follow up post-proclamation - Ministry Exchange (MX)

Developing Disciples- Following up Decision-Makers at Evangelistic Events

Rationale for paper: As proclamation evangelism grows throughout
InterVarsity, we want to better serve students who make decisions during
these events through high-quality relational follow up. Follow up is an
area of continued development and needed improvement as we seek to publicly
proclaim the Gospel on our campuses and develop disciples. If making
disciples is Jesus’ ultimate mandate to us, we need to put as much thought,
effort and commitment into our follow up of decision-makers and seekers as
we have put into our proclamation itself. Furthermore, well-followed-
up/discipled people will themselves be engaged evangelism in ways and to a
degree that decision makers that have not been well followed up will not.

Below are some bullet points of observations to how we can improve follow
up during proclamation events. I trust and pray these will serve you and
the campus you are seeking to influence!

Logistics . Establish in writing at the beginning of preparations for the outreach expectations for follow up. . Have a follow-up coordinator, and follow up team to follow up with decision makers throughout the week, not after the event has concluded. This will help to keep momentum going and involve decision makers in events and relationships throughout the week. . Recruit co-workers for follow-up from beyond the chapter as needed, including local church members, alumni, etc. . Since the spiritual life of a decision maker can quickly spring up and die out, face-to-face follow up should happen within 24 hours of the decision (not of the end of the Outreach). While email or phone calls can be helpful, a person going to visit the decision maker is the essential standard for follow up during proclamation events. . Carbon-copy sheets can help keep people who’ve prayed with a decision maker have a copy of their information for follow up & be able to give a copy to the follow-up coordinator immediately. Also, having a point person to collect the information & enter it into a database works well. This way there is a list in one place & the info can be easily emailed out to follow-up team members. . As part of a person’s decision making process, it is essential to explain to them that a call to Jesus is a call to being connected with others that have are seeking to follow him. By letting the decision- maker know that a person from IVCF will contact them in the near future this prepares them for when follow up happens. . After a person has made a decision, give them a card to fill out & explain that you or someone else from InterVarsity will be contacting them about the decision they’ve made to help them make progress and let them know about ways to continue on their spiritual journey. The person who has prayed with the decision maker should immediately double check the contact sheet with the person to make sure it can be read legibly & reprint the info more clearly if necessary, (i.e., “is this a two or a seven?”) . The person who had the conversation should also include their name on the card if more information is needed about the decision maker.

Counseling at Post Decision Meetings . The best person to do the initial follow up is the person that had the original conversation. If they area not from the local group, they should as much as possible bring local members with them for long term follow up. They should a) confirm with the person the decision they have made b) try to discern what they need next c) help them understand core dynamics of Christian life and growth (e.g., prayer, Bible study, witness, Christian community and obedience). . Help decision-makers to understand the decision they’ve made, right after they’ve prayed. During follow up, ask them about what the decision they’ve made has meant to them. Remember, post-Christian people may not have the language to describe what has happened in their life, so we need to again explain, interpret and affirm what God has been doing in their life based on what they’ve shared with us. . Don’t make an assumption that because someone made a decision it is THE decision. Some people need to continue to understand the decision that they’ve made & need appropriate ways to begin to adopt kingdom values like community, scripture, prayer & evangelism. During follow up the gospel may be briefly shared again as well as the cost of following Jesus as leader. If students have experienced any confusion about their decision or feel like they need to learn more before they can own the decision they’ve made, this can be a good next step to help diagnose where they are at. Often just asking, “so what did your decision yesterday mean to you?” can be a good entry point for diagnosing what the Holy Spirit has been doing through the decision. . After a person has filled out a response card, there should be a place for a description of the type of conversation that has happened and the type of decision that’s been made. Things like: “student grew up in the church, is connected to InterVarsity. Prayed to accept Jesus & will need to learn more about lordship.” Or “great talk with a vegan feminist that is spiritually open and would be interested in a GIG, has experienced a lot of pain from fundamentalist family.” It can also be helpful to recommend a person from the fellowship that would seem like a natural connection for the decision maker.

Spiritual Warfare . Prepare students for the reality of spiritual warfare during & after the event. Encourage them to care for their bodies (get enough sleep, eat well, and exercise) and their spirits (praying in community, quiet times, etc.) . Have specific people ready/available to be praying for spiritual protection throughout and after the event. Emailing teams of people from churches can be a good way to involve the local church in our events and utilize their prayer warriors. . Have a biblical worldview on follow-up; it’s difficult & can be disappointing, but it’s worth it! Doing a study on the parable of the sower can be helpful with this. While three out of four soils may initially look good, the reality is that only one is good soil and goes on to bear fruit. It can be disheartening and confusing when only a few people who have made a decision get plugged into the chapter or are open to discipleship. Jesus understood this reality and didn’t give up in preaching the gospel with hope that people would hear and respond to the message. . Continue to pray for people and initiate contact with them even if it seems they’ve rejected their decision; sometimes it may be months before they respond. It also seems like there can be a helpful “statute of limitations” for how long to continue to visit or call a person who has made a decision. We want to be respectful of people’s decisions but also not underestimate that the enemy is at work trying to destroy the seeds that have been planted.

Building Relationships . Encourage people to plug in or stay connected where relationships with Christ followers already exist- churches or other campus ministries, where the gospel is believed, taught and followed and with friends who are Christian. Be inviting, but also realize you may have done the work of harvesting & that others may do the work of nurturing. . Host parties or other social events soon after the proclamation event that provide an easy entry point into community. Even something as simple as students inviting people to coffee as the beginning of follow up can help develop relationships naturally. . Take the long-view of evangelism. While at this point in their lives the decision a person has made may not seem to amount to much, it is often a significant step in the whole of their spiritual journey. Gordon T. Smith in Beginning Well; Christian Conversion & Authentic Transformation identifies 7 different “threads” of the lifelong conversion process and states that rarely are all 7 threads experienced in a single dramatic event. A decision at an event or through conversational evangelism may be one of the threads in an individual’s conversion process. . Smith identifies the seven threads as: . Belief – the intellectual strand, Repentance – the penitential strand, Trust and Assurance of Forgiveness – the affective strand, and Commitment and Allegiance – the volitional strand. The first four threads represent the internal actions of a convert. The other three represent elements that support and enable the conversion. They are Appropriation of the Holy Spirit – the “charismatic” strand, Water Baptism – the sacramental strand, and Incorporation into Christian Community – the communal strand. . Typically one of these threads creates compels a response from a decision maker which we typically count as a conversion. . Since the relationship with a decision maker is often just beginning during proclamation events, we need to celebrate the threads of their conversion that are evident and continue to disciple the decision maker to continue to understand what it means to follow Jesus as he continues to transform their life.

Jessica Fick, draft 1, 10/06, draft 2, 1/07