What's Next???
Easter is just around the corner, but then what? How are we calling our people to respond to God’s Grace we find in the empty tomb?
As the calendar unfolds every year we go from Christmas to Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. And then after Easter, we fill the calendar with as many programs and events we can until Summer break. I know that is a massive generalization, but there is truth there also.
What if we called our people to take next steps as Followers of Jesus to respond to the message of Easter Sunday? How would that impact your church in the weeks preceding “Summer Break?” What would that call to action look like in your church this year? Here are three ideas.
Discipleship Self-Assessment. If you feel like your discipleship culture needs a boost or even a reboot, you might consider offering a congregation-wide discipleship self-assessment. The goal of the self-assessment is to give people an opportunity to reflect on their own discipleship habits and compel them to take a next step or for some, a first step.
The key to successfully administering the self-assessment is making it easy to access and simple to complete. Also, it is important to give respondents feedback on their score and even on specific responses. Include in the feedback encouragement and ideas and resources for taking their specific next steps.
Discipleship Foundation Course/Group. Another call to action for the post-Easter season and possibly even after a Discipleship Self-Assessment is to offer a class or group experience focused on discipleship. The goal of this class or group is to set the expectations for discipleship in the church, learn the spiritual disciplines or practices of following Jesus, and prepare your people to be Jesus followers and not just church members.
The good news is you don’t have to create your own course or content. There are several excellent courses available; here are some examples: Mariners Church’s The Rooted Experience, John Mark Comer’s Practicing the Way, or Samuel Deuth’s Following Jesus. The most critical part of offering this course is helping attendees follow-through afterward with their own, unique next steps.
Offer an Opportunity to Train Disciple Makers. There are many people in your congregation that are probably taking next steps proactively and most likely represent the 20% of your people that are engaged with ministry. These are the people that you need to equip to guide the next generation of disciples, disciple makers, and church leaders.
You can gather these potential disciple makers or guides together for a course like the foundational course, or you invite them for a session to discuss what it looks like to walk with another disciple. I truly believe that these are the relationships that will cement a discipleship culture in your church. And in my humble opinion, the lack of these relationships have been the missing element in our churches for the past several decades that have created the trends we complain about every year.
As we make the final plans for Easter services and events, don’t forget to ask “What’s Next?” Give your people a clear opportunity to respond to the Gospel message and take next steps in their personal discipleship journeys. So, what’s next????