Pastor Bob’s Blog

This past weekend, as we have for the past three years, our Snatch and Rescue team dove into the nation’s largest Halloween block party, which occurs each year in our town. To the glory of God, 136 decisions for Christ were made during about three hours spent loving and ministering to block party revelers.

As is often the case, people ask, “What are you doing to follow up with these people?” It’s a valid question worthy of a response.

First, we take seriously Jesus’ directive to GO and make disciples. Most unsaved people will never make it to church to respond to an altar call. Just as I won’t catch many fish putting my line down in my back yard, I won’t catch many unsaved for Jesus just waiting for them to show up in my church. We’re trying to be obedient to the model set by Jesus, who went to sinners’ homes to eat with them, and to the model set by the church in the book of Acts, which assembled to worship and be trained but then went out to share the good news.

Second, our personal/street evangelism training comes from the director of global evangelism from Kenneth Copeland Ministries, Riley Stephenson. He has been to our church each of the last three Halloweens, and has brought a team of seasoned soul winners with him each time. He has trained us and taken us out to minister to the kids on Court Street. Over the last three years, about 1400 decisions for Christ have been made through our “Snatch and Rescue” team (Jude 23 NLT), not just at Halloween, but also with ordinary believers from the pews leading people to Christ. All of this is to the praise and glory of God!

We follow Riley’s model, which was a “Holy Spirit download.” When someone makes a decision for Christ, we ask them to write down their name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Not all will give us that information, and we can’t force it. Those who give us contact information get a letter from us welcoming them into the family of believers, inviting them to church, and enclosing a book from Kenneth Copeland Ministries called “He Did It All For You,” which very simply lays out the next steps for being a follower of Jesus. They also get a letter and package from Kenneth Copeland Ministries.

Everyone – those who give us their contact information and those who don’t – gets a little tract on-the-spot called “What’s Next?” that instructs them to get into a Bible-teaching church, to buy and read their Bible (we also have paperback Bibles we can give them), to pray, and to live the life of love that Jesus commanded.

Third, when we’ve finished for the night, we pray over them, and part of the prayer is that they find a good Bible-teaching church. That could be ours, it could be yours, or it could be another – we frankly don’t care. We do pray, believing we receive, that they will find the right church for them – the one God is calling them to.

If I could, I would hog-tie each new disciple and drag them to church. That’s not going to happen. I trust the Holy Spirit to lead them to a church that will nurture and train them once they’ve been born again. He’s bigger than I am, much more powerful than I am, and has a lot more experience at bringing people to church than I do.

I’m also mindful that people like Jesse Duplantis have made decisions for Christ based just on praying a prayer with Billy Graham on television. Billy Graham didn’t provide any follow up, but the Holy Spirit led Jesse Duplantis to church. Jesse has become an anointed evangelist through whom millions have come to Jesus.

If we didn’t do street evangelism because we were afraid people wouldn’t get “follow-up” then we just wouldn’t do evangelism. That’s just not an option. What if one of those 136 was killed in a car wreck on the way home? What if another was fatally struck with an errant beer bottle? At least we have the consolation that their eternal destiny will be with Jesus. We’ll keep doing it, trusting God for the further discipling of each one.