Step 0 · Welcome and team preparation
Welcome to Ephesio
Ephesio is your AI-powered missiological strategy assistant. This study invites your team to listen deeply, understand a community, and thoughtfully discern how you might participate in the missio Dei—the mission of God. Begin with curiosity and prayer, and let discovery, reflection, and wonder shape your participation.
Begin with prayer, a willingness to listen, and a shared desire to understand the community. Ephesio supports your inquiry; local relationships, thoughtful reflection, and discernment give the study its depth.
Resources to gather together
Bring what you already have. You do not need a complete dossier before starting. Record missing information as questions to explore rather than filling the gaps with assumptions.
A focused community and purpose.
Identify whom you hope to understand, where they live, your relationship to them, and how the study will guide your participation. A city or nation may contain several distinct communities.
Local voices and relationships.
Identify community members, local leaders, and conversation partners who can help interpret findings. Gather existing field notes and plan opportunities to listen, with permission and respect for people’s privacy.
Cultural and historical sources.
Collect relevant maps, demographic information, community histories, research, and accounts of religious life. Note each source’s author, date, perspective, and limits; national averages may not describe this community.
Community and team assets.
Bring information about local skills, associations, institutions, spaces, and relationships. Invite team members to name their expertise, specialties, spiritual gifts, hobbies, languages, experience, available resources, and limitations for the Step 5 self-assessment.
Scripture and missiological resources.
Have a Bible available for reflection and the comparison with the NT church. Where available, bring relevant material from Ephesiology, including the Church Maturity Matrix, Movement Action Plan, and Action Steps, and from Gods, Emperors, Philosophers, and a New Movement.
Relevant documents and a shared place for notes.
Choose documents that address each step’s questions and agree how you will record observations, sources, uncertainties, and team reflections. Each step accepts one readable PDF, Word (.docx), text, or Markdown file up to 5 MB. Scanned pages and images are not assessed.
A rhythm of prayerful inquiry
Return to this rhythm throughout the study. It is an ongoing movement of attentiveness, not a rigid sequence or a guarantee that the team has discerned God's activity.
1. Curiosity
What do we not yet understand? Pray for humility and openness. Notice the assumptions you bring and welcome questions that may change them.
2. Discovery
What are we learning through listening, research, Scripture, and relationships? Seek local perspectives and distinguish observed evidence from reported claims and AI-generated possibilities.
3. Reflection
What does this mean, and what needs correction? Pray and think together, inviting community voices to test your interpretations. Record what remains uncertain.
4. Wonder
What invites gratitude, awe, or deeper attention? Make room to be surprised by the community’s gifts and by what God may be revealing, without treating your interpretation as certainty.
5. Participation
How might we faithfully participate in the missio Dei—the mission of God? Discern modest, locally appropriate actions together, then listen to what happens and return to curiosity.
Pause with every step
Before generating a response, pray, read the step's purpose, and add relevant local knowledge or a document. Afterward, read the response thoughtfully together. Ask: What resonates with local experience? What is unsupported? What might we be overlooking? What deserves further prayer, conversation, or investigation?
Use the reflection field to record your discernment and revisions. Mark a step reviewed only after thoughtful consideration; review does not mean every claim has been independently verified. Allow discovery and wonder to reshape the next question rather than rushing toward a strategy.
At the beginning, agree who will facilitate discussion, record sources, invite local feedback, and arrange time for prayer and reflection throughout the study.
Continue to Ephesio (opens the Ephesio app)You can return to this preparation guide at any point. The study remains an 11-step process.
