While we don't want to obsess over numbers or compare ourselves to others, it's important to quantify the work that God has done through an event for His glory. This information can also be used to be more effective and reach even more people in the future. God has numbered His work many times—for example, when we're told that three thousand believed and were baptized on the Day of Pentecost.
We believe that lives changed by God are the ultimate measure of the impact of this event—so we'll always balance the reporting of facts with the stories of individual lives touched by His grace. We pray that those who make a profession of faith then get discipled and go forward in their walk with Christ, bearing much fruit. Since salvation is a work of God in the heart of an individual, we won't refer to these professions of faith as "conversions"—that's for God to know.
If you provide the e-mail addresses of those who made a profession of faith at your event, they'll receive a series of e-mails through the Gospel of John to help get them in the habit of reading and studying God's Word, as part of an online discipleship program. The program is designed to help new believers with the basics of the faith, and encourage them to get plugged in to your church. You can be assured that the e-mail addresses you provide will be safe—we will never sell or share them, and also don't solicit donations in any form in this discipleship process. Once the 30-day process is complete, we won't continue to e-mail them unless they ask us to do so.
