2) Develop a personal practice that works for you.
Not every aspect of follow-up is system-based. There is a great deal that is personal. This is about you and your people connections each week.
For example, what is your personal phone call return practice? Within in 24 hours? 48 hours? If you don’t have a standard, your follow-up will suffer every time.
If you are buried, people understand, but you have to communicate. For example, if it’s Monday, and there is no way you can follow up that day, let them know! Send a quick text or email that you received their call, email or text and that you will get back to them, (for example), on Thursday. The most important thing now, is that you must follow up on Thursday.
3) Designate a leader to be responsible for the system.
Regardless of the size of your church, someone must take responsibility for each system.
In a small church, it might be a volunteer for the first-time visitor follow up or prayer requests. In a large church, it might be a spiritual formation staff member at each campus who follows up on requests for a variety of things from baptism to next steps toward engagement.
The key question is, who owns each system?
4) Delegate to volunteers if your staff can’t keep up.
If your church is experiencing rapid growth and your staff can’t keep up with all the people follow-up, volunteers can do an excellent job helping you.
You might be surprised how much can be accomplished, for example, by just three to four people coming into the office for a few hours a week.
5) Design a way to measure and track your system.
This sounds like you following up on your follow-up. That’s exactly right! If you don’t keep track of your results, you will never know how well you are doing, or how you need to improve.
Establish a simple way to record and measure your results.
Strong and consistent follow up will make an amazing difference in your church!
This article originally appeared here.
