Looking for a way to equip disciples who make disciples?  You may want to take a look at the real life discipleship training manual, written by Jim Putman, Avery Willis, Brandon Guindon, and Bill Krause.  New from NavPress, the manual is designed to provide the content for a 12 week experience.  Each week in the manual contains 5 daily assignments (each assignment can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes).

The real life discipleship training manual was developed as a companion to Real Life Discipleship (reviewed here last week).  As I mentioned in my review of Real Life Discipleship, making disciples is serious business at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho.  One of the fastest growing churches in America, they’ve seen more than 4,000 conversions as they’ve grown to 8,500 in 9 years.

Describing the training manual, founding pastor Jim Putman notes that “there isn’t much theory here.  Instead, it is the day to day, boots-on-the-ground game plan that we use every day at our church.”  In the introduction of Real Life Discipleship he wrote that “the overriding goal is to train disciples who know how to disciple others.”

The 12 week journey takes you through the same process described in Real Life Discipleship (share, connect, minister and disciple) and works through the issues of how to disciple a person through the stages of spiritual maturity (spiritual infant, spiritual child, spiritual young adult and spiritual parents).  The individual sessions help develop the ability to put these principles into practice.

The final week provides a detailed examination of the storying methodology developed by Avery Willis (known as orality).  This concept is very transferable and is a way to fully engage the members of every group.

The training manual features a Leader’s Guide section in the appendix.  Because the manual is intended to be a group experience, the Leader’s Guide includes instructions on how to begin and commitments to be made.  The weekly meeting of the group will center around a guided discussion of the daily experiences (completed in preparation).

You can clearly see the influence of Avery Willis in the workbook pages.  Willis, the author of MasterLife, passed away earlier this year but not before he had a chance to play a part in the discipleship process at Real Life Ministries and the development of the real life discipleship training manual.

Many churches without the time to develop their own process will find this off-the-shelf resource to be exactly what they’ve been looking for.  If you’re looking for ways to raise the discipleship bar in your church, this is a training manual you’ll want to see.

What is the most powerful way to impact your entire congregation?  Many believe that a church-wide campaign, what Rick Warren refers to as a spiritual growth emphasis,  is the most important spiritual innovation in the last 50 years…maybe the last century.  Why?  Read on.

Although there are very basic church-wide campaigns that simply offer a way of focusing the weekend message, more robust campaigns align everything that everybody is doing for the season.  Weekend sermons, small group curriculum, children’s Sunday School programming, student ministry programming, memory verses, newsletters, bulletin inserts, websites, everything is used to get everyone on the same page for six weeks.

(Need help?  Click here to find out about my Church-Wide Campaign Coaching program)

Alignment is the key.  Why is this important?  Church life without alignment is like a car out of alignment.  Instead of everything moving in the same direction, all four tires are trying to move in a slightly different direction.  Can it work?  Only roughly.  Put things in alignment…and experience the synergy of everyone and every ministry on the same page.  How do you get alignment?  There are four important keys to launching a church-wide campaign.

• Choosing a campaign theme is the most important decision you’ll make.  Although the 40 Days of Purpose is the most familiar, there are a number of off-the-shelf campaigns available.  I’ve highlighted some of the best over the last several years. Take a look at Looking for a New Church-Wide Campaign, New Church-Wide Campaigns for 2009, The Latest in Church-Wide Campaigns for 2010 and New Church-Wide Campaigns for Fall 2010.  Additionally, with some work you can put together a home grown campaign.  A key question is, “Who are you trying to engage?”  The difference between what will engage the core or committed versus what will engage the crowd must be taken into consideration.  I’ve written about this right here.
• Determining when to do your church-wide campaign is also very important.  Adequate preparation synchronized with a season that allows build up and follow through is essential.  For this reason, the fall ministry season is optimal in many ways.  Saddleback, masters of the campaign universe, launch most of their campaigns at the end of September, allowing a burst of promotion right after Labor Day to enlist end-of-the-summer new attendees.  With certain caveats pre and post Easter are other effective campaign launch windows.
• The weekend series before and after the campaign play an important role in who will be engaged and who will stay engaged.  Opening the fall with a broadly appealing series gives you the ability to engage the crowd or community.  Following the campaign with a series that is immediately applicable to your newest attendees will help them remain engaged.
• The strategy used to recruit small group leaders plays an important role in who will be in the groups.  Choosing a crowd-sensitive topic and recruiting HOSTS from the congregation beyond the usual suspects are essential ingredients in the recipe for an exponential campaign.  Decisions made about who can lead and how you’ll fill groups enable wider impact that reaches beyond the twice a month attendee and into the crowd and community.

Need more help?  Ready to plan a church-wide campaign that reaches beyond the usual suspects and into your community?  Setting up a series of coaching calls is easy, very affordable, and will pay for itself.  You’ll have clarity on your next steps or your money back.  I guarantee it.