Discipleship: First Steps

So you’ve got mission happening, how do you turn this into discipleship and a ‘New Worshipping Community’? This can seem like a massive step. But it is how people respond to the message you have given them. Not everyone will. Jesus had many people turn away from him when even he met them! However, there are people that will want to respond. You’ve done the job of a ‘salesman’ (tell people about Jesus) now you need to become a ‘midwife’ - its time to support people as they respond.

There is power in the invitation

It can be intimidating to invite people to your ‘New Worshipping Community’. It is stepping out to show someone the way in. You’ve got something incredible to offer them, even if it is just a few new friends to support them in their first steps as a disciple.

Given someone an invitation can be the encouragement they need to begin really exploring. Without you inviting them, they might never know that they are ALLOWED to come to your church. They make think they are not good enough to go to a church event or not worthy. When you invite them you show them that they are WELCOME.

Take a look at the Fusion Movement and Alpha’s advice on how to welcome people and why it matters - here

There are lots of resources out there to help. For example, Fresh Expressions has some great tools including the GodSend APP - this will really help as you begin to step out in faith to turn mission into a New Worshipping Community. There are links to it here.

Godsend, which is available to download for free, has been designed as a toolkit to help you grow new Christian communities with those exploring faith. It uses animations, questions and real life examples to explore topics such as listening to the community, what emerging church looks like, how do you gather team and so much more.

- Fresh Expressions