What About Follow up?

Just some thoughts of the day:

A lot of us who are diligent to witness to the lost get challenged from church-goers. They scowl and say: "What about follow up?" Don't ever let this get you down. Let's get real here. If they were truly that concerned, they'd offer to do follow up themselves. Last week I had powerful one-on-ones, one-on-two on up to one-on-four witnessing experiences at a college campus and outside the killing place. I personally shared a clear gospel message to more than 25 people. Now I ask you this,

How am I supposed to "follow up" on 100 people a month?

Funny thing is, when I ask people in church to help with follow up, they act as if they didn't hear me. The silence is deafening.

What's up with that?

Now when someone gets all serious and concerned and asks about follow-up, I say:

"Wow! I am so glad that you asked! We've been looking for someone who cares enough to disciple the lost!" Then I hand them the names, addresses and telephone numbers of people I met in the last few weeks.

It might be good to remind yourself what "follow-up" and "discipleship" looks like in today's typical modern church. There are healthy exceptions, but they are one in a million. Unless the lost person goes to them, very few church people will do diddly squat to follow up with the women and men we meet when we go out witnessing. And that is a fact that I can prove through 14 years of sharing the gospel on the streets of Orlando and other cities. This is not a new problem.

Listen to Keith Green describe his experience with the church's "Follow-Up Program":

Here's a portion from Keith Green's article "What's Wrong with the Gospel?"

"The Follow-Up Program." There is one last great mistake being committed in the name of evangelism. It is rightly called "follow-up." I say "rightly called" because it is following up the same miserable and incomplete gospel with a miserable, incomplete, and false replacement for what the Bible calls "discipleship." Our "follow-up" usually consists of a "packet of literature," which almost always includes a complete list of all church services and functions. This "packet" also may include many "essential" items like a complete Bible study on "tithing." Also enclosed is usually at least one tithe envelope. (It's amazing that this is one "principle" that nearly every new believer learns right away!) In my studies of the life of Jesus, it has amazed me that He never had "a follow-up program." It was usually His habit to let people "follow Him up." He never had to go door to door, looking for that fellow who He healed last week, wanting to share another parable or two. He always seemed to have the attitude of, "If they want life, then they'll have to come and follow Me." Can't you see what fools we are? We preach a man-made, plastic gospel. We get people to come forward to "the altar" by bringing psychological pressures that have nothing to do with God. We "lead them" in a prayer that they are not yet convinced they need to say. And then to top it all off, we give them "counseling," telling them it is a sin to doubt that they're really saved!
You can read the full articles here... What's Wrong with the Gospel? (part 1) http://www.lastdaysministries.com/articles/whatswrongwiththegospel.html What's Wrong with the Gospel? (part 2) http://www.lastdaysministries.com/articles/whatswrongwiththegospel2.html

Face it!

Those who love Christ hunger and thirst for righteousness while many of those who love church hunger for comfort and happiness.