NextSteps Disciple Equipping Center
Equip People Around the 9-Phases of Spiritual Growth
The most important feature of the NextSteps Program is its Disciple Equipping Center. We built this powerful tool around nine stages of spiritual growth (See the graphic below). To get started, your church should consider two distinct strategy options:
First, larger churches will likely program their discipleship strategies around all nine discipleship stages; second, smaller churches will find it easier to develop their discipleship programming strategies around our three core discipleship movements of Discover, Develop, and Deploy.
But, regardless of the size of your church, your Disciple Equipping Center will communicate your church’s equipping strategies, to your people. Remember, NextSteps is completely customizable!
Our Overview Video
Programming for Intentional Discipleship
So, what do we mean by “Intentional Discipleship”? Well, most churches offer numerous classes, small groups, and other general programs, hoping that somehow these will facilitate spiritual growth. And while these efforts are good and may work, there is no certainty that they will. Nor are these offerings designed to address specific stages of spiritual growth, or track people’s progress. With Nextsteps, your church’s equipping strategies are tied to specific stages of spiritual growth. Then, our system reports whether a class or small group is truly effective. This is possible because your staff receives Progress Reports over time of your people graduating from a lower discipleship stage to a higher one. As a result, if graduations do not occur, then the program in question should be improved or eliminated.
Your People Sign-Up Online
The NextSteps Disciple Equipping Center enables your people “sign-up” for community-based classes, courses, programs, mentoring, small groups, or service projects, right from their own user accounts. How? Well, your church’s discipleship recommendations, for each of the nine stages of spiritual growth, display at the end of your people’s Individual discipleship Report. Accordingly, your church members will only see the program offerings that are appropriate to their present level of spiritual maturity. In so doing, this protects immature Christians, who need spiritual milk, from taking on spiritual meat that they are not yet ready to consume.
Add Equipping Strategies Interface
Equipping Center Strategy Categories
Our Disciple Equipping Center supports eleven media and programming categories. A subgroup of these eleven categories includes five “independent” discipleship categories, labeled with an “I”. Your people complete these discipleship categories individually, on their own time. Then when finished, they mark these discipleship strategies as “completed“. This process enables your church staff to track each person’s progress.
In addition, the program includes six “community-based” discipleship categories, labeled below with a “C”. It is our intent that community-based discipleship categories serve to structure and manage your church’s discipleship programming. So, NextSteps enables your church staff to design your discipleship strategies with almost any appropriate class, program, or small group curriculum. Amazingly, your curriculum and programming options are limitless. Once your staff configures your discipleship selections, your people will then sign-up for your discipleship offerings at the conclusion of their assessments. After your people sign-up, the program’s facilitators receive an automated email that includes the registrant’s name and contact information.
The supported media categories are as follows…
- Articles (I)
- Audio Teachings (I)
- Bible Study (I)
- Book Study (I)
- Classes (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the class facilitator
- Courses (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the course facilitator
- Groups (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the small group facilitator
- Mentor (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the spiritual mentor
- Program (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the program facilitator
- Service (C) – Includes a user sign-up & auto-email notification to the service team facilitator
- Videos (I)
Our Resource Library
We designed the Disciple Equipping Center to make it easy to get up and running quickly. To facilitate your setup, we include a library of recommended independent and community-based discipleship resources. However, your church is not required in any way to use our library resources. To maximize flexibility, NextSteps enables your church to create its own programs and equipping resources, then simply load them into your Disciple Equipping Center.
The Strategy Completion Interface
The graphic below depicts the Strategy Completion Interface. As people complete each discipleship strategy, their name and contact information will list in the following interface…
Equipping Center Recommendations
We believe that the Equipping Center is the most important part of the NextSteps program. Your church leaders determine what resources, classes, small groups, etc. are best suited for your people at each of the phases of spiritual development. Your discipleship recommendations display under the “What’s Next” tab within your people’s final report. Please noted the “sign up” button for interactive equipping groups, classes, e-learning, or programs. Leaders are notified by email whenever a new participant signs up for the interactive discipleship strategy they lead.
Sign Up
Interactive discipleship strategies such as small groups and classes, enable your people to join by simply selecting the “Sign Up” button. Once the Small Group sessions have been completed, your people may select the “Mark as Complete” button to record their completion within their discipleship account.
Mark as Complete
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.
