Everyday Institute makes it simple to accelerate discipleship every single day
Everyday Institute exists to make it simple for people, churches, and ministries to accelerate discipleship every single day.
Everyday Institute exists to make it simple for people, churches, and ministries to accelerate discipleship every single day. We do this by creating baseline discipleship courses that are easy to facilitate one-on-one, in small groups, or as courses with larger communities. Think of it like Alpha, but for the person growing in faith instead of exploring faith—and, like Alpha, we give it all away for free.
What’s the story of Everyday Institute?
Everyday Institute was founded in 2020 when everyone had to figure out how to do things differently in a matter of days—including discipleship. I set up a camera in my office and filmed a course called Everyday Bible for people in our church to help kickstart a habit of reading the Bible every single day. The quality was NOT GOOD, but it served its purpose. Then, it hit me: What if I created a whole series of digital courses that churches could use to take someone through their whole first year of discipleship? I mapped out the first few courses on a page in one of those pocket notebooks people carry around (or maybe it was a napkin?), and I’ve basically been following some version of that roadmap ever since—experimenting with new courses first in the local church and then releasing them to other churches to use for free.
— Austin Gohn
What’s one challenge you experienced when building Everyday Institute?
I’m building Everyday Institute in the midst of everything that comes along with being a Lead Pastor in any given season. Like any builder with full-time responsibilities, It’s easy for me to let this project hit the back-burner unless I find creative ways to make time for it. One thing that helped was finding ways to make my work go twice as far. I do this by crafting a new course as a teaching series for Sundays at our church first. Then, I boil that teaching series down to 20-25 minutes per unit of course content to be released through Everyday Institute with the help of a few friends in our church. That’s allowed me to build a course each year. (The concept of the “20 Mile March” has also been helpful here. Basically, you find a pace that you can go to constantly until you complete the journey. It might take me 10-15 years to build a year’s worth of discipleship content at this pace, but it’s a pace I can handle.)
— Austin Gohn
Where have you seen God's hand throughout the journey of creating Everyday Institute?
Early on my journey with Everyday Institute, I was invited to participate in a Missional Labs cohort with Stephen Mulder and Tyler Prieb—while they, too, were early in the journey of building Missional Labs. I was surrounded by lots of other amazing people starting missional ventures, and we provided each other with feedback that helped us refine our core ideas. It was one of those experiences where I kept thinking: "I can’t believe I’m in this cohort." When I look back on that experience and how I ended up there, I can see God’s hand all over it.
— Austin Gohn
What advice would you give to Christian builders and creatives?
I’m a builder, by nature. The problem, for me, isn’t building things, it’s helping people discover and start using what I’ve built (which is one of the reasons I’m so thankful for the app and tool ecosystem that Cam is building through faith.tools). Often, when I build something, I start building the next thing, but with the help of others, I’ve started to realize that part of building something has to be making a plan for helping others find what you’ve built. It’s just good stewardship. You could build a thousand excellent apps or tools, but if no one knows about them, you’re not practicing good stewardship. Do the work to get it out there—pitch podcasts, write emails, use your connections, do whatever it takes. (I need to hear this advice as much as anyone else.)
— Austin Gohn
5. Shameless plug! What's something cool that's been on your mind that you'd recommend to the faith.tools community?
Honestly, just check out some of the ventures that are coming out of Missional Labs. Some of the most cutting edge stuff is coming out of there. I believe that ten years from now when you look at the tools that churches are using, you’re going to find that Missional Labs is part of their origin story. (Also, we released our DAY ONE course through Everyday Institute earlier this year, and it's a huge jump in quality for us. It's a three-unit, mini-course designed to introduce people to the three experiences that kickstart the life you're made for, and we've already seen it change lives and lead to more people taking the step of baptism wherever churches or organizations are piloting it.)
— Austin Gohn
P.S. here’s a fun photo of us getting to connect for the first time
