Congratulations and praise God that someone new has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Now what? Give them a quarterly and plop them in a Sunday School class? Invite them to a one-hour lunch where you run down the ministries that could use their help?
Provide a walkthrough so they know your church’s schedule and facilities?
Jesus said that we were to make disciples of all people. How’s that working for you? Here are five proven methods to encourage those who follow-up with new believers. It helps if they consider them to be like someone who will be the next Apostle Paul, leading many others to follow Jesus:
1. Go to meet them in person. At the arranged time, listen to them tell their story (testimony). Affirm their decision by reviewing what it means to come to salvation.
2. Pray with them about their decision and what it means for them in the days ahead. Ask them if this means any changes in their lifestyle as they walk with Jesus “in the newness of life.”
3. Ask them who they know that needs to hear the gospel message. This could be a family member, co-worker, or friend. Pray with them about their concern. Offer to go with them or have the new believer invite those they know to a special place to hear the gospel message. Set a meeting time before leaving in which you can meet with this new believer, explain the gospel message to those in their circle of influence, and follow-up with those who make a decision.
4. Invite them to your church. Alert a Sunday School teacher or small group leader to take them to lunch or meet with them after church.
5. Begin an intentional disciple-making effort that lasts at least a month. The idea is to equip them as witnesses who can reproduce this process in the lives of others that they know.
When traveling for the IMB into a people group totaling three million, it was a joy to encounter a missionary who had spent months developing evangelism projects. When reviewing his printed plans, I innocently looked up and asked, “Where are your follow-up plans for new converts?” The missionary swallowed hard and mumbled something about looking into it. About two months later, I received an email stating that within a week of finishing their disciple-making plans, God honored them by having their first converts come to faith in Christ. I have often wondered if God was waiting for the missionary to get ready because His new children deserved quality attention!
Invest time with new believers. And get to know those in their circle of influence, too. They will likely know more lost people than those who have been saved. If there are godly followers of Jesus that they know, meet them to so they can become part of your follow-up plans. Build a network around them!
It may be that you’ll need to start a special class, using a partnering teacher to lead a series of basic discipleship classes on understanding the Bible, what it means to have a daily devotion, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, understanding worship including learning a few Scripture songs, how to share your faith with others, the importance of church membership, having fellowship, and ministering to others. If this is a cross-cultural experience it may require possibly a small group that can become a new church.
A three-month course for those who came to Christ in the previous six month or so is available called “Catching Fire: New Believers” from Snowden Ministries Int’l (snowdenministries@gmail.com).
And be sure to follow-up THIS WEEK!
--Mark Snowden is the director for the Cincinnati Area Baptist Association and runs Snowden Ministries International
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