Learn the Framework: Our Network Design
The New Testament gives us an integrated pattern for carrying out the mission of Jesus. The apostles and those they equipped proclaimed the gospel, made disciples, brought believers together in churches, strengthened those churches, developed leaders, and carried the work into new places. Evangelism, discipleship, church life, and leadership development worked together as parts of one advancing mission.
Over time, Christians can lose sight of how these parts belong together. We may practice many good things while separating evangelism from discipleship, discipleship from church life, or church life from leadership development and mission. We may sense that our ministry has become fragmented, overly complex, or difficult to reproduce without knowing what a more integrated approach should look like.
Learn the Framework helps us recover the enduring teaching, priorities, and practices of Jesus and his apostles and apply them wisely today. We do not seek to recreate every feature of the first century. Instead, we want Scripture to shape how we make disciples, strengthen churches, develop leaders, and carry the mission forward in our own time.
This section guides you through three major areas:
Our Core Documents: The essential resources that describe our vision, mission, values, strategy, message, doctrine, church life, and overall network design.
Our Leadership Development Process: The stages and supports that help form men to lead with character, clarity, and competence.
Training, Coaching, and Evaluation: The practical tools that equip believers to share the gospel, make disciples, strengthen churches, and grow as leaders.
Together, these resources provide an integrated framework for following the way of Jesus and his apostles as we seek to start, strengthen, and multiply churches.
Core Documents
Our Network Design: How Everything Fits Together: A holistic description of our approach to starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches.
The Vision: Starting, Strengthening, & Multiplying Churches: Our desire for the future—to fill neighborhoods, cities, regions, and the world with churches.
The Mission: Make Disciples of All Nations: Jesus’s Great Commission expressed in practical, relational, reproducible terms.
Strategy: The Apostolic Cycle: The simple, reproducible rhythm of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development seen throughout Acts.
Core Commitments: Ten biblical priorities that shaped the life and ministry of the early churches and should guide our devotion to God, life together, and mission today.
Core Values and Purposes: The core convictions that unite our network and guide our decisions.
Our Approach to Making Disciples: A concrete plan for reaching our relational networks for Christ, helping them mature, and coaching them to start and strengthen churches.
The Message: The Apostles’ Missionary Proclamation to Non-Christians: A clear summary of how the apostles proclaimed the gospel to unbelievers.
The Gospel: Jesus Died and Rose from the Dead to Save Sinners: The Good News of Jesus’s Death and Resurrection: A clear summary of the gospel, including how God calls us to respond to it.
Sound Doctrine: The Teaching of the Church for Christians: The essential truths believers must know, live, and pass on to others.
The Nature of the Church: Definition and Implications for Ministry: A biblical definition of the church and a discussion of the implications for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development.
The Weekly Assembly of the Church: A biblical picture of how early Christians met, shared meals, and encouraged one another.
The Lord’s Supper: The Lord’s Supper: Celebrating, Remembering, & Proclaiming Jesus’s Death: A biblical explanation of remembering Jesus’s death in the context of a meal.
Leadership Development: How God Forms Christian Leaders: An explanation of how God develops Christian leaders to advance Jesus’s mission.
Core Concepts: Our Unifying Vocabulary: The shared vocabulary that unifies our teaching, tools, and training.
Our Leadership Development Process
The Path of Church Leaders: The stages of development that prepare men to lead with character, clarity, and skill.
Training, Coaching, and Evaluation
Evangelism Training: Practical tools that help believers share the gospel naturally and confidently.
Discipleship Training: Training that equips believers to help others grow in faith and obedience.
Individual Coaching and Prayer: One-to-one support that strengthens personal growth, obedience, and fruitfulness.
Group Coaching and Prayer: A relational environment where leaders learn, pray, and grow together.
The Leadership Training Program: Training to prepare men to start, strengthen, and multiply churches.
Evaluation: Frameworks for evaluating faithfulness in ministry.
Where to Go Next
From here, you can explore the foundational documents of our network.