Six Helps to Grow a Soul-Winning Church

 

Note: My life at the moment is in a bit of an uproar, which is not exactly conducive to good writing. I have decided to set my current book project aside for a bit. I have a number of questions that have worked their way into my mailbag and have been patiently waiting for some time. So for the next few weeks, I am going to try to answer some of those.

 

Today’s question comes from a young pastor. He has recently taken his first church. As with many such churches, it is struggling mightily. There are crises at every turn. But he does not simply want to respond to emergencies; he wants to build a healthy church for the long term. He knows, amongst other things, that this involves building a soul-winning church. I have had some success in that area, so he came to me for a few ideas, and it turned into a rather lengthy phone conversation. Here are the six suggestions I offered him in that discussion.

First, have a regularly scheduled soul-winning time.

I am aware of the argument that says Christians should always be soul-conscious, and that if we emphasize a regular soul-winning time, we risk developing Christians who witness only on Saturday mornings. I think it is a specious argument. For two reasons. In the first place, there are numerous things that a Christian is called to be and do constantly, and yet we embrace the wisdom of setting aside a specific time to do so. Prayer, for example. We are to pray without ceasing, but we still schedule prayer meetings. Such prayer meetings do not take away from praying without ceasing; indeed, I would argue they strengthen it. Which leads directly to my second reason I reject such counsel – I have never seen a Christian develop a soul-conscious heart without first disciplining themselves to attend a regularly scheduled soul-winning time. Perhaps you have, but I have not. I am convinced that regularly exercising the spiritual graces is the only way to develop them.

This regularly scheduled soul-winning time should be on the schedule weekly. Doing it monthly seems like an easier sell when it comes to participation, but such is fool’s gold. Nobody establishes commitment by choosing the easy route. In addition, this soul-winning time should be canceled only rarely, if at all. As a pastor, you must fight the urge to cancel important things. In fact, your refusal to cancel is a vital part of communicating to your people how important your soul-winning time is. For example, I do not cancel Operation Go (our name for it) due to the cold. If it gets down close to zero degrees, I either send people out on specific visits, have a prayer meeting, do a soul-winning training session, or take all my soul winners to breakfast. But what I do not do is cancel.

In addition, I think it is important that the pastor himself lead this soul-winning meeting. You cannot lead from behind. Be present. Be organized. Be brief. Be positive. Be consistent. Do not ask your people for a four hour commitment. Ask them to give you the equivalent of a regular church service – about an hour or so total, meeting included. Keep it on the schedule even if no one shows up. Announce it weekly. Be patient as the Lord convicts your people in this area. But by all means, provide them a regular opportunity to obey the Lord in this area.

Second, routinely preach about the necessity of Christians being a witness to the lost.

I track my preaching, every sermon, for a variety of reasons. This is one of them. I can tell you how often I have preached on soul winning in whichever service is in question, what the main idea of the sermon was, and what the text was. Every so often, I check. If it has been a few months since I last preached about witnessing, I put it on the docket.

Many years ago, I heard Clarence Sexton say, “We reap a harvest where we place an emphasis.” This is a key principle in the evolution of a soul-winning church. I am constantly looking for additional ways to emphasize personal evangelism. A standalone sermon is one way to do it, but a better approach is a sermon series. You could preach an entire series on the soul-winning conversations in the Bible, another on great soul-winning passages, another on the philosophy of personal evangelism, another on how the devil attacks soul-winning in a church, etc. A sermon series increases the impact of an idea. Instead of one tap with a hammer, a series of blows is landed until the point is driven well home. I long ago lost count of how many times a church member approached me privately and told me they had been under conviction for quite some time about becoming a witness. Preaching on it gives the Spirit ammunition for such quiet, deep work.

Third, personally train your soul winners.

While I am not opposed to bringing in a special speaker for a soul-winning training seminar, I think the best soul-winning trainer in your church should be the pastor. Many years ago, I wrote a soul-winning training manual and recruited a young man as my first victim. He had dyslexia and was painfully shy, which made the process both difficult and rewarding. I will never forget sitting alongside him on a living room couch in someone’s home as he walked them through the Gospel and they trusted Christ. I made a big deal about it at church, naturally. A few months later, someone approached me and murmured something about wanting to be trained to witness. I did, and upon completion, awarded them a personally engraved soul winner’s New Testament in the Sunday morning service. Now then, I suppose my wife and I have trained between 75 and 100 soul winners over these years.

Our process involves our own curriculum, eight one-on-one sessions about an hour long, some memorization, a lot of home practice, and a lot of role play. The majority of our trainees have gone on to become consistent soul winners. You may choose a different approach, but by all means, do something. Equipping them well removes their fear and builds their confidence in sharing the gospel. And it increases the number of soul winners in your church.

Fourth, require your staff and your deacons to be soul winners. This is not optional with me; it is too important. If you want to be in a position of leadership in our church, you must regularly be after people with the gospel.

Fifth, place the emphasis not on the number of people you see making professions, but on consistent effort. Our part in the Great Commission is obedience; the Lord’s part is the conviction that brings results. Let us major on our part.

For example, some years ago, I had a very nice church jacket designed. It had an engraved logo on an expensive Land’s End coat. I did not make them available for purchase, nor did I give them away. The only way you could get one was to attend Operation Go for eight consecutive weeks. I ended up purchasing dozens of those jackets, and it cost me thousands of dollars. It was money absolutely well spent. Our attendance at Operation Go not only increased, but it also increased permanently.

Sixth, pray for laborers.

Jesus spoke often of prayer and modeled it as much as He preached about it. But He only gave one prayer request. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matthew 9.38) We ought to take this seriously. Go to the Lord and teach your people to go to the Lord in prayer about your church’s need for workers. Be specific. If you need an instrumentalist, pray that way. If you lack youth workers, take it to Him. But always be asking Him to send you people that you can develop into soul winners. This is the Lord’s will, and He will answer prayer given according to His will. (I John 5.14-15) The Lord sent us so many precious people over the years, men and women who developed into true co-laborers as we went after souls together.

If you will do these six things, prayerfully, consistently, patiently, for a few years, something magical will happen. You will look up one day and realize the Lord has given you the priceless gift of being part of a soul-winning church. Missions giving will increase. New ministries will be launched. Bus routes will be strengthened. The poor and the addicted and the imprisoned will have the gospel preached unto them. Your church will develop a culture, a spirit, of being after people with the gospel. It will be happier. It will be easier to pastor. And new people getting plugged in will catch the vision almost immediately.

It can be done, beloved. Your church can become a soul-winning church. I know it currently seems impossible. Ignore that. Put your head down and go to work. Pray. Lead. Motivate. Preach. Encourage. Commend.

It can be done. It needs to be done. And you can do it.