Personal Discipleship Plan

In 2025 we’re introducing the Personal Discipleship Plan (PDP), a tool for helping folks at Vintage thoughtfully and intentionally engage their discipleship in the year ahead. The goal of this process is for every individual who completes a PDP to have a simple conversation about their plan and how they will implement it in the coming year. The PDP could feel like mere homework, but instead we want this to be more of a living document that helps each of us think about how we can engage with our church community, homes, workplaces, and neighborhoods to know, live, and advance the gospel.

Below you will find a guide for discussing areas in the PDP, a timeline for the year, and FAQs.

Group Discussion

Community groups will make for a very natural environment in which most folks at Vintage can discuss their Personal Discipleship Plan, both initially and throughout the year. Below you’ll see a guide to help your group members talk through their PDP. We’re not going to discuss every check box, nor are we going to ask everyone to list out all the things they have and have not checked.Here’s the point of this discussion: to help our CG members thoughtfully engage in their discipleship in the year to come and to enable our members to help one another in that endeavor.

PDP CG Discussion

The Timeline

January 5 and 12: The PDP will be mentioned these two Sundays to help get the word out, but we will not hand out plans until January 19.

January 19 and 26: The discipleship plan will be discussed during service and PDPs will be handed out. Plans are to be turned in by January 26. These two weeks are a great time to be talking about the PDP in your community group gatherings.

The week of February 16 or 23: At your CG gathering one of these weeks you’ll have a guided conversation through the PDP.

Week of May 18: In group this week we’ll do a mid-year follow up, connecting on points of the plan, offering support, and helping get connected to staff, classes, or resources where needed.

Week of November 16: Each contact does an end of year follow up; connecting on points of the plan, offering support, helping get connected to staff, classes, or resources. Each contact should mark progress on the spreadsheet of whether their person actively participated in the plan this year, whether they stopped participating, or whether they were unresponsive. During this meeting also communicate that we will do another plan in January and to be thinking through what areas you would like to continue to grow.

November: Discipleship plan feedback will be requested from you to enhance the plan for 2026.

FAQ

What if someone in my group misses our group PDP discussion?
If this person did fill out a PDP but didn’t attend your group discussion, contact Eric (for Downtown groups) or your Local Pastor (for other locations), and they will follow up with the individual separately.

If the person did not fill out a PDP prior to your gathering, they may do so at any point and turn it into the Info Room / Info Table for a follow up meeting with a staff member or pastor.

What do folks do with the PDP sheet afterwards?
Everyone can hang onto their PDP sheet, including folks who fill it out in your group meeting and have yet to turn their PDP in on a Sunday. The PDP is meant to be a tool for folks to reference throughout the year.
What if someone in my group would like to discuss their plan with a staff member or pastor?
That’s perfectly fine! Let the relevant staff member know and we’ll get them taken care of; for Downtown, contact Eric (eric.spivey@vintagenc.com), for other locations, contact your Local Pastor.
Why are we doing this whole Discipleship Plan thing?
In community group leadership training, I (Eric) talk about how community groups are like a trellis for a vine to grow on—the structure and organization of the trellis helps support and increase the organic life of the plant. That’s exactly what this PDP thing is about, simply providing a support structure upon which the spiritual life of the folks in our church can grow. It gives you a system with which to divide up the massive territory of discipleship—the four circles of Being, Beholding, Belonging, and Becoming—and it gives you some ideas on how to get started in each of these areas.
What about new folks at Vintage in the future, will they miss out on doing the PDP?
We will continually have the PDP on hand to give out to folks throughout the year, and the mid-year and end-or-year check-ins (see Timeline) will give us opportunities to catch people up.