The Discipleship Series: Our Core Curriculum
The Gathering Network's Vision and Mission
Our Vision: To equip ordinary believers to make disciples of Jesus—resulting in starting, strengthening, and multiplying churches in homes, cities, regions, and across the world.
Everything we do serves this vision. We believe Christ continues to build his church through ordinary believers who faithfully proclaim the gospel, disciple others, and develop leaders where God has already placed them. Rather than waiting for a formal ministry opportunity, we encourage believers to begin participating in Christ's mission within their families, friendships, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, and communities. As disciples mature and leaders are developed, churches are strengthened, new churches are established, and the gospel continues to spread.
Our Mission: Making disciples who make disciples.
We pursue that mission by training believers to evangelize non-Christians, disciple Christians, and develop future leaders within their natural relationships and communities. This simple, relational, and reproducible approach reflects the ministry of Jesus and his apostles and provides the foundation for everything we do as a network.
The Discipleship Series
The Discipleship Series is the primary teaching and formation resource of The Gathering Network.
It exists to ground believers in the teaching of Jesus and his apostles while equipping them to participate faithfully in Christ's mission. Throughout the series, participants learn to understand and apply Scripture, share the gospel naturally, disciple others intentionally, and develop the character, wisdom, and biblical understanding needed to serve their families, strengthen their churches, and invest in future leaders. Every lesson encourages participants not only to grow personally but also to begin helping others follow Jesus within the relationships and communities God has already entrusted to them.
Our goal is not simply to complete a curriculum but to form mature, reproducing disciples. As believers increasingly follow Jesus and help others do the same, leaders emerge, churches are strengthened, new churches are established, and Christ continues building his church through ordinary people who faithfully participate in his mission.
How Do We Understand Discipleship?
Before explaining how the curriculum is organized, we must address a more fundamental issue: the nature and goals of discipleship. Our understanding shapes every lesson in the Discipleship Series. The purpose of discipleship is to help believers increasingly follow Jesus within every relationship and responsibility God has entrusted to them while helping others do the same.
Discipleship is much more than acquiring biblical knowledge or completing a course of study. It is the lifelong process of being formed by God's Word into faithful followers of Jesus who increasingly reflect his character, obey his teaching, and participate in his mission. As disciples mature, they naturally begin investing in the people God has already placed in their lives, becoming the ordinary means through which Christ strengthens his church and extends the gospel into new communities.
We have found it helpful to think about discipleship from two complementary perspectives: our core responsibilities and our core purposes.
Our Core Responsibilities
Disciples learn to follow Jesus in every sphere of life God has entrusted to them.
Private Life before God — cultivating a growing relationship with God through worship, prayer, Scripture, dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and faithful obedience.
Family — honoring Christ within marriage, parenting, and every responsibility of family life.
Local Church — loving, serving, encouraging, and helping strengthen the body of Christ through faithful participation and ministry.
Neighborhood — building meaningful relationships with neighbors, friends, and others God has placed within our everyday lives.
Society (including one's vocation) — representing Christ with integrity through our work, civic responsibilities, stewardship, and influence within the broader community.
Our Core Purposes
As disciples mature, they increasingly participate in Christ's mission.
Christlike Character — becoming increasingly conformed to the character, attitudes, and priorities of Jesus.
Service — using our spiritual gifts, abilities, and resources to serve others with humility and love.
Evangelism — prayerfully proclaiming the gospel and helping non-Christians become followers of Jesus.
Discipleship — intentionally helping other believers grow toward spiritual maturity and become disciple-makers themselves.
Worship — glorifying God through lives of joyful obedience, grateful devotion, and wholehearted participation in his mission.
Together, these responsibilities and purposes shape every lesson in the Discipleship Series. They remind us that discipleship is lived out in every sphere of life while always moving outward toward Christ's mission. As believers are established in the apostles' teaching, they are equipped to follow Jesus faithfully, invest intentionally in others, and become another faithful link in the disciple-making chain. Through ordinary believers who faithfully proclaim the gospel, disciple others, and develop leaders, Christ continues to establish, strengthen, and multiply healthy churches.
What Are Our Core Commitments?
The Discipleship Series was not designed in isolation. It reflects the same biblical commitments that shape every aspect of The Gathering Network. These commitments determine not only what we teach, but also how we understand spiritual growth, disciple-making, leadership development, and the mission of the church.
We Follow the Way of Jesus and His Apostles: Our starting point is not contemporary ministry philosophy but the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. We seek to recover their priorities, rhythms, and patterns of disciple-making so that our lives, churches, and mission are increasingly shaped by Scripture.
We Form Disciples for Everyday Mission: Discipleship is not preparation for future ministry. It is learning to follow Jesus where God has already placed us. Throughout the curriculum, participants are encouraged to proclaim the gospel, disciple others, and develop leaders within their families, friendships, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, and communities.
We Teach the Whole Counsel of God: Rather than focusing on isolated topics, the curriculum seeks to establish believers in the teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Participants learn to read the Bible as one unfolding story centered on Christ and to understand how every part of Scripture contributes to Christian faith and practice.
We Learn in Community: The New Testament was written to churches, not isolated individuals. For that reason, the curriculum is designed primarily for believers gathering around God's Word together—asking questions, discussing Scripture, encouraging one another, and growing in obedience as a community of disciples.
We Develop Disciple-Makers and Leaders: Every believer is called to help others follow Jesus. As disciples mature, some will also be entrusted with greater responsibility to shepherd God's people, strengthen churches, and help establish new churches. The curriculum intentionally prepares believers for both kinds of ministry.
We Pursue Transformation Through Obedience: The goal of biblical instruction is not simply greater knowledge but faithful obedience. Every lesson calls participants to respond to God's Word personally, to encourage one another toward faithfulness, and to take practical steps in Christ's mission.
These commitments inform each aspect of our curriculum.
How is the Curriculum Organized?
The Discipleship Series is organized into two complementary parts. Together, they provide both the biblical foundations of faithful discipleship and a living picture of discipleship in action. Part One establishes the framework for following Jesus, while Part Two demonstrates how that framework unfolds through the ministry of Jesus, the apostles, and the life of the early church.
Part One: Learning the Foundations of Faithful Discipleship
Part One lays the foundation for the entire curriculum by exploring the teaching of Jesus and his apostles on the essential themes of the Christian life. Participants develop a biblical framework for understanding:
Knowing and embracing the foundational truths of the faith
Developing a plan to reach their networks for Christ
Aligning with God’s design for marriage and parenting
Actively participating in a local community of believers
Representing Christ well in society
These studies establish the theological and practical foundation upon which the remainder of the curriculum is built.
Part Two: Watching the Apostolic Mission Unfold
Part Two follows the unfolding story of the New Testament as Christ continues his work through the apostles and the early church. Rather than studying the New Testament as a collection of unrelated books, participants observe the gospel advancing from community to community as disciples are made, leaders are developed, churches are strengthened, and new churches are established.
As the story unfolds, participants see biblical doctrine, pastoral ministry, leadership development, church life, suffering, perseverance, and mission in their original setting. This allows them not only to understand what the apostles taught, but also to observe how those truths shaped the life and ministry of the early church.
Together, these two parts help participants understand both what Jesus taught and how his mission continued through the apostles.
What Does a Typical Lesson Look Like?
Every lesson follows a consistent pattern designed to help believers understand God's Word, discuss it together, and faithfully live it out. The lessons are intentionally formatted for use in a variety of settings, including homes, small groups, churches, and other gatherings where believers are helping others follow Jesus.
Each lesson begins with a brief introduction that provides the historical and literary setting before carefully walking through the biblical passage. The exposition explains the meaning of the text within its original context while highlighting its contribution to the larger story of Scripture. Each section concludes with a theological summary and discussion questions that encourage participants to think carefully about the passage and apply it personally, within their relationships, their local churches, and their participation in Christ's mission.
The consistent format is designed not merely to communicate biblical truth, but to help believers gather around God's Word and engage in meaningful discussion together. Whether used in a home, a church, or another discipleship setting, each lesson seeks to cultivate careful Bible reading, thoughtful conversation, faithful obedience, and confidence in helping others learn God's Word.
Each lesson includes:
Historical and literary context
Careful exposition of the biblical text in three to five sections
A theological summary following each section
Discussion questions following each section
Personal and ministry application
This consistent rhythm provides a simple, reproducible framework for learning together. As participants grow in their understanding of Scripture, they also gain confidence in discussing God's Word, helping others follow Jesus, and leading future discipleship groups.
What Do We Hope God Will Produce?
The purpose of the Discipleship Series is not simply to complete a curriculum or increase biblical knowledge. Our prayer is that God will use these studies to form mature disciples who increasingly follow Jesus, help others do the same, and faithfully participate in his mission.
As believers are established in the teaching of Jesus and his apostles, we hope they will begin investing intentionally in the people God has already placed in their lives. Some will share the gospel with a family member, friend, neighbor, or coworker. Others will disciple a new believer, strengthen their home, serve their local church, or help develop future leaders. Still others may eventually help establish a new church in their community. In every case, our desire is the same: that ordinary believers would faithfully participate in Christ's ongoing work of making disciples.
Our vision is to equip ordinary believers to make disciples of Jesus—resulting in the establishment, strengthening, and multiplication of healthy churches. If the Discipleship Series helps believers become faithful disciple-makers who evangelize non-Christians, disciple Christians, develop leaders, and participate more fully in Christ's mission, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.