Advanced Discipleship Team

Please note: These job descriptions were composed for medium to large sized outreaches with Impact World Tour. For smaller events not all positions or simplified procedures might be required, please apply common sense in determining the needs for your community.

Catch the Harvest

The development of an Advanced Discipleship Team (ADT) is done in conjunction with the Strategic Discipleship Team. This team will be set up outside of the regular church discipleship to serve as “catchers” of inquirers who are falling through the discipleship nets. The point at which standard follow-up falters is where the ADT moves into action. They serve as the last attempt to connect with inquirers and build relationship with them.

This team can be made up of local Christians as well as YWAMers who will commit to working long term with the community – an initial commitment of 1 year. These young people will be completely focused on apostolic discipleship of those that require a non-traditional approach. They will work with the Strategic Discipleship Team to ensure all New Believers are followed up and that ongoing evangelism and prayer is continuing for the community.

The goal of the ADT is to build loving, Christ-reflecting relationships with people. From these relationships, growth in Christ and bridges to fellowship within the Body or a discipleship small group will naturally flow. It provides for relational gatherings of people, sharing their lives together in a non-threatening, none “religious” environment. It is led by Christ-centered believers who are transparently living a witness for Christ, allowing inquirers to learn how to walk in a growing, living relationship with Christ.

Advanced Discipleship is initiated one to two weeks after the IWT campaign and serves as a referral unit for the Call Team / Assignment Team. Proper execution of the Call Team procedure coupled with the initial reports generated by the Data Tracking Team, will allow us to “see” how well each person is being followed-up. We should be able to tell what stage a person is at and if, at any point, the follow-up mechanism is beginning to falter. If it does falter, we can know within the first two weeks and respond to the inquirer quickly.

Strategy

The commitment of the Advanced Discipleship Team is to the individual, not to a specific program or timetable.
Create positive, ongoing connection points for the inquirer through non-threatening, common interest points where the emphasis is friendship and “living life together” (i.e., Monday night sports, “tea at my place”, a coffee group at the café).
Ready to respond to referrals from the Call Team or the Follow-Up Statistics team once they have identified inquirers who are falling through the nets or for whom traditional follow-up methods are not working.
Pursue inquirers through personal contact and (1) let the relationship continue, one-to-one, naturally from that point or if they prefer (2) invite them to one of the weekly get-togethers like the type listed above.
Continue to relate with them in transparency, allowing them to see Christ living in you as you live out your daily life.
Bridge them into the fellowship of a discipleship small group or local Church so that they may be discipled further and grow in the knowledge of God and their faith. This may take a significant amount of time and should not be rushed.

See the Diagram for the Call Team further clarify the reporting structure.

Team Member Profile

An Advanced Discipleship Team member will be:

A genuine and committed disciple of Christ, who has as the central focus of their life the Lordship of Christ.
Committed to a relational movement of people that, while not having a structured program or agenda, still maintains a Christ-centered focus with the discipleship of inquirers as a core value.
Responsible to follow through with their commitments to walk with these inquirers until they are established in their faith and in a growing relationship with Christ.
Willing to communicate to their pastor and report their progress and struggles with their church leadership for the sake of accountability and assistance as they minister.
Every local church ADT member will stay accountable to their local pastor and church as ministers or lay ministers who are working with inquirers in the community. The ADT itself will be made up of many different members, from local churches and Christian organizations as well as YWAMers.

Church Participation

There are TWO AREAS of participation where a church may choose to be involved in the Advanced Discipleship:

Choosing to commit people to participate in Advanced Discipleship post-tour as team members and committing to partner with them as ministers in their community through prayer, support and accountability.

Choosing to be an Advanced Discipleship Centre, a place where team members can “bridge” a inquirer for transition to the Body of Christ and further discipleship. An ADT church commits to welcoming and integrating these inquirers.

The concept of Advanced Discipleship is based on providing alternative forms of discipleship for a inquirer who would struggle with our traditional offering of a discipleship small group in a local church setting. The concept of Advanced Discipleship, as a follow-up mechanism, exists to capture the harvest and to successfully transition inquirers into the life of the Church over time.

The above structure serves as a conceptual template. The reporting and referral structure should be clearly established (refer to the Call Team Flow Chart). Actual implementation of the ADT, including participation of churches, types and numbers of alternative discipleship groups, reporting guidelines for ADT members, should all be “fleshed out” by the Strategic Discipleship Team.

Suggested Timeline

Initially the Advanced Discipleship Team should meet with the Strategic Discipleship Team assisting with preparations for the Discipleship Seminars

6 months before

Advanced Discipleship preparations with the Strategic Discipleship Team
Assist the Strategic Discipleship Team and the Church Discipleship Team to plan a strategy to fill in the areas of discipleship that are lacking.

5 months before

With Strategic Team, map out the practical steps required to achieve goals
The following items should be included:

Recruitment of more disciplers (in specific age groups and/or cultural groups)
Training & Mentoring of disciplers
Deliberate opportunities for group discipleship & training (e.g. youth discipleship camp)
Abundant evangelism (training and opportunities together)

2 – 4 months before

Advanced Discipleship preparations for the specific strategies planned
Under the guidance of the Strategic Discipleship Team – begin to work on the practical steps to prepare for the advanced discipleship.

After the Campaign

Be available immediately after events to begin discipleship strategy. The Assignment Team will refer New Believers that are not being followed up in either discipleship groups or by a local link.

(The Assignment Team will actively link those New Believers who have no connection to a discipleship group. If there are situations where a local link cannot follow up their New Believer – then the Assignment Team would also assist with linking them to a new Local Link, or to the Advanced Discipleship Team.)

With the Strategic Discipleship Team identify areas still lacking adequate discipleship. Areas such as: specific age groups, cultural groups, ethnic groups, and niche groups. Carry out the strategy to respond to these needs.