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Church Encourager Initiative

Discover Your Next Faithful Step

The Church Encourager Initiative helps pastors, leaders, churches, and believers move from reflection to meaningful next steps through the Encourager Pathways.

Explore the Encourager Pathways

Encouragement That Leads Somewhere

The Church Encourager Initiative began with a simple conviction: people often need encouragement, space to reflect, and someone willing to walk alongside them as they listen for God’s leading.

That conviction remains at the heart of the ministry. What has developed is a clearer pathway forward. Rather than stopping with a conversation or assessment, the Church Encourager Initiative now helps people connect with the Encourager Pathways — a growing collection of guided tools and experiences designed to support awareness, formation, discernment, participation, stewardship, and flourishing.

“Encouragement is not simply helping someone feel better about where they are. It can help them recognize where God may be inviting them to go next.”

The Encourager Pathways

Each pathway offers a different lens for reflection and growth. You do not need to know where to begin before you start.

DISC

Encourager DISC

Explore patterns in personality, communication, and relationships through a Christian framework designed to encourage greater self-awareness and understanding of others.

GIFT

Encourager GIFT

Reflect on the ways God has uniquely equipped you and consider how your gifts may be expressed in service, ministry, relationships, and everyday Kingdom life.

GATE

Encourager GATE

A guided pathway for noticing opportunities, relationships, and places where God may be opening doors for faithful participation and Kingdom influence.

PATH

Encourager PATH

Create space to reflect on your present season, discern direction, and identify practical next steps as you seek to follow God’s leading with greater clarity.

WISE

Encourager WISE

Develop a more thoughtful and prayerful approach to decisions, stewardship, priorities, and the faithful use of what God has entrusted to you.

LIFE

Encourager LIFE

A church flourishing pathway that helps churches reflect on leadership, influence, formation, and engagement as they seek greater health and faithfulness together.

Presence, not performance.

Discernment, not pressure.

You Don’t Have to Know Which Pathway You Need

Some people arrive with a very specific question. Others simply know that something in their life, leadership, ministry, or church deserves closer attention.

The goal is not to force everyone through the same process. The Encourager Pathways are designed to help people begin where they are, notice what God may already be doing, and engage the tools that are most helpful for their present season.

You can explore the pathways on your own, or begin with a conversation if you would like help discerning which pathway may be most useful.

Steve Lawes

A Personal Invitation

Encouragement Sustained by Shared Generosity

For more than thirty years, I have had the privilege of serving pastors, churches, ministry leaders, and believers in a variety of settings. Along the way, I have learned that encouragement matters. Sometimes a next faithful step begins simply by slowing down long enough to listen, reflect, and notice what God is doing.

The Encourager Pathways grew from that conviction. They are designed to give people practical places to begin without turning spiritual growth, leadership, or church health into another performance system. The goal is not simply to complete an assessment. The goal is to become more attentive to God and more faithful with what He has entrusted to us.

This work is sustained through a model of shared generosity. Some participants are supported through grants and designated gifts. Others choose to invest forward so another pastor, church, leader, or believer can benefit from the same resources and encouragement. This allows many of our tools and pathways to remain accessible without requiring a fee.

Steve Lawes Pastor, Coach, Consultant, and Encourager
Explore the Encourager Pathways
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