One does not need to look long or hard at Follow Church to see their model is not a normal church experience or format. But for the emerging generation that Reverend Natasha Dongell is seeking to reach, their model is working just fine. Located in South Carolina, Follow Church is serious about raising up and sending disciple makers. 
Follow’s model begins with “spiritual families,” which are smaller groups meeting on Sundays in various homes. Sunday gatherings are focused on a meal that incorporates communion and Bible study. Rev. Dongell works with the challenging, strategic questions of Discovery Bible Study for these groups that (in her words) are “designed to activate community building, engagement with the scriptures and then obedience to it.” Each group is studying the same theme to maintain cohesiveness across Follow’s current spiritual families.
The model’s next layer is their Wednesday evening “Follow Deeper” meetings. While paused for the summer, these meetings emphasize prayer and worship with an added training component. Follow Church’s training is focused on helping people become disciple makers, by exploring how to tell others about Jesus, to talk with those wounded by the church and to assist them in engaging others with God’s Word.
Disciple making training addresses a gap that Rev. Dongell has recognized over the last few years: “Sometimes it is hard for people to take what they learn from church and implement it in their Monday through Saturday workplaces and homes. It is like driver’s ed, where people have only driven in the classroom and are ill equipped to take the car keys for real.”
Follow’s third layer is “Follow Together.” This gathering on the final Sunday of each month looks more like a traditional service. Having hosted this gathering in multiple locations, Rev. Dongell and her team are still discovering the best way to leverage this meeting to further Follow’s mission of gathering, raising up and sending out disciple makers.
Follow Church grew from Rev. Dongell’s passion to effectively disciple the emerging generation. She has witnessed an increase in many young adults abandoning faith. She has seen many of her peers lose interest in Sunday morning worship attendance while at the same time searching for depth and purpose in spirituality. Rev. Dongell saw that “the body had to be activated as disciple makers, but the wholistic discipleship needed doesn’t always happen in the church building.”
Noticing that this faith abandonment pattern was happening in the emerging generation, Rev. Dongell asked herself, “How do we pass the baton effectively to the next generation?” Feeling a strong Holy Spirit conviction to come alongside this generation, she knew they “cannot compromise the gospel or our essentials, but wondered what can we change to more effectively raise and send them?”
This searching process led her to an awareness for the need of spiritual mothers and fathers for those who have not had a spiritual role model in their life. “Homes used to create more attachment and security for people, but it feels like that is so lacking now.” Knowing people often relate to God similarly to how they did with their parents, she resolved to build Follow Church in a way to “step in to create a safe relational environment for people to come in and attach, which then translates to connecting with the Lord and become one with him.”
Her search’s result was Follow Church, which in many ways follows John Wesley’s groups’ model. Rev. Dongell acknowledges, “We have to revaluate our perspective of what salvation is. It is not just being saved, but also entering into community. Sometimes people go to church wanting to hide, and you cannot hide here.” It matters to Follow’s people that they be gracefully held and be accountable to each other week to week. Over time, this has become the church’s culture. Rev. Dongell sees discipleship as the path to spreading the gospel: “Unless we fully embody discipleship making, we will not reach the people.”
Follow Church is not just active in the here and near, but also in the far. Partnering with Kenyan missionaries, Follow is preparing to send groups to Kenya — allowing their people to experience disciple making there and bring their learnings back to the States.
Rev. Jesse Pratt, director of Church Multiplication for The Wesleyan Church, speaks highly of Rev. Dongell: “Pastor Natasha is a visionary leader with a heart to raise up disciple makers. Follow Church is a wonderful expression of the ‘church on mission’ while genuinely functioning as a family. They share meals together, worship together and serve together. Natasha’s heart to share Jesus’ love in practical ways has spilled over to the rest of the Follow family and is demonstrated as they intentionally take the gospel to the here, near, hard and far.”
To learn more about Natasha and Follow Church, check out her interview on the Acts 1:8 Podcast.
Rev. Jacob Gibson is the senior pastor at LifeSpring Wesleyan Church, Richmond, Indiana, and graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and Wesley Seminary, Marion, Indiana.
