Follow-Up in Open-Air Evangelism
Over the years, I have attended many different evangelism training courses and viewed many types of outreach programs. As I have done so, I’ve noticed that there is often a strong emphasis on follow-up.
If you are unfamiliar with what is meant by "follow-up" let me quickly explain what I am talking about. Follow-up is what happens after someone hears the gospel or professes faith in the Lord Jesus. For instance, if you attend a mass evangelistic event, when the preacher calls for the response and people move forward, you will find that a whole system of follow-up swings into gear. People will take the name and contact details of the person responding to the gospel, and then they will give them a pack that may contain a portion of Scripture and a new believers discipleship book. After the event, someone will contact the person who responded to the gospel, and they will seek to connect them with local Christians. The hope is that over time the person who came to faith at the gospel meeting will join a local church and then grow in Christ.
I think this process of follow-up is vitally important, and it should be supported and encouraged. However, when it comes to open-air evangelism, the question we must face is, how do we follow up with the people we meet? In the past seventeen years, I have been asked about the subject of follow-up more times than I can count. Generally, the question of follow-up comes from a well-meaning Christian who is genuinely concerned for the people we meet on the streets. Other times it can come from someone who is seeking to throw cold water on open-air evangelism. Either way, we do need to wrestle with this question and come up with an answer.
The nature of open-air evangelism means that you meet many people from many walks of life. Sometimes you will meet people who live locally to the evangelism location, other times you may meet people from much further afield, including from the other side of the world. These people hear the gospel, they express interest, but now what do you do with them? The labourers are few, so the open-air preacher cannot rightly spend all his time following up every person he meets, and in some cases, he may never see that person again. So, what is the open-air preacher to do? To answer that, I think it would be wise to look at the Scripture and see how Philip the evangelist engaged in follow-up.
In Acts 8:26-40, we read the account of Philip being directed to go to the road that heads south from Jerusalem to Gaza, which was in the desert (v26). Up until this point, Philip had been engaged in a very productive time of evangelism in Samaria (Acts 8:4-13), but now the Lord wanted him to leave all that to head to a deserted place to share the gospel with a man from Ethiopia (v27). Philip encounters this important official who worked for the Queen of Ethiopia (v27), and as he meets him, Philip notices that the Ethiopian man is reading from Isaiah the prophet (v30); Philip taking this opportunity that was before him, used the Scripture to present Christ to the man (v35). We are told in Acts 8:36-38 that the Ethiopian official believed and was baptised – this has been a successful one to one evangelistic encounter. But now, how does Philip follow up the man?
If we look at v39-40, we see that Philip isn’t given a chance to follow up. He doesn’t have time to write down all the details of the Ethiopian and give him a new believer's pack. He doesn’t have time to promise that someone from a local church will be in touch in the next week to connect with him. No, before he can do anything we are told that the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. God actively prevented Philip from engaging in what we would term, follow-up.
The Bible tells us that evangelism does take place, a man is converted, and then before Philip can do anything he is gone. But this doesn’t mean that the Ethiopian is left without any means to grow in his knowledge of Christ. Follow-up is primarily about helping people grow in Jesus; to do this we give them resources and bring them into the life of the local church. In Ethiopia at that time there were no local churches; church tradition will go on to say that this official will plant the first church in Ethiopia, but before him, there was nothing in that land. So, how could this Ethiopian official have grown in Jesus? The answer is found in Acts 8:28.
The official had all that he needed to grow in Christ, as he had the Scripture. We are told in v28 that he was reading God’s Word when Philip approached him. He had what is needed to grow him and equip him (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The minimum level of follow-up that we should engage in is making sure the person we have shared with has access to the Word of God. Even after we have gone the Holy Spirit will use the Scripture to grow the new believer or continue to work upon the heart of the person who is being drawn by the Father.
When it comes to open-air evangelism, we can learn much from Philip. Sometimes we can get so worried about follow-up that we end up becoming crippled in our evangelistic endeavours. Instead, we should seek to share the good news and then get the Word of God into the hands of the person we share the gospel with.
Let me share what I do in evangelism. If I am witnessing on the streets, and someone professes faith in Christ or wants to find out more, at a minimum I will give them a copy of the Gospel of John – I want to get God’s Word into their hands. Sometimes I will give them a New Testament or a full Bible if I have a copy with me. The goal is to get the Scripture to those who are new in Christ or who want to find out more.
I will also try to give them an in-depth gospel tract or a booklet aimed at new believers. If I am witnessing in my local area, I will give them the contact details of my home church. If they live further afield, I will take their details and see if I can find a church in their area. If I can find a church, I will ask the pastor to contact the person. I will also give them my email or website so that they can contact me if they have any further questions. If the person lives in an area where there is no biblical church, I will encourage them to listen to my preaching online or I will direct them to a solid bible teaching ministry. With the technology we have today, there really is no excuse for not getting good resources into the hands of the people we meet on the street.
Follow-up doesn’t have to be an eight-week discipleship course with constant contact - it can simply be leaving the person with God’s Word. Don’t let the issue of follow-up cripple your witness, instead look at Philip and see what he did. Also, feel free to use the ideas I mentioned above.
To assist in follow-up, the below resources are helpful:
The Gospel of John
Pocket Testament League
Books for New Believers
Save Yourself Some Pain
Welcome to the Family – John MacArthur
Online Bible Teaching
Josh Williamson (I have to link to myself!)