Engaged Church

The full library

The ten-week Discovery Course has two modes, and Engaged Church adds the second. Elder gives you the weeknight course to lead in small groups; Engaged adds “Before the Fire” — the same ten weeks written as Sunday sermons, with full manuscripts, PowerPoint decks and training material for your whole eldership.

Preach it to the congregation, run it in groups, or do both.

Plus every downloadable resource (field guide, workbooks, survey packs and templates). The volume PDFs themselves are free to everyone with an account.

Every template, downloadable

Every template in the series is included at this tier — the full household & couples templates library (the ten in the Family tier) and all the leadership templates: the Annual Plan, Elder & Deacon identification, and Five-Fold ministry sets (the twenty-four in the Elder tier).

Deacons across the eldership

The deacon delegate role from the Elder tier applies to your whole eldership: each elder may nominate one trusted deacon, at no extra charge, to carry the administrative and operational load — inviting members, sending reminders, keeping details current — so the elders and pastors stay free to shepherd. Deacons sign in with their own accounts; billing and opening or closing the account remain with the elders (Acts 6:1–4).

Communications to your elders

Beyond reaching the saints (in the Elder tier), an Engaged Church can message its whole eldership — meeting invites, notices and reminders by email or SMS, with the same calendar invites and the same privacy: sent server-side, no addresses or numbers exposed.

Email reaches every elder by default (they can opt out); SMS is opt-in.

Every send is logged.

Three church-wide benchmark surveys

An anonymous way to see how the whole body understands the framework, so the eldership can discern where to give more teaching, pastoral care and support.

Three benchmarks are included — the Church Governance Benchmark, the Married Couples Benchmark, and the Courting Couples Benchmark.

They are for the church's own reflection only: never a measure for public comparison, humiliation or boasting, and never posted publicly. Distribution is built around the eldership so it lands with a pastoral touch rather than as a mass email.

• ✓The church lead opens a wave (a Baseline, then 6- and 12-month follow-ups to track growth over time), with an optional title and a 'complete by' date
• ✓Each elder and deacon forwards the wave to the saints they shepherd — so it can be taken and then talked through together in the group
• ✓Every response is anonymous; the eldership only ever sees one combined, church-wide result — never a single group's answers, and nothing until at least 3 people have responded
• ✓Live counters: each elder sees their own group's sent / replied and can send a reminder; the whole eldership sees the church-wide totals and a participation overview
• ✓Couples' private comparisons and any written reflections are never shown to the eldership; a parent or guardian must consent before anyone under 18 takes part
• ✓The individual Governance Benchmark is free to anyone to take for their own learning — it is running it church-wide, as a benchmark, that is the Engaged Church feature

Ministry Planning Portal

The planning engine of the year — included with Engaged Church, no extra fee. Every program and team is a tile, with the specific tasks and time each one needs.

After the ten-week course, saints browse with their elder's blessing and express interest, ticking the tasks they can take on — an in-principle agreement that, once the plan is approved, becomes their Ministry Works Agreement on a two-party sign-off.

Elders and deacons shape the plans with version control; an invited committee (up to five) confirms budgets in its own column; the plan is presented to the saints, who give anonymously to fund any gaps and then vote to approve the year (75% to adopt, an elder-set window, grace-first if it falls short).

It threads the confirmed gifts and calling from the course all the way to a placed, signed, printable Ministry Works Agreement — then steps back to the church's own administration.

• ✓Every ministry a tile — description, resources, needs (workers + funds), tasks, time and an evaluation plan
• ✓Express interest after the course; an at-a-glance plan table shows interest, budget, gap, pledges and committee status
• ✓Elder/deacon drafting with version history & restore; an invited committee (max 5) confirms or amends budgets in its own column
• ✓Present to saints → anonymous pledges → an elder-set voting window (≥75%, grace-first outcomes)
• ✓Budget approved first, then saints commit: the final agreement → a printable Ministry Works Agreement, countersigned by an elder
• ✓Governing decisions — finalising, inviting the committee, opening the vote, countersigning — are elder-only; deacons assist with the working tasks

Evaluation & the annual Impact Report

Each ministry sets a simple Evaluation Plan — choosing meaningful measures (KPIs that fit its real aims, not just numbers — witnessing conversations, hours served, studies held, meals delivered, money spent and what it achieved, alongside professions of faith where appropriate), recording the figures each quarter with an honest reflection, and rolling the headlines up into the church's annual Impact Report.

It is a continuous-improvement tool, never performance for its own sake; the detail stays internal, and only high-level metrics are published.

Guidance and a fillable, downloadable plan template are built in.

• ✓Evaluation Guidance & Plan — KPI guidance + a fillable, downloadable/printable template
• ✓Quarterly reviews capture the KPI results and a reflection
• ✓Headline metrics feed the public Impact Report — accountability, transparency, and celebrating what God is doing
• ✓Aligned with the Engaged Church mark disclosed openly on your own website

The year in motion — and support

Once the plan is approved and agreements signed, the platform steps back: elders shepherd, saints deliver their ministry, and the body gathers — re-engaging when the next planning cycle comes around.

A teaching note (Watering, Working & Warning, from 1 Corinthians 1–3) helps the eldership guard the body's unity as roles and shepherding shift.

And a Need-more-support page offers counsel by phone or email at any time, with a clear note on what the platform is — and isn't.

• ✓Next Steps — closing the cycle and returning to the church's own rhythm
• ✓Watering, Working & Warning — a unity teaching for the saints (1 Corinthians 1–3)
• ✓Need more support? — call or email, plus the platform's scope; open to your suggestions

Proxy Support — a 360° view of the church, no one left behind

The whole point of the gifts picture is that it is whole. If the members who have never used a computer are missing from it, the eldership is planning the year around a partial church — and it is often the oldest, most seasoned saints who are absent.

Proxy Support closes that gap, so your view of the body is genuinely 360°: every saint discerned, counted and placed, not only those at ease with a screen. It also honours them — a beloved older member is carried into the church's life rather than quietly left behind.

Practically, an older or less tech-confident saint nominates a trusted family member or friend to complete their journey with them. It is free for the saint at every level, and carefully safeguarded: the saint keeps their own account and full control, gives informed consent, and an elder witnesses that consent in person (renewed each year).

The helper works only through their own login, enters only what the saint has given them on paper or in person, and every entry is signed in a line-by-line record the saint and elder can both read. Conflict & Restoration and couple / relationship content are always excluded.

The eldership witnesses and oversees each arrangement — which every subscribed elder can do — so an Engaged Church, with its whole eldership equipped, is well placed to carry it across the body. The full detail is on the Proxy Support page.

• ✓Nominated by the saint or their elder; activated only with the saint's consent and an elder's in-person witness
• ✓The helper acts through their own login — never a shared account — and everything is stamped “completed by your helper”
• ✓The saint can pause or remove their helper at any time; an elder can end it too; the witness re-confirms yearly
• ✓A helper may represent at most two saints; it is for adults, separate from the Family guardian arrangement

Church Sponsorship — so no one is priced out

The individual journey is free for everyone; an Engaged Church can go further and cover the paid layers — Family and Elder — for its saints. It is especially a way to advocate for stronger families: the church covering the household tools that help families disciple their own.

The church always offers to cover the whole cost (never a part-discount that still obligates the member); the member accepts the full gift, or may choose to contribute a share (25/50/75%) if they wish.

Sponsorship covers the cost and nothing else — the church gains no extra visibility or control; consent, sharing and cancellation stay entirely with the member, and a sponsored elder keeps their own login and workspace. The full detail is on the Church Sponsorship page.

• ✓Cover Family and/or Elder, opt-in on both sides — the church offers, the member accepts
• ✓The gift covers the cost, never the control — no extra visibility over a sponsored member's account
• ✓A member who is able may voluntarily contribute 25/50/75%; they are never asked to
• ✓Either side can end it; the plan reverts to self-pay with nothing lost

Guidance

Guidance by phone or email at any stage, as your eldership walks the framework into the life of the body.

Optional governance review

Detailed desktop governance review against the biblical pattern (optional) — an in-depth, structured read of how your church’s leadership, decision-making, and finances line up with the early-church pattern, offered alongside your subscription whenever you want a closer look.

The Engaged Church mark — how it works

The mark is earned, not bought.

After a three-month qualification period, your church publishes a short, plain set of facts on its own website. Once we verify them, your church is listed in the Sonrise Revival directory, with a link back to your page so anyone can check.

It is opt-in transparency, not an audit.

What you publish

• ✓Who serves on your Committee of Management — the legal and operational body
• ✓Your Five-Fold ministers, where applicable — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers
• ✓Your Eldership — the team who shepherd the body
• ✓The status of your Annual Plan — or, if you don’t yet run one, your mission for the year
• ✓A high-level picture of where the church’s funds are spent

Why this matters

Most church ‘accreditations’ measure something private — a statement of faith signed behind closed doors, or membership numbers. The Engaged Church mark measures only what can be seen.

It cannot be bought, lobbied for, or granted by influence: it is earned by publishing openly and verified against your own public page. Transparency is the accreditation.

It quietly guards against the very drifts the framework warns about — the one-man-show, hidden finances, leadership chosen by influence rather than calling — because a church that has published who leads and where the money goes has little room to drift unnoticed.

What it says to the saints

To the body it leads, the mark is a promise made visible: nothing here is hidden from you.

Every saint can see who shepherds them, who carries the equipping gifts, what the church is giving itself to this year, and how its money is spent. That openness is itself an act of flat governance — leaders accountable to the body they serve, not set above it.

It tells the saints they are not spectators in their own church but members with a right to see, to ask, and to take part — and for a visitor or prospective member, it is a reason to trust before they have even walked in the door.

Price

$94.95 a month, or $959.40 once a year ($79.95 × 12), for the whole church, on top of your elders’ own subscriptions.