How to plant a small group pt. 4: Plant and workshop

This series is an edited version of a teaching manuscript the Small Groups Team at the Summit Church used in our first ever “how to plant a small group” seminar held in May of 2009. Read pt. 1 on “Motivation“ , pt. 2: “1. pray and 2. tell people” , and pt. 3 “3.Recruit and 4. Soft Launch.“

5. Plant the group

Finally! The time has come for all of your preparation work to yield some fruit. If for some reason you jumped straight to this step, oh boy. There is a reason it is the last one. Go back, and re-read. Hard work in the pre-plant stages will yield great returns over the course of your small group life. Ok, having said that here are a couple of things to consider as you plant the group.

The First Meeting
This gathering is so crucial it should honestly be an entirely separate article and training. In fact, you can find that article at spenceshelton.com/the-first-meeting. Hope it is helpful. Summary: Pray, Eat, & less is more. It takes a small group anywhere from 6 to 9 months to really gel relationally so don’t expect fireworks the first time you meet.

Limited initial commitment
Even after the recruiting and soft launch you still have not formally asked for a long term commitment. Invite those present to commit to that short-term time frame you gave them at the soft launch. (see step 4. “details”). Ask them to stick it out for 6 to 8 weeks. This gives people a respectable “out” if for some reason they do not want to continue with the group after that. Don’t worry though, almost always a small group that makes it to 6 weeks is going to want to continue meeting regularly for the next year or so.

Long-term commitment
I’ve seen way too many group leaders miss this step. 6 weeks in, things are going well and you in lieu of rocking the boat the leader does not formally acknowledge the purposes and goals of the group for its future. So the group continues to meet but without a goal in mind. This doesn’t seem like significant to the young excited group, but slowly the group will drift away from being an intentional bible-based Missional community and will become an amorphous collection of friends detached from church life.

To avoid this, consider putting together a covenant for the group members to sign, committing themselves to a certain set of purposes and goals over the next year or so. Ask your small groups coach or staff at your church to help you put this together.

Workshop

The following questions are designed to help you think through the material above. The goal in working through these questions is to help you set up a plan to plant a small group 2 months from today. Certain questions are directed towards current small group leaders and others towards someone planting a small group. Work through these individually, and review them together with your small groups coach and/or small groups staff.

For Current Small Group Leaders
1.    The person most likely to plant a new group out of my group is…

2.    I commit to personally invest in this individual through…

3.    To see my group plant a new group in 2-6 months, I need to begin preparing my current group starting…

←I———————I————————–I————————–I→
Today        30 Days          60 Days          90 Days
For New Group Planters
1.    20 people least likely to kill me if I invite them to the new group…

2.    Based on what I’ve heard tonight, I could potentially launch a new group when?

How to plant a small group pt. 3: Recruit and Soft Launch

This series is an edited version of a teaching manuscript the Small Groups Team at the Summit Church used in our first ever “how to plant a small group” seminar held in May of 2009. Read pt. 1 on “Motivation“ and pt. 2: “1. pray and 2. tell people.”

3. Recruit

Start with a core group
Its best to have 2-4 people  (couples count as one) who will agree to plant this group with you. These are the people who are willing to say “sink or swim I will be with it. And at the end of 6 weeks, if it tanks, the three of us will go to chili’s and have some laughs over it.” You and your core group, once established, are now on a mission to recruit the rest of the members of your group. We discourage you from taking the next step in recruiting before establishing your core. This really is the key element of starting a healthy, stable small group and most likely (though not necessarily) will come from your current small group*.

*One way to establish familiarity in the core group if you are all coming from the same existing group is to “subgroup” for discussion and prayer time. That is, have your core group still meet with the rest of your current group, but separate out into a different room or area for prayer and discussion.

Become intentional in your search
Start thinking about people from within your current small group, from within your campus, from within your circle of influence.  Don’t wait on your small groups staff to hand you a list of names. We’ve found people are much more likely to accept a personal invitation from someone they’ve met versus an email invitation from someone they were forwarded to by the church staff. Here are a couple of ideas to help jumpstart your search:

• Serve in a ministry. First Impressions & Kids Ministry are probably the two most obvious spots. In these ministries you are weekly around people who are not yet in a small group. I’ve seen multiple new groups quickly fill up through the core group members serving as greeters and simply inviting people to their group. How simple!
• Make a list. List 20 people you know that live in your area and do not have a small group that you know of. Have your core group to do the same! That’s anywhere from 60 to 100 people. Don’t limit yourself to those in your church. Reach out to your neighbors!

Be strategic in how you talk
If you walk up to someone on your list of 20 and say “I want you to be in a very intimate life-changing small group with me that will meet weekly for the next year and we will share life together” you likely get a restraining order put out on you. Sure you hope your group will develop some great friendships, even life-long ones, but you have the responsibility to meet people where they are. So instead of asking someone to commit to a year long small group the first time you speak with them, just gauge their potential interest. I’ve often asked someone “I’m thinking about starting a small group at my home and was wondering if you’d be interested?” That’s it. No commitment right there. It allows people the opportunity to respond. Whatever you say or do to gauge interest, remember that people are not as excited (yet) about this new small group as you are. Meet them where they are.

4. Soft Launch

Gather socially
Once you have done the legwork of recruiting people, it is time to take the next step in shaping your new small group. From here it is time to soft launch the group. The soft launch is a way for you to gather the people together who are interested in a social setting. The goal here is establishing who is actually interested in participating in your group versus those who may have indicated interest but cannot participate at this time. The soft launch can be one or two social gatherings you initiate over a month’s time to begin building relationships with these potential group members.

Be concise and clear
The “programming” of a soft launch should not be more than 5 minutes and should simply involve you addressing everyone (briefly) acknowledging you are hoping to begin a small group at your home soon and hope those present will consider joining you. You should give brief details and a clear reason why you want them to be a part and then stop talking. Remember, you are more excited than they are and you are bringing them along but they probably aren’t at your excitement level yet. So be excited, but don’t preach a sermon!

The details
Of course if you are going to give details, you will need those details firmed up. Establish an intended launch date. Important: While you need to set your small group meeting on a night available to you, acknowledge that you are open (if you are) to hearing from everyone what day will work best in their schedules. Also, let them know you are not looking for an indefinite commitment. Give them a short-term timetable (6-8 weeks) for them to think through.

How to plant a small group pt.2: Pray and Tell People

This series is an edited version of a teaching manuscript the Small Groups Team at the Summit Church used in our first ever “how to plant a small group” seminar held in May of 2009. Read pt. 1 on “Motivation.“

HOW

With an understanding of why we need to plant more small groups, the below are a few steps designed to set you up for success as the leader of a new small group. Please follow these with the guidance of your small group leader and/or small groups pastoral staff.

1.    Pray

Too often we tend to jump into a task, especially one at church, without seeking God for wisdom in discerning whether or not this is the season of life to commit to it. If you commit to leading a group at the Summit, we want you to do so only having prayed significantly over it. If your current group leader challenges you to lead a new group, ask him or her to pray with you over the decision. This is not to scare you away from leading, but instead to encourage you in your prayer life. As a group leader we on the Summit Small Groups Team will encourage you towards a rich and faith filled prayer life. If you are not at the Summit your pastoral team at your church will likely do the same. Let me give one caveat: do not spend forever “praying about” the decision to plant a small group. Pray, evaluate your life situation, read your bible, seek Godly counsel from others around you, then act. Since I know I just touched on understanding God’s will, read our lead pastors recent blog on Finding the will of God.

2.    Tell People

Tell your group
Start this week introducing the group planting concept to your group. Start encouraging your group members to think missionally. Encourage them to pray with you about the next phase in your group plant. Hopefully your current group is having a good experience. What if you could tell them “hey, invite everybody you want to small group.” If your group is maxed out with people, that can’t happen. When you start adding the 15th, 16th, etc, persons to your group, statistics say they will be the least likely to “stick.”

Listen, for an existing group, this is the biggest hurdle. I think we all know this, especially those of us who have done this before. The reason it is a big hurdle: real biblical community is sadly hard to find and when you find it you don’t want to let it go. Your group members fear you are trying to destroy relationships they were created by God to be in. Why would you do that? 2 responses for you:

• We are a church; a missional people intent on making disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do sacrifice some comfort when we take up the missional nature of the church. It would be a lie to say biblical community is always comfortable. From Pastor Spence: watching my closest friends leave to plant churches in Boston, Central Asia, Africa, and East Asia is not comfortable. Knowing I may never see some of them again before heaven is not ideal to me. Yet I rejoice in their departure. Because I have accepted it is not about me and my comfort, but the exaltation of Christ among those yet to worship him.
• Planting new groups is different than splitting them. We are not counting off “one, two” and the ones are a new group. We are sending out a core group from your group to plant a new group that they can add many more people to. And do not fear you will never see this core group again! They are not church planting but group planting down the road, in the same church. I get villainized more than any pastor on staff because of this misunderstanding. The assumption is “Spence wants us to break up.” Of course I never want people to cut friends out of their lives. What I am after, what the church is after, is equipping people to fulfill the great commission of Christ to make disciples. when you tell me you’ve been in the same small group for 30 years and you’ve developed “deep friendships” a part of me cringes because I wonder how many disciple-making opportunities you have sacrificed on that “deep friendship” altar.

If you are not currently in a small group, you should consider joining a group before starting a new group. This is the best way to get to know the intent your church has for how its small groups operate. While their will be exceptions to this principle (no group within 20 miles of you for example), and even if you have prior small group leading experience, participating in group life at your church before leading in it will most often prove to be a valuable first step.

Tell your Small Groups Staff
Your small groups staff is set-up as a resource to help you succeed as a group leader. The sooner you enlist their support, the better your chances for success are. They will be able to provide you with the training, resources, ideas, and ongoing coaching you need to develop into a mature group leader. Too many individuals embark on this journey without ever consulting their pastoral team. Often, these same individuals burn out from exhaustion or failure in recruiting, or they drop out of the church because they establish a small group totally disconnected from the life of the church. Neither of these are God’s design for discipleship. Talk to your pastoral team. Again, they are there intentionally for you and you would be wise to take advantage of such a resource!

How to plant a small group pt. 1: The motivation

This series is an edited version of a teaching manuscript the Small Groups Team at the Summit Church used in our first ever “how to plant a small group” seminar held in May of 2009. The purpose of this series, as was the purpose of the seminar, is to equip any Christian man or woman with the basic plan needed to launch, or plant as we say at the Summit, a new small group. The section below discusses the motivation behind planting a small group at your church, and the next 3 installments will discuss at length the 5 steps to take to successfully plant a group: Pray, Tell People, Establish the Core, Soft Launch, Plant.

WHY
The aim of this series is definitely the “how,” the practical steps to take to get a small group up and running. However, much more important than how is “why.” Why should your church try small groups in its discipleship model, why should you lead a group, and most importantly why should you lead a group that is always looking to plant new groups. For most of the answer to this question I will gladly defer to Pastor C.J. Mahaney and his book Why Small Groups? Pastor Mahaney and his staff team at Sovereign Grace ministries infused this work with years of wisdom, sound biblical insight, and great encouragement in such a way that I consider it the most valuable resource currently in print in the small group world. Read it to understand most of the “why”. There is one element I will seek to add to the motivation behind planting small groups as it is a part of the foundation on which we are building our small groups ministry at the Summit Church.

Convictions
We believe God has called us to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all nations (Matt 28:18-20). We believe while mission trips both short and long term have their place, the BEST way to reach a local community with the gospel is to for there to be a thriving local church in that community. The local church is made up of people in the community living and speaking the love of Jesus to their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and families. As we believe Jesus gives life to the spiritually dead and dying, we believe the men and women of a local church are the carriers of that life. Thus, a very real sign of a healthy church is one that is unceasingly opening its doors, seats, and homes for more people to encounter the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was the example set by the early church (Acts 2:42-47) and the example set by most healthy local churches today. We are therefore very passionate about putting this into practice in 2 connected places: Small Groups and church planting.

Small Groups are the front door
We want every small group to see themselves, and not the weekend worship services, as the front door of the Summit Church. We have seen people who would never come to a church service participate in a Summit Small Group. And in time, some of them have become followers of Jesus Christ. To maintain this missional focus, we challenge Summit small groups to always be looking for opportunities to plant a new small group. Why? Not because we want to accommodate growth, we want to be a catalyst for it!  When a small group sees planting a group as a duty and not a joy, it takes the first step towards becoming an inward focused holy huddle that can be cancerous to its church. A healthy small group longs to see others come to know Christ and to see those people mature in such a way that they are participating in the great commission by making disciples. Basically, a healthy small group is contagious and growth becomes a joyous side-effect of gospel-centered living.

Small Groups are the lab
Because of our convictions about the local church (see above “Doctrine”) We are very, very passionate about church planting at the Summit. Outside of our lead pastor no ministry has given more input into how we structure our small group ministry than our church planting center. We believe the next generation of small group leaders at the Summit are going to come out of those presently in small groups. Therefore, we want to give them a small taste of the church planting process. This is why we use the language of “planting” small groups. Because healthy churches plant new churches, they don’t SPLIT and Multiply (at least not in the United States). Our church planting team teaches people how to develop a core team to go out with a lead planter to provide support, encouragement, and multiplied influence in the new community. Likewise, we do not SPLIT small groups, we send out a small core team (anywhere from 2 to 5 people) to PLANT a new small group. The steps to accomplish this (seen below in the “how” section) mirror in a scaled-down way the steps a new church planter takes to get his church rooted and established in his new community. So not only do our small groups get to actually taste what our church planters are doing, we are likely to find our next church planters by observing who is thriving in the small group planting model! When we see a small group leader successfully plant a new group three or four times, we may ask him to consider being assessed for church planting because he would pretty much be doing the same thing he has been doing just in a different location.

Leader Development at the Summit Church

Below is part of a letter I mailed out to small group leaders here at the Summit talking about a shift in focus we’ve made (in house) over the past few months and how it is affecting them beginning this summer. I was hesitant to share this with you as I openly convey some regret in this letter about our ministry’s past. However maybe you will glean something from this to help you in your own setting. Also, our resource list for leader development this year shows up towards the end. Again, for your general knowledge in case it helps. Really looking forward to ‘09-’10!!

Dear SummitLIFE Leader,
I hope your summer has started off well. I want to take a second to say thank you for your diligent leadership of your SummitLIFE group this past spring. Just to catch you up, we had more people involved in a SummitLIFE group this spring than ever before! Praise God we are really starting to develop a family of believers here at the Summit!

Our growth is exciting, and with that God has given us a great responsibility to be not just a ministry growing in number, but growing in our capacity to make disciples as well. To my regret, we have not been emphasizing leader development as much as I’ve come to see we should have been over the past few years.  The result has been a small group ministry largely pointed towards numerical expansion and not focused enough on the spiritual health and maturity of its leaders. Thankfully, this is no longer the case.

We made up substantial ground this past year (Fall-Spring) by connecting most of our group leaders to experienced small group leaders and/or pastors who we are calling “coaches” as a prayer and support line for you. Our coaches meet monthly with myself and our SummitLIFE staff to discuss and take steps to improve the health of your group.

This summer, we are beginning the next phase in our shift towards becoming a healthy discipleship ministry. Your elders have affirmed this move and are behind us in this effort. The Summit will be issuing you a series of resources over the course of the year (Summer ‘09 – Summer ‘10) for you to work through. They include:

•    The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney
•    Emergency Response Handbook for Small Group Leaders by Groups Publishing
•    The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
•     “Organic” Series by Pastor J.D.

We believe out of all of the resources we looked through, this combination along with our coaches and our ongoing sermon-based group material, will help us create an environment for a healthy year of discipleship for the small group leaders of the Summit Church. We will be both supporting and challenging you like never before.

I love my role here at the Summit Church.

How to plant a small group

After much preparation and prayer, our small groups team is hosting a training seminar for our small group leaders tonight entitled: How to plant a small group.

Now, in all fairness we do not claim to be experts on this. but we think God has given us a compelling vision for missional discipleship here at the Summit and we hope to share some of that tonight along with some practical steps for any group leader to plant a new small group by the end of 2009.

I am pumped

Stuff a small group leader should know pt.1b

Series: stuff a small group leader should know

Today: What should my group study part 2. Part 1

Second, based on your answers, pick a direction
Is there something big going on church-wide? Direct your materials search based on what God is doing church-wide. Is your small groups ministry emphasizing something? Consult them about materials that will help your group “get it.” I promise they have thought about it. What about your group? If there is an issue that needs addressing, seek counsel on material that will help you cover it.  Some things to remember in this step:

• Remember the calendar:  You may be thinking…”my church is in a major campaign, the groups team is emphasizing tithing, and my group members are in crappy marriages. How do I deal with all of that at the same time???” You don’t. Get the dates of major church campaigns from your pastor. Schedule around those pushes so your group will be “with” your church during those important seasons.  Major pushes usually occur at the beginning of the fall and the start of spring. Be prepared to get on board so your group members feel connected to what is happening. You then become a momentum catalyst for your church instead of a momentum killer.
• Consult the group: Of course, the group isn’t “your” group in the sense that everybody in the group needs to have ownership over it.  A great way for others in the group to accept that responsibility is to consult them in this process. Someone may be sitting on a great idea that they would be willing to co-lead with you…. You may just discover a future group planter this way!  If nothing else, your group will know that they aren’t audience members but community members.
• Consult your coach &/or pastor: Even if you are not doing something “church-wide” you must reject the feeling that you are on an island. Seek the counsel of those in your support line. For example, here at the Summit I am a small groups pastor. That means I spend a full work week every week in the small groups world. Most of our group leaders have busy lives and do not have time to look into the endless sea of materials out there right now and google may not exactly yield the most profitable results on this one.

Third, know your limits
The best small group leader does not need a PhD in systematic theology. The best group leader cares for the people in his group and know his limits when it comes to available prep time, small group experience, Bible teaching skills, and group dynamics. If you are like me and have an infant, a pregnant wife, and a full time job, you probably don’t have 8 hours a week to devote to creating a study guide for Romans 6. Or, maybe this is your first time leading a small group and you have never prepared a discussion before. Maybe your group is full of new Christians or non-Christians. The point is, limitations are your friend as long as you acknowledge them.  The bad group leader is the one who cannot see his limits and winds up over or under preparing on a regular basis. Not sure what your limits are? Ask for some honest feedback from your coach/pastor or a member in your group you trust.

Hopefully this will help you think strategically in deciding what your small group will be studying. After all, what you should study is stuff a small group leader should know.

Stuff a small group leader should know pt.1a

We are working through evaluating and retooling our discipleship strategy here at the Summit and in doing so we’ve been reminded of how essential one particular element of small group ministry is: communication. No wonder it is one of the 7 deadly sins of small group ministry according to Donahue & Robinson in their book by that title. So in an effort to COMMUNICATE some of the things we consider foundational to small group leader success,  we are beginning a series here at the Small Groups Guy on the stuff small group leaders should know.  This means anything from how your group can create other groups to balancing elements of group life to what materials to use in your group.  The goal behind this series is to make you a more informed and equipped small group leader. We begin with the question…

“What should my group study?”

This is the one question I was always finding myself coming back to as a small group leader for many years. Even if I set up a 6 month plan for my group’s study I was always keeping an eye out for other materials out there that would be “cool to try.” As a group leader you have a very serious responsibility in this arena. What you study will define a good portion of the discipleship experience your group members have. You better get this one right hu? So let’s build a strategy to answer this question well. Hopefully you will find this strategy one you can keep coming back to.  3 phases, the first of which we will look at today, the second two we will look at tomorrow.

First, Evaluate your situation. Answer the following questions:

• What is happening church-wide?
  • What is the pastor teaching through? Is he in a series on a particular book or subject?
    • Summiters: We’ve got a 3 week series on prayer starting May 3.
  • Are there any major initiatives being emphasized such as expansion projects, service opportunities, etc.?
    • Summiters: think BELIEVE project, Hope4RDU, Church Planting, for examples.
• What is happening in your small groups ministry?
  • ideally the small groups ministry will be emphasizing the same things as the church-wide vision, but there may be some nuances or other things the sg team is putting out there to help you make disciples.
  • Is there certain material the sg team is offering or encouraging you to use?
    • Summiters: think BELIEVE guide this February and our weekly sermon discussion guides the rest of the year.
  • Is there a certain emphasis for the year or semester the sg team has put out there at leadership gatherings?
    • Summiters: What did we emphasize at Frontline this January? Hope4RDU and small group coaching
• What is happening in your small group?
  • Spiritually, where are the people in your group? Are there new Christians and/or non-Christians?
  • Is there a certain life-stage many of your group members fit into?
  • How long has your group been meeting together?
  • Is there a situation one or more of your group members are in or have been through that you think requires more attention?

Mars Hill Church in Seattle, a sister church of the Summit in the Acts29 network, describes the role of their small group leader as “to know each member of the group well enough to articulate a vision for his/her spiritual growth, citing specifics about how my group as a whole or individual members of the group nurture his/her growth.” I think this is necessary in order to answer this 3rd question well.

part 2 coming tommorrow.

Sharpen your skills!

At the Summit we are currently in the middle of our training course for new small group leaders. last night we finished up part 2 of our 4 part course and really had a great time. We worked through what prayer is and what it looks like in a small group setting. The group going through the course this time around is really engaged with the material and it is making for a great time of discussion when we gather.

Recently I have been thinking about how as a small group leader I tend to assume that my “new leader” training will be enough to take me through the rest of my small group leader career. Of course this isn’t the truth, yet I’ve found it to be the case that many group leaders never seek out or receive any training past that initial course (if that!).

If we were to approach our jobs that way we probably wouldn’t last very long would we? The Summit is located in the middle of the Research Triangle Park, one of the tech-savviest places on earth. Can you imagine if a software programmer never once received any training after he initially joined IBM? Never once read a manual about the specs on new technology coming out, never sat down and “played with” new software that IBM wants to use? He would be completely out of touch in 6 months. He would be the type-writer in the mac store.

That is just one example of course. All careers require training for advancements in their fields, for advancements up the corporate ladder, or even just to refresh ourselves of things we’ve filed away under the “I already heard that once” file. Shockingly I know, a small group leader is no different. We need training to keep our listening skills, bible study skills, etc sharpened. After all, the small group leader is the most important position in a church of small groups. So the question to you small group leader is this: what are you doing to improve your small group leader skills?

At the Summit we are presently working through creating training modules that each leader will go through at various points during their time as a leader. Nothing overwhelming of course, but something that will keep challenging them and help them avoid the dangerous land of complacency.

Below are a couple of resources I think are great helps in sharpening your skills as a group leader:

• Leading Life-Changing Small Groups by Bill Donahue
• smallgroups.com – good website with good tools for leaders and leaders of leaders.

I also have several things on file I’d be happy to share with you, just let me know.

Clarity through Coaching

Im slowly working my way through an excellent book on small group ministry titled The 7 Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson. As I continue to get my feet wet in the small groups world, I am more and more thankful for the work of experienced men like Donahue who has a clear passion to see people discipled in life on life relationships. The first “sin” in the book, and the most deadly, is unclear communication. Basically, you will never get anything done if you don’t clearly communicate what it is you are trying to get done. This has been a wake-up call for me. Not because I never knew that, but because I tend to assume our group leaders understand everything about our vision for their small group because I said it once or twice in an email or at a training forum. The challenge for me is to communicate in a simple, clear fashion to our leaders and not go all over the map with ideas I have that sound good in my head. In an effort to clean out the gunk in the communication pipeline and focus our groups towards a united mission, we are introducing a coaching element to our small groups at the Summit Church. (I tackled more of the reasoning behind adopting a coaching strategy in the post Biggest objection to small groups and a solution in BETA )

A coach is simply a seasoned SummitLIFE group leader who is charged with supporting 2-3 other SummitLIFE group leaders. Practically, this looks like a phone call or a cup-o-joe twice a month and the occasional sit-in by the coach on the small group leader’s meeting. Not surprisingly, Donahue and his team created a set of expectations they place on the coach-leader relationship at their church which they published in Coaching Life-Changing small group leaders. I took our coaches through this list at our monthly meeting earlier this month.

What do leaders expect from coaches?

1. Provide support and care
2. Make a commitment to the person, not the position
3. Create an environment of trust

What do coaches expect from leaders?

1. Fulfill their responsibilities as a leader
2. Maintain truthful communication
3. Maintain a humble, teachable spirit

So there you have it SummitLIFE group leaders. I hope you are encouraged by this. This is not some sort of new or additional program, but an effort to create intentional relationships that lead towards gospel-centered growth in the life of the Summit Church. I have the privilege to meet monthly with these coaches and listen, they are some awesome people. And as a leader of a new small group, I greatly value their encouragement towards me while my group works its way through that awkward beginning phase.

One last word, if you don’t know who your coach is yet, let me know!