THE GREAT COMMISSION TASK PATHWAY

A Strategy Manual for the Great Commission Task Pathway

Entry • Evangelism • Discipleship • Church Formation • Leadership Development • Exit to Partnership

FIELD MANUAL • TRAINING GUIDE • COACHING TOOL

This manual expands the Great Commission Task Pathway shown in the accompanying graphic into an operational strategy for teams, churches, trainers, and field leaders. It is intentionally practical: every section explains the theological logic, the field behavior, the training method, the indicators of health, and the most common failure modes.

The manual is an adaptation and training resource, not an official publication of the International Mission Board. The six-part missionary task is consistent with publicly described IMB missiology, while the visual tools, sequence, emphases, and training language in this manual follow the pathway represented in the graphic.

Use the book in three layers. First, read the pathway as a whole so that each component keeps its proper relationship to the others. Second, train one component at a time with practice in real ministry settings. Third, use the diagnostic tools to decide what the next faithful step is in a particular place, network, church, or team.

Part I — The Pathway and Its Logic

1. Acts 14:21–23: A Compressed Missionary Pattern

2. Prayer: The Boundary and Atmosphere of the Task

Part II — Entry

3. Entry: Going Where God Is Drawing People

4. Discernment: Believer Already or Not Yet Christian?

5. Why, Whom, How: Training Believers for Reproducible Mission

6. Person of Peace and Network Mapping

7. Their Story, My Story, the Bridge, and God’s Story

Part III — Evangelism

8. Gospel Proclamation: He Came, Lived, Died, Rose, and Reigns

9. Response and Follow-Up

Part IV — Discipleship

10. Discipleship: Rooted, Built Up, and Established

11. The Three Thirds Rhythm: Remember, Receive, Respond

12. Short-Term and Long-Term Discipleship Pathways

Part V — Church Formation

13. From Disciples to Church

14. Twelve Characteristics, Four “Selfs,” and Ten “One Anothers”

15. Mission at the Center of Church Formation

Part VI — Leadership Development

16. 2 Timothy 2:2 and Multiplying Leaders

17. Head, Heart, Hands, Feet, and Confessions/Theological Education

Part VII — Exit to Partnership

18. Mission → Exit → Entry

Part VIII — Strategy and Implementation

19. Integrating the Whole Pathway

20. Metrics, Reviews, and Decision Rules

21. A 90-Day Launch Plan

22. Coaching Teams Through Stalled Work

Appendices — Field tools, assessments, agendas, and glossary

The pathway is a set of interlocking responsibilities, not six unrelated programs.

Key Scriptures: Acts 14:21–23; Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 1:8

Acts 14:21–23 gives a remarkably compact picture of apostolic missionary work. Paul and Barnabas proclaim the gospel, make disciples, strengthen and encourage those disciples, appoint leaders in churches, and then entrust those churches to the Lord. The passage does not contain every detail of missionary strategy, but it shows a direction of travel: gospel advance is meant to produce durable communities of disciples under local leadership.

The Great Commission Task Pathway makes that direction explicit. Entry creates access to people who need the gospel. Evangelism clearly communicates the good news of Jesus and calls for response. Discipleship helps believers learn to follow Jesus in every area of life. Church formation gathers disciples into healthy, biblically ordered congregations. Leadership development equips qualified people to shepherd, teach, reproduce, and guard the church. Exit to partnership transfers responsibility to local leaders and frees outside workers to re-enter new fields while maintaining appropriate partnership.

In the graphic, prayer surrounds Entry because entry is fundamentally an act of dependence.

Key Scriptures: John 6:44; Colossians 4:2–4; Acts 13:1–3

Prayer is not one activity inside Entry; it is the boundary around Entry. The visual placement matters. We do not manufacture spiritual openness. We do not create conviction. We do not pull people into the kingdom through technique. John 6:44 reminds us that people come because the Father draws them. Strategy therefore begins with prayerful dependence and stays there.

In practice, this means prayer precedes presence, accompanies conversations, shapes discernment, and follows every contact. Teams pray over maps, households, workplaces, campuses, neighborhoods, digital networks, and existing relationships. They ask God for open doors, people of peace, courage, clarity, protection, and the ability to recognize where He is already at work.

Entry is purposeful presence among people who need the gospel.

Key Scriptures: John 6:44; Luke 10:1–12; Acts 16:6–15

Entry answers a simple but demanding question: how will we actually get among the people we hope to serve? Good intentions do not create access. Entry requires intentional presence, cultural learning, relational credibility, and a way to meet people repeatedly enough for trust and spiritual conversation to develop.

The pathway keeps John 6:44 visible in the Entry box. That verse protects the team from two opposite errors. The first is passivity: “If God draws people, we do not need a plan.” Scripture shows the opposite. Missionaries travel, search, speak, reason, stay, return, and organize their work. The second error is manipulation: “If we can design the right method, we can produce conversion.” The Father draws; we faithfully seek, speak, love, serve, and invite.

The first strategic fork is not a judgment of worth. It is a decision about the next faithful conversation.

The Entry graphic asks, “Believer already?” on one side and “Not yet Christian?” on the other. That is useful because the same relationship may require two different next steps. With an existing believer, the task is to vision cast, strengthen, disciple, and equip for mission. With someone who is not yet following Jesus, the task is to listen, share personally, bridge to the gospel, and invite a response.

Believers should be trained with the same simple tools they will use with others.

One of the strongest ideas in the pathway is methodological integrity: we do not teach Christians a complicated missionary system and then expect them to give non-Christians something simple. We train believers to use the same relational and gospel practices that we ourselves use. That makes training reproducible from the beginning.

WHY — The Father’s Heart

The heart icon answers the question “Why?” Mission is not driven primarily by guilt, institutional pressure, or a fascination with strategy. It grows from the character and purpose of God. The Father seeks worshipers, draws people to Christ, sends His people, and rejoices over the lost being found. Vision casting therefore begins with God before it begins with goals.

WHOM — The Network Map

The network icon answers “Whom?” New believers and existing Christians already live inside webs of relationship. Rather than treating each person as an isolated contact, the network map helps them prayerfully identify family members, friends, coworkers, classmates, neighbors, and social connectors. The goal is not to turn relationships into targets. It is to see the stewardship God has already placed around a believer.

HOW — The Bridge

The bridge answers “How?” It is a transition tool between human story and God’s Story. The same bridge belongs in believer training and in gospel conversation. This is crucial. If a believer can see it, practice it, and use it immediately, the tool can multiply without dependence on an expert trainer.

A person of peace is not merely a friendly contact; it is a relational doorway.

Key Scriptures: Luke 10:5–9; Acts 10; Acts 16:14–15, 31–34

The pathway places P.o.P.—Person of Peace—inside Entry. This reminds the team to look for people whose openness and relational influence can create access beyond a single conversation. In Luke 10, Jesus teaches His messengers to receive hospitality and remain where peace is received. In Acts, gospel advance often moves through households and relational networks rather than only through disconnected individuals.

A person of peace should never be reduced to a tactic. The person matters more than the access they provide. At the same time, missionaries should notice when someone welcomes spiritual conversation, opens their home or network, introduces others, asks sincere questions, or actively helps the message travel.

Network Mapping: A Field Exercise

1. Write the names of 15–30 people you naturally relate to. Do not begin by filtering for who seems “most likely.”

2. Group them by network: family, work, neighborhood, school, hobbies, online, diaspora, ministry, and other circles.

3. Mark people who already show spiritual openness, relational influence, or unusual trust.

4. Pray by name. Ask God for courage, wisdom, and open doors.

5. Choose two or three natural next conversations. Plan relationship, not a sales pitch.

6. After the conversation, update the map. Record introductions, questions, and next steps.

Good evangelism listens before it explains, testifies without centering self, and bridges clearly to the gospel.

The pathway uses “Their Story” and “My Story” as the relational lead-in to God’s Story. The sequence is not a rigid script. It is a pattern of attention. Their Story communicates dignity: we listen. My Story communicates witness: we can explain what Christ has done in us. The Bridge keeps the conversation from ending with personal experience. It moves toward the objective good news of Jesus.

Their Story

Ask questions that invite the person to tell you how they see God, faith, suffering, purpose, guilt, hope, family, death, and spiritual experience. Do not hunt for a perfect opening. Listen for language you can later connect to biblical truth.

My Story

A useful testimony is brief, understandable, and centered on Jesus. Avoid insider vocabulary. Explain enough of your life before Christ to show need, enough of the gospel to show what changed, and enough of your present life to show ongoing dependence rather than perfection.

The Bridge to God’s Story

The bridge is not a second tool drawn somewhere else in the system. It is the same bridge used in believer training and in conversations with not-yet Christians. The visual continuity matters because the pathway is designed for transfer: what you model today should be what the believer can model tomorrow.

The gospel is news about Jesus before it is advice about us.

Key Scriptures: Romans 10:14–15; 1 Corinthians 15:1–8; Acts 2:22–41

The Evangelism panel gives a compact set of visual anchors: a downward arrow, 100%, a cross, an open tomb, a crown, and a question mark. The purpose is not to replace Scripture with icons. The icons help the messenger remember the storyline and keep the gospel centered on the person and work of Jesus.

A gospel conversation is complete only when the person understands what a response to Jesus means and knows the next step.

The pathway also uses three response marks: X = pray and serve, ? = read Scripture, and ✓ = baptize and disciple. These are not three levels of human value, nor are they a rigid funnel. They are simple field categories that help a believer decide how to continue the relationship after a gospel conversation.

Discipleship aims at a whole-life follower of Jesus who can help others follow Him.

Key Scriptures: Colossians 2:6–7; Matthew 28:18–20; 2 Timothy 2:2

Colossians 2:6–7 frames discipleship in the pathway: as believers received Christ Jesus as Lord, they are to walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, and overflowing with thanksgiving. Discipleship is therefore more than information transfer. It is the formation of a person whose beliefs, character, habits, relationships, decisions, and mission increasingly come under the lordship of Jesus.

Healthy discipleship must also be reproducible. The disciple is not simply the end user of a curriculum. From the beginning, the disciple learns to receive from Christ and Scripture, obey what is learned, share it with others, and eventually help others do the same.

The three thirds belong inside the Discipleship square because they describe the rhythm of a discipleship meeting.

“Remember → Receive → Respond” is the meeting rhythm, not a separate component of the missionary task. It provides a simple structure that keeps discipleship balanced between accountability to past obedience, fresh engagement with God’s Word, and concrete action after the meeting.

A Sample 75-Minute Three Thirds Meeting

Short-term formation establishes essential obedience; long-term formation deepens biblical understanding and endurance.

The pathway separates ST and LT to keep two needs visible. New disciples need immediate grounding in the basic realities of following Jesus. They also need a longer biblical formation process that cannot be completed in a few lessons. The goal is not to graduate disciples from discipleship but to establish habits and frameworks that continue for life.

The goal is not an endless collection of disconnected Bible studies. Disciples should gather and mature as a local church.

Key Scriptures: Acts 2:41–47; Acts 14:21–23; Titus 1:5

The Church Formation square places Acts 2:41–47 prominently because the early church is visible as a community devoted to apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, prayer, generosity, shared life, worship, and witness. The goal is not to copy every cultural form in Acts 2, but to recognize that conversion creates a people, not only private believers.

Church formation becomes intentional when a group of baptized believers understands itself as a church and increasingly functions according to Scripture. The missionary or trainer does not own the church. The task is to help believers recognize Christ’s authority, Scripture’s sufficiency, the congregation’s responsibilities, and the need for qualified local leadership.

The three clusters in the Church Formation panel provide three complementary views of maturity: biblical health, local capacity, and relational life.

The 12 Characteristics of a Healthy Church

A useful twelve-characteristic framework is: biblical evangelism, discipleship, membership, leadership, teaching and preaching, ordinances, worship, prayer, fellowship, accountability and discipline, giving, and mission. These characteristics are not twelve independent programs. They are interdependent expressions of a congregation living under Christ and His Word.

The 4 “Selfs”

The graphic intentionally says “4 selfs.” A common four-self framework is self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-theologizing. Teams that use different terminology can substitute their agreed wording; the strategic point is local ownership and capacity.

The 10 “One Anothers”

The pathway uses “10 One Anothers” as a practical relational grid. Scripture contains many more than ten one-another commands, so the exact training set may vary. A useful ten-command set includes love, serve, encourage, forgive, bear burdens, pray, teach/admonish, honor, confess, and show hospitality to one another.

The Mission box is not decoration. It is the hinge between church maturity and healthy exit.

The Church Formation panel places MISSION at the top center, and the exit line begins from mission. That placement carries a major strategic conviction: the evidence of maturity is not only that a church can maintain itself. A healthy church accepts responsibility for God’s mission. It prays for the lost, witnesses, makes disciples, develops leaders, and sends beyond its existing boundaries.

This is why the exit arrow should not come from the Discipleship square. Exit grows out of mature church mission. When a church owns the task and leaders can carry the work, the outside worker can move from primary responsibility to partnership and redirect significant energy toward new Entry.

Leadership development is a multiplication pipeline, not merely a course for a few talented people.

Key Scriptures: 2 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:1–13; Titus 1:5–9

The Leadership Development rectangle is grounded in 2 Timothy 2:2: what has been entrusted is passed to faithful people who will be able to teach others also. The verse combines content, character, reliability, ability, and reproduction. Leadership development therefore asks more than “Who can speak well?” It asks, “Who is faithful, qualified, teachable, able to handle the Word, able to care for people, and able to equip others?”

Leadership development begins before someone receives a title. Every disciple develops in knowledge, character, and ministry skill. Over time, some demonstrate gifts, qualifications, and faithfulness that warrant greater responsibility. The church should recognize, test, train, and appoint such leaders rather than importing leadership indefinitely from outside.

The leadership box uses five lenses so that training does not collapse into information alone.

A Simple Leadership Pipeline

1. Identify faithful disciples who obey, serve, and care for others without needing a title.

2. Give small real responsibilities and observe reliability.

3. Coach Head, Heart, Hands, and Feet together.

4. Let potential leaders practice teaching and shepherding under supervision.

5. Assess biblical qualifications with the church, not privately or hastily.

6. Provide deeper theological education as responsibility grows.

7. Appoint qualified leaders locally and continue coaching without controlling.

8. Expect every leader to identify and develop others.

Exit is not abandonment. It is the transfer of responsibility that creates room for new entry.

Key Scriptures: Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17–38; Philippians 1:3–5

The pathway’s green line is deliberate: it begins from MISSION in Church Formation, rises to EX, and then continues into ENTRY. This is the strategy cycle. When the church owns the mission and leaders are capable of carrying biblical responsibility, the outside worker changes roles. The relationship can continue, but control and dependency should not.

A healthy exit is planned from the beginning. If missionaries enter as indispensable experts, funders, decision makers, or permanent pastors, exit will feel like loss or betrayal. If they enter as servants who model, train, share responsibility, and intentionally transfer ownership, exit can become a sign of maturity.

Exit Readiness Questions

Can the church clearly explain and proclaim the gospel without outside leadership?

Are disciples being made and baptized through local ministry?

Does the church understand its identity and practice the core characteristics of biblical church life?

Are qualified local leaders functioning with real authority and accountability?

Can leaders understand, teach, and apply Scripture to new problems?

Can the church sustain ordinary ministry through local stewardship?

Is the church actively engaged in mission beyond its current membership?

Can the church handle conflict, correction, and discipline without defaulting to the missionary?

Is the relationship mature enough that partnership can continue without hidden control?

Is there a responsible plan for the outside worker to redirect energy toward new Entry?

The Great Commission Task Pathway works best when teams ask “What outcome are we trying to produce?” before asking “What activity should we schedule?”

Field strategy becomes distorted when one component dominates everything else. A team can spend years in Entry without sharing the gospel, generate many gospel conversations without a discipleship pathway, create discipleship groups that never become churches, form churches that depend on outsiders, or train leaders in classrooms who never shepherd real people. The pathway exposes those gaps.

A Weekly Team Review

A 45-minute weekly review can keep the pathway operational. Do not make it a statistics meeting only. Use names, stories, evidence, obstacles, and next actions.

Measure what helps you make faithful decisions. Avoid numbers that create false confidence.

Metrics are useful when they reveal movement toward biblical outcomes. They become harmful when they reward activity detached from health. A strategy dashboard should combine quantitative counts with qualitative evidence and named next steps.

Decision Rules

If a contact is open to Scripture, schedule Scripture before adding more explanation.

If a new believer has no discipleship next step, the evangelism strategy is incomplete.

If disciples are meeting consistently, begin teaching church identity and practices earlier than feels comfortable.

If an outside worker is doing something a local believer could reasonably learn to do, create a transfer plan.

If a church cannot make decisions without external approval, self-governance needs attention.

If financial subsidy is masking what local believers can sustain, reduce complexity before increasing funding.

If leaders are not identifying new leaders, leadership development is not yet multiplying.

If church mission is healthy and leadership is functioning, begin reducing control and planning new Entry.

The first 90 days should build rhythm and field learning, not try to complete the entire missionary task.

90-Day Team Commitments

Every team member maintains a named prayer and relationship map.

Every believer being trained practices the same bridge used in real gospel conversations.

Every gospel conversation ends with a clear next step, even if the next step is only continued relationship and prayer.

Every new believer enters a discipleship relationship quickly.

Every discipleship group practices Remember–Receive–Respond.

Every emerging group hears church identity and mission before habits of dependence harden.

Every potential leader receives real responsibility, observation, and coaching.

Every quarter includes an explicit conversation about transfer and exit, even if exit is still far away.

When work stalls, identify the missing link rather than simply increasing effort.

APPENDICES

Write names, not categories. Add connections as you learn them.

Biblical evangelism: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical discipleship: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical membership: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical leadership: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical teaching and preaching: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical ordinances: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical worship: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical prayer: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical fellowship: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical accountability and discipline: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical giving: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical mission: Strong / Developing / Weak / Not yet present. Evidence: ____________________________________________

Biblical anchors used throughout the pathway include John 6:44; Romans 10:14–15; Colossians 2:6–7; Acts 2:41–47; Acts 14:21–23; and 2 Timothy 2:2, together with the broader Great Commission and Acts witness texts.

For further comparison with the publicly described six-part missionary task and healthy-church framework, consult the International Mission Board’s current “The Missionary Task,” “Key Terms,” and Foundations resources. This manual intentionally adapts those broad missiological categories into the visual and training pathway used here.

The pathway can be remembered in one sentence: Pray your way into people and networks; listen and bridge to a clear gospel; disciple believers in a reproducible rhythm; form healthy churches that own the mission; develop faithful leaders who can teach others; then transfer responsibility and move toward new entry as partners rather than controllers.