Four reasons why discipleship pathways are crucial for church growth
Churches grow in all kinds of ways: spiritually, in the depth and breadth of their discipleship; missionally, in the quality of their relationships with their communities and their commitment to sharing good news with local people; and numerically, as more people encounter grace, become affiliated with the church, grow closer to Jesus and take steps to commit themselves to following him.
In all this, discipleship pathways – plans for how communities encourage thriving discipleship – are crucial:
- If we want to grow spiritually, we need to be able to access as many ‘stations’ as possible, to spend more time at each one and reflect more deeply on the journey.
- If we want to grow missionally, we need easy entry points for unaffiliated people to begin a journey with Jesus.
- If we want to grow numerically, we need to offer unaffiliated people ways of affiliating: by deepening faith, becoming more deeply connected with the church community, and taking steps such as baptism, confirmation and membership.
- The church growth research shows the importance of discipleship pathways.
The mission planning pages offer guidance to help your church discern what one thing God is calling you to do to develop your missional engagement with your community. By discerning and writing a simple mission plan, you’ll grow missionally, and perhaps – by God’s grace – numerically too.
If you already have a mission plan, but you’re struggling to put it into practice, check out some leadership events and resources to help you and your team move forward.
We run events and webinars throughout the year for individuals and church leaders to explore what this means for them, including "Rural and Rooted", a series for rural churches.