Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 06:2 (Summer 1963)
Article: Our Follow-Up Ministry
Author: Roger L. Peterson

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CenQ 6:2 (Summer 1963) p. 9

Our Follow-Up Ministry

Roger L. Peterson

Central Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary

The joy of winning a soul to Jesus Christ is like that of a family which has just experienced the long-awaited arrival of a new-born baby, only greater. After the arrival of this little one comes the task of raising him to maturity. No decent parent puts his baby in a basket and leaves him on someone else’s doorstep. Or, no good parent could leave him out in the cold with no concern for his life and future. Yet this is done quite often in the spiritual realm. What we disdain in the physical life we practice in the spiritual life. How inconsistent!

Paul and Barnabas practiced a follow-up ministry among their new converts. Acts 14:21, 22, records that ‘‘they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 15:36 tells that Paul proposed another plan of follow-up to these same Christians, “And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.” Through a follow-up ministry Paul raised his spiritual children to maturity.

Paul felt a follow-up responsibility to each man he led to Jesus Christ. To do this he organized his converts into local churches. He saw to it that pastors were elected who would continue to teach the new converts. Then he visited the local churches as the Holy Spirit made it possible. If he could not visit a church he wrote to them. He

CenQ 6:2 (Summer 1963) p. 10

was concerned about them until Christ be formed in them (Gal. 4:19).

On the other hand, Paul paid special attention to faithful men who were competent to teach others. He wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (II Tim. 2:1, 2). Paul had a follow-up ministry among all men, but a special and more intensive ministry among men of promise.

All converts, however, should receive a basic program of instruction in order to equip them with the essential doctrines and practices of the Christian life. This course could ...

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