“The goal of evangelism is to make disciples, not merely get people to make decisions. Once the right people are in the room, churches must be ready to receive these new believers,” writes John Teter, pastor and church planting team leader for The Evangelical Covenant Church. Otherwise, “decisions” will never become disciples. He adds that we must also focus on long-term goals for disciples and invest in their spiritual development.

Teter explores Acts 1-2 as an example of how disciples flourished in the midst of the crucible of adversity and gives today’s church a blueprint for making disciples, not just decisions. In this free resource, Teter points out that Christians often speak of repenting “from,” but forget to think about or share what we repent into? In Acts 2, the new believers live lives devoted to God’s Word, fellowship, prayer, breaking of bread, and generosity. In each of these key areas of being a believer, the first disciples repented “from” the world and devoted themselves “into” these life-giving rhythms of the church.

Key Takeaways

• A thorough exploration of Acts 1-2 as a model for ministry today
• Why we must begin with the end in mind
• Why disciples are greater than decisions
• A model for facing adversity in the church
• How the early church began and why that matters today
• Cultivating the environment necessary for receiving new believers and how that helps develops disciples
• How God uses us in the work of evangelism for our good
• What the other side of repentance looks like
• Five areas of life the early church repented into