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2025 Leaders Gathering: A detailed look at how we help people take steps and assimilate into our church.
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ADDITIONAL LINKS
PEOPLE BOARD OVERVIEW + SHOPPING LIST
TABLE CONNECTOR NOTES (101 & 201)
🔥 Growth Track Must Read: The Power of Connection in the Church
BREAKOUT Q&A SUBMISSIONS
CHECK-IN
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What do you mean by check in? do people check in when they show up to a regular service?
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We do not have people attending church services check-in for attendance. Our check-in is for Milestone Kids or serving roles. |
CLASSES
| What is a healthy timeline to start growth track for a church freshly launching? | Day 1 - Honestly. Ps Jeff's first 101 had three people. While he did in his living room versus a big church classroom, what was shared was exactly the same. |
| Do these classes take place at the same time as a normal service? or is it an additional day or time that people have to commit to? |
101 & 201—During 12:30 service. 301 is Sunday/Monday evenings. |
| You have the growth track every month now. Did you always do it monthly even as a smaller church? | Our first step (Discovery 101) is offered every month regardless of campus size. Our second step (Serve Team 201) is offered every other month at our smallest campus. Our third step (Values 301) launches 5 times per year (since it's 7 weeks). I would keep the first step every month regardless of size because you want to capture the new people. |
| What are the advantages of offering 101 and 201 on a monthly basis? We have Growth Track at our church but we have it every quarter. Additionally, why is your 301 class extended to 7 weeks, rather than being held monthly like the 101 and 201 classes? | Our first step (Discovery 101) is offered every month regardless of campus size. Our second step (Serve Team 201) is offered every other month at our smallest campus. Our third step (Values 301) launches 5 times per year (since it's 7 weeks). I would keep the first step every month regardless of size because you want to capture the new people. Our third week is 7 weeks to provide a deep dive into the values and culture of our church. This is the step we do not rush because it is our primary discipleship tool. |
| How many lessons can they miss? | For Values 301, we consider anyone who attends 3 of 7 classes as graduated. |
| When do you hold your Growth Track, and what does it involve? What day and time is it offered? Do you provide food and childcare? Is there anything else I should know about it? | You can find this info in this Growth Track Overview document. |
| What is the time frame from start to finish for each step | All depends on the participant. Ideally you would complete the GT in about 6 months. It takes a little longer since we only launch our third step (Values 301) 5 times per year (since it's a 7 week class). |
| I saw on the people board picture that August had a ton of people go through discovery 101 and March was on the lower side of people attending. Why is that? Do you have specific language / campaigns / or months where you really push discovery 101? | Our calendar has proven pretty predictable—large classes in January, May, August, and December. We don't push it any differently, our population just gets more engaged in the new year, after Easter, during Back to School, and at Christmas. |
CONNECTIONS REVIEW
| Does your connections review cover the entire month (all 3 steps) or just info from that week? | We only discuss the participants attending Discovery 101 that month. |
| Can you give us the sharp acronym again! | Secure, Healthy, Attractional, Relational, Positive |
| When do you gather the ‘personal data’? Is there a specific form you give them | See the form used in Discovery 101. |
DATA
| What is the biggest advice/help to jump starting the people board. It can seem like this huge scale board but is there anyway to break it down to bite size pieces to kick start your own people board? | Just start with your current month. Don't try and create boards for months in the past. It's sideways energy. |
| What do you do with the previous year people when you enter a new year? | Our board is two-sided so it actually displays two year's worth of Growth Track steps. The previous year's data is on the back of the current year's boards. |
| Is the board a rolling 12 months? Does it reset after 12 months? What happens to people after 12 months rolls? | Our board is two-sided so it actually displays two year's worth of Growth Track steps. The previous year's data is on the back of the current year's boards. |
| Who actually has access to the people board? | Staff only. It is located in our staff office, near our Growth Track team. |
| How do you sort those who have started but not completed Values 301? | If you attended 3/7 classes of 301, you get "credit" for Values 301. So if someone only attended 1-2 classes, they will not get moved to the bottom section of the People Board or get credit for attending. |
| If they only went to 201 or 301, do they still go on the board? | The get added to the board in the month they attend Discovery 101. If they have already attended the second or third step, they will be added to the board when they attend 101, but in the correct section. |
ENGAGEMENT
| Do you have a lot of people in your church that are only spectators? You see them week after week but they don’t go to Growth Track? What might you do for those? | Yes we do. We keep casting the vision for Discovery 101. It is one of the only environments pushed from the platform. It is included in everything -- baptism stories, VA announcements, hosting moments, etc. There is rarely a week it isn't mentioned in some format. The spectator knows the next step, but they have to be ready to take it. |
| How do you get the people to commit to completing the growth track? | Vision Casting - Our entire church points people to Discovery 101. It is EVERYONE'S first step. Once you are in 101, our Table Connector and the class speaker encourage the next steps of 201 and 301. We are a Growth Track church with VERY referenceable environments, which allows the entire church to cast vision for the steps. |
| What do you check to see if the are engaged…like kids check in, giving…what else do y’all considered when saying they are engaged? | Our "engagement" measure is a combination of check-ins (serving, kids' check-in, giving, Small Group enrollment. |
| If I person (or couple) doesn't have kids to check in, just started attending Milestone, and hasn't started tithing yet - how is their attendance captured? | If they are not involved in a SG, then we do not know if they are actively attending if they aren't serving, checking in kids, or tithing. That requires a personal contact to find out. |
| You mentioned tracking giving. How important is tracking giving for serving or leading or membership | We actually cannot track the giving of an individual. It is calculated in the "engaged" formula, but we cannot see if giving is the reason they are engaged. By having it in the "engaged" formula, it helps us know someone is active in some way, but we don't track giving for any other purposes. |
| How do you track those that haven’t taken Discovery 101, but may have taken one of the other steps? | All of our Growth Track steps point people to the other steps. So if you start in 201 or 301, you are given the opportunity at the end of the class to sign up for 101. It is highly encouraged by all table connectors. However, participants are not added to the People Board until they complete Discovery 101. |
| Those people who join the church but after a while don’t join the house group do you keep them serving or you step them down? | Completion of the entire Growth Track and Small Group attendance are not a requirements to serve. While we would prefer they complete Values 301, and we will encourage that they join a small group, but they may continue to serve even if they don't. |
MEMBERSHIP
| You’ve mentioned membership, is their requirements to be a member? Is 101 or 301 the class for that? | At the end of Discovery 101, all participants have the option to complete the Milestone Membership Agreement. It is also an option at the completion of our third step, Values 301. |
| When do you get marked as a member of the church? Also if they are not a first time guest and they have been through the discovery 101 how do we get them to join?? |
At the end of Discovery 101, all participants have the option to complete the Milestone Membership Agreement. It is also an option at the completion of our third step, Values 301. We belive that membership helps people be more engaged and have more ownership, but we do not pursue people for membership once they have been through the Growth Track and have not completed the Membership Agreement. |
NEXT STEPS
| What do your groups look like after they finish 301? Is it an established small group? What curriculum or study do you use to keep those groups together? | Our 301 groups that are staying together either discuss the weekly sermons (using provided Message Discussion Guides) or participate in the campaigns (if the correct time of year). The Growth Track Team meets with the Small Groups Team at the conclusion of each class to support the transition. Additionally the campus Small Groups pastor attends the last night of Values 301 to meet with each group staying together. |
PHOTOS
| When you take photos of people do you have them do first and last name? If not ? How do you differentiate two people with the same first name? | Our name tags have both first and last name. This is why it's critical to make sure the name tag is clearly visible in the photo. |
| If you started this process later in your church development, do you get people’s photos whom you missed in previous growth tracks before you had the people board or took photos? | No, we do not go back and take photos of people who have attended the Growth Track previously. |
| Do you have new people fill out a form with permission to share their picture with your team or do you promise them it would be used for any public use? | We do not have a permission form for the picture. |
PHYSICAL BOARD vs DIGITAL
| We currently do not have office space, so a physical people board would not serve us well. Have you explored or do you have advice on a digital option? | We do have a digital copy of information discussed in each Connections Review. It is sent out each month. However - the power of the People Board is looking at the people's faces every day. You can use the back of a door, closet, etc. It doesn't have to be fancy. |
| Does having a physical board keep it more personal than some kind of digital version? | Yes - It keeps the faces in front of you every day. A digital version is almost the same as the database because it becomes "out of sight, out of mind" Now if we had TVs and could digitally display it on the wall - I'd do it because it would be up and visible all the time. |
SERVE TEAM
| How does the people board sink up with the moth lay reports for the entire serve team? | We actually don't monitor the serving status of the participants on the GT Board. While we used to track this, we found that our biggest win is ensuring every participant from 101 attends 301. Once they receive the DNA impartation in 301, one of our next steps is serving. So we point people to serving in the GT but we don't track it on our People Board. |
| 1. Would you let people serve even if they don’t join small groups? 2. What do you do with people that are excited first but then they drop their serving place? |
People are allowed to serve and not join a SG. The Serve Team Leaders may cast the vision for joining a small group, but we do not require it. You can find notes on Serve Team retention here: Increasing Serve Team Engagement Notes |
| At what point do they start serving on a team? | The onboarding process starts after completing Serve Team 201 and attending a ministry breakout. If they haven't attended 101, they receive an invitation to attend the next month's class. |
| Do you ask the new people that offer to volunteer to take the membership class before the do? | As they are onboarded onto the volunteer team, they also receive an invitation to attend Discovery 101. |
SPIRITUAL GIFTS ASSESSMENT
| Is there different spiritual gifts assessments that you know of? | There are different spiritual gifts assessments. You can find the one we use within our Serve Team 201 Booklet. |