“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” 1 Corinthians 15:34
There is a shameful lack of soul winning in today's independent Baptist churches. It can be hard to find a church with an advertised soul-winning time, but even among churches that do have some kind of door-to-door outreach program, many are not preaching the Gospel at the door. We need a whole new batch of churches to knock every door in America again, because the old fundamental Baptist movement is dying.
I know people who have found a Baptist tract on their door, but they never heard a knock even though they were home at the time. This is probably a common occurrence, since unfortunately, many pastors are telling people to leave door hangers without first knocking.
When we go out door to door, it’s not just an advertising campaign for our church where all we do is invite people or just leave a flyer, nor is it a "visitation" time where we visit only the people who have been to our church. Our goal is to systematically knock every door, and not only invite people to church, but give them an opportunity to hear the Gospel right then and there.
Brother Richard Miller just started a church in Nashville, Tennessee which is called Soul-Winning Baptist Church. Soul winning is a priority for Brother Miller, so it is only fitting that he call it that. With a name like Soul-Winning Baptist Church, the church will never be able to do away with soul winning, or it might as well just close down. Be sure to spread the word to your friends in Tennessee about this exciting new church!
We need to make sure that when we go out soul winning, we are doing just that. Handing someone a church invitation as an ice breaker is only the beginning. We need to open our Bibles and give the Gospel to whoever is willing to listen. Occasionally, people will show up as a result of finding an invitation left on their door when they weren’t home, and we praise God when that happens, but we need to remember that our primary purpose when we go out is to preach the Gospel.
Statistics obtained in another Baptist church showed that people are the most likely to show up at church after getting saved. Even when people don’t let the soul winner go through with the presentation, they are more likely to come as a result of being personally invited as opposed to just finding the invitation on their door.
Just inviting everyone isn’t enough. The Bible teaches that we are to open our mouths boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel. Church invitations are a useful tool when used in conjunction with actual soul winning, so pastors need to instruct their people to do more than just hand out literature.
“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? 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!” Romans 10:14-15
Here is a sermon to go with this article.
9 comments:
Pastor Anderson, are any of the men you're training going to be in Northwest Washington State? There's only one IFB church in my County I attend. Although i do like the Church, it's repent of your sins. There is soul winning, but I would like to attend a church where I can agree with the doctrine. Small towns need fire breathing preachers too!
Pastor Anderson, are any of the men you're training going to be in Northwest Washington State? There's only one IFB church in my County I attend. Although i do like the Church, it's repent of your sins. There is soul winning, but I would like to attend a church where I can agree with the doctrine. Small towns need fire breathing preachers too!
We have a three IFB churches in a thirty mile radius with with no pastors that are out doing much soul winning. They appoint others in charge of it then besides saying theres a soul winning time on saturday the topic doesnt get preached about. I want to pastor someday but with onlt being saved two years i have alot to learn. Thanks to you and gods word our family has grown so much spiritualy. Please send someone to central new york to pastor.
Well said Pastor.
Tracts are very tempting, but there is a stark difference between handing someone something to read and actually reading it out loud to them. The power is in hearing (Romans 10:17 KJV) and I've seen this with just about any situation where you want to bring others around to your point of view.
Consider Patrick Henry's famous "Give Me Liberty" address. If he'd just handed out a written speech and said, "Most Urgent! Danger! Read!" would any one of the colonists have been moved against the British? Does that perhaps explain why newspapers are going out of business?
This is not to demean reading at all. We are commanded to read God's word after all, but at that point you're already convinced. Initially though, you have to hear it first -- like they heard it daily in the temple (Acts 5:42, KJV) -- in order to be won over. There's no substitute for this.
The church invitation should only come into view after the sinner's prayer is complete in my opinion.
Maybe go on a road trip sometime and visit Verity Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington.
what happened to soul winning baptist it is gone even looked it up online their you tube website it is gone their church website is gone?? Hope all is well.
Unfortunately Richard Miller quit, and Soulwinning Baptist Church in Nashville, TN, has apparently been disbanded. Nothing bad happened that I know of, and there was no persecution or anything, but apparently he and his wife just "couldn't handle it." Please pray for and try to encourage any of the members of the church because I would hate for them to get discouraged because of this disappointment and stop going to church altogether. This can be a major stumblingblock in their lives. If anyone knows which is the best church in the Nashville area, please let me know, so I can recommend it to them.
He needs much prayer too. I hope he's alright...
I'm sorry to hear that Richard Miller quit like that. We need him and the former members of his church in the fight, so I hope they can all find another good church in Nashville. One other thing I wanted to say is that he mentioned before he started SBC that he was looking for a city that needed a good soulwinning church, and that that was why he chose Nashville. If any other men are being sent out and need a good city like that, a good one would be Springfield, Illinois about 45 miles away from where I live. Even though it has a population of roughly 116,000 people, there are no soulwinning churches in it. The nearest one, in Jacksonville, IL never does soulwinning in Springfield, so even the low-lying fruit has not been picked yet. Churches in and around Springfield, even as far away as the small town I live in, are loosing people left and right, so we could really use a good church like yours, so I hope that someday you may be able to consider Springfield. One more thing. It has two Panera Bread stores on opposite sides of town, so if you wanted to go soulwinning there first, you could easily choose which area you want to start in.
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