Simple Guide To Leading A Discipleship (Encouragement) Call

Connect Every Day for No More Than 30 Minutes.  If someone asks to stay together longer than 30 minutes, stay on with them, but first bring the meeting to a close for those who need to leave.  By keeping everyone over 30 minutes we will limit those who can continue every day.  Follow the simple steps below to guide your time together. 

1. Pray Begin by thanking God for His presence and asking God to bless your time together.  Note:  This just opens the time in prayer, You will pray throughout the time together. (about 1 minute)
2. Sharing Invite everyone to share how it has gone since your last meeting. Encourage everyone to share praises, challenges and confessions. (about 8 minutes)
3. Pray and Read Mention the daily reading. Pray or have someone pray for God to speak through His word. Read or have someone read the passage you want to focus on. (about 3 minutes)
4. Observations or Questions. Ask, "What does this passage teach us about God and people and how does it apply to your life?" Ask for observations or questions.  Note: If someone asks a question, ask others for answers from the passage.  (About 9 Minutes)
5. By God's grace, I will…. Ask "Based on what God has taught me today, what do I need to start, stop, or continue doing?" Encourage them, with humility and faith, to express their commitment to obedience in a "By God's grace, I will..." statement. (About 4 Minutes)
6. Who will you share with?  Encourage  each person to share the first name of one person they are going to share with today.   Remind them of their FRANCE, Making PALS and the  Conversation Quadrant  (about 3 minutes) 
7. Prayer Pray for God to give us all the love and power we need to show God's love in actions and share God's love with words. Pray for God to put in our heart what is in His heart for everyone we encounter today. (about 2 minutes)

Make It Easy To Remember By Using The Three Step Approach.  Remembering to pray throughout your time together, you still incorporate all of the nine elements above, but it is condensed into three simple steps guided by three simple questions followed by one humble commitment. 

1. Look Back as you share about your day.  "What are your praises and challenges?"

2. Look Up as you read the Bible. "What is God teaching us about Himself and Ourselves?"

3. Look Forward as you commit to obeying what you have learned. "What is God calling me to start, 

     stop or continue doing?" and "Who am I going to share with?"

One Humbly Commitment: Everyone makes a "By God's grace, I will...." commitment.

Note for Families with Children

In step two you may want to use "Glads, Sads and Sorrys" or "Highs, Lows and Oh Nos" in the place of Praises, Celebrations and Confessions.  This may be more relatable for children. 

Note for Leading Seekers or Unbelievers

For people who are not yet believers, language like praises, confessions or challenges may be unfamiliar, so you may want to ask "What are you thankful for?" and  "What is stressing you?"

Note for Leading Open Public Encouragement Calls.

Our open public encouragement calls are on the Vast Conference Call Line at 5,6,7 & 8AM every day and 5PM on weekdays. If you are leading one of these encouragement calls, you follow the same simple steps above with just a few additional steps mentioned below.

1. You will need to learn the password to open the call and be trained in managing the call on the Vast Conference website so that you can see who has joined the call and enter the names of any new participants.

2. You will welcome everyone by name and ask everyone to please mute their phones when they are not sharing to eliminate background noise.  You will need to learn to mute any lines with background noise when people have not muted themselves.

3. You will need to remind people of the daily readings found on Everydayencouragement.life or Everydaydisciples.life so new people know where the readings are found.

4. When possible, you will want to mention everyone by name in the final prayer and then invite everyone to speak a blessing over everyone else as the call comes to an end.