Soul-winning Still Works!

I just finished preaching/ teaching a 9 week soul-winning series on Sunday evenings at our church here in Farmville. It is amazing how few people really know how to personally lead someone to Jesus Christ. It is further amazing how many people that do know how to lead someone to Christ actually put their knowledge to practice consistently. Being from NC originally, I have a little insight to fundamentalism in this area and in the South East in general. My experience is that so many people in these areas think that all a soul-winner does is invite folks to church to get under preaching and hereby hopefully conviction. I take exception to this.

Despite my exception, I do believe in inviting people to church. I think that it is obviously a good way to be involved in the overall outreach of the local church you are apart of. But I see a difference between the overall outreach of a church and the actual soul-winning ministry of the church. To further explain the difference let me elaborate. The outreach of a church is any thing in relation to outreach (which should be about everything): Tract distribution, Brochure handouts, Flyers on doors, the Bus ministry, Missions, SS Classes, Jail ministry, Hospital Calls, Prayer Meetings, Altar workers, Letter writing ministry, Nursing Home ministry, Special Outreach Days, and Soul-winning. Notice that soul-winning is included here in this list. However, soul-winning should also be the main focus of the church.

I also believe that just as there is a difference between the overall outreach of a church and the soul-winning ministry of the church, there is also a difference between a soul-winning church and an evangelistic church. An evangelistic church might be involved with some areas of evangelism on the grand scale. They might invite people to church, give to missions, pray, and do good things. However my experience is that most members in this type of church and even most pastors of an evangelistic church are not personal soul-winners. A soul-winning church is one that starts with the pastor leading the people by being an example to them by being a personal soul-winner and then training others to be soul-winners also. Let us see how the scriptures back up this truth through the great commission given to all local churches today.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth

Notice the commission is three basic things from the account in Matthew's gospel:

1. Win them ---------- "teach all nations"

2. Wet them---------- "baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost"

3. Work them-------- "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"

From these verses as a whole the Lord showed me several things.

I. Being a soul- winner is characterized.

The Bible tells us what a soul-winner is and does. The word has a meaning. It is defined for us. And simply put, its name tells us what it means. It is the active pursuit of winning souls to Jesus Christ wherever they are. Whatever definitions we may have construed in our minds about being a soul-winner we must replace them with what the Bible says. No one is a true soul-winner who simply invites folks to church, but not to Christ. A person can go to church and still die and go to hell. Lost people need Christ not religion. True soul-winners are those people who try their best to share the gospel with everybody they can and then help those that will listen to understand their need to repent and place their personal faith in Jesus Christ. At times people will be convicted of their sins and be saved.

II. Being a soul-winner is commanded.

The Bible says in Matthew, "Go". It says in Mark, "Go". It states in Acts, "Ye shall be witnesses." Being a soul-winner is not open for debate. It is a command for all Christians to be a soul-winner. Let me go further and say this also: the natural outgrowth of a person who is filled with the Spirit is that they are a soul-winner. Acts says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me". Notice from this verse when the Holy Ghost has come upon us, the next event that will occur is that we will be a witness for the Lord. Anyone who is not a soul-winner and a witness for the Lord is either not saved and thus has never received the indwelling Holy Spirit at all, or they are a backslidden believer who has quenched the Holy Spirit within them. God the Holy Spirit wants to work through us to convict and win souls. If you do not have that desire then maybe you need to check your heart.

III. Being a soul-winner is conceivable.

This point means that being a soul-winner is a possibility. It is something that is able to be done. I have seen many different styles of independent fundamental baptist churches with varied levels of involvement with soul-winning and outreach. I have read about and been apart of churches that experience much controversy about their super-duper soul-winning outreach. It is in these churches that there are generally people who lead thousands to Jesus each year and even baptize them but their church never grows in accordance with how many were reported to have been saved. I have also read about and been apart of churches that are on the opposite end of the spectrum. These are churches that only have people saved and baptized by accident, because they take a Calvinistic approach to soul-winning. That is, they think all of it has to be done by the Lord and as such never pursue sinners. I visited one of these churches about two years ago which ran 500 people for church but their total baptisms for the year was only 8 people.

Here is my point: I am not debating that there are things wrong with but both extremes in fundamentalism. I am also not debating the fact that there are some things that could be right in some cases with either type of church. However, the fact of the matter rests solely for me on the Great Commission and the Bible. What I mean is this. The Bible says that we are to go win people to Christ, baptize them, and disciple them. Now, if this were an utter impossibility then why did the Lord Jesus command us to do it? If we cannot simply go out to homes, to the streets, to places of business or recreation and give people the gospel and have them respond and be saved then how can we fully obey the Great Commission? How can we disciple people until they are baptized? How can we baptize people until they are saved? And of course how can we get them saved? The answer is that we cannot logically obey the commission unless we are out actively pursuing sinners with the gospel message. This thought didn't fully come to me until I was preaching through the series on soul-winning. Should I actively pursue sinners, even at their homes? Yes. I can with God's Holy Spirit go to a door and personally win them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If I cannot do this then let us hang up the Bible and the command to do so, because it is only a farce and an utter impossible, implausible, inconceivable thing!

IV. Being a soul-winner is circular.

Matthew's gospel tells us to go and teach all nations. That is, teach them the gospel so that they can be saved. Second, we are to baptize those we have won. Then we are to continue in teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded for us to do. The focus here under this point is that final thing: discipleship. It can be noted that the first major command (found in Matthew) that Christ gave his apostles after the resurrection was to go be a soul-winner. The last command that Christ gave to his apostles before returning back to heaven (found in Acts) was to go be a soul-winner. So the emphasis on discipleship is on teaching others to be a soul-winner. In other words, though there are a multitude of other areas that are necessary for a new convert to learn, one of the main things that Christ has commanded us to be is a soul-winner. So we can say this: We are to win people to Christ, then baptize them, and then teach them to be soul-winners so that they can win people to Christ, baptize them, and then teach those people to win people to Christ, etc... The implication of this truth is that there is a circular pattern involved. There is a constant addition to church of new converts likewise. When church members fail to be soul-winners and bring new life into the church then they will become so introspective and self-centered that the church dies. No wonder people make statements like the following one I heard recently, "I am tired of all this soul-winning mess." What tragedy!

Since starting the soul-winning ministry here at Anchor Baptist, we have seen some good results:

• We have covered the whole main part of the town of Farmville with the gospel.
• We have made about 2000 contacts with a church brochure, flyer, or tract.
• We have had 75+ first time visitors attend at least one church service
• We have shared the gospel 14 times.
• We have had 7 people saved.
• We have had 3 baptized.
• We have 9 new people coming to the church on a consistent basis from our visits

All of this is from just 6 months of being here and of 3 months of an actual soul-winning ministry going out one time a week for two hours on Saturday mornings. We are excited about the Lord's blessings! Yes, soul-winning still works!