Start Here: Our Approach

Jesus’s Mission for Our Lives

Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). That command applies to every follower of Christ, right where God has already placed you. Making disciples is not reserved for pastors, missionaries, or professionals—it is part of normal Christian faithfulness.

Most Christians agree with Jesus’s mission. Many also feel the gap between agreeing and knowing how to live it out in everyday life. The Gathering Network exists to help you obey Jesus in ordinary rhythms—at home, in the church, and among non-Christians—with a clear, biblical approach and practical tools for taking real next steps.

We are not offering a program or a quick technique. We offer a unified way of making disciples that takes Jesus’s mission seriously and helps you live it out faithfully where you already live.

Discipleship in Real Life

Discipleship is learning to follow Jesus faithfully in the places God has put you and for the purposes he cares about. It does not require a platform, a title, or special access. It requires steady faithfulness in ordinary life for the sake of Jesus’s name and the good of others.

  • We describe discipleship across five core responsibilities: Private Life / Family / Local Church / Neighborhood / Broader Society

  • We also pursue five core purposes: Godly Character / Service / Evangelism / Discipleship / Worship

Together, these responsibilities and purposes keep obedience whole. They show where discipleship happens and what it is meant to produce so following Jesus is not fragmented or left to chance.

How We Help

Because discipleship is holistic, our approach must be as well. Jesus designed disciple-making to be simple, relational, and reproducible. In the New Testament, the gospel advanced primarily through believers who lived out their faith in households, neighborhoods, workplaces, and everyday relationships.

Everything in The Gathering Network flows from one conviction: the way of Jesus and his apostles still works. We follow a single, unified approach shaped by love for God and love for others, and we provide practical tools to help believers live it out at each stage of the journey.

To understand the approach in detail—why it begins with the worth of Jesus’s name, how it integrates evangelism, discipleship, community, and leadership, and how ordinary believers can live it out faithfully—start with Our Approach to Making Disciples below.

Below are essential tools we use to help believers advance Jesus’s mission in the contexts God has placed them—whether in your private life, your family, your church, or your relationships with non-Christians.

The Mission: Make Disciples of All Nations

  1. Our Approach to Making Disciples: Our holistic approach to reaching our networks for Christ, building believers up in the faith, and developing them to multiply as leaders.

  2. Overcoming Obstacles to Making Disciples in Our Networks: A clear, honest guide that identifies the barriers ordinary believers face—and the concrete, biblical solutions that help us live the disciple-making way of Jesus.

Evangelism

  1. Starting an Evangelistic Study: Two approaches to starting a study with non-Christians and/or Christians who want to review the foundations of their faith.

  2. The Path to God: An introductory lesson that summarizes the Christian message—easy to use and faithful to the way the apostles summarized the Christian message.

Discipleship & Leadership Development

  1. How to Lead Family Devotions: Step-by-step advice to lead your family in Bible reading, prayer, and singing.

  2. The Discipleship Series: Step-by-step lessons that help believers grow in obedience to Jesus and quickly begin discipling others. This is the backbone of our training.

  3. Individual Coaching: A relational process that strengthens the believer in four key areas: character, key relationships, evangelism, and discipleship.

  4. Group Coaching: A supportive environment where leaders pray together, learn together, and encourage one another to live out their mission.

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

  6. Starting and Leading New Gatherings: A practical guide for forming simple, biblical churches—in homes, neighborhoods, and relational networks—rooted in Scripture, shared life, prayer, fellowship, meals, and obedience to Jesus.

Where to Go Next

If you’re new, Start Here is your front door. From here, you can explore our framework in more detail and begin walking the simple, biblical path of making disciples in your network.