24 years of experience has taught us that preparation is vital for holding effective Gospel Outreaches, with lasting results. A minimum of 4 full months preparation is undertaken in the city where an outreach will be held.

This involves the following comprehensive plan.

1. Share vision for church growth with church leaders and invite their participation.
2. Form Gospel Outreach committees made up of local church leaders and appoint responsible positions on each committee; Chairman, Vice-chairman, heads of Protocol, Publications, News media, Security, Intercessory prayer and Counsellors.
3. Secure a venue for the outreach and obtain the necessary permits. The police and security are often involved in this process, as the outreaches draw large crowds.
4. Develop strategy with the local committees for the promotion of the outreach, including all aspects of advertising, using TV, radio, handbills, roving audio advertising with vehicles, posters and banners of different sizes. Teams are made up from local church congregations for the distribution of between 300 000 to 1 million handbills. Thousands of posters are pasted on walls, poles, bus stops, in stores and elsewhere, all the time building momentum and expectation in the people for the outreach to come. Banners are erected in main streets. This takes an enormous amount of work and we enjoy and depend on the participation of volunteers from the churches.
5. Train evangelists. These evangelists become a part of the promotion and preparation for the outreach involved in mini evangelistic campaigns at which the coming mass outreach is promoted.
6. Train hundreds of intercessors who participate in a 24-hour prayer vigil during the week preceding and the week of the outreach.
7. Train Pastors and church members in deliverance ministry so they participate in ministering to the demon possessed during and after each meeting.
8. Train counsellors, ushers and security to serve for the duration of the outreach itself. Counsellors undergo extensive training, not only in counselling at the outreach but also in effective follow up after the outreach, when they form teams who do personal visits to the new converts. The numbers of counsellors vary from place to place depending on the size of the outreach, and can be as many as 15 000.

The week before the outreach a huge "Jesus March" is held in the city, attracting thousands and thousands of people. By the time the outreach preaching team arrive, the city is abuzz with expectation and thousands of people come to greet them at the airport, most of them walking many miles to get there.

This extensive preparation benefits the local church even long after the outreach because all those who have been trained become very much more functional as workers within the local church. Hundreds of people come to salvation before and after the outreach as church members lead them to the Lord while promoting and following up on the outreach.

As you can see the outreaches would not be a success without this vitally important preparation.