How your church uses Start Discipling

Pick one reading plan or course to do together and share a single join link. Your people start the same day, and your group leaders can see who is keeping up and who needs a call. It costs your church nothing.

Set up your church Joining your church? Create your account

Getting started

Start small: one plan, a few people, one leader who already disciples somebody.

Set up your churchYou get an admin area and a church page people can find at startdiscipling.com/at/your-church.
Choose what to do togetherA Bible reading plan or a course from the library. One is plenty to begin with.
Share one join linkOr connect Planning Center and bring your groups and people across.
Hand it to your group leadersAssign the plan to a group and let the leader lead. The platform keeps track.

The Getting started checklist on a church admin overview: connect Planning Center, invite one other leader, create a join link, create one group, assign one course — Every new church gets this checklist on its admin overview.

What your people see

Members sign in to MKDSCPLS (short for Make Disciples), the platform Start Discipling runs on. It works in any browser, on a phone or a laptop.

A clear next step every day

The dashboard puts today's reading at the top and shows what their group is working through. Gentle email reminders help people keep going without anyone having to chase them.

A member dashboard with the next reading, progress and the Spiritual DNA assessments

Scripture on the page, with questions to answer

Each day opens the full passage in the app, with reflection questions underneath. At the end of the reading, members can share what they noticed and reply to others in your church.

A day in a reading plan with the Scripture passage and reflection questions

Study, not skim

Examine keeps every highlight, note and HEAR journal entry (Highlight, Explain, Apply, Respond) in one place, across every plan and course. Inside a reading plan, it walks people through observing the text, following cross-references and noting the context.

An AI research tool can help with word meanings and background, but it asks the reader to do the thinking.

Examine showing a HEAR journal entry on Acts 8 with Highlights, Explain, Apply and Respond

What your leaders see

A group leader can open anyone in their group and see, on one screen:

Where they areProgress in what the group is studying, and when they were last active.
How they are wiredTheir Biblical Identity, Spiritual Gifts and DNA Story, if they have taken them.
A suggested next stepFor example, "hasn't started yet, ask what is getting in the way."
Private notesOnly the group's leaders can read them. Not the member, not church admins.

Read the leader guide to Discipleship DNA

A group leader's view of one member: next step, Biblical Identity and top gifts, progress in two studies, and private notes — A leader's view of one member (sample account).

Also included

No add-ons and no tiers. Every church gets all of it.

Biblical Identity and Spiritual GiftsTwo assessments and a DNA Story that ties them together. How leaders use them
Growth you can seeCourses include a before and after assessment, so people see how they have changed. See the report
Scripture memoryA personal verse list with spaced review, so verses come back when they are about to slip.
Planning Center connectionIf your church uses it, your groups and people come across and you stop typing them twice.
A church pageFeature the plans and courses you want people to start with. Find a church
Groups your leaders runMeeting details, a weekly plan, and one place to see the whole group.

Start with one plan and a few people

Set up your church page, pick something to read together, and invite the people you already walk with.

Set up your church Ask us a question