Upon completing the Discipleship Pathway Assessment don’t move on without deciding on your Next Step.
God initiated this relationship, but he wants you to proactively participate in walking with Him and increasingly walk like Him. For you personally and for your church, this response is an investment in the Discipleship Pathway.
How to decide on a Next Step
- Listen to the indicators.As you complete the Discipleship Pathway Assessment you will see a numeric indicator of spiritual maturity for each marker. But there also may be a single question that stood out. Either can be an indicator of where you need to start.
- Address a weakness. Jesus affirmed that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. When we discover that we are not following Christ with our all (spoiler alert everyone’s assessment reveals this), we should desire to take a step to imitate Him more in that area.
- Leverage a strength.You will likely see some questions or even a signpost in which you already look like Christ. As you move to address an area that doesn’t, there are usually opportunities to leverage a strength. The parts of our walk that come easily or are more enjoyable can with a little attention be adjusted to include elements of the other biblical markers.
- Don’t tackle too many things at once. Those who study change management remind us that trying to change multiple things at the same time usually results in improvement in none of them. But the fascinating aspect of discipleship is that growth in one area typically helps other areas of our Discipleship Pathway. So, pick oneor at most two things to begin addressing today. You can always come back later to pick another to address.
Small groups and churches can also intentionally address these 8 biblical markers in an ongoing way by using Bible studies that invest in this Discipleship Pathway. LifeWay’s Bible Studies for Life addresses real-life issues through an in-depth study of the Bible that systematically moves through all 8 biblical markers.