What is a Lost and Saved List?

Do you have a favorite tool for gardening or working in the kitchen? At our house, we have a favorite knife. It is sharp and the handle is just the right size. It works well for chopping about anything. If my husband and I are both in the kitchen, there sometimes is a competition for who gets to use that knife! Tools are important in seeing progress and becoming effective. The T4T Lost and Saved list is one of the best tools I have used. It will help you train people to start Disciple Making Movements.

What Makes This Tool Powerful?

What is a T4T Lost and Saved List? How does it work? What are the benefits of using one? The simplicity and power of this tool is amazing. It helps us identify people in our lives who we already have relationships with, but they do not know the Lord. The list also shows us who we could begin to train. Using this inventory of people we already know helps to shift our mindset from thinking of ourselves only as a trainee. We begin to think of ourselves as a trainer of trainers. It also gets us started with a regular habit of prayer that will deeply impact our disciple making.

My Lost And Saved List

On one side of my list are the names of my neighbors. The name of the girl who works at the coffee shop I frequent once a week is on my list. My language helper’s names are there too. On the other side of the list are names of movement leaders and people I have trained. Every day I spend time praying for these people. I pray for their children and for their health issues. I pray that their hearts will open to the gospel. Boldness and faith for the movement leaders, as well as protection from persecution, are other things I pray.  I keep this Lost and Saved List in my Bible and also on my computer. The daily habit of praying for these people makes a big difference in my heart attitudes. It has affected my fruitfulness too.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Rom. 12:12- NIV

Learning to Make A Lost And Saved List

I first learned about making a Lost and Saved List from Ying Kai, the man who started T4T.  I am so grateful to him for teaching me about this tool! Ying came to our region and ran a seminar for us about T4T. One of the first things he had us do was to make a two-column list on a piece of paper. On one side we were to write down a list of “Lost” people we knew. On the other side, we were to write down a list of “Saved” people we knew.

It was actually kind of hard for me at that point to write down very many lost people’s names. I was able to list three or four. I realized that I didn’t have that many relationships with people who didn’t already know Jesus!

My right-hand column, the “Saved” List, was easier. I wrote down the names of 15 or 20 people.
Then, Ying challenged us to pray daily for these two lists of people in a detailed way. That was the starting point- regular, daily prayer for them. As we prayed, we were also to choose 5 people from each column that we would take an action with.

For the “Lost” people, we were to choose 5 people that we would share our testimony with that week. We might have 15 or 20 names there. Every day, he encouraged us, we should pray for each person. But we don’t stop only with prayer. As we pray, we also share the good news.

The same with the other side. The “Saved” people are those we can train! As we learn how to share our testimony and the story of Jesus, we can train them to do the same. We need to pray regularly for these people too. Pray that God will help them to be bold in sharing their faith. We pray they will put into practice what we are training them to do. We pray for other needs in their lives as well.

Making a Lost and Saved List, and continuing to use it on a daily basis, is an incredibly powerful tool! It has changed my behavior and made me more fruitful. I have taught this tool to hundreds of local believers, church planters, and trainers. I’ve seen it change their lives and make them more fruitful too.

Why This Tool Is Effective

1) Having a Saved List helps us see ourselves as trainers of trainers.
It shifts our mindset. We are not only being trained, we are passing on what we know to others. It helps identify who those people are that we can train. Your “Saved Lists” of those you are training could be the beginning of 2nd generation groups. But first, the mindset has to shift from being trained to becoming a trainer of trainers.

2) Praying daily for specific lost people increases your love, passion, and boldness.
As I pray for people, my heart connects to them more. I start to feel God’s heart for them. This affects how much time I am willing to give up on other things in order to spend time with them. My priorities begin to shift as I daily pray for this list.

3) Having a list makes us more intentional about developing relationships with lost people.
I now notice the vegetable seller and street sweeper. It encourages me to talk to them more. Now I want to know their name and enough about them to start praying for them. I want to add them to my list.

4) It increases boldness.
As I pray for my Lost List daily, and as I chose 5 people to try to share the gospel with, I become bolder. I am now looking for opportunities to talk to them about Jesus. Watchful for needs they express, I step into those situations more actively. I find myself offering to pray for them when they are sick. My boldness goes up dramatically when I pray daily for these people by name.

Get Started Today!

Do you have a Lost and Saved List already? If you do, set a specific time each day to pray over these names and lift them up to the Lord. Establishing this as a habit will make a big difference in your disciple making efforts.

If you have never made this kind of list before, why not do that now? Take out a sheet of paper and make two columns, one for Lost and one for Saved. Write down the names of people you know on each side. Determine to pray for them each day. Put a star next to the five people you will try to share your testimony with this week (from the Lost side). Train your disciples to do the same! The impact of this tool will be immediate. Give it a try!

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