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Get Committed! Go Soul Winning!
By Dr. Fred Schindler

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise."–Prov. 11:30.

If you ever move to another city, the first thing to check out is a church with a soul-winning ministry. Soul winning is the heartthrob, the front-burner ministry of the church.

Years ago I had to make some major decisions in my own ministry. One was based upon the fact that those I worked with no longer put soul winning first. They thought teaching should be on the front burner. They called it "education for revival." That’s not what the Bible teaches.

Personal soul winning is first. "Buttonholing people" is what Charles Haddon Spurgeon called it: witnessing, telling people one on one of their need of Christ; giving people your testimony; trying to win people to Jesus Christ–that is, soul winning. Witnessing is not necessarily soul winning, but witnessing ought to be the front door to soul winning.

Separation is second. I made up my mind a long time ago that I would preach on separation and holiness. God’s people ought to be holy. I will not trade the quality of Christians for the quantity that I’ve seen in some churches. A church can have both; but I will not dip my sails, pussyfoot and tiptoe around the tithers to be a pastor.

Christians ought to live right, but the main burner, the main activity of our lives, ought to be getting people saved. Every Christian ought to do everything he can to win souls.

It says here that "the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life." We often hear people say, "I just win them by trying to live right and do right." Yes, you ought to live right, but you will not win anyone by living right. Your life is "a tree of life."

When people look at you, do they see Christ in you? Do you make them thirsty? Salt is a preservative, and you are the salt of the earth. Make sinners thirsty so they will say, "I don’t know what that person has, but I’m going to watch him because he has something I want." But that won’t convert anyone. You witness to people by telling them how to get saved. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." We are to preach the Gospel.

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

"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?"–Rom. 10:9,10,13,14.

"Preacher" here means "the heralder, the exhorter, the one who broadcasts, who tells." You are the preacher.

We are to be soul winners. We are to be telling people about Christ. We are to be preachers. God said, "He that winneth souls is wise" (Prov. 11:30). The wisest person is a soul winner. When a person sets out to be a soul winner, he usually knows that he must depend upon the wisdom of God, the leadership of God, the power of God and the Word of God. A soul winner knows that he needs prayer. So, walking with God, he becomes a wise Christian.

There is no highway to glorify the name of the Lord except the soul-winning highway. There is no better way to glorify Christ than to go out to some Hell-bound sinner and tell him about Jesus!

We applaud God, we express great words of gratitude to God, we have services where we shout the victory and give glory to God; but there is no better way to glorify God than to go out and tell somebody about Christ.

Jesus has given us the command to be soul winners. There is no greater way to honor God than to tell others about His Son. There is no greater way to honor the Word of God than to use it and see its power work in the heart of some lost sinner and have him come to trust Jesus.

I would rather preach than eat. In the last twenty-five years, I’ve probably preached close to ten thousand sermons. It is a thrill to preach!

I love to see the aisles filled with people on their knees, some getting saved, others getting in line with God. I like to be right in the middle of that.

It is a thrill, a joy, to see lives changed; but there is nothing like the joy of witnessing to someone blinded by sin and the Devil, then seeing the lights turn on in his eyes and seeing him trust Christ as Saviour and instantaneously become a child of God.

It is exciting to watch the tears being wiped out of the eyes and watch that new life look at you and say, "Boy, I’m glad you came by today and told me about Jesus!"

Soul winning is the most exciting activity in the Christian life!

The greatest way to honor the Word of God is to take somebody through it to Christ. The greatest way to honor the Holy Spirit is to follow His leadership and go out to win souls in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes a brand-new Christian, someone just saved, can win more people than a seasoned veteran. Too often a seasoned veteran doesn’t depend on the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows all the verses, can answer all the questions and accusations, knows all the clichés, and thinks he doesn’t need God to help him win souls.

The one who sets out to win souls realizes he is working the most spiritual work in this world when he turns someone from darkness to light by the power of the Holy Spirit.


I. WHERE IS "ALL THE WORLD"?

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

"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."–Matt. 28:19,20.

Evangelism is God’s method of reaching the world. He said to go into "all the world."

I cannot physically go into all the world, but I can go into my world; and you can go into your world. You can go places where I cannot go and see people whom I’ll never meet. Somebody who needs Jesus Christ will cross your path. God will bring that person into your world because He expects you to evangelize your world–where you live, your family, your loved ones, your neighbors. He wants you to be a soul winner in your world!


II. THE GREATEST SOUL WINNER IN THE BIBLE

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."–Luke 19:10.

Jesus Christ was the greatest soul winner in the Bible. He went everywhere preaching, spreading the Gospel in every village and in every little town. He preached on a mountainside, on the sea, in the desert, in the wilderness–everywhere! Why? Because Christ came "to seek and to save that which was lost."

Jesus said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Then if we are following Jesus, the result will be that we become "fishers of men," soul winners for Jesus. The Lord will lead His follower in the way of sinners and teach him how to win them.

Jesus Christ came to be a soul winner. In John, chapter 1, we see Him winning Andrew and Peter and Nathanael. Jesus saw the multitude and had compassion on them.

"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

"Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."–Matt. 9:35 - 38.

I think about the trips I have had the pleasure of making into Mexico. The first one was in March of 1976. We went up into the mountains, into the villages where nobody had ever before preached the Gospel. Some there had never heard about Christ, had never seen an American nor a Bible, and they didn’t know who God was.

On the bus late at night we drove into Monterrey, a city of three and one-half million people. As I looked out the bus window and saw the millions of lights that illumined that city, the Holy Spirit began working on my heart. I said out loud, "Most of those people are lost; most of them are lost and dying and going to Hell! Oh, they’re lost!"

I would to God that this would grip my heart daily–multitudes are lost! They are as lost and scattered about as sheep without shepherds. They need the Lord Jesus Christ. They must be born again to get to Heaven. And I personally need to tell them that Jesus Christ is the only way to get there.

Jesus Christ left His Father for souls. He left the heralding of angels for souls. He left a crowning glory for souls. He shed tears for souls. He prayed for souls. He sweat for souls. He bled for souls. He suffered for souls. He gave His time, His energy, His life for souls. He trod the winepress of His Father’s wrath for souls. He paid for souls. He died for souls.

Jesus Christ is our example of a soul winner. He came from Heaven to be the first missionary on earth.

If we who have experienced the wonderful plan of salvation working in our lives–have realized that Jesus has forgiven our sins, changed our lives, put our feet on a solid Rock, established our goings–would not want others to share in the wonderful experience of knowing Christ, it would be a grievous sin of ingratitude!

Jesus Christ, looking over the city of Jerusalem, wept and said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings"! He wept because of a city of lost people dying and going to Hell.


III. THE SOUL WINNER’S TOOLBOX

Soul winning is work. To do this work, the soul winner needs a toolbox filled with soul-winning tools. Here is a list of tools you will need:

1. The tool of prayer. Pray for lost people. I have a list of people I pray for every day by name. I pray, "O God, deal with their hearts. O God, show them they are lost." I prayed for my mother for eleven years; then God saved her.

Some of you came to this altar last week. If you prayed, "O God, I want to bring others to the altar," then from your toolbox get out the tool of prayer. Make a prayer list and then pray for those whom you are going to try to win to Christ.

Prayer! Prayer! Prayer! Pray for power, for wisdom, for discernment; pray that God will open the eyes of the blind who do not see their need of Christ. Pray for the hardhearted, for the drunkard, for the drug addict–pray for them all!

Some of you have lost neighbors, friends, family, children and grandchildren. How long has it been since you have been on your knees in agonizing prayer for them? How long has it been since you visualized your loved one in Hell? That ought to break your heart.

Most of my loved ones that I pray for are over five hundred miles away. At the Homegoing of my father-in-law, I looked at that crowd. Then when I got up to start the funeral, I thought, I don’t care what anybody thinks. They’ve never heard a sermon like this at a funeral, but I’m going to preach on salvation. I knew I would never get another chance to get both our families and all those friends together. I wanted all my loved ones to get saved, but only one got saved.

I walked away and told God, "O God, I’m so discouraged, but I’m going to keep on praying."

One day someone is going to walk up to my brother’s door and win him to Christ. How do I know? Because I’m going to keep on praying for him!

One of the greatest tools in our churches is prayer. We will not have the power of God, and we are not going to see God bless, unless we pray.

If you don’t pray, you won’t have the power of God or anything else you need to get the work done. How we need to pray!

2. The tool of the power of the Holy Spirit. If the holy Son of God was anointed with the Holy Spirit, surely we have need of this power of the Spirit. Oh, pray for power!

The Bible says, "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 Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Preachers, Sunday school teachers, choir members–we can do nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by our power, not by our spirit, not by our might, but it is by the power of His Spirit, His anointing on our lives.

Whether you sing in the choir, receive the offering, work with the sound system, tend to babies in the nursery or teach a Sunday school class, you must have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, especially if you would win your loved ones to Christ.

Would to God that we would spend more time praying for the power of the Holy Spirit!

3. The tool of precepts of the Word of God. Memorize Scripture. Memorize the plan of salvation. When you memorize the Word of God, it enables you to find your way through the Bible.

When I first got saved, I started memorizing verses, half chapters, whole chapters, verse upon verse. I would write them on a piece of paper. While running a machine, I would work on memorizing those verses. I’d put them on the dashboard of my car. Everywhere I had memory verses written on cards. I thought Christians were supposed to do that.

4. The tool of preparation. Would you get in a small plane and fly with a pilot who had read the manual but had never flown before? Is he prepared?

We spend the least amount of time at the most important responsibility we have as Christians–preparing to win people to Christ. Thank God for churches with good soul-winning programs that prepare their people to put into practice what they learn.

We give soul-winning books to our reapers and fishers to teach them how to do it, to prepare them.

If we really mean business about soul winning, we will read everything we can get our hands on, beginning with the Bible.

5. The tool of practice. Go do it! You say, "I’m so scared!" Just go do it anyway!

I was only about a week old in the Lord when I first went out soul winning. My partner said, "Now it’s your turn."

We knocked on a door, a man opened it, said a few words and slammed the door in my face. (That will get your attention!)

My soul-winning partner put his arm around me and said, "That’s all right. Come on, let’s go to the next house." (He knew what he was doing.)

I knocked on the next door–a little quieter this time. The lady who came to the door was already saved. She said, "Praise the Lord! I’m so glad you are doing this!"

We went on down the street to the next house, knocked on the door, and a man answered. I was so nervous that I was shaking. I had written the first verse in the front of my Bible–Romans 3:23. I stammered through it. But I had the joy of winning that man to the Lord–my first convert! I was doing it! I was winning souls. I found that it is not that hard. In fact, after awhile it got to be fun.

People are going to Hell every day, not just on the night the church goes soul winning. What about your neighbors, the paper boy, the grocery clerk? What about the people you see on a daily basis?

6. The tool of confidence. Go with confidence in the work of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit.

I’ve been out as a trainer with soul winners. When some of the men who went with me began to ramble and tell stories, I would say, "Wait a minute. Stick to the Gospel. Stick to the Good News."

If you’ll do your part in telling the story, the Holy Spirit will do His job of convicting, and Jesus will do His job of saving.

7. The tool of common sense. Use common sense in your approach when you talk to people. Soul winners need to be bold without being overly aggressive. Don’t say, "Hey, you old dirty, rotten sinner. Do you know you’re going to Hell?" then start blasting him about his dirty habits. A scriptural soul winner is kind and courteous and loves the souls of the people he is going to visit.

8. The tool of compassion. Soul winners, take compassion with you. It’s not your job to take the cockiness out of someone; your job is to tell sinners about Jesus compassionately.

9. The tool of conviction. Do you really believe that people are going to go to Hell? Could you have witnessed to the one suddenly killed in an accident on the job? Is that man in Hell because you neglected to witness to him when you had the opportunity?

Keep in mind that every person you meet could be dead within the next ten minutes or ten seconds. Understand that he could suddenly die and go to Hell. Soul winning is serious business.

10. The tool of partnership. Churches send out soul winners two by two–and that’s good–but the Holy Spirit must be the first Partner.

I worked on an assembly line, and very few Christians were working with me. I witnessed without a church soul-winning partner, but I wasn’t alone. The Holy Spirit was my soul-winning Partner, and He was always with me.

11. The tool of perseverance. Some have quit soul winning, believing that it doesn’t work anymore. You sorry rascal! Who won you? The most selfish excuse of a Christian is, "Well, I just don’t think people can be saved today." Someone else says, "I witnessed and prayed with them, but I don’t really know if they got saved." What’s that got to do with it? That’s just an excuse for you to quit!

When you came to the altar and made a commitment to win souls, did you tell God how many you would like to win–or how many you are going to win? If you told God how many you are going to win, then you won’t quit because you gave Him a definite number. But if you just said, "Lord, I would like to win a hundred souls this year," what makes you think you will win one hundred this year if you only won ten last year?

It does not make God happy when you "want" to win a number of souls, because likely you won’t even set out to do it. If you want to win souls, then give Him a specific number and don’t quit until you have reached your goal.

In Bible college the teacher in personal evangelism said, "You are to pass out five tracts a day, and you are to go through the plan of salvation at least once a week." That didn’t sound so bad. Then, lying in bed around 12:30 a.m., I thought about those five tracts in my coat pocket that I hadn’t passed out. So I got dressed and went out to find five people.

Around one o’clock in the morning I was standing in the parking lot of a convenience store waiting to give out some tracts. I probably didn’t feel very spiritual at that time, but the teacher gave me a spiritual goal, an assignment, and I was going to do it because that was what I was supposed to do. We need to use that same idea in getting people saved.

How many did you win last week? Did you tell God you were going to win them or that you wished to win them? You have to go to them if you are going to win them.

If you mean business for God, persevere! If you mean business for God, don’t quit! If you mean business for God, don’t make excuses!

12. The tool of piety. To be a soul winner, you must be right with God. You will not be an effective soul winner for Jesus if you live a slipshod life, an up-and-down, in-and-out, worldly lifestyle. The whole world will see through you, especially the people where you work, if your life is not in accordance with your talk. You had better back up your witness with holy living.

13. The three-pronged tool, "plow, plant and pluck." A soul winner must be willing to go out and do some plowing. You have to prepare the soil. You will not get somebody saved every time you witness. You may have to go back and visit someone you have already witnessed to before.

Often when I revisit people, I call myself "Pastor Pest." I went back to the home of someone just the other day. I said, "Look, I don’t want to be a pest. If you don’t want me to come back, just say so; but I am really concerned about you."

He said, "I’m glad to see you."

Why did I go back? I had already plowed up the ground; now I was doing some more planting and watering. Then one day I hope to go back and pluck the harvest!

Not everyone you invite to church is going to come. If you tell God you want to bring ten people to church and some don’t come, don’t quit. Keep asking until you find ten people who will come with you. There is no problem finding lost people to come to church with you if you keep on plowing.

Be like the old soldier who disappeared from camp. When he returned he had a whole bunch of enemy soldiers marching before him. When his buddies asked, "Where did you find all those soldiers?" he said, "The woods are full of them. Go and get you some!"

Keep going! You have to keep plowing and keep planting in order to pluck!

14. The tool of priority. Soul winning has to become our priority. It should not be something you just attach to your weekly schedule: "I’ll come when I can" or "I’ll come if I can" or "I’ll come if it’s convenient." A fisherman for Christ can always find an excuse for not going. If soul winning is not a priority with you, you will use any excuse not to be out looking for lost souls–excuses, such as, "I have a head-ache" or "I’m too tired" or "I’m already running late."

Soul winning is not the number one priority in the average Baptist church, and you know it! Soul winning is not the number one priority in the average Christian life, and you know it! But if we obey God, we will put soul winning at the very top of our priority list.

Some of you have been trying to get close to God by reading your Bible, having daily devotions and walking with God. That’s good. But some of you still don’t have a handle on it. God wants to give you the joy and thrill of being a Christian, but you cannot find it in just teaching a Sunday school class or having a bus route. The greatest joy is seeing somebody saved. And some of you have yet to experience that joy.

There are also those of you who have won souls in the past, but you have forgotten that joy. You have run out of motivation.

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer should be for others.
Others, Lord, yes, others,
Let this my motto be.
Help me to live for others
That I might live like Thee.

15. The tool of precious promises. What are the promises? Look at one which God gives us:

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."–Ps. 126:6.

You say, "Well, I just don’t know. I’m not a soul winner." But He said that you shall come rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you.

One blond-headed fellow, over six feet tall, was called to preach under my ministry. He’s now finishing Bible college and heading for Maine to start a church. What a thrill to see him! All he wants to talk about is the Bible and doing the work of God.

There is no greater joy than that, folks–no greater joy than seeing fruit that remains and seeing them serving the Lord!


IV. THE WAY TO SUCCESS IN SOUL WINNING

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."–Phil. 3:13,14.

Forget the failures of the past. What if you keep going out and getting people saved, yet you can’t get them to church? Jesus had ten lepers saved, but only one came back to give Him glory. Did Jesus quit? No. What are you complaining about?

We use our excuses to quit serving God, to quit winning souls, because we have failed or have seen what we thought was failure in the past.

I have enough fruit from soul winning that I look at the fruit, not the failures. I have set a mark, and I am going to press toward the goal. God is pleased when we set out to grow, to reach people and to build churches. But unless we put our failures behind us and press forward toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we are not going to make it.

Determine in your heart that the goal you set is not something you are going to "try" to do but something you "will" do. Just get down to business and do it by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Commit yourself to being a soul winner. Get in, get to work, and God will be pleased.





Lord, make me a soulwinner!!!

Peace and Love,
Stephen