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What's up everyone.

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This is the road kids ministry training where our goal is to empower leaders to disciple

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a generation.

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This is video two of how to lead a small group, uh, practical steps to leading a small group.

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So without any further ado, let's go.

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The first thing when you are preparing to lead a small group is to pray.

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Obviously this is like the given one, but how often do we actually forget to pray over

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the small group that we are currently going to be leading or we are leading this coming

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Sunday.

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And so we want you to be prepared in that way.

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You're going to face challenges.

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You're going to face children who don't want to be there or who are having a really bad

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day and you need to be prepared for that.

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And you also need to pray that God will move in specific ways in your small group, especially

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if you know the lesson outline and the different things that we will, we will be pointing out

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through small groups.

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We want to maximize the impact that kids have in their, that you have in your small groups

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and that can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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So we encourage you that number one, you pray, pray over your small group, pray over it.

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As soon as you receive the small group guide, pray over your group Sunday morning, especially

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as you prepare for the class.

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The second thing is prepare.

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You receive a small group guide, you receive prompts and different details to help you

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manage an effective small group.

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And so make sure that you are adequately prepared.

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You have read through and you understand the guide.

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You understand the main message of that small group and you can allow the Holy Spirit to

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lead you in that.

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There's nothing worse than coming in on a Sunday and feeling like you don't know what

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to do.

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You are unprepared because you don't understand the activities.

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You don't understand the lesson points.

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So make sure that you are prepared before you step on the church campus.

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So very important, but so many times overlooked.

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Number three is set the tone, create a fun and happy environment right at the beginning.

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I am a strong believer in this from my brief history in child education.

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When children are entering your room, you have a very short timeframe to actually set

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the tone.

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You want to cheerfully greet the kids as they're entering their room or as they're sitting

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down in the circle.

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You want to have lots of smiles.

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You want to have a really light and fun atmosphere opposed to walking into a classroom and then

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immediately being ordered to sit down.

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It just makes all of the difference.

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Begin the class with the fun things that you are going to do and not the rules.

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This is a personal one for me.

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I always want to say, kids, we're going to have so much fun today.

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We have this planned, this planned, and this planned.

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In order for us to have fun and get through all of these things, I'm going to need everyone

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to be listening and then I'll go through the rules that way.

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When I was teaching in the school, I would have classes that I knew was going to be a

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nightmare.

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I had students I knew were going to give me a headache.

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I had students that were going to be a disruption the entire class.

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I didn't want them to identify me as the grumpy person who just yells at them with rules.

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I wanted them to know that I can be fun and that I want them to have fun.

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That's really important for kids because they can end up viewing people as just this

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madman with a hammer ready to discipline you for doing wrong.

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You want to set the tone in that way.

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When I was in the class, I made sure I was in the classroom early so that as the kids

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are entering the class, and I couldn't do this for every class, but the classes I could,

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I would be in there early.

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As the kids were entering the room, I would have fun, upbeat music going, and I would

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high-five each student and call them by name and excitedly greet them to the class.

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Then I would go into the fun things we were going to do and then set some parameters.

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That gives you just a little bit of equity with them, and they can be like, oh, maybe

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this person is actually fun.

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That is something that I always like to do, set the tone in the room.

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Number four is set and maintain structure.

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For the creatives out there, structure sounds like a bad word, like, no, it just needs to

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be ... Structure is not fun at all.

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Let me assure you, kids love structure.

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Some of you are going to be like, no, I disagree with you, but believe me, they love structure.

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They love to understand what's coming next.

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They love to understand what is expected of them through each element of your small group

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or each ...

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each element of your service.

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And so you want to set and maintain structure.

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And here are some ways that you can do that.

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Your small group guide should helpfully

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provide resources that help you have some structure,

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whether it's an intro, activity, and then building off

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of that into some questions, discussion, whatever it may be.

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Use that as a resource to decide and build on your structure.

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But it's up to you to decide on what works for your group.

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You will know your kids the best.

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You will know the hyperactivity.

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You will know what they need, what they want.

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You're going to know their interests.

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So it's up to you to cater the small group guide to what

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works for your environment.

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If that means ditching all of the games and activities

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and doing something that you think is going to work better,

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then you have the freedom to do that.

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In fact, you have the responsibility

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to do that, because we want every child

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to engage with the word of God and have a good time learning.

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You can set structure by explaining

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the outline of your small group and then discussing

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what the parameters are around that.

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I never expect kids to behave in a certain way

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that I have not communicated expectations.

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So I will explain at the beginning of my small group,

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hey, guys, we're going to have so much fun today.

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We're going to first play a little intro game.

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Then we're going to do some discussion questions.

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And then we have another fun activity at the end

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if we have enough participation or if we

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have enough time, whatever it may be.

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And during this time, I want everyone to participate.

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During the intro game, I want everyone

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to participate, because we're going

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to build community together, or whatever

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phraseology you want to use.

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During the small group time, I want, or the question time,

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I want you to engage.

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I want you to be thinking about the questions,

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and I want you to be giving answers.

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And then, so basically explaining

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the expectations of each time.

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And then as you move into each section,

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reminding them of that.

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OK, guys, now we're going to talk about the Bible.

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And so I want you guys to be thinking about the questions.

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I want you to be actively engaged,

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not talking if you have a question

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or you want to say something.

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Then we raise our hands, just communicating

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those classroom expectations at every point.

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That way, kids are very clear on what's expected of them.

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And if you have to move into discipline after that,

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there is no question about, well, I didn't know.

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I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.

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Everyone should know expectations.

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So setting and maintaining structure.

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Another way to help maintain structure

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is to use parameters to coach the group

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in the purpose of each segment.

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So because you have explained the parameters,

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you can remind them of those parameters.

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And I will do it very frequently throughout a small group.

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I will do it pretty regularly, reminding, especially, well,

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depending on the age group.

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If it's a younger age group, I will

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remind them every few sentences of what the parameters are.

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And that might sound extreme.

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But I always say, hey, guys, I'm happy to answer questions

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for anyone that has their hand raised

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and expressing to them the parameters of that.

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Number five of steps to lead a small group is make it fun.

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Kids learn best when they're having fun.

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And so you want your small group to be fun.

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If you are bored in your small group,

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then I can assure you your kids are bored times 10.

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Because kids want to have fun.

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And their attention span is much shorter than ours.

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So think through it in your case.

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Would you actually be having fun sitting in your small group?

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Think through, how am I going to make it fun?

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You can add or subtract content to provide or provide it

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to fit the needs of your specific group.

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Catering and activity is so important.

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Maybe the activity is painting apples.

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And they are just supposed to stamp the apple on the page.

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Maybe for your group, that's not going to be as engaging.

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Maybe you need to cut the apple into shapes.

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And then they can stamp different shapes

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or giving them plastic knives so that they can customize

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the shapes that they do.

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Whatever it is, cater the activity

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to your specific age group to make

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it more enjoyable for them.

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And always make sure that you are leaving time for fun.

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I like to tell kids, hey, we have time for fun.

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We have time to engage and talk about the Bible.

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And then we have time for more fun

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or whatever the different structure may be.

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But letting them know that you want them to have fun,

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but there's a time and a place for everything.

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And so making sure that you have time for the fun things.

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Sometimes we can say, oh, we're going

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to play this game after our discussion questions.

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And then parent pickup starts happening.

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And kids aren't getting able to play the activity

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that you promised them.

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Excuse me.

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Always make sure that you are leaving time

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for the fun elements.

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And as much as you can, making even just the discussion.

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things enjoyable or engaging and we'll talk about some different ways to do

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that in the future. Lastly, going back to our values, we always want to close it in

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prayer. Depending on your age group, you can ask for prayer requests of things

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that kids want to be prayed for. You can have kids pray for each other, but we

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always want to close and end a small group in prayer and making sure we have

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time for that. You know, having time for that before parents start picking up the

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children from your classroom, it's very important. So, making sure that you have

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time for prayer. Well, that's everything for video two, how to lead a small group.

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We're going to discuss more the structure of small groups and how to

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set your unique structure in future videos. So, I will see you in the next one.