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Building and Working a Prospect File

It is a data base or card file containing names, addresses, and other personal data on individuals of any age who do not currently attend Sunday School but are potential members.

A Microsoft Excel computer program (or equivalent program) with fields to record personal data on the prospect, an attendance record of the prospect who visits, and a record of follow-up visits.
A form designed to gather personal data from church members who know of a prospective Sunday School member.
A visitation assignment form. This form should include the name of the prospect, the address and phone number of the prospect, and an area for the person doing the visitation to record the results of the visit.

One person should be made responsible for maintaining the database and making assignments for visitation.
A number of persons are needed to make the visits. Class members and teachers should make up the bulk of the visitation force.

Each member of every Sunday School class can be asked to provide names and data on persons they know to be prospects.
Determine members and regular attendees of morning worship services who do not regularly attend Sunday School and include them in your prospect database.
Any visitor to a church related activity should be included in the prospect database.
All individuals who enroll in vacation Bible school.
Those who are on the inactive membership roll.
Those who respond to church benevolence outreach ministries.
Those who attend church on special holidays.

A system of regular visitation is essential to successful prospecting. A variety of systems can be employed.
- Weekly assignments to be made sometime that week.
- A visitation evening—weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly—when a group goes out to visit the people whose names are on the list.
Involving as many people as possible in the visitation activity is the ultimate objective. A large number not only lightens the load for each person, but it also brings more people into the ministry of reaching out and contacting the unsaved. It is sometimes necessary to launch a visitation program with only three or four people and build it from there. A public commitment service and dedication of the visitation personnel will help launch the program.
All available information on each prospect should be given. The workers also need to know when and to whom they are to report back. Every person involved is responsible to someone, whether it is a team captain or the enrollment superintendent.
Completed reports should indicate any reason a follow-up visit should or should not be made, and if there is a need for a pastoral follow-up visit. The pastor’s support and involvement with the prospecting program is vital for its ultimate success.
Any future visitation assignment will be made on the basis of the past visit. As a general rule, each prospect should be visited three times, at least a week apart, before he or she is placed in the inactive prospect file.

The ultimate purpose for building and working a prospect file is to enroll persons not currently attending Sunday School and to win them to the Lord. It is not enough for the church simply to nurture the Christian. Its members must go out and find the unsaved, enroll them in the Sunday School, and win them to the Lord.

Used by permission.

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