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This section covers Discipleship activities beginning with the arrival of the Pastor and running through the first two years.

What will this period be like?  We must assume that during this period, the new church will grow, and that visitors and new members alike will need spiritual discipleship.  We can also assume that many of these individuals will be either unbelievers who are hungry for faith or new believers needing direction and maturity in their faith.  Finally, we can assume much coming and going as each week is characterized by new people entering and others leaving.

Accordingly, the logistics of most program offerings will be a challenge, as it will be so difficult to maintain continuity during such a time of instability.

Programs that work best in this setting will be:

• Pre-packaged, requiring minimal development and preparation time, and maximizing the personal contact so important in discipling others.
• Location independent, i.e. not requiring extensive facilities, e.g. special rooms, sound systems, etc.  It should be possible to present the program in a home setting.
• Easy to enter midstream, i.e. programs that do not build on previous lessons that a new person would have missed.
• Repeatable, so that both recent and previous participants can share a common experience.  This also carries the advantage of allowing previous participants to assist in presenting subsequent iterations of the program.
• Relevant at multiple levels, allowing both new believers and non-believers to find something of interest.
• Community building, providing for small group discussions which might even continue after the formal program ends.

These guidelines should normally translate to "simple" and "relatively unstructured" especially in the first year.  There are multiple dangers in taking programs from your Sponsoring Church or even from a successful plant that is several years old, as these may:

• Not fit your context;
• Overkill the needs of your attendees; and
• Overtax your resources.

While Discipleship is extremely important, Community is even more important in a new church plant.  New and non-believers do not come to new churches because of their superb Discipleship programs, they come because they seek a warm, loving Community.  So in the first and second years, everything should work together towards building Community.

Go to Discipleship: First Year

Go to Discipleship: Second Year

Return to Discipleship: How To Start

Return to Discipleship

Go on to Discipleship: Best Practices