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THE BENEFIT TO YOUR CHURCH
NextSteps provides the discipleship systems-architecture your church has badly needed so that intentional discipleship of every member of your church, regardless of church size, is now finally possible.
“Yet there is only one thing I can think of more foolish than trying to gauge spiritual growth. And that is: Not trying to gauge it. For that which matters to us is that which we try to keep track of.”
– John Ortberg, Pg. 3 of Follow Me –
The Disciple-Making Infrastructure Your Church Needs!
ASSESS FORMATION + ASSESS FELT-NEEDS > EQUIPPING
PART 1: Formation Assessment
The Formation Assessment consists of three movements:
- A DISCOVER PHASE
- A DEVELOP PHASE
- A DEPLOY PHASE
Each of these three phases have three related theological and systematic sub-movement. This creates a nine-part process for purposes of both assessing spiritual maturity (9-phases of development), but also for targeted 9-phases for equipping. The assessment expresses one’s present state of spiritual maturity, while the Equipping Center targets training for the disciple to help him/her mature into the next phase.
The Formation Assessment represents a semi-linear spiritual process, where in reality people may repeat some of the earlier phases as the challenges of life impact their spiritual growth. In particular, the DEVELOP movement is one that a Christian deals with for the entirety of their life.
NextSteps Default Maturation Question Pool
- DISCOVER
- DEVELOP
- DEPLOY
PLEASE NOTE: The NextSteps default question pool and labels are fully editable, so your church’s version of NextSteps may properly represent your church’s discipleship culture and language. However, be very aware that the questions ought to be structured in such a fashion as to cause people to question of themselves how true each statement is within their lives. When people score low for any series of questions, the assessment will then generate their report and present to them your church’s recommendations for classes, small groups, books, videos, etc. that are perfectly suited for their current phase of spiritual formation.
For each statement that follows, disciples will select from the following options:
- AGREE
- SOMEWHAT AGREE
- SOMEWHAT DISAGREE
- DISAGREE
Select the button below to view the Edit Maturation Question Pool….
PART II: The Felt-Need Assessment
Every day, we have strong feelings about our emotional and spiritual needs. These are called ‘Felt-Needs,’ and they can change quickly because of important events that impact our lives.
POSITIVE FELT-NEEDS: For example, a positive Felt-Need, like wanting to serve the Lord, usually helps us grow spiritually. Clearly these positive motivations to grow spiritually is the work of the Holy Spirit leading us to greater faith, trust, and Biblical knowledge in our Lord Jesus Christ.
NEGATIVE FELT-NEEDS: On the other hand, negative Felt-Needs, such as feeling which arise when one is going through a divorce, these feelings may slow down our spiritual growth if we don’t address them in a healthy manner. More correctly stated: Negative Felt-Needs are often the result of spiritual warfare whereby Satan tempts us attempting to impede our spiritual growth.
How We Assess Felt-Needs
How does the Felt-Need Assessment work? We ask disciples to rank the four parts of the Shema (also known as The Greatest Commandment) from their perceived most immediate spiritual need to their perceived least spiritual need.
As a result of this ranking process, the program generates 24 Felt-Need reports. 12 reports are considered positive motivators for spiritual growth, while the remaining 12 reports are considered negative motivators that could hinder spiritual growth. The pastoral care goal ought to be to help support people as they spiritually wrestle with their negative spiritual motivators.
The 24 Felt-Need Reports
Select the button below to display the administrative editor for the Felt Need reports.
PART III: The Equipping Center
The EQUIPPING CENTER, built into the NextSteps program, gives your church the ability to perfectly match recommended equipping programs to each person’s present spiritual formation needs. Check out the interface below…
EQUIPPING CATEGORY #1: Independent Study
Independent Discipleship Categories:
- Articles
- Audio Teachings
- Videos
- Independent Bible Study
- Independent Book Study
We want to challenge church leaders to use these self-help categories only as supportive resources, not as your primary disciple-making strategy. Individuals work on these categories at their own pace, and when finished, mark them as “completed”. This helps your church staff track each person’s progress.
EQUIPPING CATEGORY #2: Interpersonal Ministry Relationships*
And the preferred Community-Based Discipleship Categories:
- Classes
- Courses
- Groups
- Mentor
- Program
*CONSIDER: Discipleship happens best in the context of authentic inter-personal ministry relationships.
These categories are designed to help structure and manage your church’s interpersonal discipleship programming. You can create almost any type of class, program, or small group curriculum. Once your staff sets up the discipleship options, individuals can sign up for these offerings after completing their assessments. When a sign-up button is selected, the program sends an automatic email to the facilitators with the registrant’s name and contact details. Then the facilitator may initiate the relational ministry process and personally welcome the disciple into their discipleship program. See the sample “What’s Next” report below for examples of inter-personal disciple-making equipping strategies…
Support for “Sign Up” and “Mark as Complete”
NOTE SIGN-UP BUTTON: Interpersonal discipleship strategies such as small groups and classes as presented above, enable your people to join by simply selecting the “Sign Up” button. This data is recorded within their personal database for record keeping.
NOTE MARK AS COMPLETE BUTTON: Once sessions have been completed, your people may select the “Mark as Complete” button to record their completion within their discipleship account. This data is recorded within their personal database for record keeping.
PART IV: Retake NextSteps to Track Discipleship Progress Over Time
NextSteps is designed to be retaken over and over again so it can track everything that is happening regarding your people’s spiritual development. By default, the system auto-invites each disciple to retake their assessments one year from the date of registration. Church leadership may adjust this to either 6 months, 12 months or 18 months. However, there is a better way to use our auto-invite system….
A BETTER WAY TO SETUP NOTIFICATIONS
A better way! Please refer to the screenshot to the left. You may reconfigure NextSteps to invite your congregation globally to retake their assessments just a few weeks before your scheduled Fall Kick-Off of programming. In so doing, your leadership receives the most up to date discipleship data while your people are matched with the Fall programming that is perfectly suited for each person’s phase of spiritual development.
Leadership will also be aware of how many people will participate in each equipping offering, so they may better plan staffing and other programming support issues.
GRADUATION, STAGNATION, OR DECLINE?
The screenshot to the left is configured to invite congregation members to retake their assessments twice a year as this sample church functions on a two-semester basis. But your people need not wait to receive an invite to retake their assessments. Each person is free to log into their account at any time they feel there has been a significant shift in their spiritual formation and retake their assessments. NextSteps will track each person’s progress as GRADUATION, STAGNATION, or DECLINE.
Tracking a Disciple’s Progress Over Time
NextSteps not only tracks people’s progress over time regarding their maturation development and Felt Needs, but NextSteps also generates Progress Reports when people advance or regress from one discipleship phase to another. In the sample below, this individual sadly regressed in their early spiritual development…
NextSteps Overview Videos:
The NextSteps Discipleship Tracking Software
AssessME Integrations
Integrating AssessME.org with your church management software streamlines and simplifies your mobilization strategy. Furthermore, most ChMs programs offer “Work Flow” features which may be used for auto-notifications, trigger automated process’s such as personal follow-ups for new registrants, etc. Our integrations page is located at (Go to Integrations). If your church uses a service we do not yet integrate with, please use our contact form and let us know of your interest.
VIEW: Optional API Integration
Workflow Benefits in ChMs Programs Like Planning Center
Also, when you connect with church management software like Planning Center, you can use their workflow tools to automate the sending of specific Maturity and/or Felt-Need reports to the appropriate discipleship or pastoral care ministry departments.
Each discipleship strategy category contains a “Mark as Complete” button which your people will select when they have completed your recommended discipleship strategy. In this way, your ministry leadership will be able to track your people’s progress.
NextSteps Discipleship Tracking Overview Details
TRAINING BOOK: ACTIVE DISCIPLESHIP
OUR DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING RESOURCE FOR CHURCH LEADERS
Welcome to “Active Discipleship,” a guide tailored for church leaders seeking to rejuvenate the timeless practice of discipleship within their local congregations. This comprehensive resource offers theological insights, philosophical foundations, practical systems, and innovative solutions to breathe new life into the art of Active Discipleship. Drawing from fourteen years of extensive market research and alpha-model testing across churches of various sizes and theological traditions, this book also introduces a groundbreaking customizable disciple-making software platform known as NextSteps.
