Managing Follow-Up

Letters, Phone calls, and the Email Marketing Follow-up program will assist here. Some follow-up Social Media marketing thanking everyone for coming is important also. You may transit into the Family Shield Program (Enrolling people in your Sunday school).

The Need for Discipleship: The United Pentecostal Church has enjoyed some great successes since the beginning of Pentecost Sunday and Holy Ghost Crusades, and many have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost during these services.

How many of the people who are receiving the Holy Ghost are becoming disciples?

As we study the birth of the church in the Book of Acts, we see Jesus Christ’s plan for His church to reach the lost. As He promised, the Lord empowers Christians by His Spirit to witness the lost about the saving message in Acts 2:38. The book of Acts also gives us a plan for discipling people. Through Pentecost Sunday, we not only want to see people baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost, but we further want to root and ground them in the Word of God.

Acts 11:26 states, “… the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” The church in Jerusalem recognized that the Antioch converts needed to be taught, so they sent Barnabas, who taught the people, and then brought the Apostle Paul to Antioch, where for “a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught many people….” It was only after this year of intense teaching that the disciples were first called Christians. Discipleship programs, new converts classes, etc., are vital to the spiritual life of new converts and their assimilation into the body of Christ.

The Follow-up Team: Discipleship begins with a proper follow-up team. The Follow-up Team sends letters to guests and to those who have received the Holy Ghost. Visits and calls are made to guests. Home Bible study teachers go to work. The entire church is engaged in the task of capitalizing on the results of Pentecost Sunday.

Follow-up is probably more important than that exhilarating moment when the visitor walked through your doors. Do you have a follow-up system in place?  This is a question that we must answer if we are to keep those we win effectively.

  • Follow-up starts with the visitor or an assigned altar worker filling out a visitor card
  • Do immediate follow-up the same night by asking them if they are coming back. 
  • Send a postcard within 24 hours.
  • Send a follow-up letter, newsletter and/or brochure describing what your church offers.
  • Put together a visitor task force and organize them to visit every guest during the following week. 
  • Every seeker should receive at least three follow-up contacts within three (3) days of receiving the Holy Ghost:

A quick suggestion:

  1. The person who invited the seeker to church should call them on the telephone. It is important that an invitation to come back to church is issued with sincerity and excitement. Ask if you can give them a home Bible study.
  2. A telephone call from the pastor (or a minister) should be made to congratulate the seeker on their new experience and to offer the services of the church through ministries and programs for the family. Invite them to attend the New Convert’s Class.
  3. The New Convert’s Care coordinator or New Convert’s Class teacher should also follow up with an invitation to attend the New Convert’s Class.

New Convert’s Class: Many resources are available to us. Many have stated that the Abundant Life series by Brother Jack Cunningham is one of the best courses ever written for establishing new converts. Abundant Life has been highly recommended by many pastors, outreach directors, and discipleship coordinators. Also available are: My Father’s House – Levels I, II and III, Exploring God’s Word, Take Root, andGod’s Word Made Plain, among others. All of these are available through the NAM Division UPCI. 

Developing Accountability: Some new convert care programs are ineffective because they fail to build accountability into the program. Without accountability, the students feel the course is unimportant. So put some teeth into your program. In the Abundant Life course, there is plenty of homework required, verses to memorize, books to learn, etc. Following the required procedure is strongly suggested.

  • Don’t give out all lessons at once.Give out one lesson at a time. The teacher teaches the session; the students take their own notes. At the end of the class, the teacher gives out the lesson he/she just completed so that the student can use it to study for the coming week.
  • Homework assignments. Every lesson will require some home study time. Homework for the previous week should be collected at the beginning of each class.
  • Memory verses. A memory verse has been chosen for each lesson. The verses were chosen to fit with the lesson and serve as a reminder of the main focus of the lesson.
  • Quizzes. The quiz will let you know if they are getting the material or not. If several do badly on the simple quizzes, it might be that the teacher needs to adjust his/her teaching style. If one student does badly, and the others do well on the quiz, the teacher should concentrate on assisting the one (which may require after class or during the week tutoring). NEVER embarrass a student who is doing poorly. ALWAYS deal with bad grades after class in a private setting.
  • Final Test. As noted on the score sheet, the final test accounts for much of their grade. This test is designed to challenge the student’s retention of material presented. If there is a specific area in which the student does not score well (i.e., Godhead, Family, etc.), it is suggested that they take that particular class again, then retake the test.