I received this text recently from my friend and colleague Gary Reinecke:

“Quick note to tell you how helpful the Journey Together Now pathway has been with the church planters I am coaching. The genius is in the simplicity, conceptual road-map and coach-friendly style. Thanks again for pioneering creative ways of disciplemaking.”

At first I was surprised because I hadn’t designed the Journey Together Now pathway for church planters. I’d designed it for laypeople involved in discipling relationships. But when I thought about it a little more, it made perfect sense. Church planters are in the business of promoting disciple-making, just in group settings. That’s what churches are—vehicles for making and growing disciples. Church planters need a broad conceptual map for how to guide people along that journey.

Here’s how Gary describes using JTN with planters he’s coaching:

I’ll ask, “What steps do you have to lead people who are far from God to a relationship with God in your ministry?” They talk through what they already have in place, then I direct them to the JTN map online. After they’ve taken some time to explore it, I ask them, “What is working? What is missing? What could you do to make your pathway more effective?”

Universally, the response has been, “This really makes sense!” It helps them clarify a process to move people forward from one step to the next in their discipleship journey. The planter may have already thought, ‘We need to have small groups.’ But this helps them think strategically about what needs to happen in these environments. It gives them a holistic way of looking at their disciple-making process.

Gary Reinecke can be reached via his organization InFocus Ministries.