Learn the System: Our Network Design

Learn the System introduces the biblical framework that shapes how we follow the way of Jesus and his apostles today. These core resources show how every part of our work fits together to start, strengthen, and multiply churches. They outline the simple, reproducible patterns of evangelism, discipleship, church life, and leadership development that guided the first churches and anchor our network today.

Our Core Documents

  1. Our Network Design: How Everything Fits Together: A holistic description of our approach to starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches.

  2. Vision: Starting, Strengthening, & Multiplying Churches: Our desire for the future—to fill neighborhoods, cities, regions, and the world with churches.

  3. Mission: Make Disciples of All Nations: Jesus’s Great Commission expressed in practical, relational, reproducible terms.

  4. Core Values and Purposes: The core convictions that unite our network and guide our decisions.

  5. Strategy: The Apostolic Cycle: The simple, reproducible rhythm of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development seen throughout Acts.

  6. 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.

  7. The Message: The Apostles’ Missionary Proclamation to Non-Christians: A clear summary of how the apostles proclaimed the gospel to unbelievers.

  8. Sound Doctrine: The Teaching of the Church for Christians: The essential truths believers must know, live, and pass on to others.

  9. Gathering in Homes: The Weekly Assembly of the Church: A biblical picture of how early Christians met, shared meals, and encouraged one another.

  10. Apostolic Alignment: Our Underlying Goal: How we keep all our work aligned with Scripture, the Spirit, and the mission of Christ.

  11. Core Concepts: Our Unifying Vocabulary: The shared vocabulary that unifies our teaching, tools, and training.

Our Leadership Development Process

Resources for Training, Coaching, and Evaluation

  1. Evangelism Training: Practical tools that help believers share the gospel naturally and confidently.

  2. Discipleship Training: Training that equips believers to help others grow in faith and obedience.

  3. The Pastoral Training Program: Training to prepare men to start, strengthen, and multiply churches.

  4. Individual Coaching and Prayer: One-to-one support that strengthens personal growth, obedience, and fruitfulness.

  5. Group Coaching and Prayer: A relational environment where leaders learn, pray, and grow together.

  6. Evaluation: Frameworks for evaluating faithfulness in ministry.

Foundational Documents: The Apostolic Mission and the History of Missions

These documents form the theological and historical backbone of our network. They explain the apostolic design, show how it unfolded across the first century, and demonstrate why recovering this pattern is essential for global mission today.

Apostolic Documents (AD 30–95)

Inner Logic and Progression: These four documents move from (1) what the apostles believed, to (2) what they did, to (3) how the first churches practiced their faith, and finally to (4) the strategic framework that ties all of it together. They form a complete picture of the apostolic way—beginning with convictions, moving through history and practice, and culminating in a clear, reproducible strategy for ministry today.

  1. Apostolic Principles: Foundations for Starting, Strengthening, and Multiplying Churches (AD 30–95): The core theological convictions that shaped everything the apostles believed and pursued.

  2. Apostolic Implementation: A Chronological Study of the Apostles’ Activity (AD 30–95): A step-by-step account of how the apostles carried out the mission from Jerusalem to the nations.

  3. Apostolic Practices: How the First Churches Started, Strengthened, and Multiplied (AD 30–95): A synthesis of the concrete practices that formed and sustained the earliest churches.

  4. Apostolic Strategy: A Framework for Starting, Strengthening, and Multiplying Churches (AD 30–95): A summary of the apostolic cycle of evangelism, community strengthening, and leadership development. (Listed above as “Strategy: The Apostolic Cycle,” referring to the same document.)

History of Missions: Understanding Our Place in God’s Global Work

Inner Logic and Progression: These four documents move from (1) a long-range view of mission history, to (2) a diagnosis of where and why movements drifted, to (3) a contrast between institutional and apostolic models, and finally to (4) a practical vision for recovering and applying the apostolic way today. Together they help us understand the past, interpret the present, and strengthen the future of mission.

  1. History of Missions and the Return to the Apostolic Way: A sweeping, era-by-era account of global mission—showing how the church multiplied when it followed the apostolic pattern, faltered when it drifted, and why recovering that pattern is essential for the mission today.

  2. Violations and Correctives: Recovering Apostolic Faithfulness in Mission: An analysis of the most common ways movements departed from apostolic design—and the biblical correctives that restore clarity, balance, and health.

  3. Institutional Churches and Apostolic Communities: A comparison between institutional ministry models and the simple, reproducible communities shaped by the apostles, showing how structure either fuels or hinders mission.

  4. Church Planting Movements: Advancing the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth: A practical vision for how the apostolic pattern continues today—how disciples, leaders, and churches multiply, how movements rise and decline, and how renewal occurs through prayer, obedience, and the Spirit’s power.