How to Lead a Prophetic Leadership Cohort

 Prophetic Leadership is a six-week journey for small groups of business, civic, and church leaders. While you can complete the series on your own, the best way to experience Prophetic Leadership is with a cohort —a small group of like-minded leaders who will meet weekly for meaningful connections, deep discussions, and powerful prayer for one another.

I recommend recruiting a group of 7-9 leaders and scheduling a weekly meeting time and place for six weeks. Your cohort can review the material together, or each participant can review the week's material beforehand, allowing your time together to be focused on fellowship, discussion, and prayer. Cohorts often meet over food, at a local church, or even virtually with apps like Zoom. These cohorts are perfect for office teams, church groups, and community groups.

The best way to learn about leading a Prophetic Leadership cohort is to experience one! You can view details about upcoming cohorts HERE. I have also created a Cohort Leader Guide that accompanies the course material and is accessible after registration. The following is an excerpt from the Cohort Leader Section, the same guide I use to lead my cohorts!

How It Works

As you have likely already experienced, each module is divided into six weeks, each with a weekly training video and notes with application questions. These cohorts are designed to be flexible. I have found it best for small groups of up to eight members to set a weekly meeting time for discussion and prayer, typically for 60-90 minutes, after reviewing the weekly training and notes individually beforehand. You may decide to watch the weekly training together by extending the length of your meeting. You may also choose a different meeting frequency. Most in-person groups decide to meet over breakfast or lunch, or as an evening church group, for 6 weeks. You may need to add a break for a holiday week, but I encourage groups to complete the series within seven weeks or reschedule for a more consistent time of year. It is also okay if a member needs to miss a week or two, but I find that anyone missing more than two of the six weeks is better served by joining at another time. Here are a few other lessons I have learned to maximize the yield from your group.

Who to Invite

As you consider who to invite to your group, I encourage you to select from your peer group or team level. If you are an owner or C-level, invite other owners or C-level peers. If you are a manager, invite other managers. The deepest discussions in this course require a level of transparency that is not conducive or healthy in mixed-authority groups. You want your group to be relatable and safe.

For this reason, I typically discourage employers from facilitating this course for their employees. It can be done, but often with diminishing returns. Suppose you are a vocational pastor considering facilitating this course for your church members. In that case, you may be better served by elevating one of your lay leaders to be the facilitator and joining them in a supportive role.

Meet In Person

Inviting peers nearby allows you to meet in person every week. The best groups have always been those that meet in person. No online platform even comes close. Bribe them with breakfast or lunch (that always worked for me).

There can be times when meeting in person is not realistic. Only then would I recommend hosting your discussion groups virtually, which I often do to accommodate people in distant locations.

Discussion-Based Meetings

As you solidify your group members and determine your weekly meeting time and place, encourage your group to attend the meeting having already reviewed the week’s training and notes. Using the meeting time as your first opportunity to review the notes does not honor the group’s time. We did that in the early days, but it proved better for the group to come to the weekly meeting ready for discussion. That means reading the notes ahead and taking time to ponder the discussion questions in preparation. 

Weekly Meeting Components

The weekly meeting typically has three primary goals: fellowship, discussion, and prayer. Your group may approach those goals differently, but the most effective groups usually incorporate all three components. As you think through your weekly meetings, I would encourage you to include opportunities for fellowship, like some get-to-know-you time or ice-breaker questions over food or coffee.

Your role is simply to guide the discussion and stir the other group members to share. As you guide the discussion, it will be up to you to discern and maintain the focus. I have had many members who were overly talkative or opinionated. As the leader, it is up to you to keep the reins on the group and prevent one member from dominating the others. It is also up to you to discern what tangents are profitable. Some tangents may surprise you! I have had a few weeks that felt like we didn’t touch the notes, but we grew closer to Jesus.

These cohorts are designed to prioritize more time for small group prayer during your cohort meetings, even 30-40 minutes. Don’t be intimidated; I have provided my very best prophetic encouragement guide in Appendix Z, which is exclusive to this cohort leader guide. Some of your cohort members may initially be intimidated by this exercise, and that’s okay. With your guidance and encouragement, most will at least try to become more comfortable over the weeks. To encourage transparency and discussion, please note that any information shared in the group remains within the group. The greatest experience happens when we turn our study into a dialogue with Jesus and allow him to speak to us and work through us.

Accountability

This series is an endeavor for the Holy Spirit to reveal the real-time thoughts and feelings of Jesus for your cohort members. This is a deeply biblical and beautiful endeavor. I must be honest with you from the start: a great deal of manipulation and abuse have been committed in the global church in the name of this endeavor. Claims of prophetic certainty rooted in human arrogance and insecurity have caused severe wounds that have shipwrecked the faith of many. Here, you will find an attitude and approach characterized by honesty, humility, and accountability. Guidelines are given to protect the integrity of your endeavor. I implore you to take them seriously as the leader of your cohort.

I cannot personally guarantee a structure of accountability for cohorts I do not personally oversee. That responsibility rests on you with the help of trusted leaders and the Holy Spirit. I suggest including oversight by spiritual authority figures in this process. Diligence and accountability are accelerants, not hindrances. Seek help if you find yourself in a tricky situation with your cohort. Remain open to feedback and transparency, and quickly admit and correct mistakes. After all, we are all growing in this journey together because we love Jesus.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my contact page. I promise I read every submission: https://www.servantleadernetwork.org/contact.