Trained and equipped facilitators lead clergy Committee Groups. Specific qualifications and competencies are listed elsewhere on this website. A group normally has ten to twelve members who are committed to being a participating member of the group for at least one year or twelve full days of meetings.

I would not trade my participation in our inner city pastor’s TCC group for anything else I can think of. The wide range of theological orientation and denominational affiliation is stimulating and refreshing. All the participants are actively engaged in ministry and thus are a rich resource of ideas and approaches to ministry. TCC is a wonderfully helpful process for me to clarify my thinking about the situations in my ministry and personal life. Every major decision in my life and ministry has been made only after seeking the counsel of the TCC group. (Participant in Denver, CO inner city TCC group)

Three vital elements are a part of the process of the group:
            (1) Presentation:  A one-half day presentation on a topic of interest and concern to the members of the group as they lead their congregations and live their lives.   These presentations are normally made by church consultants, seminary professors, experienced pastors, or, sometimes, by group members themselves. 
            (2) Issue processing: Each member of the group brings an issue of strategic importance in the life of his or her congregation for which he/she needs the group’s creativity or wisdom. Sometimes the issue is of a personal or family nature.  Critical to the process being productive is that it be an issue for which the person bringing it truly wants the groups help. Processing an issue in an experienced group usually takes 30 to 60 minutes.
            (3) One-to-ones:  In the “best practices” version of the model, each member has a two hour “one-to-one” conversation with the chair of the group. The purpose of this meeting is to review commitments made at the last meeting growing out of the presentation and/or by the issue worked in the afternoon, to review the person’s progress on goals that may have been established at the first or second meeting of the group, and to prepare an issue for presentation at the next meeting. The Clergy Committee considers these meetings to be one of the unique features of the model and every effort should be made to establish a way for them to occur.
            (Alternative possibility.) When it is not financially feasible to employ the facilitator to conduct each of the one-to-ones, group members can conduct them with each other on a “round-robin” basis. (Person “A” meeting with Person “B”, “B” with “C” etc.) These may be phone meetings.

There are at least 30 other things that can be done to enhance the meeting experience such as:

• Members lead worship, Bible study, and meditation.
• Every person “sign’s in” at the beginning of the meeting and indicates on a 1-10 scale how they are doing spiritually, physically, professionally and personally.
• Each person keeps an “action item” list during the course of the meeting and gives a copy of this list to the facilitator for review during the one-to-one.
• Toys on the table and music during breaks.
• Others designed by the group facilitator and/or group members.