Leadership Tips & Training Question & Answer

Questions: "We are getting ready to start our second session. What do we do? Do we repeat what we did the first time? How do we use the leader guide after the first session?"

Answers: When you have completed your first 13-week session, you start again by first having another orientation to invite any new people to join. Those who have just completed the first session would not have to attend an orientation meeting. Next, you will go through the same process as the first session with setting up the class by determining all the details, such as when, where, and what time your class will meet. There is no need to separate returning members from new members. They may all go through the session together using the same materials. At the first and second meeting of the second 13- week session, you will follow the "Group Meeting Week One and Two" plan. The one change might be that you give those returning members the option of leaving when "Live-It" section of the Food Exchange Plan video is shown. You may also want to show that during the last 20 minutes of the class time. Make copies of the Session Overview and the Weekly Lesson Plan forms, which are found on pages 81-83 of the leader guide, and use to create your own lesson plans. You may want to repeat some of the more essential or important Wellness Worksheets each 13-week session and some you may only use when they meet a specific need in the group. You determine which Wellness Worksheets you will spotlight from the Member Guide and from the Bible study. Survey your class to see what needs or interests they may have. Use this information when planning the weekly wellness spotlight. You will also be able to use the Nine Commitments video in place of Wellness Worksheets for the spotlight on those weeks when you feel your members need a motivational word regarding one of the commitments. The Member Guide and Bible studies were created to give you more than enough materials, providing leaders an abundance of resources from which to draw from session to session in order to meet the needs of their First Place class.


Nancy Taylor is the First Place Leadership Training Director and joined the First Place staff in 1997. Nancy teaches leadership principles to First Place Leaders throughout the country and at Houston's First Baptist Church where she coordinates all the First Place groups. Nancy also speaks at First Place workshops, rallies, retreats, and conferences, where she delights her audiences with humor and encourages them with boldness. She writes a monthly article, which includes helpful tips for leaders, for the First Place E-newsletter, and was a contributing writer to the Today is the First Day devotional book. Nancy is the resident First Place Bible Concordance because of her love for Scripture memory.