Launching a Resource for New Christians

This fall, InterVarsity is seeing dozens of students across the country make decisions to follow Jesus—from 39 students in New York and New Jersey to 20 students in Texas to 47 students at the University of California Los Angeles. Through Proxe Stations and large group meetings, hundreds of InterVarsity staff and students have welcomed new students into their chapter and into relationship with Jesus. 

But our work is just beginning. For those new Christians, InterVarsity’s evangelism team created a resource called Launch that helps student leaders and mentors walk new Christians through 10 frequently asked questions such as “What if I doubt God sometimes?”, written by Tim Lin, Area Director in Kansas.

Tim says, “Since my time on staff, I’ve celebrated with various students who have made a decision for Jesus but then learned that a year or two later, they have actually lost their faith because of doubts about the goodness of God in their lives. The best way to prevent these tragedies is to prepare our new Christians for the inevitably of doubts in their relationship with Jesus.”

Each session uses student testimonies, Bible passages, and thought-provoking questions to begin laying down a foundation for following Jesus for a lifetime. Other resources such as music playlists, sermon videos, books, and Accelerate, Launch’s blog, encourage students to continue exploring these topics on their own.

“We are really excited about the resource and how fluidly it works with people coming to faith and how easy it is for a student to run,” says Beau Crosetto, a Team Leader at San Diego State University. “And new Christians love seeing people that are in their life stage dealing with the same problems as them and seeing how their story is integrated with their own.” 

So far this year, the SDSU InterVarsity chapter has seen 20 students decide to follow Jesus. As a result, one student leader will start a Launch small group this week and invite these new Christians to continue taking steps to deepen their faith.

How have you followed up with people who have made decisions for Jesus after outreach events?