Nazarene Discipleship International:
A Journey of Grace
The mission of Nazarene Discipleship International (NDI) is to carry out the Great Commission to children, youth, and adults in preparation for a lifelong journey of being and making Christlike disciples in the nations.
Discipleship is a journey of grace with Jesus as our guide and companion. Christian discipleship helps believers grow in the Lord Jesus Christ as they are equipped by His Holy Spirit, who resides within them, to overcome the pressures and trials of this present life and become more and more Christlike.
Disciples and disciple-makers share this journey of grace by:
- Witnessing: Every disciple of Jesus is called to share the story of God’s grace in his or her own life with others. As we make disciples, we must tell and retell the story of His grace in our lives and the lives of others.
- Walking: God doesn’t make Christlike disciples in a moment. The journey of grace spans a lifetime. Christ calls His followers to a journey with others from no faith to new faith to mature faith. It takes patience. It takes love. It takes grace!
God prepares the path before us. His hand reaches out and beckons us to Him, drawing us into a deeper relationship with Him. This grace both precedes and enables our response.
Jesus rescues us from sin and leads us into the truth that sets us free. We receive the gift of saving grace by believing in God. He redeems us, makes us a new creation, and adopts us into His family.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to live a life fully consecrated to God. Sanctifying grace begins the moment we experience salvation. Initial sanctification is followed by spiritual growth in grace until, in a moment of full consecration and complete surrender on our part, God purifies and cleanses the heart.
The purpose of NDI is to assist local churches in reaching non-believers for Jesus, establishing new believers in their faith in Christ, and walking with believers to a fully surrendered, heart-cleaned, fruit-bearing, and Spirit-filled life.
NDI promotes the following Core Principles that are essential to the discipleship process: fervent prayer, compassionate outreach, comprehensive Bible learning, intentional mentoring and equipping, and authentic relationships. As we live out these core principles in the life and ministry of the local church and in the practices and behaviors of every Nazarene, we will accomplish the mission of making Christlike disciples in the nations. We recognize that culture shapes our discpleship methodologies, but our global mission and purpose remain the same.
Fervent Prayer
In its purest form, prayer is comminicating with and responding to God. Intentional and consistent prayer nutures and develops our relationships with both God and ohers, enabling us to see and experience God’s activities through His provenient, saving, and sanctifying grace.
Prayer is the bedrock upon which all other ministry efforts are built. Through intentional, specific, and consistent prayer, the body of Christ becomes the eyes, hands, and feet of the Savior.
Compassionate Outreach
Compassionate outreach reveals God’s love for humanity. God is continually reaching out to prepare people’s hearts to receive salvation. It is a disciples care for non-believers, both local and global, that places a face and hand to God’s grace and love.
Every disciple, faithfully living and loving like Jesus, is to be engaged in nurturing genuine relationships with others. When disciples are in relationship with non-believers, they are obeying Jesus’ command to go into all of creation to proclaim the Good News. (Mark 16:15)
Comprehensive Bible Learning
When we study the Word of God, which is active and living, we uncover who God is, how God loves, and how we are to love others. In doing this, we allow God to speak to us, mold us, and sanctify us.
Being actively engaged in the systemic study and application of the Word of God is a catalyst for spiritual transformation and growth. As we grow and learn, we begin to fully understand and obey God’s mission for his disciples to go and reach out to unbelievers with God’s love.
Intentional Mentoring and equipping
Jesus’ method of discipleship was through personal mentoring and equipping of a chosen group of individuals. Mentoring is a loving way to teach accountability and introduce non-believers to the full knowledge of Christ. All disciples are challenged and continue to grow and become Christlike when every disciple is providing and receiving mentorship.
To become all that God has created us to be as Christ’s disciples, we need to be willing to grow and to help others grow as Jesus did.
Authentic Relationships
In the same way Jesus gathered traveling companions around Himself, we are called to journey together as members of the Body of Christ. The core of our faith and life is to love God and love others. This unconditional love knows no culture, generational, or structural bounds, and is made possible only through the working of the Holy Spirit.
When we deeply care for one another, we discover just how rich our identity is in Christ, resulting in spiritual growth. Relationships help us walk the path of holiness because we receive both encouragement and loving correction.
Worship & Discipleship Reporting Policy/Procedure
The purpose of counting disciples in the local church is to measure the effectiveness of your effort to make Christlike disciples, thereby fulfilling the purpose of NDI. It is an important tool for evaluating and determining future changes and/or training opportunities.
Monthly reports are due a week and a half after the last Sunday of the month. Please submit this form according to the guidelines available for calculating weekend worship and discipleship averages.
Worship Service Statistics
Please use the following guidelines for calculating your weekend worship numbers.
Note: Churches should indicate onsite and online attendance separately when reporting monthly worship attendance.
Weekend In-Person Worship
This total should include the average number of people who physically attended your regular weekend services.
If you have multiple services, please count people once.
Weekend Livestream Worship
Please use the following guidelines for counting online attendance:
- A team member should be available to serve as an online "greeter" and be able to engage those who are watching.
- Provide an opportunity for viewers to fill out a virtual connection card for the purpose of engaging them in the life of your church.
- Provide a way for people to respond to the service by sharing prayer requests or setting up a time to connect with a staff member in the following weeks.
Check the stats for each platform by the end of the weekend for each service you have.
- Church Online Platform: Peak concurrent number of devices x 2 = total viewers
- Streaming Provider (embedded website platforms such as Churchstreaming.tv): Total concurrent viewers during service times x 2 = total viewers
- Facebook: Peak live views x 2 = total viewers
- YouTube: Peak concurrent views x 2 = total viewers
- Other: If your platform does not provide peak concurrent views, count the users that remain connected at least 50% (or 30 minutes) of the livestreamed gathering.
Take the total number from each platform you offer to calculate your average weekend worship online attendance.
Keep in mind that we're trying to capture the number of people who watched and/or participated in a service online during your service times. Please do not report the numbers of those who watch/re-watch during the week.
*NEW* On-Demand Online Worship
This category is designed to celebrate the ministry impact churches have beyond their weekend services, including wherever services are watched (or listened to) outside of your normal, weekly livestream.
Formats include--and are not limited to--social media and podcasts such as Spotify, Apple, Anchor, etc. Once again, we're looking for users that watch/listen to at least 50% (or 30 minutes) of the recording.
Numbers should be collected no later than a week after your livestream or podcast. (Example: Views for a recording from Sunday's service would be counted through the following Saturday.)
Disregard using this category if your platform does not currently provide the number of views after the livestream.
Discipleship Count Average
Please use the following guidelines for calculating your discipleship numbers. Note: Individuals should only be counted once per week.
Sunday Morning Classes
Report the number of people you have attending discipleship classes (or Sunday School) on Sunday morning.
Midweek Ministries
Report the number of people who attended your midweek ministries at the church. (Examples: Wednesday night adult, youth, or children's ministries)
REMINDER: We only want to count disciples once per week, so if they attended a Sunday morning class, you should not include them in your midweek ministries count.
Small Groups
Report the number of people who attended your small group ministry.
REMINDER: Please do not include individuals that were already counted in your Sunday morning classes or midweek ministries.
Other
Report the number of people you have attending the following: Nursing Home/Healthcare Facility, Church-Type Missions, Nazarene Childcare/Schools (birth thru secondary), or a Bible study held offsite on a regular basis.
Please do not include those who attended Sunday Morning Classes, Midweek Ministries, or Small Groups.
Special Events & Annual Services
We want to celebrate “out of the box” ministries churches utilize in order to minister to their community. These are outreach events that do not happen on a weekly basis and may only happen once a year (i.e., Christmas- and Easter-related events, Vacation Bible School, Revivals, New Years Eve, 30-hour famines, and special creative events).
This is the section you will use to report these numbers along with numbers collected for annual services (Christmas Eve, Maundy/Thursday services, etc.)
Accountability Care List (ACL)
This list could be seen as the total number of people you are currently ministering to and/or those listed in your church database. It can include anyone who attends services or is otherwise within the ministry sphere of your church, as well as families or individuals you have contact information for, regardless of whether they attend services (or engage in discipleship efforts) regularly in person or online.
REMINDER: If individuals are included in your discipleship count, then they must be in your Accountability Care List.
Featured Events:
northwestern ohio NDI
District leadership team
Phil Starr
NDI President
Jared Burgess
Adult Director
Britni Dooley
Children’s Director
Mike McClurg
Discipleship Chairman
Jared Burgess
Adult Director
Britni Dooley
Children’s Director