Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare, Mentor's Guide, MG08

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E V A N G E L I S M A N D S P I R I T U A L W A R F A R E

Follow-Up and Incorporation

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 4, Follow-up and Incorporation . The overall focus of this lesson is the critical role that follow-up plays in vital, urban evangelistic ministry. The Great Commission of our Lord recorded in Matthew 28.18-20 is rooted in the concept of making disciples of Jesus Christ, those whose entire lives were known by the repentance ( metanoia ) associated with turning to God from idols, to serve the Lord Jesus, and to wait for the salvation to come, as Paul describes the Thessalonican conversion process (cf. 1 Thess. 1.9-10). Evangelism that ignores God’s call to converts to live the adventure of the eternal hope in Christ can hardly claim to be the kind of evangelism that Jesus desires or will bless. As a result of this understanding, we must in every way focus on the critical role that grounding new believers in the faith plays in evangelism. The argument in this lesson is that we separate the idea of evangelism from follow-up and incorporation to our own peril, both our ministries and those who hear us. Evangelism is not merely a call to personal decision alone; that personal decision is simultaneously a call to experience the hope of the Kingdom in the midst of God’s kingdom community, the Church. Evangelism that is legitimate, therefore, will not begin to strategize at the end of its activities about the importance and role of follow-up. On the contrary, it will initiate its first efforts with a clear and strategic sense of preparing for the care of souls before the outreach and evangelistic campaigns start . This is the difference between the kind of evangelism that merely looks impressive, and that which actually results in bearing fruit that remains that goes on to multiply disciples for the glory of God (Romans 15.16). This entire lesson focuses on various dimensions of follow-up work. It is critical for you as a mentor to make plain why this is so. There is no such thing as a legitimate evangelistic effort that would ignore the importance and significance of grounding new believers in the faith (Col. 2.6-7; 1 Thess. 4.1; 1 John 2.6; Phil. 1.27, Eph. 5.1, etc.) simply for the sake of touching souls with the initial spring of Christian transformation. The goal is to make disciples, so no real discussion of evangelism is intelligible that ignores or eclipses the role of discipleship in all evangelistic activity. Another way of helping your students conceive this is that evangelism is the first step of making disciples. Actually, an even better analogy would suggest that the first

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