Rescue Gospel is easiest to adopt when a church moves from learning to practice to follow-up in a deliberate sequence. This four-week pathway helps pastors and leaders use the resources already available without asking the congregation to absorb everything at once.
At a glance
- Week 1 — Learn: introduce Created, Broken, Rescued, and Respond.
- Week 2 — Practice: learn to ask permission, listen, and share briefly.
- Week 3 — Go: practice real conversations and identify next steps.
- Week 4 — Follow up: build a culture of prayer, mentoring, and ongoing witness.
Before week one: prepare the leaders
- Choose one pastor or ministry leader to own the schedule.
- Read the four-week church training plan.
- Decide whether your church needs the Church Training Kit, the Small Group Study, the six-week sermon series, or the coordinated Starter Bundle.
- Identify two or three mature believers who can help with prayer, practice, and follow-up.
- Explain that the goal is faithful witness, not pressure, performance, or forced decisions.
Week 1 — Learn the gospel
Sunday: teach the four movements from Scripture. Emphasize that Respond is not a fifth gospel movement and that “Now What?” describes the continuing journey of discipleship and mission.
Small group: have people explain the framework in their own words, then name where they tend to skip: God’s good creation, the seriousness of sin, the finished work of Jesus, or the call to respond.
Practice: each person writes a two-minute explanation and chooses one Gospel passage to read with a friend.
Week 2 — Practice the posture
Teach: notice an opening, ask permission, listen, clarify, share, leave room, and offer a next step.
Role-play: practice a curious friend, a hurried coworker, someone who disagrees, and someone who has been hurt by church.
Debrief: ask, “Did we listen?” “Did we define our terms?” “Did we keep Jesus central?” “Did we avoid pressure?”
Use the print-and-phone Conversation Card during practice.
Week 3 — Go into ordinary relationships
Invite each person to pray for one named person and look for one natural opening during the week. The assignment is not to force a gospel presentation. It is to notice, ask permission, listen honestly, and be ready to speak about Jesus.
For background-sensitive preparation, use the background preparation directory. When a conversation goes deeper, use the Field Guide.
Week 4 — Build the follow-up culture
Gather the church to share what was learned—not to rank results. Talk about questions that remain, conversations that need prayer, and people who may want another conversation.
Use Rescued—Now What? to connect gospel response with Scripture, prayer, community, growth, service, and mission. Use the Mentor Guide when someone needs patient one-to-one accompaniment.
Leader checklist
- Have we prayed for specific people?
- Can our people explain the gospel without relying on church jargon?
- Do our role-plays include disagreement, religious difference, and church hurt?
- Do we know what to do when someone wants to read Scripture?
- Do we have a healthy church and mentor connection ready?
- Do we know when a situation requires pastoral, professional, or emergency help beyond our role?
What success looks like
Success is not a certain number of decisions or a perfect presentation. It is a church becoming more prayerful, more attentive, more courageous, more truthful about Jesus, and more patient in walking with people afterward.