Configure NextSteps Now

For many of our existing customers, and for all new customers, you will now find a new assessment and equipping program has been added to your ministry account…it is called NextSteps. It is far different from our traditional temperament-based assessments which require no configuration by our ministry administrators. NextSteps indeed requires your ministry to configure it for your use.

NextSteps is a discipleship tracking and equipping program. We made NextSteps 98% customizable. So while in most cases modifying the question pool or the reports will not be necessary, you have that option available to you. However, more importantly, is the need for you to flesh-out the Equipping Center. Right now, if your people take the NextSteps assessments, the Equipping Center will be blank. As a result, you may wish to temporarily turn off NextSteps access until you are ready to release it to your people. To pause NextSteps, please follow these instructions….

• Log into your Admin Dashboard
• Select “Settings” from the sidebar menu
• Select “Options” from the sidebar menu
• Select “Inactive” from the NextSteps configuration box

NextSteps is a powerful program that can totally revolutionize your discipleship efforts. Our hope and prayer is that you will take this new program seriously and utilize it. We know how easy it will be to forget about it once you have made it inactive.

A New Training Book

David A Posthuma has just completed his latest book entitled, Active Discipleship. Like Made for a Mission was our training book for using the mobilization assessments within your ministry context, Active Discipleship is our training book for utilizing NextSteps within your church. We are currently in negotiations with numerous possible traditional publication houses for the publication and release of this new book. Lord willing, it will become publicly available within a few months.

 

Building Out Your Equipping Center

Your NextSteps Equipping Center supports two categories of equipping:

1. Self-Help Resources
2. Church Programming

Self-Help Resources

Adding Self-Help Resources is easy, simply go to the webpage promoting a book, or video, and copy the URL to that page. Then, log into your AssessME.org dashboard and take the following steps….

1. Log in
2. Select “Settings” from the left sidebar menu
3. Select “NextSteps” from the left sidebar menu
4. Select “Formation Strategies” from the left sidebar menu
5. Select the equipping level tab appropriate to your resource: Discover, Develop, or Deploy
6. Then scroll down the page and select the developmental phase best suited to your resource
7. Then locate the “Add” button on the far right of the interface and select
8. The “Add Strategy” pop-up window will display
9. Paste in the URL and select Next (Alternatively, you may explore our “Suggested Resources”)
10. Select the resource category, book, video, etc. and select a number for the best order to use (#1=first, #2=second, etc.)

Your catalog entry into your Equipping Center will be automatically formatted. You will now be able to track how many people have completed your equipping resource, because each person will be able to mark it “completed” once finished.

Church Programming Integration

Alternatively, you can bypass the pasting-in of URL addresses, and simply select “Next” to manually build-out an Equipping Resource associated with your church programming, such a joining a small group. When you select the “Next” button, the “Add Strategy” popup window will display. In our present example of adding a small group, select “Group” from the “Type” options to expand the popup features. You can add a URL from your church website for information regarding small groups. You can also add an email address of the group leader so they will get notified by email that someone has signed-up to join their small group, and receive the registrant’s contact information to begin their relational connections with the new member.