Identify the Steps Needed to Fulfill the Vision
The Critical Path acknowledges each potential problem that could impede progress toward your vision. – A.I.
1. Read
Identify the Steps
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? – Romans 10:13-15
In this passage, Paul writes out a critical path by thinking backwards. In order for his first statement to become true, the preceding statement has to happen first. Let’s flip it around:
- Sent: Someone has to be sent to them
- Preach: Someone has to preach the Gospel to them
- Hear: They need to hear the Gospel
- Believe: They need to believe the Gospel is true
- Call Upon His Name: They need to call upon the name of Jesus
- Saved: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
If you want to see a disciple making movement (DMM) launch among your target people group, what are the steps that must happen?
As illustrated in the cartoon, many people are clear about their current problem and their end goal, but they do not strategically plan through the steps required to get from point A to point Z. Ultimately, a DMM cannot happen without the movement of God’s Spirit. Designing a critical path is not stepping outside of this fact. It is identifying the vital steps that we can ask God to make happen in order to see a people group discover, share, and obey Christ. It is also a progress guide that allows us to evaluate how effective our M2DMM system is in making disciples who make disciples.
Once you finish Kingdom.Training and launch your persona strategy, what will be the steps that each seeker must walk in order for a DMM to be ignited?
As you plot your Critical Path, you may not have the solutions for how you will get from one point to the next. That is ok. What is important is that you recognize each of the smaller goals that will help you arrive to your vision.
Start with your definition of a DMM. What criteria would identify a DMM is actually happening? Take those milestones and work backward. What must precede each step in order for it to happen?
Kingdom.Training’s Critical Path for Launching a Media to DMM Strategy
Example Critical Path Development:
Starting with the definition of your vision or ultimate goal, like Paul, work backward to the earliest predicted touchpoint with a seeker:
- Disciple Making Movement
- Church multiplies other churches
- Group comes to a point of baptism, becoming a church
- Seeker engages group in discovering, sharing, and obeying God’s Word
- Seeker responds by sharing God’s Word with others and starts a group
- First meeting takes place between seeker and disciple maker
- Disciple maker establishes contact with seeker
- Disciple maker attempts contact with seeker
- Seeker is assigned to a disciple maker
- Seeker is ready to meet a disciple maker face-to-face
- Seeker begins two-way dialogue with media ministry
- Seeker is exposed to social media
2. Fill Out Workbook
Before marking this unit as complete, be sure to finish the corresponding questions in your workbook.
3. Go Deeper
Resources:
- Funnel Media Strategy for High Level Decision Making by Frank Preston