As a Church, we aim to be disciples and tell others about Christ. As church leaders, it’s your responsibility to drive that forward by guiding your members on discipleship journeys that prepare them for witnessing and making other disciples. Simply put, that’s how we grow as a church and Christian community in faith.
But that’s easier said than done in many ways. As you’re diving deep into the Gospel and planning how you can mold disciples within your congregation, ask yourself these three questions:
- How are we engaging with our current members?
- Are we equipping them to go out and be disciples among others?
- How do we know we are doing a good job of disciple-making?
As you answer these questions, here are a few things to consider.
Engaging your current members
As someone comes to know Christ and starts their own discipleship journey, they are largely influenced by how their church encourages them to grow spiritually. You do this by engaging with them and getting them involved with others who can become mentors as they walk alongside them.
So ask yourself, how are you engaging your current members? Are you encouraging them to be involved, and if so, how? Don’t focus on Sunday-only opportunities. Think about how you connect with them throughout the week so they find support on those hard work days or days they may be struggling to pause and remember Christ’s purpose in their lives.
A mobile app is key here. We keep our phones on us at all times, and many depend on their mobile apps for a number of faith-related reasons. Want to see the scripture of the day? There’s the Bible app. Want to read through the Bible more consistently? There’s the Bible Recap.
Why can’t your church be on that list? You preach sermons each week. You offer small groups where they can ask for prayer throughout the week from those they are closest to within your church. You share volunteer opportunities so they can use their time and talents for Christ. Put all of those disciple-making pieces together in the palm of their hands with a custom mobile app branded for your church. PocketPlatform integrates with MinistryPlatform and provides all of that and more.
Equipping disciples to reach others
Once you’ve engaged the disciples within your church, ask yourself how you’re equipping them to be disciple leaders. You want to build a cycle that moves your members from being new in the faith to becoming mature believers and, therefore, disciple-makers as they mentor others who are younger in their faith walks.
The best way to do this is to recruit mature believers to be group leaders and volunteer team leaders so they can actively disciple others while growing and serving in your ministry. But you have to equip them with the tools to lead effectively, and technology plays a crucial role in this.
MinistryPlatform Life Apps include Group Life and Volunteer Connect. Group Life allows your group leaders to see, manage, and engage with their groups. By scheduling get-togethers, taking attendance, communicating, and more, group leaders can better disciple their group members throughout the week.
Volunteer Connect gives your volunteer team leaders confidence as they disciple their volunteers through service. They can see who accepts or declines serving assignments ahead of time, manage compliance requirements for specific roles, view and mark attendance, and communicate directly with volunteers as needed. Plus, your volunteers can see upcoming assignments to serve and sign up for any open opportunities they are willing to fill.
By providing technology to equip your leaders, you’re enabling them to build a discipleship culture among their groups and serving teams so they can move others through the same path of becoming leaders to others.
Analyze your results
Of course, part of effective discipleship is knowing what’s working and what’s not. While you can guess this based on how much of your worship space is empty each Sunday, it goes far deeper than that. Consider analyzing your results through your church management solution and other tools.
In MinistryPlatform, you can take a deep dive into your numbers. See if your volunteers are increasing. What about your giving and attendance each week? Are there trends you’re seeing on your MinistryPlatform Dashboard that prove you’re successfully reaching your discipleship goals?
Don’t forget to check your mobile app analytics as well. Discipleship doesn’t happen on Sundays alone, so you should also see your mobile app analytics trending upward.
With the integration of MinistryPlatform and PocketPlatform, you can see how many people are using your app, which screens they’re viewing or taking action on, and more all in the Platform and leverage views, charts, and reports to track mobile engagements.
Disciple-making with technology
Disciple-making is vital to growing as a church, both spiritually and in numbers. Make sure the technology you’re utilizing day in and day out as church leadership can answer the big questions you have as you’re planning your ministry’s discipleship goals.
If not, consider MinistryPlatform and PocketPlatform and better equip this generation of your ministry to reach the next generation of disciples that will go out and spread the Gospel.
Leigh Ann Ortega
Leigh Ann joined the ACST team in 2019 as a Product Marketing Manager. She oversees the launch and overall communication of key solutions to support the church’s needs. Prior to joining ACST, she spent several years in communications and graphic design roles, most notably as a Communications Director for a large church in Florence, SC, where she leveraged Realm to help solve key ministry challenges.
