Start A Men’s Group

The best candidates for this role, and the preparation for being a leader is having been a member of an Avenue group for men. While that's not a criteria, a conversation with a Leader Coach is always the starting point to help determine your readiness to take on this role.

The Operation Destiny Group course is both open enrollment and evergreen. It is meant to be an ongoing resource that is available long term, unlike a Bible Study that runs for a few weeks in the spring.

Be certain you can make a long term commitment of at least 18 months before starting a group. Having continuity in leadership is essential. Once your group is running, you will very probably be able to identify other men within the group to act as a co-facilitator, and eventually facilitator, and to carry out other roles.

This is how these groups grow organically, and stay active for years! This process is fully explained in our Leader's Guide.

If you have a heart for the men dealing with this, if you've worked on issues in your own life, that's a great start. Our Leader Guide gives you many tools to help you facilitate your meetings. It can feel intimidating in the beginning, but you're not alone. Your Coach is there every step of the way to help you facilitate your group well.

We talk about the Coaches alot. This is another question to explore with them. You can have that conversation by clicking on one of the buttons on this page 'Contact Leader Coach'.

Even if you are months away from actual start-up, it’s not too early to register your group. At this stage, you’ll have questions. It’s a perfect time to talk with a Coach. Buy your Leader’s Guide and start reading to acquaint yourself with the details of starting and then facilitating your group. When you're timing is right, start to prepare for running your group.

There are several meeting styles that you can choose from. The constant is to keep the groups small for true connection and confidentiality, about 10 members per group.

Local - a local group meets in person. Most local groups are created by churches, both for their congregation and the surrounding community to attend.

Mobile Group- 2 modes offered

Phone - a phone group uses a conference call feature to bring all members together by phone.

Online - an online group uses computer technology to create a visual conference call. All members can see each other live on the computer screen, more like a local group.

You'll need to get your church's approval to start a group which they host. The first step would be to approach your men's small groups ministry leader. Explain your interest, and desire to facilitate the group. It would be helpful to show him our website pulled up on your phone, or have a printed page to bring with you. If he says yes, you can offer to start the registration process and Coach training with us. Our Leader's Guide gives you directives to check with your church on matters of their protocol, because it supersedes our best practices.

If the church wants to gather more information, be sure to give them our web address.

If you get a negative response, ask if you can have use of a room weekly to host a group. If that is met negatively, that's not the end of the road. You may be able to facilitate an AVENUE hosted online group. The registration form starts that process.

An individual can start the process for an organization, church or counseling center. First you need to have the approval of the organization, who will be the group's Host, providing support for the group. Once you've done that, Register your group, Get Your Guidebook, and Get Coached. When you register, the other two fall into place.

Leader Coaching does not cost the leader anything, but it is very valuable to help you provide a safe, healing group.

Our Coach’s have years of experience running healthy Avenue groups. We expect leaders to stay connected with the Coaches for the duration of your group, which will help you with your questions, determine readiness for moving forward, start up, staying on course, uncertainties, unexpected issues, and personal concerns. It's for your benefit, for your needs and health as a leader and the overall heath of your group..

Great question. If you're serious about having a place of restoration for men, you'll take full advantage of the benefits we've created for leaders. These aren't bells and whistles that just sound good. They do good. We know from 20 years of experience. Here's what registering your group provides you, as the leader and the group:

1. A Coach for your group- to help you along the whole journey of the group. When you have a problem, you're not stuck in isolation, you call, text, email, your Coach and talk about the situation.
2. A Coach for you-That same Coach is concerned about your welfare just as much. Each Coach has been a group leader. Sometimes it's forgotten that leaders need help for themselves. This is for that.
3. Community- We have an online Community for Leaders, called Leader's Central. Leader's can collaborate, share ideas, problem solve together. In the Community you'll find newbies to seasoned leaders, all supporting each other.
4. Online Directory-Your group is listed in our online directory. This is a benefit for every type of group setting and host. People in need can find us/your group through a web search. If you're an independent group, this is far more effective than trying to advertise your own group. For a church, this expands the ability to outreach to the community. Because it's a sad thing to have a great group available and very few find it.

The Leader’s Guide is the blueprint for how groups are formed and function. Packed with practically every bit of information you will ever need to keep your group healthy. A leader should read through the Leader’s Guide for preparation, then follow the step-by-step guide to starting your group. The Leader's Guide is a reference tool for the duration of your group, to find answers to situations and questions as they arise.

If you are starting the group in a church, first find out it they can easily set up a separate email for your group inquiries. If that isn't your case, we suggest that you get a separate email account just for your group, using any free email service. We suggest using wording that identifies the group, rather than using your name, such as avenuemen@yahoo.com, or avenuespringfieldgroup@gmail.com If you don’t want to use your own phone number, you can get a free phone number through google.

The fields that are required to be filled are things you know or create. If you're undecided on an item, like your group name, you can choose something, but then edit it later. Many fields can be left blank until you've decided, such as start date etc. You will be able to edit your information yourself.

You have complete controI on the decision for who attends your group. Our Avenue Groups Directory does not publish the street address of your group location. It only provides the city and state. An inquiry must contact you as a first step, so no one will show up at a meeting prior to you having a phone conversation/screening if you choose. If a church is hosting your group, we have suggestions for the same precautions in our Leader Guide. The Leader Guide gives you questions to ask to determine if your group is an appropriate for the inquirer.

While it’s not possible to know how many inquiries will go to a specific group, you have control over dealing with more inquiries than you can provide space for. If you have maxed out your group capacity, you can make a status change on your group listing, to indicate that you are not able to take any new members until further notice.

Your group profile has fields for the day and time of your meetings, which minimizes receiving inquiries from people that it won't work for.