So you’ve led someone to Christ—what now?

When I joined staff with Cru in 1990 they placed me at Auburn University.

As soon as I arrived on campus I went into the Sigma Chi house and started a ministry with that chapter. Being a member myself, it was easy and natural.

The first thing I did was meet the pledge trainer and schedule a time to speak to the pledge class.

When I spoke to the pledges I passed out comment cards and started to call them and set up appointments.

I like to use “Knowing God Personally” written by Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Cru.

I saw several guys trust Christ within the first week of speaking with the pledges!

I thought I was on the edge of being a part a wonderful revival! But then I started to notice the guys were quick to pray with me but slow to show up for the follow-up appointments.

It wasn’t long until I figured out that these guys were intimidated by me because I was only a few years older than them.

I think I could’ve gotten them to pray to receive rocks if I had wanted to!

Although I didn’t stop sharing the Gospel with pledges, I started to ease up and make sure they were ready.

I saw fewer decisions that way, but I believe they were more serious decisions.

The follow-up

So what did I do with a guy once he made a decision to trust Christ? How did I follow up a new convert?

When I had a guy pray with me to trust Christ, I realized that although he “indicated a decision” to follow Christ that didn’t mean that he was truly regenerated.

I couldn’t know for sure until I saw him grow and begin to make Christ Lord of his life.

There are several things I ask him to consider doing:

• Find a church that teaches the Bible and start attending regularly to find fellowship with other Christians. I’ll encourage them to go with me and I’ll take them to my church.
• If they are in college, I encourage them to get involved in a local campus ministry and go to the Bible study that hopefully meets at their fraternity chapter.
• Consider buying a Bible. I even suggest buying a study Bible. Of course I point out that the writing on the top is God’s inspired Word and the writing at the bottom is the words of men who are very wise and can give clarity to God’s Word. I encourage them to buy a NASB or ESV—but that’s just my preference. Until they get one, I let them borrow mine and I encourage them to start reading through the book of John and ask if we could meet on a regular basis to discuss what they are learning.
• I also encourage them to buy a notebook and take notes of what they are learning. The reason I do this is because reading helps you remember some but writing helps you remember more. And if they share it with someone else then they will remember a majority of what they read.
• I love the foundation studies that Cru has put together and I have used them for over 30 years. They are a great resource to help them understand the basics like assurance of salvation, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and how to pray.

You can order sets of the four foundation studies here.