Your first 90 days
Everything in the playbook, turned into dated weeks. This is written for a church starting from nothing: no plan, no system, maybe one person who cares about this and not much time. Do it in order and skip nothing in week one.
Week 1: decide, do not build
The temptation in week one is to design a beautiful system. Resist it. The only goal this week is that the next new person who walks in does not fall through a gap.
- Name the owner. One person responsible for new people. Write their name down. If you cannot name them, this is the problem, and no software will fix it.
- Decide the first step. What does a brand new believer do first? Pick one thing and write down its name. Not a menu. One thing.
- Make one front door. A single link or QR code that a new person uses, and put it in the two places people actually look: the weekend service and wherever kids get checked in.
- Invite your leaders in. Whatever you are using to track this, get your group leaders into it this week. A system only one staff member can see dies with their calendar.
The failure we see most. One person sets everything up, never invites another leader, and quietly stops using it within a month. Getting a second and third person in during week one matters more than anything you configure.
Weeks 2 to 4: run it small
Now you make it real with the people already in front of you, before anyone new arrives.
- Start one group properly. Not all of them. One, led by someone who will tell you the truth about how it went.
- Assign the first course to that group. Everyone in it, same start date. Watch what happens in week two, which is when the drop-off shows.
- Have the leader look at their people. Once, deliberately, at who has actually opened it. This habit is the whole growth movement in miniature.
- Follow up with every new person from the last month. Yes, the ones you already missed. Start the seven-day rule from today and clean up behind you once.
By the end of week four you should be able to say who is in the group, what they are working through, and who has not started. If you cannot, stop and fix that before adding anything.
Months 2 to 3: widen and look ahead
- Bring the other groups in. Now that one leader has run it, they can tell the others what it is actually like. That is worth more than your training.
- Run the two assessments. Biblical Identity and Spiritual Gifts, across your groups. Leaders read them before deciding where anyone serves.
- Name your first leadership cohort. Ask your current leaders for names. Three to six people. Put them into training together, because a cohort finishes and an individual drifts.
- Get safeguarding in place. Background checks and abuse-prevention training for everyone leading. Do it while the number is small.
- Look at the gaps on purpose. Who is not in a group. Who has not started what they were assigned. Which leader has not looked at their people in a month. Fix the top one.
What ninety days should leave you with
| By day 90 | How you know |
|---|---|
| A named owner for new people | You can say their name without checking |
| One front door in use | New people are arriving through it, not through a staff member's memory |
| Every group with something assigned | No group is meeting with nothing to work through |
| Leaders who look | Each leader has checked their people in the last three weeks |
| A leadership cohort in motion | You can name who is in training and roughly when they will be ready |
That is not a finished discipleship culture. It is a working one, which is the only kind that becomes finished.
Month 4 and beyond
Once the loop runs, the work changes from building to noticing. The questions become: who stalled this month, which group is growing and which is only meeting, who is ready to lead and has not been asked. Those are the questions a discipleship plan exists to make answerable.
This playbook is AI-drafted, human-reviewed, and approved by a theological review. How our content is made.