ideas for following up planner and survey contacts

One of the passages of Scripture I keep going back to this year is 2 Chronicles 20:12.  When I start to feel overwhelmed at the ministry that the Lord has called me to and when I think of how little and limited and ‘resource-less’ I am, I pray the words of Jehosophat back to God:  We are powerless…nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee.  I pray that you are keeping your eyes on Him as well.

As promised I would like to give you some ideas of what to do when you meet with student contacts from the planners or from surveys:

-for those who are interested in participating or organizing a discussion group about the Bible and Christianity (from the planner survey).   You can meet with them and ask any of the following questions:

                •   What was your religious background as a child?

                •   Was your experience positive, negative, or neutral?

                •   Where are you now in your spiritual journey?

                •   What words would you use to describe your life spiritually?

                •   How would you describe your belief in God?

                •   Where would you say you are at with God?

It makes people feel safer when you share brief answers to these questions first, then give them the opportunity to fully answer the questions themselves.  You basically want to show them that you are open to a two-way discussion about God and the Bible as well as get a basic idea of where they are spiritually. 

It would be good to bring along an example of what you will be discussing in the study.  The Agape ministry in the UK has an evangelistic Bible study called Connect that you can use with seekers.   I will try to find you other resources to use in this kind of a setting. 

Of course you will want to have a few times and places to suggest for the discussion group to meet.  I would suggest starting it right away.  If you wait too long to start the group, your potential group members may lose interest or fill their time up with other activities.  You can always continue to add new people to the group as you continue to meet with your survey or planner contacts.

-for general discussion groups (a spiritual discussion group or ideas of material to use in an English club): try these Focus Group questions for a 1-3 week discussion that can help to lead toward spiritual conversations. 

-if you have the opportunity to simply share the gospel with someone, then I would suggest going through the Four Spiritual Laws.  Please go through the booklet as a discussion and don’t use it to ‘preach’ to them!  You find out more by asking questions as you go through the booklet about their beliefs about God and where they are right now in their relationship with Him.  This should give you a better idea of what they need in order to move closer to God.

How to follow up survey contacts

I just returned from handing out planners this afternoon with some friends at a university in Moscow.  In the place of planners in my bag are now completed surveys from students.  As my friends and I talked about what to do next with the surveys, I thought you might be asking the same question if you have surveys from planners or if you chose to use a different kind of survey.

It‘s good to ask yourself some questions: 

What is the ultimate goal of using planners and surveys to gather contacts?  (For us in Moscow it is to find those who are interested in talking further about spiritual things and to find believers who might be interested in joining with us in helping to reach the university for Christ.)

Who should be the priority to contact first?  (For us it is to contact those who seem to be the most interested in getting back together and those who sound like might be believers.)

So we sorted through our completed surveys and took out all the surveys without contact information or who indicated that they had no interest at all in anything we are considering offering.  We noted what things interested the students in general from those surveys and then threw the surveys away.  We next sorted through to find those who seemed the most interested in talking with us and those who could be believers.  Those became our first priority to contact.  The rest of the surveys we kept, saving them for another time when we either want to invite a larger number of people to an event or will call them after we have met with all of our “hot” contacts.

[If you are offering events for non-believers such as English clubs or evangelistic discussion groups or sports activities, then send them a quick e-mail with the time and place of the next event that they would be interested in.  Try to focus your time, though, on those who indicated the most interest in hearing about Christ.  When you have time later you can meet with these other potentially-interested people.  I’m not saying to ignore those who don’t seem to be “hot contacts”, but I realize that many of you may be the only person you know of who is trusting God right now to reach your campus, so you will definitely need to prioritize.  If you have a larger group of people, then feel free to try to contact as many of your survey contacts as possible right now.]

What do you say when you contact them?  [Of course you will want to use your own words – this is simply what I generally say to give you an idea.]

First of all I pray asking God to give me His words and ask the Holy Spirit to guide the conversation and their response.  When I call students, I say something like this:  “Hi, a few days ago a group of us were giving out free planners and you filled out a survey that was attached to the planner.  Do you remember that?  I hope you are finding the planner helpful.  I am calling because you checked on the survey that you were interested in being a part of a group discussion about the Bible and Christianity (or whatever they checked that you want to follow up on).  I was wondering if you would like to get together tomorrow after class or during a break and I could tell you a little more about what that discussion group would look like (or talk about whatever they checked on the survey).  We don’t have to meet for long, maybe about 20 minutes or so.  If you have any friends who might be interested in this kind of a discussion group, please invite them to come.”  Set up the time and the place.

If you want to meet with them to talk about the gospel: 

““Hi, a few days ago you filled out a survey on campus and you said on the survey that you would be interested in talking to someone about (use the phrase directly from the survey you used).   I really enjoy conversations like this and if you’re interested, I would also love to show you something that explains the very essence of the Bible.  Would you have some time tomorrow (morning, during the big break, after classes or in the evening)?  (If they say they can’t meet the next day, then suggest the day after or have them say when would be best for them.)  Why don’t we meet at (name a place easily accessible)?”  I have found it helpful to meet them where I gave them the planner or took the survey with them.

If they say that they aren’t interested:  Simply thank them, wish them well, hang up and then pray for them, that God will open their hearts to hear about Him another time.

Make sure you write down when and where you will meet them and make a note on their survey that you contacted them so that you don’t get mixed up and accidently call them again.  This is embarrassing, believe me!

In the next рассылкa I will give you some ideas of what you can talk about when you meet with students as well as ideas for discussion group topics and Bible study topics for those interested in spiritual things.  Please write me at catalalist@promail.ru if you have any ideas or needs or prayer requests.

I am praying “…that God may open up to [you] a door for the word, so that [you] may speak forth the mystery of Christ” (Colossians 4:3) for you this week!  I know that the Holy Spirit will direct your steps and guide your thoughts and give you His words as you walk in His power to represent Jesus Christ to the lost on your campus.

Using student planners

During the first part of the school year these blogs will focus on how you can find people who are interested in learning what it means to have a relationship with Jesus as well as how to find other believers.  Later in the year you will receive ideas, suggestions and encouragements about other parts of your relationship with God, in helping others to know Him better and in leading a ministry.

Some of you may be receiving this year’s student planners.  I would like to give you a few ideas of how you can use the planners differently in a way that may be more helpful to you.

If no one has talked to you about getting student planners this year, but you are interested in using them, let me know (catalist@promail.ru) and I will see what I can do to get some to you.

USING STUDENT PLANNERS EFFECTIVELY:

Make a plan to get them into the hands of students beginning the first week of classes:  The beginning of the school year is a good time to use the planners to make contact with new students.  We often focus on first-year students at this time as it is when they are just starting to make acquaintances with those who will end up being very influential in their lives.  They are often more open to thinking about God and their relationship with Him than older students are.

Use a survey or offer something as a way to connect again with students.  You will notice that there is a survey attached to the planner which is designed for use at universities where there are full-time New Life staff.  The survey offers activities and programs that you may not be able to offer in your current situation.  Pray through and think through what you can offer to students that would enable you to stay in contact with them, especially with those who are interested in talking about spiritual things.

You could re-write the survey, taking out the things that you aren’t able to fulfill (organizing sports, English classes, etc).  If you want, you can rewrite the survey just using the ‘spiritual sphere’ of the survey to offer Bible discussion groups, watching the JESUS film or hosting a Focus Group (ideas). 

A very simple way you can use the planners is to simply hand one to each of your group mates or acquaintances in the dorm or friends and tell them that there are helpful articles in the planner to help them become better students as well as some articles that touch on the spiritual aspect of life.  Explain that you are a believer and enjoy talking to people about this topic and let them know that you would love to discuss any of the articles further if they want to talk more.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE STUDENT PLANNERS:

You can use surveys without planners to connect with students.  Here are some examples of surveys you can use.  When you approach someone with a survey have something in mind that you can invite them to if they are interested in further discussion.  It may be something as simple as suggesting to discuss a topic with them over tea or invite them to a Bible discussion group that is for people who want to know more about the Bible. 

Download an article from http://www.mirstudentov.com/ to invite people to come to an informal discussion to talk about the topic in the article.  Always try to end the time with a summary of the discussion including how God views that topic and how they can begin a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ (be careful about ‘preaching’ to them – just summarize the gospel in a few short sentences).

This should be enough ideas for now!  I know that God will bless all your efforts as you walk in His power seeking to help others come to know Him and to grow in their relationship with Him.  Please let us know how we can pray for you this week.  Tell us what God is doing as you trust Him to change your вуз through you.  Your ideas are probably better than mine, so please share with us the things that you are doing that are working at your вуз so that we can include them in future blogs.