How it Works

Following Jesus isn’t a destination we arrive at; it’s a direction we move. Our aim is to move farther into these four directions every single day:

The first 6 modules of your journey will deal exclusively with the first three arrows. You’ll focus on pursuing God, then creating belonging, then doing justice, then cycle back around to the Up arrow again. You’ll do that twice. It’s not confusing. We promise.  Last you’ll move on to the back arrow: Make Disciples.

Multiplication is built in.

From the very first meeting, your disciple knows they’re committing to being discipled for this season, then making a disciple themselves by the end of their journey. Your disciple can multiply and start leading someone else through the pathway at any time. They don’t have to be done with the pathway first! They just need to stay ahead of the person they’re leading by a module or two.

It’s all about the outcomes.

Most importantly, the Discipleship Pathway is outcome based. Every module has a specific outcome, or embodied practice, that has to do with the direction of the arrow. This pathway is less about completing specific tasks, and more about connecting with your disciple and growing closer to Jesus together. If you’d like to customize any of these practices to best suit your unique disciple, do it! Just be sure the things you do accomplish the outcome. If you want some help customizing the pathway to meet your disciple’s needs, visit the Contact Page to let us know. We’d love to help.

Every resource is easy to find and easy to use.

As you enter each module, you’ll find a resource page, as well as links to four meetings. You’ll refer to that module’s resource page often, as it’s your one place to access every external link and document you’ll need to complete the practices and meetings. We hope that keeps things simple for you. There’s nothing to purchase in order to complete the pathway. It’s all available free online.

Set your own pace.

Meet at your own pace. Weekly or bi-weekly is a great stride. If you can meet weekly, do it! It’ll keep momentum going, and you’ll finish in about 7 months.

If you’re not living in the same city as someone you’d like to disciple, FaceTime, Skype, or Zoom meetings can bring you together.

Connect one on one.

One really important detail is this: this pathway works best one on one. There are a lot of great resources out there for discipleship in groups, but this one is designed to work best with one discipler and one disciple.

Create a printed journey, or keep it digital.

Everything in the pathway is designed to work great in digital or printed format. You and your disciple can each access the pathway’s content with your laptop, tablet, or smartphone, or download and print each PDF and create a binder to keep.

Every time we share a resource we didn’t create ourselves, we give credit to the source. If you don’t see a credit, you can know it came from us, and it’s yours to print and share.

This Pathway is meant to be shared.

All of the content is free and available to anyone. Feel free to use this content with people you disciple, or encourage your entire church community to use it. It’s meant to be shared, and our Creative Commons license reflects this. If you’d like to use all or part of the Pathway, Contact Us to let us know. You can get a great rundown of basic sharing guidelines here.

We’ll keep it fresh.

Finally, keep your eyes out for new materials and additions to this pathway over time! We love it as it is, but will keep making it even better.

Drop us a line.

If you ever have questions, visit the Contact Page to let us know. We’d love to help.