Suppose Bob walked into your church and had no religious background.
The music was okay. The message made him think a little bit. The people seemed friendly.
The Challenge
What would Bob’s next step be if he wanted to know more—and Bob’s not really sure what he wants to know more about?
This is where assimilation and discipleship shake hands. Is it clear where you want to take people…and how they can get there?
The Importance of a System
This is all about process. You must have some philosophy that informs your system and whether people inside and outside it know how it works. Your system may be organic or highly structured, but it needs to exist.
An Example System: The Four Squares
Our system looked like this:
Square One: The Starting Point
It began with a post-Sunday morning service event called Square One. This would have been announced for several weekends, and might happen every six weeks. Typically, it lasted 75 minutes, including a free lunch, childcare, a short video overview of the church (primarily mission/vision), and an introduction to the senior pastor, who would then explain what a person’s next steps (one of the four squares) might be and Q & A. If a person was like Bob, it was fairly linear: first, Find God, then Find a Friend, Find a Job, then possibly All In. Each square—or next step—was described like this:
The Four Squares
Find God. Let’s be honest: knowing God is The Big Deal. But it helps to have a safe place to investigate, be real, cut through the religious weirdness, and feel accepted as you explore who God is.
Find a Friend. As we backpack through the journey of life, it’s always better to have a buddy. Life is way more manageable with a like-minded friend to process with, lean into, encourage and be encouraged by.
Find a Job. Everyone is wired with a unique personality and abilities. Everyone. We come alive as we do what we were wired to do and recognize our potential as a child of God. We are all called to serve in some capacity.
All In. When we commit to a community to be discipled and disciple others, we discover the dynamic power of accountability, a shared spiritual DNA and a collaborative mission that’s much bigger than ourselves.
Implementation Details
Each square had a “flagship event” if a person wanted to take the next step. We used the Alpha program for our Find God step. For Find a Friend we often had a “taste of small groups” event or a weekend series that did a shared group experience for people to join. Find a Job was usually a “shadowing” program where someone could follow a person around who was serving in a particular ministry area to see if it fit them. All In was a “Shareholder Orientation” (typically 90 minutes) where we talked about the requirements and benefits of “deeply covenanting” with our community and mission.
Was this a perfect system?
Of course not.
Q: What’s your introductory system for including and discipling people in your community? Does everyone know what it is?
Remember: Any system is better than no system.
Visit Dave Workman’s site: The Elemental Group
