At its core, Deep Discipleship is a program to equip and grow holistic disciples who want to deepen their understanding of Christian story, historical Christian beliefs, and formative spiritual practices in an accessible and tested format. Here are ideas of how Deep Discipleship can be used:

• To train men and women who are interested in going deeper in their discipleship walk 

• To equip existing small groups who want to grow deeply together 

• To train leaders within a particular ministry area 

• To train leaders or residents in a development program

• To work through and establish a discipleship baseline among church staff 

• To use as a Bible curriculum for homeschool high school groups 

We encourage group facilitators to ask for a small tuition fee to offset the cost to the church and to create buy-in from participants. The cost per participant varies depending on the size of the group. 

Prices below reflect the purchase of 1 Group Starter Kit and 1 journal per participant (a.k.a. all you need to facilitate Deep Discipleship at your local church).

At the pre-sale price:

• For 5 group members, it is $90 per person.

• For 10 group members, it is $59 per person.

• For 20 group members, it is $42 per person.

• For 30 group members, it is $34 per person.

• For 40 group members, it is $31 per person.

• For 50 group members, it is $30 per person.

Every participant of Deep Discipleship will need a journal. The journal is the guide for the Deep Discipleship experience and essential for completing the pre-work, accessing the required reading, and engaging fully in the video teaching. Five journals are included in every Group Starter Kit, and more are available for purchase on lifeway.com. You can receive up to 25% savings for additional journals purchased. Discount automatically applied at checkout.

The leader will be given full access to the teaching videos through a redemption code included in the Group Starter Kit. You can access the teaching video content via Lifeway On Demand online or in the app. 

Deep Discipleship works well for a 90-minute group meeting, though you may choose to go longer if you want more discussion time or decide to watch the panel videos together as a group. Aside from the introductory week and the final session of this program, each session has the following structure:

• Arrive having completed “pre-work” prior to the group session

• Begin with group discussion around pre-work (10-15 minutes) 

• Watch the roundtable discussion video together (45-60 minutes) 

• Discuss the roundtable discussion in groups (10-15 minutes)

• Watch the second teaching video together (7-15 minutes) 

• Return to group discussion to close out the group session (10-15 minutes)

If you choose to watch the panel discussion video as a group, watch the video and then dismiss. Item description

Ideally, the pre-work for each week will take you about 2 hours to complete, but it also can be done in 90 minutes depending upon how fast of a reader you are.

Yes! While many churches might wish to offer Deep Discipleship as a stand-alone program, others may choose to work through the material in a small group. Deep Discipleship is not meant to take people away from other areas of service, but to train, equip, and empower them to be more productive and faithful in the areas where they already serve.  

Yes, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has partnered with Lifeway to offer your first seminary class free upon completion of the Deep Discipleship  program. Visit MBTS.edu/deepdiscipleship for more details. 

You can begin the Deep Discipleship program at any time during the year. The program is comprised of two twelve-week semesters, along with an Orientation session week to be completed before the first semester begins. You may do the Orientation session together as a group or ask participants to work through this session individually. However, the curriculum is divided into Old Testament for twelve weeks and New Testament for twelve weeks, making this an ideal resource to run on a semester system starting in the fall and completing in the spring. 

Yes, while the primary context for discipleship is the local church, if you have a group of Christians who want to grow deeper in their understanding of the Bible, theology, and spiritual disciplines, you can form your own group.

We do recommend that Deep Discipleship be implemented within the local church because it is the place where God forms people through His Word into the image of His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. This curriculum aims to help Christians and churches retrieve and re-deploy a vision for deep discipleship in their own local churches. 

Aside from helping people know and love God and others well, the aim of Deep Discipleship is to produce disciples who make disciples. This happens as we multiply groups participating in the program. As participants complete the program, they become equipped to be commissioned into the life of their church as leaders. While some will return to their previous way of serving in the church, we hope many will feel called to be table leaders in the next round of Deep Discipleship. 

 Your license to the teaching video sessions will remain active until August 1, 2026. You will have the opportunity to renew at $150 off the retail price so that you can launch the next round of Deep Discipleship groups.