Building DBS Into Your Church's Education Program · 3 of 8
B2 — Five Levels of Integration
Five levels from a gateway taste to a facilitator bench — and the on-ramp nobody skips. A described DBS persuades no one; a tasted one does.
Module B2 · theme: ascent
Look back first. Show your audit and scoreboard. What did the gaps reveal? Those gaps are what recruit the willing.
The five levels — walk it from low to high commitment. A church can start at any one; a fluent church eventually runs all five:
- Gateway taste — everyone experiences a DBS.
- Retrofit adult classes — same slot, changed questions.
- Age pipeline — children, youth, adults, family.
- Discipleship track — a deliberate escalator, rung by rung.
- Facilitator / coach bench — the program reproduces its own leaders.
Level 1 is the on-ramp nobody skips: a described DBS persuades no one; a tasted one does.
Everyone tastes before anything is asked to change. Level 1 in practice: run the intro / taste class through every existing group in turn — one class hour per group. It changes nothing permanently yet; it just guarantees no one is asked to adopt what they’ve never experienced.
I used to launch programs by announcement instead of by experience. The turn: grow a testimony, don’t announce a program.
A case to reason about: a director decrees “all classes go discovery on Sunday.” What happens by week three? Predict it before you read on — most rooms revert the moment the leader looks away. The lesson: start with the willing, prove it, and let the fruit recruit.
Practice: plan your Level-1 rollout across your groups — who tastes it, and in what order. Attach names.
Your “I will”: run the taste class in one existing group, by [date]. The first real move.
Close in prayer.