Unleashing Your Disciple Making DNA: 3 Phases
Unleashing Your Disciple Making DNA is a three-phase process of moving your church towards becoming a community of equipped and trained disciple makers whose disciples make disciples. Each phase begins with preparation and ends with action steps; the training and interactions with the 4GEN team are between the preparation and action steps.
(Download this page as a PDF: Unleashing Your Disciple Making DNA: 3 Phases)
PHASE ONE
The goals of Phase One are training people to be disciple makers and connecting disciplers.
Preparation
Preparation for Phase One includes an assessment of where disciple making is taking place in your current ministries. We will clarify what you expect from your teams and leadership within your church. We'll interview with the Lead Pastor to create maximum impact for the training, giving suggestions on recruiting people to participate, setting up the training, and providing talking points heading into the upcoming training session. We like to do these 30-60 days in advance.
Training
Training takes place on a Saturday. We prefer to arrive on Friday and stay through Sunday. (If close enough to drive, we would not need lodging.)
A typical schedule for a training weekend is as follows:
Friday afternoon: We'll meet with the church leadership, including the staff, elders, board, council, and other key leaders. This meeting is to cast a vision for disciple making and training. Our conversation will build connection around the Disciple Making DNA. We will go over the disciple making assessment with the leadership team at this time.
Friday evening: We would like to have a casual meal or dessert with a few of the people who will be attending the Saturday training. This social time allows us to connect and build bridges so that the training time catches greater traction the next day.
Saturday (all day): We will do 4-5 training segments depending on the church's needs and starting place. These sessions will be interactive and promote discussion for application. By the time we are through, you will have a strategy and tools to move your people to a second generation of disciple making. (We suggest you video record these sessions for future review, and if the video has enough quality, to train small groups in your church for disciple making.)
Sunday (optional): We would like to attend your worship service(s) to deepen relationships with people we have served through training and gain a better understanding of your faith community. If desired and deemed appropriate, we would love to preach or teach.
Action Steps
The most critical action step is matching people together to begin growing skills for disciple making. It is also essential to make sure people have the resources they need for success in Phase One by giving them materials and sending notes to encourage accountability and affirming their efforts. Another vital action step is to initiate prayer for disciplers and for those to be discipled. Create a system for connecting and tracking the disciple making process in your church.
PHASE TWO
The goals of Phase Two are to strengthen your strategies for Unleashing Your Disciple Making DNA and troubleshooting any issues that have arisen during Phase One.
Preparation
Assess and troubleshoot Phase One. We will provide a form for you to use if that is helpful. The main issues that usually arise are keeping people moving, checking in with teams, setting up a structure for matching people, and staying focused.
Zoom Calls
We like to check in with our partner churches through Zoom Calls. Call participants are your key leaders activated towards disciple making. During this 90-minute video call, the first 45 minutes are dedicated to those leading the Disciple Making Movement. The last 45 minutes are for any who are actively discipling to answer their questions. These Zoom calls are encouraging, re-ignite vision, and answer the disciple making questions your people may have. We also use this time to point people towards inviting others outside of the church to follow Jesus and begin the process of discipling them.
Action Steps
Begin to shift people towards a person who might not know Jesus, inviting them to come and see, to learn, and discover Jesus for themselves.
PHASE THREE
The goal of Phase Three is to train trainers who will serve alongside the pastor and ministry team, creating a culture of training disciple makers in the church.
Preparation
Recruit a team of trainers and have them ready to be trained to train. Your team of trainers should be currently discipling someone; they should have participated in the initial training (with the 4GEN team) and watched the videos as well. We suggest that they have also participated in the Zoom calls. These trainers see themselves as essential to sustaining the movement.
Train the Trainers
This interactive step can be done either via Zoom or in person, at your discretion and our availability. These train the trainer sessions move the materials from head to heart to hands to feet and give tips for training others. We can usually accomplish this in a couple of 1-hour Zoom calls or a single, more extended in-person session.
Action Steps
Schedule another disciple making training quickly. We suggest you put a full training calendar together. Ensure the lead pastor continues to work alongside trainers, encouraging them, and assisting in their success as trainers and disciple makers. Help trainers stay practiced and familiar with training materials and up to date with the church's process. It is essential that the lead pastor teaches a portion of the training. The stronger the training team, the better your Disciple Making DNA is unleashed.
Other important details:
Incorporate the training into your calendar. Remember, you do not have to train 100 people in a session to be successful. We suggest having a goal that in year one, a specific percentage (25%, 40%, etc.) of your people are trained and activated that first year. If you trained a dozen people in the initial training, you would have 12 more people than last year making disciples; remember, this is an accumulative process. Small and consistent progress over time always leads to greater impact.
Keep the shift in your language about disciple making going. This language shift is what sets the tone for greater understanding in disciple making as Jesus did it. It helps to prevent the process from becoming a program designed to create maturity in Christians. Make the disciple making language the norm of your church. (Disciples who make disciples, born to reproduce, bearing fruit, mentoring faith, and so on.)
Preach on it. Put disciple making in your messages, put it in print, and keep visible how you celebrate disciple making.
Record Videos. We recommend you record all Zoom and live sessions to use in small groups, skill development, and continued training and vision.
FAQ's
What does the 4GENetwork provide? We provide the training, training notes, PowerPoint, and training materials.
What does the church provide? We ask the church to provide the space, the people, and the process that holds people accountable. (We can help you build the process.)
What is the cost? You decide. We know this is a crazy way of doing ministry, but most of the churches we serve are on very limited budgets. New churches are using every cent to pay their pastors and teams, often falling short. Established churches are often struggling to put together resources to meet their needs. We do not want to cripple movement towards disciple making by asking for a substantial financial payment. So, here is what we ask. Help us travel to you. If there is a flight, cover our flight. If we drive, cover our fuel. Many churches take a love offering as well.
What Materials do we use? The first tool we use to connect and get disciples to disciple is a book titled Raising Your Faith IQ. It can be purchased as a soft back book for $5.00 (50% off the list price) from your 4GEN training team or as a digital download from www.4-gen.net for $4.99. Most often, churches ask their people to buy three.
Finally, we are building a network of churches led by pastors and leaders who understand the extreme value of leading from the Front, the Back, and, especially, the Middle. We believe that if we equip hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of churches to model Jesus' leadership from the Middle becoming equipping churches who make disciples who disciples make disciples, we will see millions upon millions of people meet Christ. To learn more about becoming a 4GEN network church, check out this link: www.4-gen.net/network