“Digital discipleship” is quite the popular phrase, and while maybe have developed some competent ideas for what it means, there’s a lot of room for diversity. I’ve seen some try to use established social media networks to build digital small groups, and that’s cool until that social media network closest down or alters their platform in some way that disrupts your processes. That’s why I like enclosed systems like Downline Builder.
Downline Builder is a online “customizable curriculum for Biblical discipleship,” to provide you the most simple definition, but in reality, it’s so much more than that. It’s an good answer to that lingering question:
“How do we do discipleship in the digital age?”
So, I’m going to take the next 300 or 400 words to explain how Downline Builder could be the answer to that question for church or ministry.
Basic Structure
Downline is set up so that a minister/group leader signs up for their own account and then creates the groups and invites members as needed.
Each group can be tailor-made according to several criteria including age and marital status along with the spiritual maturity of the individuals involved and the desired time commitment. Beyond that, you can customize the group even further by including personal growth areas (strongholds, relationships, prayer, etc.), ministry development (discipleship, evangelism, leadership, etc.), and even theological development as topics to be covered in the groups.
Curriculum
Downline comes to you stuffed with curriculum. (Click here for a full chart.) Breaking it all down into two basic categories–doctrinal and practical–the lessons cover such topics as “Assurance of Salvation” (doctrinal) and “Adoption” (practical) among dozens of others.
Furthermore, as you plug in Downline’s in-house curriculum into your group’s curriculum builder, you’ll find a wonderful dance between both orthodoxy and orthopraxy as you’re forced to intersperse “life-on-life” moments between the teaching lessons. These “life-on-life” moments, such like a road trip or running errands, are the sort of things that often get neglected in the realm of discipleship.
Of course, beyond all of this, you can enter your own curriculum to completely customize your group. This way, if you had specific material you needed to take a membership class or a life group leader training group through, Downline becomes a streamlined curriculum distribution model, making it easier for “students” to keep track of everything.
Cost
Downline Builder costs $49.99 per year for the group leader’s subscription, which is a truly fantastic price which amounts to just over $4 per month. Plus, it looks like group members don’t need to pay at all. The leader pays for his or her account and then creates as many groups as needed with no additional cost to those group members. That, friends, is a fantastic deal.
If you’d like to give Downline Builder a try—and you should!—you can request a free thirty day trial before you spend any money.
As we move more and more into the digital, churches and ministries will have to find new ways to disciple people where they are. Downline Builder is here to help.
Eric Dye says
This looks solid.
Phil Schneider says
It really is!