want to grow in what it looks like to intentionally help others follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join Jesus’ mission.
You will learn the framework, rhythms, tools, and leadership posture behind our Disciple Maker Groups so that what Jesus has entrusted to you can eventually be entrusted to someone else. That same intentional progression toward equipping and releasing others is built into our Disciple Maker strategy.

Could God be asking you to take a next step from participating in disciple making to intentionally helping multiply it?