Our Tracking Philosophy

We believe disciples are called to “follow and fish” (Mark 1:17). Our tracking systems measure faithfulness to this identity by monitoring the gospel’s movement through relational networks and the health of gathered churches.

The Conversation Box: Gospel Movement Through Oikos

What We Track:

  • Casual conversations → Meaningful conversations → Spiritual conversations → Discovery Bible studies
  • Individual movement of people through these stages
  • Geographic distribution and frequency

Why It Matters: The Conversation Box tracks the gospel moving through relational networks (oikos) – the natural webs of family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues where disciples live out their calling to fish for people.

The Priesthood of Every Believer: We emphasize oikos because it empowers every disciple to walk in their priesthood as a believer. Each person has a harvest field – the relationships God has already given them where they live, work, and play. You don’t need special training, title, or position to engage your oikos. You simply need faithfulness to the calling you already have as a follower of Christ.

What It Tells Us:

  • Heat map intensity = Consistency and frequency of gospel conversations in a location
  • Discovery Bible study activity = Ongoing multiplication as new disciples engage Scripture
  • Geographic spread = Gospel penetration into new networks and places
  • Faithfulness metric = Are disciples actively “fishing” where they live, work, and play?

The conversation box reveals whether disciples are faithful to their Mark 1:17 identity by showing sustained gospel activity within their oikos, not just isolated events.

The Church Waffle: Church Health & Presence

What We Track:

  • 12 Practices from Acts 2:36-47: Gospel, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Spirit, Word, Fellowship, Lord’s Supper, Prayer, Signs and Wonders, Giving, Worship, Multiplication.
  • Church reproduction: New churches planted by existing churches
  • Geographic coverage: Where churches exist in target areas

Why It Matters: The Church Waffle measures whether local churches are healthy expressions of the Body of Christ and faithful stewards of “the work” defined in Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey.

What It Tells Us:

  • Church health = Are gathered believers practicing all 12 elements of Acts 2 community?
  • Completion of the work = Are we doing what Acts 13:1-2, 14:23, and 14:26 describe?
    • Entering new peoples and places
    • Sharing the gospel
    • Making disciples
    • Gathering them as church
    • Appointing leaders
  • Sustained gospel presence = Do churches reproduce, ensuring the gospel remains in a geography long-term?
  • Geographic stewardship = Where are there established, healthy churches vs. gaps requiring new work?

How These Work Together

Conversation Box tracks the fishing – disciples engaging their oikos with the gospel and making new disciples through discovery.

Church Waffle tracks the following – disciples gathering as healthy churches that reproduce and sustain gospel presence.

Together, they measure faithfulness to the Great Commission: making disciples who follow Christ in community and fish for people in their networks, resulting in movements that fill geographic areas with healthy, reproducing churches until there is no place left.

The Bottom Line

We don’t track to measure success or compare performance. We track to measure faithfulness:

  • Are disciples consistently fishing in their oikos?
  • Are churches healthy and reproducing?
  • Is the gospel reaching new peoples and places?
  • Is there sustained presence, or just temporary activity?

Our tracking answers one question: Are we being obedient to who Christ called us to be and what He commanded us to do?

Data Integrity: Tracking from Micro to Macro

Our Approach: Data flows from individual disciples and local church elders directly to the map – not through movement leaders reporting on behalf of others.

Why This Matters:

  • Accuracy: Those doing the work report their own activity, eliminating secondhand information and estimation
  • Ownership: Disciples and elders take personal responsibility for their faithfulness and stewardship
  • Integrity: No leader can inflate or manipulate numbers – the data comes directly from the source
  • Immediacy: Real-time tracking shows current activity, not delayed reports filtered through leadership layers
  • Empowerment: Every disciple’s faithfulness is visible and valued, not aggregated into someone else’s report

The Principle: When movement leaders report on behalf of those they lead, data becomes vulnerable to distortion – whether through honest mistakes, memory gaps, or the temptation to present results favorably.

By capturing data at the micro level (individual disciples, local churches) and aggregating it up to the macro level (regional/movement maps), we preserve the integrity of what’s actually happening on the ground.

Result: The map shows reality, not aspiration. Leaders can serve effectively because they see the true state of the work, and disciples are accountable directly to their calling, not filtered through a reporting chain.