This Post-Salvation Process Changes Everything | Ep 30

Most churches celebrate when someone gets saved. But what happens next is just as crucial as the decision itself.
If you want help building the systems and structure your church needs to steward people well after they say yes to Jesus, learn more about joining our RSG Mastermind here: https://www.readysetgrowchurch.com/pricing

In this episode, the Scott, Hunter, and Mark unpack one of the most overlooked gaps in ministry: what happens after someone says yes to Jesus. Because salvation is not the finish line—it is the starting point.

They break down why having a clear, repeatable process for new believers is essential, and how baptism becomes a powerful next step when it is intentional, explained well, and followed up with care.

This is not about adding complexity. It is about being prepared—so that when God moves, your church knows exactly what to do next.

If your church wants to grow, you cannot just focus on the moment of salvation.
You need a process that helps people take their next step.

If you have a question or topic you’d like us to tee up on a future episode, email us at hey@readysetgrowchurch.com

Timestamps:
00:00 What happens after someone gets saved?
01:16 Why you need a plan for new believers
01:52 Why baptism is the next step
04:37 The retention power of baptism
06:18 How to actually capture decisions
08:15 Creating connection immediately after salvation
10:23 What to say about baptism (5 reasons)
12:22 Turning baptism into an evangelism moment
15:03 Building your follow-up process
16:17 Why baptism starts with relationship
18:29 Using invitations to drive impact
19:03 The 3-step activation plan

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey my friends, today's episode is going to be a little bit different than usual. We recently recorded a brand new five shifts training, and this is part of our new mastermind that we've got, and it's really focused on a few of the specific changes or what we call shifts that you as a leader, your church, is gonna need to break through some of the most common growth barriers. So instead of just keeping it inside the mastermind, we wanted to pull out a few of those conversations and share them with you here, and that's what you're gonna hear in this conversation to follow. If you want to go a little bit deeper on this, then you can find out more about the mastermind in the description below. All right, let's dive in. So if people are getting saved in your church following Jesus, and we want that to be happening, what is the next best step?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Well, yeah, that's a good assumption, man. Hopefully, we're seeing people get saved. I mean, that's a big deal. That's the thing. But if we do that, so they get saved. What's our next steps? What's our plan? And I think this is very important because I tell you, the scripture says no man comes to salvation unless the Spirit draws him. Okay, so everybody who's getting saved in your church is somebody the Holy Spirit's been working on and drawing. And God has trusted them to you, right? That's a good thing. Let me tell you something. If you don't have a plan, if you're a pastor right now in your church right now and you're going like, man, I sure wish we could get a lot more people saved. Let me tell you something. You might need to get a make sure you evaluate do you have a plan for them when they get saved and what you're gonna do? Because who, why would God draw them to your church to get saved if you're not gonna take care of them? Makes sense?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Great question.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

The second thing is if you want the moment you get planned for it is the moment you start praying for it. The moment you start get planned, you're prepared for it is the moment you start seeking God and finding opportunities and giving opportunities, you're gonna start seeing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

So share your perspective on this. So the best next step after salvation is what's baptism.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Okay. That's not just my idea, that's God's idea. Jesus set it up. You know why? Two big reasons. When you get saved, there's two things, okay? Number one, two feelings that are natural for anybody who gets saved. You have an encounter with God, you're gonna say, Man, I got to tell my friends, I gotta tell people about it. And secondly, is uh what do you want me to do? I I love you, I can't believe you saved me and did this. I'll do it what do you want me to do? What's my next step? What's my next step? Okay, so baptism answers both of those, by the way. Funny story. This is exactly the two things that happened to me. I mean, the very first thing, I was five years old, and I know y'all all make fun of me five years old.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I all make fun of you, it's real, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Let me tell you something. Every time I see little kids get saved, I make a point to talk about it because I say some of y'all looking at it right now, isn't that sweet, in that night? No, isn't that strategic? That person right now has an opportunity, just like me when I was five years old, to live their whole life for Jesus. That I remember where I was when I got saved. I remember the place, I remember the everything. I don't remember what they preached. It was about Jesus. But I mean, I remember going down and saying, man, God, forgive me of all my sins, stealing the gum, whatever it is, you know. But I so rapidly, guess what the first thing is. Oh, you said gun gum. I just say the hard life. Yeah, five years.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Hey, my guy was my guy was hard.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Okay, so you surrendered to the city. Yeah, the first thing I did at five years old is my little brother, three years old, three and a half years old, Brent. He's back playing with trucks and Tonka trucks, you know, there. And I went back and I said, Brent, Brent, you got come on, man. You got to get saved. You gotta life. He said, Leave me alone, man. I'm playing with my trucks. And I said, Brent, come on. You got to go down, man. Forget the trucks. We'll come back to the trucks. You got to get saved. I don't want, I want you to get right with God. He said, If you, if you don't stop bothering me, I'm gonna tell mom. I go, fine then, just go to hell. And I know that's fine. But it has a fiery being.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

The good story is that he eventually gave his life to Jesus. He did it. And I know that wasn't a great church.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

That's not a great attitude, but it was a fiery heart of the state.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Hey, you wanted, even at five years old, you didn't want your brother to not be able to know Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

He didn't have a gun back then. All right, so the second thing is I'm going like, hey, I want to know what to do next. And I remember getting baptized and my dad baptizing me, and it'd be like, man, this is a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Yeah, talk a little bit more. Like, why baptism?

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Well, okay, first of all, it's a clear discipleship step. Anyone who has given their heart to the Lord, they're wondering, what does he want me to do next? And God has set it up where it's an easy next step. You don't have to be holy to be baptized, you don't have to be perfect to be baptized. It isn't like yes, take a bath, then come take a bath in front of the church. You know, it's like you Jesus saved you, and now you're saying, I'm saying the old is gone, the new is come, I'm gonna, I'm safe. So it's a discipleship step. Number two, it's an evangelistic opportunity because baptism was set up for everybody to see it and for you to bring friends and family around and so forth, like that. The third thing is you know what we found out, Mark, right, about the retention rate is we started studying and looking at the data of how many people who got baptized, were they still in the church a year later or other activities, how what made people stay? We found that 80% of all the people who got baptized in our church was still in our church active a year later. I don't know if there was anything that we could point to that was more powerful of people getting in than that baptism moment.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

No, it was both things. It was the retention on them, and then you'll talk about this probably later, but it was also our number one evangelistic weekend services because they were inviting the friends and family.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Like, let's get baptized now, everything's done. No, every time people got baptized, other people they brought their family. They were bringing their family.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Speaking of family stuff, this wasn't just a retention rate because the adults, the parents got saved. This happened in kids and youth, and the families are like, dude, this is this is a place for our family.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

If you do not, if you do not have a plan, not just for adults in your main service and get saved or in an outreach or something, you've got to have this in kids' church. Kids are giving their heart to the Lord all the time. Are you following up with helping them to understand what baptism is now? If they know what it means to be saved, it's right for them to know what it me about about baptism to do that and to let their parents know. So don't have it where people are getting kids are getting saved and you're telling them everything and they're going to tell them they can tell their parents, but you tell the parents. Yeah. And this is an opportunity for you to coach them on it. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Okay, so let's talk about three steps. Uh step one number one is just how are you going to get the names of people? Someone gives their life to Jesus. Yeah. So how do you get their names? How do you get it? Think about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Most of the time growing up, my life it was everybody bow your head, close your eyes. If you want to give your heart to Jesus today, raise your hand, say this prayer. And but then you're going like, hey, we had 50 people saved today. Oh, yeah? Well, who are they? We don't know. They close their eyes, we all close our eyes.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

You have no ability to do anything with them and help them.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Is that legit? Did they get saved? I don't doubt it. I'm not saying that, but you're not able to follow up in this way. So I wanted to figure out a way to do it. So I think there two of my favorite ways, okay, that I've done it, is I would do it where I would say, hey, everybody stand. And I wouldn't say close your eyes, but I wouldn't say everybody open your eyes. It's open. That's stupid. So you just say, hey, everybody, just stand to your feet. I want to just talk to you for just a second. Nobody moving around. And then I would give an opportunity about an altar call, what it means to give your life to Jesus. On the counter three of this, you just raise up your hand and we'll pray one, two, three. It's a moment of decision. Raise your hand. And then I'll say, okay, I see, I see, I see. And everybody's clapping. And then I would pray with them to receive.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

I think that part is actually important. Okay. Uh I see you, I see you, I see you. Is eye contact that you're making of saying, I see you, and I see the decision you just made, and this is a big deal. It's not just and then you leave. It's like it's a recognition of a big moment in their life.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Well, the eyes are the window to the soul, as the scripture says. And when you are the person from this stage connecting with these people, it is the Holy Spirit that is drawing them, but the Holy Spirit in you, the Holy Spirit in them, it makes a super powerful connection.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Guess what else happened in the crowd? People were going like this. Uh I said, I'm looking over here, and people are going, Yeah, they're helping you, the rest of the crowd. But guess what they're doing? With this, and when they're doing this, or like it's a family member sitting next to them, and they're going, My friend, like this, they're starting to pay attention because then what I would say is, Hey, would you right now step out and come up? I want to pray with you at the front, okay? If I did that. And I'd say, hey, if somebody, if if it's your friend by you, or you see somebody say, Hey, go to I'll go down front with you. And and that's okay. Bring them with you. You tell them right now, turn to them and do that. And I'll say, Because at the yokes, no one walks alone. We always said it like everybody in the crowd said, walks alone. And so I said, right now, as we play this song, come on down, and people would go, hey man, I'll go down with you like this. So there's already a connection. There's always already uh an opportunity that people are saying we need to take care of people, all of this. And then I'd pray down front, and then I'd say, Hey, come with me. If you give me five minutes, I want to personally talk to you.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

And I would go back with them. I'd often come up, close the service down. You would go with the people who had just given their life to the Lord, to the to the room, to the service.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So I'd be like, in Jesus' name, amen. And then Mark, he's walking, and Mark comes up and be like, Hey, wasn't that an awesome service? We're celebrating, we're excited about it. Dad is basically up front and being like, Hey guys, can I just talk to you?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Well, I actually, before I even pray with him, I say, Hey, I'm gonna pray with you, and I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. But right when I get done with that, I'd like to ask you to come to the side room. They're gonna close up the service, just come with me for five minutes. I have something to give to you, and I'm gonna talk to you about your next step. Let's pray. And I'll pray. Then you're up there and say, Hey, so glad. Then they're clapping and going crazy. People are crying. It's all you're going inside. So the second way, though, is we sometimes you don't have a side room to the auditorium, or sometimes you don't have a place on the side. You just don't have the ability. So what we did uh is is put up, I said yes signs like this, and and there would be up front in the back on the sides. We'd have tables set up. Depending on the side of the room, like the four corners or whatever. That's it. And when we say tables, it was really like a a bar. Yes, stand-up tall table. Tall table. And uh then then people are there, it says that, and they have material there, a Bible, whatever, to do that. But it's really where you're you they're saying, hey, you made a decision for Christ, uh, baptism's your next step. Yeah, hey, let's fill this out because we want to follow up with those people who are trained.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

So uh I did that even as a volunteer sometimes, is just I'm standing there, I'm trained, I know how to communicate, uh, that baptism's the next step. I'm gonna get them a Bible, I want to gather some information.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

The point in this is how are we gonna get the names? Yeah, two favorite ways is come to the front and then we're going to a side room, or uh there's four P uh four corners of the room. People said, I said yes. We'd love for you to go to somebody that says I said yes in the corner of the room.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

As we close up the service, yeah, before you go, please go right there. And if you're standing by somebody who made that decision today, why don't you say, Hey, I'll go with you and introduce you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

All right, step number two is what do you say? So, like, what did you say in that back room? Or what do you train the volunteers to say in the four corners?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

You don't just say, hey, next step is baptism, and they're going, like, what's a baptism? Well, you go down in water in front of the church, and we all celebrate, and they're going like, Why would I take a bath in front of the little church? It doesn't make sense to people, okay? It may make sense to us who that's what we've grown up in a culture of that, but they're going, like, what is that about? And so you've got to help them to know baptism and next step, and here's why. And I would give them five reasons. Number one, Jesus told you to do it. Okay. So right now, we just said, Jesus, you're the Lord of my life. Whatever you want, that's what I want. And so you might be thinking right now, what does God want? Remember the two things everybody, when they get saved, what's my next step? And how can I tell everybody else? It's playing out right here. So, number one, baptism is Jesus told you to do it. Number two, did you know he didn't just tell you? He thought it was so important. He didn't need to get baptized because he never sinned. But when he went to John the Baptist, is you know, to who was baptizing people, he said, Hey, baptize. John goes, Man, I don't need to baptize, you need baptizing. He said, No, I need to fulfill all righteousness, which means I'm doing it as an example of what I want everybody to do. That's how big of a deal it was. Thirdly, it's a powerful uh metaphor, a symbol. The Bible tells us in Romans that when you go down in baptism, the water is representative of the grave and you're being buried with Christ. The old you is dead and gone. And when you come up, you're resurrected to new life in Christ. So it's this incredible picture of what God is doing. The old is gone. Who you were is no more. You are now alive in Christ. It's not my way, it's his way. And the fourth thing is talk about an evangelism moment of being able to invite family and friends. Listen, how many times has a family member in your family or somebody in your family or a friend, they're graduating or they they got an award, they're getting an award. Yeah, some kind of big moment. Or some kind of there's something they're going, hey, we we have tickets, we want you to be.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

It's a big deal for our family.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah. Or they may even go, hey, listen, I'm getting graduate, I'm graduating. I I want you to come. Would you come? I mean, that's a big deal. So in this case, there's people who will never, ever, would never be thinking about going to church. But because you got baptized, I'm telling them this, because you're gonna get baptized and you're making a decision. How many of you right now have at least two or three people you can think of that you wish knew Jesus, like you did right now? How many of you know people who are struggling, your family afraid? Yes. Do you realize they would come if you invited them to your baptism? Say, hey, this is a big deal in my life. Yeah, will you come and celebrate with it? I want you there. And then they're gonna come and sit with you in the service and they're gonna get to hear about Jesus. Yeah, they're gonna hear the good news just like you. And then it gives you an opportunity afterwards to even ask if they don't give their heart to the Lord, then to just say, Hey man, I just I want thanks for coming today. I just wanted you to know what God's doing in my life. Thank you for being a good friend. And it opens that door to that. I'm telling you, that was the most powerful. Some people, I pastors ask me all the time, how do you get people saved? How do you get new people to come, lost people to come to your church? Well, first of all, you don't squander the opportunity of people getting saved and their baptism to bring other people.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

That's a big one.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

One of the biggest ways we had a flow of people getting saved all the time is by them bringing people for baptism. The last thing is, I tell people, and it's the best way to give the devil a black eye. You know how the enemy's been messing with your life and destroying your life? This is your chance. The Bible says in Revelation that when you uh uh that you overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb, and that means Jesus dying on the cross for you and what you just received him, and by the word of your testimony. So when you get baptized in front of people and you're sharing this like that, you're saying, I belong to him, I don't belong to you anymore, I belong to him. And you're like, boom, you're overcoming him in your life.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

So inside of this, if you watch the uh first-time guest sequence that we talked about, of the first thing that we're trying to do that we do on day one is, hey, I'm Pastor Scott, I'd love to meet you, right? Inside of this, you're actually going back there and talking about the next step. We might train somebody. Uh, what we did is we did it for maybe six or seven months of you doing that before somebody was watching you every single time and they're like, okay, I've heard him do this a hundred times.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

You'd have them do it, and they do it. Hey, I got Mark here, I'd like him to do it, and like whoever it is. So that was the training process. Disciple people trained it.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

You can see here, even in the salvation process, another time of vulnerability of like, dude, I did this, but was that like emotion, or was that like, is this real? Did I even do it right? You know, all that kind of stuff. First thing we want to do is equip them with a relationship to validate, like, this is a big deal, and here's what we want you to do next. Uh, and then we follow it up with a process. So we have a uh post-salvation leading up to baptism email sequence that basically is just saying, hey, um, I'm still thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

So I think what you're saying there is really important because I I don't know if we made it clear in that room or at the front when they came to I Said Yes deal, there's an opportunity for them to fill a card out just saying, hey, bapt everybody knows baptism, next baptism is gonna be on April 9th, you know, something like this. And so, hey, if you want to be, if you want to be able to do April 9th, you can do that. Fill it out right here, and we'll do it. If they say, Hey, can I just think about it, check my account? Yeah, go ahead. Then that's where this email sequence comes in to keep reinforcing it.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Yeah, so we wrote some emails for you guys that you can use and templatize um for what makes sense in your context. Number one is just, hey, you said yes to Jesus, now what? That's a good one. Number two, and that's where we would talk about the five things again. 100%. Number two is baptism Sunday starts with breakfast. Okay, can you explain this one? Because this is like, okay, so you provide donuts or what what's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Remember, everything's about relationship. It isn't about I got them dunked. It's about the the baptism is about building a relationship with other people. First of all, when the Bible says in uh, or when Jesus said in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, go make disciples of all the nation, baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teach them to observe all things of community. Okay, right? That all that wasn't just the pastors. And yet, how many of our churches, the only people who baptize people are the pastors? Yeah, the paid Christians. Or you know, the people or or a pastor. Why not let it be the friend that brought them? Why not let it be the person who their dad or the family member that's been praying for them? Talk about an incredible unbelievable opportunity for them to do it and a connection of discipleship. So that's number one is we have that breakfast for them and for whoever's baptizing them. Because we want to go over, hey, this is when it's gonna happen in the service. For us, it was always during the worship time. Yeah. So we would have an opening song, and then every all the baptism people would get set up, getting ready to get in position. So you're going through all that. They give a very first testimony that it goes through the worship.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

That's a very powerful opportunity for relationship and continuing to move forward. So Bob is getting baptized, his wife's there, his kids are there for the breakfast, and so we're looking for other ways to connect in relationships.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah, we're going over what's gonna be the instructions. They're building relationships.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

We're also connecting with people that are getting baptized. So people same season. So what we did during the worship thing, just to because we've talked about this with a lot of our clients, is if we are gonna tell a testimony of somebody, we'll probably do it for one person. So we'll pick it, and usually it might be uh somebody that's talking, like the youth pastor, we just did one recently. Like Andrew's basically saying, Hey, this is Mark. Uh, here's Mark's story, and we'll talk about it and be like, hey, there's so many people like Mark that are getting baptized today. We just want to celebrate. If you see somebody on the screens, we're gonna celebrate with them and blah, blah, blah. And then we keep going. We don't do that for every single person.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

It'll be the opening one, and they do it. But the breakfast, it's connection, yeah, it's relationship, and then we'll go over the five reasons again because there's people in the room who don't know it. You know, and the last email is how many seats should we save for you? And that's the evangelism deal. I we're gonna send them that in that email. Uh, it's gonna be even something hey, here's a uh a way that you could send a text to somebody, invite them. Here's here's the way if you write it a similar. We're telling them here's put it in your own words, do it your own way, but invite them. Let us know we have reserved seating for you and your family so that they can be close to where you're getting baptized to video it doing all of that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Okay, get ready for a final thought. Okay. Here's the activation. Number one, you got to decide how you're gonna get their names. Okay, how are you going to get the names of the people that have given their life to Jesus? Number two, where are you going to talk about baptism, specifically their next step? We're saying this is the recommended next step, easiest next step. So where are you going to talk about that uh next step with them?

SPEAKER_02 19:28

The five reasons because I don't know why I should get baptized.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Exactly. And then thirdly, you got to schedule your baptism follow-up sequence. So you want to put that on autopilot. So once we have their contact information, then that starts the email sequence. Uh final thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Most strategic thing you can do is have a plan to get people when they get saved to get baptized. You're gonna have more people get saved because they're bringing their friends. But secondly, you're gonna have your whole church have a culture where they're going, man, this is big, this is huge, look at this, look at the difference being made. This affects everything. We're celebrating what we give, this is what happens, this is what's going on, look at the difference being made. People are getting saved. Your people, by the way, you got built in. If you do it four times a year, five times a year, six times, you do it as many times as you need it, then guess what? There's some of the biggest Sundays you'll have because everybody comes and they're just pumped. And I'm telling you, that celebration, that life transformation continues to beget other ones as well. This is probably one of the most biblical, powerful, practical ways to see God bring people to salvation and grow the church.