A matter of soul-winning

in 50% of Christian churches in America last year there were NO conversions to Christ.God bless those who go D2D to introduce the lost to our Lord and Savior.

 

Bill, I really do hate to say this, but....

In that 50% that didn't have conversions, they probably didn't do D2D, either.

If we're going to use statistics, let's use meaningful ones.

 

Don I would be willing to say that 100% 0f the churches who had no conversions had no witnessing of ANY kind going on in thier church.I can't imagine how weak the preaching must have been.

 

And I would still ask God to bless the D2D personal evangelists who ARE witnessing.

 

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Quote: in 50% of Christian churches in America last year there were NO conversions to Christ.God bless those who go D2D to introduce the lost to our Lord and Savior.
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Then at least 50% of our churches are dead! We are saved to lead others. Any church that is not activly soul-winning (many methods available) is out of God's will.

 

I doubt that 2% of our church's witnessing efforts are done door-to-door. It's not well-received here.

But a whole bunch of it is getting done at the little league field. It's rockin and rollin on that front!

 

Well, AMEN to your new endeavor (and sarcasm)!! I guess that collecting a few notches for Jesus is gonna add to your crowns above and take away some suffering souls from Satan.

 

I'm not going to have any 'notches in my belt', but I do know that I can receive a 'crown' for the souls I win.

For what [is] our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? [Are] not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
1Th 2:19,20

And I know that I can be wise for winning souls.

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel 12:3

Since God gave us the Great Commission, I don't believe soulwinning is a laughing matter. Neither is knowing that your loved ones may spend eternity in hell because no one has witnessed to them.

We are a soulwinning church. We have bus, nursing home, prison and Juvenile Center ministries.

We have D2D soulwinning before Wednesday night services, ladies D2D soulwinning on Thursday afternoons, Reormer's Unamimous on Friday evenings and teens D2D soulwinning on Saturday.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. Attitude is important but saving souls from eternal damnation is slightly more important. I'm glad that we have those who are willingly going out soul-winning even the them 'belt-notchers' at least souls are being saved. I've gone out with a full-time Soul-Winner Evangelist (I'll not say his name) on many visits and he has a boldness/brashness about him that I can't help but marvel at and get embarrassed by but Praise the Lord he saves souls. There are many programs, many personalities and many theories but the MOST IMPORTANT is for SOULS TO BE SAVED!! And I think we can agree on that...right? ;) At this is the basis of this thread, and specifically a chat about door-to-door soulwinning. :D

 

Rhet,

when you hear someone talk about how many people they have seen saved, why don't you take it as them bragging on what God has done? There is the chance that the person talking has started being prideful, but frankly I think your last post showed alot of pride on your own part. Something which I think is not your normal attitude, and it did take me back a little.

Whether the soulwinner is getting prideful or not, the people he talks to are still hearing the gospel and people are getting saved. Praise God for that!


Have any of you ever done systematic door knocking? Where you follow a map and the church covers the entire city street by street? We were at a church in Lancaster that did this, and they tried to get the entire city covered each year or so. We've tried it here in Milwaukee too, but the people here seem to be more geared toward street preaching and less towards door to door. Id like to hear some ideas on how to drum up a little more interest in D2D, if possible.

 

Is this 'Street Preaching' the kind that yells (preaches) and hold signs at cars waiting at an intersection? Or is this street preaching in a mostly pedestrian area and has a program such as drama or whatever to draw in a crowd? Because I've never understood why people preach at my car or think that I'll get enough message at during the red light to pull over and ask the screamer to get saved. How many souls are saved this way? If you do it a different way than I've seen street preaching...how do you do it? How many souls have been saved as a result say on average in a month? I'm curious...because their seems to be movement inside IFB that turned the old fashion street preaching into a very questionable testimony and a scary representation for many other IFB churches. I can't tell you how many times during D2D I've had someone ask right away if I was from the church that had "the nuts who yelled down by the 7/11"? It is tough to balance between not belittling another church and not be hindered by this practice. Now understadn I've gone 'street preaching' at fairs/carnivals and have even been in a Christian drama in the park or mall that drew in a crowd and then the Gospel message was presented. By the way, we love to do that around Christmas and associated with Christmas Carolling...even here in Japan and we present the Gospel in English and Japanese...Praise the Lord! Anyways, I'd be curious of y'alls version of street preaching and how ya'll do it. Thanks

 

Rhet,

I do appreciate the call to introspection.

No hard feelings!


MRCoon,

when I say street preaching I suppose Im being pretty imprecise as that really doesn't describe what we do on the streets. We find a busy street and attempt to pass out tracts. There is no yelling, and no stopping people forcibly. We stand to the side and offer the tracts to those who are passing by. If and when someone stops and takes one, we talk to them about salvation. We will approach people who are standing still, or sitting at a bus stop. But it is always in a polite, quiet manner.

Several years ago (8 or 10) we did have a few men who would do actual street preaching. They'd stand on a corner and gather a small crowd then preach by telling them the gospel. It was done in a much less obnoxious manner than Ive seen some do, but I still think it was not as effective since alot of it was yelling in order to be heard above the street noise.

Frankly, I think our church has grown in many ways since those days. I see some people who were all about outward works and appearances, become much more loving and gracious. But thats not the topic, is it.

From passing out tracts we see alot saved. Someone once commented that we must see about 100 saved each week in order to get the kinds of numbers we have up on our website....? Well, Id say thats pretty fair. We do see many saved each week, from all the various soul winning endeavours that we have. But since it isn't truly street preaching as you've described it, I don't know that my church's amounts of salvations really count towards your question.

 

Praise the Lord Bapmom!! We also do that but we call it "tracting" where we will hang out by the military gates and talk to the GI's as they walk offbase. Sometimes it is a simple tract, smile and invite to Church as you can see in their mannerisms that they don't want to talk to you but sometimes it is a blessing were we get to talk to a few and share the salvation message. Not to be a "belt notcher" ( ;) ) but we have soul decisions made every time we go tracting! The Lord is Good and blesses our efforts and sprouts the seeds that we or others have planted!!

So my Church does D2D soul-winning, tracting and even have 'tract and flyer' days where we just choose a select area(s) and distribute as many tracts and flyers about our Church. The focus is not so much as talking to people but canvasing an area as much as possible. So with these 3 areas of soulwinning usually done on Saturdays and with our Thursday evening visitation of Church visitors/new members and with Sunday School training that we do regarding Personal Evangelism our church definitely strives for as much outreach as possible.

 

Huh ? I thought Jesus has done that already. So, He only thought He had done His Father's will, and that 'it is finished' ?
The task is not done because now redeemed sinners must do the 'mopping up' ?

 

Huh ? I thought Jesus has done that already. So, He only thought He had done His Father's will, and that 'it is finished' ?
The task is not done because now redeemed sinners must do the 'mopping up' ? </font>[/QUOTE]Very good misquote and misrepresentation of my statement. But here's an answer for you:

Romans 10:13-17 -
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

I guess us 'redeemed sinners' gotta be involved somehow!!

 

Good answer Mr Coon. A good answer for the "I-see-the-calvinism-armenian-issue-in-everything-through-my-calvin-tinted-glasses."

 

Many here don't know PinoyBaptist and have'nt read his comments for the last 3 years.He is calvinist in his theology but he works like an arminian.PinoyBaptist is a solid witness for Christ in the Phillipine Islands.I think the phrase "soul winner " just irritates him.He sees it as detracting from the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see it as a term for going out witnessing and we are blessed and humbled when we get to witness and actually see someone accept Jeus as Lord and Savior.All of our crowns will be lain at the Lord's feet.The glory is His and not ours.

In any event I like the way we witness and set aside a time for witnessing to be sure we do witness on a regular basis and are obedient to the great commission.We get no notches but we do get blessed.