Welcome to Pathways
Pathways is about helping all kinds of churches to be effective in mission. It’s a way of thinking about, planning and enacting the mission of Jesus in the context of the local church.
Pathways is based in the notion that all kinds of churches can be effective in mission: church plants and ancient cathedrals, emerging churches and traditional churches, churches that are big on preaching and those that emphasise liturgy and sacraments, or social action.
Pathways thinking arose from field experience in coaching church planters and church leaders. We asked the question, ‘What are the similarities of ministry process in churches that grow by making new disciples?’ And it’s been honed by field experience – over a hundred churches in four countries over nearly two decades.
We don’t believe that you need to deconstruct and reinvent everything to be effective in mission – but you do need to be intentional about what you do. And that may lead to changing things – and over time, it may mean changing a lot of things.
Pathways is not trying to be the local church mission universe. Lots of diligent and insightful people have written a lot about local church mission. We’re not here to debunk all that’s gone before – in fact, we’re here to make use of as much of the good missiology and church dynamics literature as we can.
Beginning with Pathways
You can engage the Pathways paradigm in a number of ways. Firstly, you can buy the book, which sets out the theory and explains the underpinning ideas. It also suggests a way of approaching implementation. It’s loaded with examples from real churches that have worked to put pathways thinking into practice.
You can get yourself a Pathways coach. We have a team of coaches that can help you put the paradigm to work in your context. They’ll provide you with both support and accountability to keep you moving forward. Contact us and we’ll put you in touch with a trained Pathways coach.
You can also sign up for a workshop. The initial ‘Foundations’ workshop takes about 6 hours and is delivered by a trained facilitator. A word of warning – we won’t deliver the workshop without signing you up for at least a year of monthly coaching. Contact us for more info.
Pathways – a disciple-making ecosystem
Jesus used a lot of farming metaphors. The most obvious reason is that he was speaking to an agrarian society, and farming was familiar to his audience. But less obvious is the dynamic relationship between the farmer and God’s design. Humans can’t actually ‘grow’ grains or fruit or vegetables. All we can do is work to provide a favourable environment where the selected crop has a good chance of growing according to its inherent, God-ordained design. The better we understand the needs of the plant that produces the crop, the better we can help it grow.
The similarities to making disciples are obvious. Humans can’t make other humans into disciples. We can only provide the kind of environment where disciples are likely to grow. Pathways encourages you to think of your church or church plant as a disciple-making ecosystem.
Just as a farmer works in harmony with the developmental stages of the crop they’re growing (as Jesus described in Mark 4:26), so a church will be more fruitful if it works with a solid understanding of the developmental stages of disciples.Pathways looks at discipleship in terms of seven developmental stages.
Farms are designed to be productive: everything is geared towards producing a harvest. Churches should be similar – everything should be geared toward disciple-making. Jesus said “ I appointed you to go and bear fruit: fruit that will remain.”
Farms are also integrated environments – their rhythms and processes work in harmony with each other and with the development stages of the crop. Each activity is best understood in the context of the whole. And so it is with effective churches -and Pathways is designed to help you work towards greater integration of your activity.
What people have said about Pathways
We’re introducing Pathways to parishes in the Diocese of Tasmania, because it is a practical down-to-earth tool for helping churches make disciples. Our first crop of participants are excited about what this will mean for their mission of making disciples of Jesus tailored to their local context. They went from the workshop with loads of practical application, and a concrete work plan. I commend these resources to anyone serious about church based mission in 21st century Australia.
I have really appreciated the clear and logical structure of the Pathways Process. At St Mark’s, it has given us a shared language, and a way for all our leaders to participate in discernment and decision making for outreach, because we all know the tools. I’d also strongly recommend a workshop and coaching sessions with Ken – for us, that has been the thing that has kept us on track and encouraged.
The Reverend Ann Edwards
Priest-in-Charge, St Mark’s Anglican Church, The Gap, Queensland, Australia
Pathways helps us be deliberate and strategic about which ministry opportunities we feel God is calling us to pursue as we prayerfully work out how we can be the church God has called us to be and reach the people God has called us to reach. Having a plan to guide our disciple making process also helps bring us back on target when things get busy or we feel we’re starting to drift to the next good thing rather than the next best or most strategic thing. Pathways also gives us a shared language as a staff and Parish Council/board to allocate time and resources most effectively
Ken Morgan’s ‘Pathways’ provides a road map of how people go from not knowing Jesus to becoming a mature Jesus-follower. This is particularly helpful for existing community-facing ministries like M&Ms.
It gives vocabulary and tools to take their ministry out of the cul-de-sac and on to a disciple-making thoroughfare.
Paul Milson
Rector, St Paul Anglican Church, Brightwater NZ