Dear Follow-Up Coordinator:

It is with great anticipation that I look forward to my visit to your campus. I pray that God will use our team effort to expose thousands of people to the gospel! My hope is that many will come to know Christ and eventually become strong disciples as a result of these evangelistic meetings.

In John 4-38, Jesus told His disciples, "Others have labored and you have entered into their labor." That's how I feel: I will be entering into your labor." I want to be a servant to you, to help you accomplish your personal and ministry objectives, to help you grow in your faith!

Follow-up is an essential part of this Lecture Series. Our goal is not just to have big meetings, but to have personal contact with individuals. Through the follow-up plans you develop and implement, people will individually hear the gospel, come to Christ, grow in their faith and become disciples. You will be helping to fulfill the Great Commission!

This material has been carefully prepared to help your ministry gain the most from my visit. It includes ideas that have worked well at other locations. As you plan and prepare, please consider these guidelines carefully. You will want to work closely with the Lecture Series Coordinator. If you have additional ideas that will help maximize the impact of this outreach, please be sure to incorporate them.

I am thankful to God for you! Be confident of my love and prayers for you as we labor together in the Lord's harvest. To God be the glory!

Because He lives,


Rusty Wright


How to Organize and Control Follow-Up

A. Motivation: Benefits of Using These Guidelines

    1. You will have the gratifying privilege of helping new Christians become established in their
        faith.

    2. You will be able to maintain quality control during the follow-up period.

    3. You will have the opportunity to make Christ an issue on your campus or in your community.

    4. You will receive valuable experience for future responsibilities.

    5. You very likely will see growth in the lives of all that participate (including yourself).

B. Overview of Your Materials and Responsibilities

    1. The next several pages contain three main items that are designed to help you accomplish your
        objectives. (Remember: This is your Lecture Series.)

        a. Responsibility description that highlights the main aspects of your job.

        b. An organizational chart to show lines of communication between the believers working on
            the project.

        c. Helpful guidelines with specific details and ideas for doing the best job possible.

        These items contain ideas that have been used with success around the globe. Many have
        come from the ministries of Josh McDowell, Andre' Kole  and the Paragon Experience, as
        well as from Rusty's own speaking ministry. We hope they will help you to glorify our Lord
        though this outreach.

    2. Paul wrote, "Let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner" (I Corinthians 14:40).

        a. The Responsibility Description (RD) shows the purpose and scope of your job and lists
            your main responsibilities. It may seem somewhat cold and impersonal at first glance; but
            remember that its purpose is to briefly explain your job. Please understand that we (and, we
            hope, all involved  in this ministry) love you and care for you as a person. We merely use
            this written material as a simple and accurate means of communication.

        Most of the RD is self-explanatory. One aspect that is sometimes new to some is the
        "Authority" line under each item. This is a simple way of communicating how you should act on
        a given task. There are three main types of authority for our purposes:

            1) "Act" – This means you can act on the item without checking with your "supervisor" first.

            2) "Act and inform" – This means you can act without checking with your supervisor, but
                you should inform him/her of the action after you have done it.

            3) "Act after approval" – This means you should submit your plan of action to your
                supervisor and wait for his/her approval before acting on that item.

        b. The Organizational Chart shows how those involved relate to and communicate with each
            other. Most of your communication regarding the work of the lecture series should be with
            the person immediately above you or those immediately below you on the chart. This can
            help keep confusion to a minimum.

            1) The chart is not intended to convey positions of superiority or inferiority but simply
                working relationships. Everyone's job is significant. This is a team effort!

            2) Remember that the best leader is a servant. If ever anyone qualified to be the "man at the
                top" it was Jesus. Yet He turned the organizational chart upside down when He said,
                "Whoever wishes to become first among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes
                to be first among  you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be
                served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:43-45).

        c. The Guidelines are intended to help you carry out your responsibilities You will want to use
            them to develop a strategy for your area of  responsibility that is personalized to your
            ministry location. Go over your strategy with your supervisor to get his or her input and
            feedback.

        d. You probably will not be able to do your job without helpers. Consult your supervisor and
            the Lecture Series Personnel Coordinator for assistants. Once you have your helpers,
            consider them as teammates. Practice "Growth Delegation": Delegate responsibility not just
            to get the job done, but to help that person grow and develop in their job skills and their
            walk with God.

        e. Continue to emphasize "Relational Thinking" rather than "Terminal Thinking." Relational
            Thinking considers every activity in light of how it contributes to the overall objective.
            Terminal Thinking sees activities only as ends in themselves.

        f. Our overall objective is to glorify God by reaching people for Christ and building committed
            multiplying disciplers to help reach the world. If you can evaluate everything you do in light
            of your objectives, your motivation and effectiveness will most often increase. Your
            committee members can evaluate everything you do in light of your objectives, your
            motivation and effectiveness will most often increase. Your committee members need you to
            help remind them of this.

        g. Besides your encouragement, several items will help your team members see how they fit
            into the overall team. You should give them each:

            1) A copy of Rusty's letter, so they can see his heart-desire to be a co-laborer with them.

            2) A list of the benefits for their tasks.

            3) A copy of this "Overview of Your Material" (Section B).

            4) A written responsibility description.

            5) A copy of the organizational chart.

            6) A clear statement of your committee's objectives, their individual objectives and how
                both help accomplish the overall objective.

            If copies of these are not provided for you, photocopy them. In some cases, you may need
            to write them yourself, which will be a good learning experience. It is best to assemble the
            material in some sort of binder cover before you give it to the committee member. This
            conveys your desire to be sharp and do a good job as well as your concern for them.

Special note on distributing sections of the manual: You may find it best simply to print out sections of the lecture series manual and distribute hard copies to the appropriate workers. Or you may wish to distribute the material in digital form, so each worker can read and use their material on a computer. (There are many sample letters and charts that workers can adapt to their needs, so having digital versions may make their jobs easier.) Please realize, though, that if you divide and distribute the digital manual by “cutting-and-pasting” manual subsections into separate Word files, the page numbers will not appear in the new files and the valuable hyperlink navigation feature of the Table of Contents can be lost. Alternatively, you may find it simplest to give each worker a digital version of the entire manual (it should fit on one diskette, 1.44 MB size), show them the hyperlink navigation feature (explained at the top of the) and encourage them to read their own subsection.

    3. In order for you and your co-workers to be really motivated in your work, it is important to
        have a vision for how Rusty can be used on you campus. One of the best ways to do this is to
        circulate copies of his evangelistic articles among your volunteers. The Lecture Series
        Coordinator should have access to these. Take the initiative to get them and expose your
        committee members to them, perhaps at a committee meeting. Consider it your responsibility
        to "keep the vision before them."

    4. Be sure that individually and as a group, you bathe everything you do in prayer. A well-
        organized effort without constant dependence upon the Lord can have greatly diminished
        effectiveness.

    5. A priority for you and everyone involved in this project should be to continue to develop your
        personal relationship with God. Never let activity keep you from seeking the Lord often
        through prayer and Bible study. Our desire is that this be a growing experience for you that
        you are built up  (not burned out) through your involvement. Strive mightily to keep this
        perspective in your personal life and to impart it to those with whom you work.
 

Follow-Up Coordinator

Responsibility Description

    "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from
        the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."
        (Colossians 3:23-24)

    "Serve the Lord with gladness." (Psalm 100:2)

    I. Purpose: To follow up everyone who has indicated an interest in Jesus Christ within one week
        after Rusty leaves.

    II. Scope: Your university and/or community.

    III. Responsibilities:

    A. To develop a strategy that will result in prompt follow-up of those expressing an interest in
        knowing more.

        Authority: Act after approval.

    B. Determine, list and secure any materials needed (be sure to include quantities of each).

        Authority: Act after approval.

    C. To work with Physical Arrangements Coordinator in advance to have all comment cards
        collected and delivered to you each time Rusty speaks.

        Authority: Act and inform.

    D. To supervise the individual follow-up for a period of five weeks after Rusty leaves, to be sure
        it is getting done.

        Authority: Act and inform.

    E. To submit upon completion a written report and evaluation of your job (see enclosed form).
        Submit this to the Lecture Series Coordinator.

        Authority: Act.

IV. Working Relationships:

    A. Report to Lecture Series Coordinator.

    B. Work closely with other committee heads, particularly Physical Arrangements Coordinator.

    C. Recruit helpers as needed through the Lecture Series Coordinator and the Lecture Series
        Personnel Coordinator.

 

Organizational Chart and Lines of Communication

C. Directions: Guidelines for Organization and Control of Follow-Up

    1. Follow-up for the Rusty lecture series is comprised of two phases. Phase I entails sending out
        follow-up letters. Phase II involves personal contact with each individual who indicated an
        interest on their comment card.

    2. The procedure for Phase I must be organized.

        a. This process involves securing the completed comment cards, sorting the cards, addressing,
            stuffing and sealing the envelopes and letters, and mailing the letters.

        b. Determine that the Physical Arrangements Coordinator has arranged for ushers with
            Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets to collect and deliver the comment cards to you.

        c. Secure a private room (preferably in the same building as the lecture) to separate the
            comment cards and prepare the follow-up letters for mailing.

        d. Use the sample follow-up letters from Rusty. (See copies at the end of this section, You will
            need to have them printed. The number of follow-up letters you should prepare is hard to
            determine. You may use the following calculations as an estimate: Determine the total
            number of people you think will attend the meeting. Apply the following approximate ratios
            to that number. Ten to twelve percent will pray to receive Christ, 5% will be Christians but
            will want some information, 5% will not be Christians but will want more information. These
            are approximate figures and are not designed to limit God or deny His sovereignty.

        e. Plan to use envelopes and arrange to have the letters stuffed in advance.

        f. Secure computers, printers, staples, pencils, pens, envelopes, stamps and other materials
            you will need in sorting and mailing.
   
        g. Select a committee to sort, stuff and mail letters each evening after Rusty finishes speaking.

        h. Each night, after Rusty's lectures, have the comment cards taken to the follow-up room for
            processing.

        i. Separate cards into four categories: 1) Prayed to receive Christ; 2) Already Christian and
            wants more information; 3) Not a Christian but is interested and wants more information;
            and 4) Not interested.

        j. Note that at large public meetings, Rusty will ask everyone to write a comment plus their
            name, address and phone. Then he will ask those who prayed to receive Christ tonight to
            write, "I prayed to receive Christ tonight" on their cards. He will also ask others (both those
            who have already received Christ before now and those who have not) who want more
            information to write, “I would like to know more ...” on their cards. You will need to try to
            determine from the comments of those who want to know more whether or not they are
            believers.

        k. It is inappropriate for Rusty to ask the audience to indicate on the cards whether or not they
            are already Christians, nor is it wise for your comment cards to include such a choice. The
            problem is that many people think they are Christians but actually are not. The act of
            indicating on a card that they are “Already a Christian” can further cement the error in their
            minds. While asking for the respondents to indicate “Already Christian” on the card may
            make it easier for you to sort cards, the potential problems outweigh the benefits. If you are
            in doubt about the spiritual state of a respondent, put their card in the "interested
            nonChristian" category.

        l. If someone says they "prayed to receive Christ tonight" but also says that they have received
            Christ before, count them as "prayed to receive Christ" but note that they probably need
            assurance. We are not interested in inflating decision counts, but we do want the confused
            seeker to be followed up in a way that helps them gain assurance.

        m. Mail the appropriate letters to interested persons. The ideal would be for the respondents
            to receive the follow-up letters from Rusty the day after the lecture.

        n. There are several things of which you should be aware:

            1) Many times a person's mailing address and dormitory/residence address are different.
                When you begin to sort the comment cards into finer categories for the personal follow-
                up, this will be extremely important. If you need a dorm address, be sure to ask Rusty in
                advance to ask the students to put their dorm addresses on the comment cards, or have
                such information indicated on the pre-printed cards.

            2) Over a three-night series, there will be duplicate responses by repeat attendees. You
                should attempt to sort out the duplications as best you can.

            3) If Rusty speaks in classrooms, there likely will be many people who respond to his offer
                of material. Be sure each of the cards from the classrooms are marked as such so they
                will be able to receive special care as described in the sample follow-up plan in Section
                D below.

        o. Statistical Summary: Please compile the information needed to complete the short Statistical
            Summary form (see next page) at the end of the lecture series. Do your best to give this to
            Rusty before he leaves town so you can all rejoice together at what God did.

(Note: The text of this section continues on the page immediately following the Statistical Summary form.)

Statistical Summary

At the end of Rusty’s visit to your city or campus, please complete and give this form to Rusty so we can all rejoice at what God did.


Ministry name: ___________________________

Location: _______________________________

Date: __________________________________




Total number in all of Rusty’s audiences (both secular and Christian meetings):___________

Total number indicating decisions to receive Christ:___________

Total number requesting follow up (including those indicating decisions to receive Christ):___________




Please note: For preprinted comment cards, the indication of interest in more information is often a mark in a box. For blank comment cards (Rusty prefers these for classrooms and certain other meetings), the mere presence of the name on the card is the indication of interest in knowing more. Check with Rusty to be sure that you are both clear on how he will handle the closing so you know how to follow up and record the responses.


    3. The procedure for Phase II should be organized so that you can keep track of the personal
        follow-up contact. It is important that every individual who indicates an interest is followed up
        personally.

        a. Consider the following hypothetical situation:

            1) The university has 50 committed, trained Christians, 25 men and 25 women.

            2) 500 students indicate an interest in knowing more, 250 men and 250 women. As
                Follow-up Coordinator your job is to ensure that all 500 people are personally contacted
                and followed up. You have 25 men and 25 women who are committed to helping. This
                means that each man and woman will be responsible for contacting ten people. Since you
                are responsible for control of the follow-up, this means you will be responsible for
                directly supervising 50 people. You realize that this is not feasi-ble. You, therefore, select
                a qualified associate to supervise and track half of the follow-up. The situation now is that
                you have 26 people directly reporting to you, 25 trained Christians and your associate.
                Your associate has 25 people reporting directly to him or her. You are still convinced
                that this is not feasible. What can you do?

        3) You are aware that there are ten discipleship groups on the campus, five male groups with
            five men each, and five female groups with five women each. You decide to put each
            discipleship group in charge of following up 50 people each and have the discipleship group
            leaders report to you and your associate. The situation now is that you have six people
            reporting directly to you: five discipleship group leaders and one associate. Your associate
            has five discipleship group leaders reporting to him/her. You agree that this is a workable
            situation.

        4) As you continue to study the situation, you notice a couple of problems. How can you
            ensure that everyone is followed up correctly? How can you determine who is being
            followed up by whom? How can you determine how the follow-up is progressing toward
            your goal?

        5) If, for instance, you give each discipleship group leader 50 comment cards to follow up, you
            lose your record, unless you have copied down the names. You must determine a method
            of distributing the names without losing record of which you distributed to whom. This
            method should also make it simple for the discipleship group leader to report the progress
            of the follow-up.

        6) You and your associate create a form designed to allow you to distribute the names to the
            discipleship group leaders and to allow the discipleship group leaders to report back to you
            on the process You also design a follow-up plan to be distributed to everyone involved in
            the follow-up. This insures that everyone knows the correct procedure for follow-up.

        7) (See the end of this section for a sample tracking form, a sample follow-up plan that
            workers can use, and a sample follow-up “flow chart” that visually depicts a strategy to
            follow up 500 people for the above hypothetical example.)

        8) You now feel comfortable with the organization of the follow-up. The results now depend
            on each individual and how s/he responds to his or her responsibility.

        9) Note that it is almost always best to have men follow up men and women follow up women.

    b. After thinking through the above situation, begin to establish your own plan.

    c. Determine how many trained Christians are available to work on follow-up.

    d. Determine if it is necessary to have a special training class on follow-up before Rusty arrives.

    e. Determine what follow-up material you will need and how much you will need. Use the same
        percentages as for the follow-up letters.

    f. Obtain your follow-up material. For new decisions, you might wish to use the transferable
        concept "How to Be Sure You Are A Christian." For those who are already Christians, you
        can use the concept "How to Experience God's Love and Forgiveness" and "How to Be Filled
        with the Spirit." For those who are not Christians but are interested, you can use one of
        Rusty’s seeker-friendly articles. (See below, and contact the Lecture Series Coordinator for
        information on obtaining these.)

    g. Rusty has written some evangelistic articles that relate to the themes of his lectures: He has
        written many articles on topics like the ones on which he will speak. These short articles make
        attractive pieces to offer to those seeking more information. Workers can personally take
        copies to inquirers the next day or a few days after the meetings, answer their questions, share
        the Gospel with them, lead them to Christ and help them grow in faith.

        Many of these articles are on the web and can be accessed by you at www.probe.org/Rusty.
        (Should this link not work, consult the most recent information contined in the publicity and
        follow-up materials that the Lecture Series Cordinator received.) Ask Rusty when he arrives
        which article would be best to use for which talk (i.e., one article per talk). He will then offer
        them to listeners and explain that someone will deliver the article personally to those requesting
        them. You can print these out, photocopy them and use them in your follow-up effort.

        Guidelines for using evangelistic articles are at these two web locations:

        http://www.leaderu.com/offices/rusty_wright/guidelines.html

        http://www.leaderu.com/common/howtouse.html

        These guidelines offer ideas to help you use evangelistic articles to reach people for Christ.

    h. Design and print your reporting forms and follow-up schedules. (See end of this section for
        examples.)

    i. Determine how you will organize the follow-up. (e.g., Will you follow up by dorms, Greek
        houses, etc.? Will you follow up by class year? Will you follow up by section of the campus?
        Will you use discipleship groups? Will you create new follow-up groups? Etc.)

    j. Arrange to have comment cards sorted to accommodate your plan (e.g., sort cards into male-
        female, by dorms, etc.) and to be distributed to follow-up workers.

    k. You, as Follow-up Coordinator, should have a master list of all who are being followed up
        and which group is responsible for which list of persons. Arrange to transfer the necessary
        information from the cards to the reporting form.

        1) You may want to prepare follow-up packets for Christians to use in their follow-up. These
            packets could include a list of names, addresses and phone numbers of individuals to
            contact, the various follow-up materials, the comment cards of those whom they will be
            contacting, etc.

        2) Because it is important for Christians making the contacts to know how each individual is
            thinking, they should have the comment cards included in their packets.

    l. Possible outlines to use for follow-up as well as a sample phone conversation are presented
        near the end of this section. You may want to make copies of this available to your students.
        Or, you may wish to use a follow-up procedure already in effect on your campus. For more
        details on follow-up, see the training materials of the Christian organization with which you are
        associated. If you do not have access to such materials, try those produced by Campus
        Crusade for Christ at www.ccci.org.

    m. Remember that as Follow-up Coordinator, your responsibility is to make sure that there is
        effective on-going follow-up. Set us a system for the follow-up leaders to report to you on the
        progress of the follow-up. Arrange to monitor the follow-up for at least five weeks. A "Praise
        and Prayer" rally a week after Rusty leaves may be a good time to keep students motivated to
        do follow-up. Consult the Prayer Coordinator who may be planning such an event.

    n. Remember that the quality of the follow-up depends not so much on the organization, but on
        the attitudes of the individuals involved. (Are they enthusiastic? Do they have positive
        attitudes? Are they praying for each other and for the ones they are contacting? etc.). The
        organization just makes it a little easier and more efficient.


Follow-Up Flow Chart

Sample Plan to Follow up 500 People