The Soul Winner.org - Church Program

What a Pastor and Church Can Do to Turn the World Upside Down

Bob Sharpe, TheSoulWinner.org

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If your church is not winning souls on a regular basis, it's time to repent of the sin of not sharing the Gospel as consistently as you should.
Expect God to work when you are obedient to God in the soul winning ministry of the church.
Make evangelism a priority in the church budget. Evangelism is more important than music, fancy sound systems, new choir robes, flowers, and many other things that churches spend money on. Budget as much money as possible for winning the lost to Christ. Not only is it honoring God's priority, it's a good business decision. When more people get saved, the attendance grows and offerings increase. Of course, this is not the reason we do it, but evangelism is the only budget item in the church that can add to the financial health of the church.
Be prepared for the devil's attack. He does not attack anything in the church as much as he attacks evangelsm. When we get serious about our responsibility to win the lost, we are directly attacking Satan's kingdom.
Prepare the church for outreach.
1. Pastor, lead the way and constantly seek to win people to Christ.
2. 1. Let your people know you are winning souls.
  2. Introduce the people you have led to Christ to the congregation.
  3. Take people with you when you go soul winning so they can get a taste of it and learn.
3. Pray for your people to see the importance of winning souls. Ask God to keep their responsibility at the top of their minds.
4. Mention something about the importance of soul winning in every sermon. In ever service, pray for souls to be saved. Keep the responsibility in front of the people.
5. Get a supply of tracts that explain the Gospel clearly and keep them in a rack in the foyer of the church. Make sure the church address and phone number are printed on the tracts. Encourage your people to use them. Teach them the ways they can use them:
6. 1. Put one inside each envelope when they are paying their bills.
  2. Leave one with the tip when eating out.
  3. Give one to the cashier when shopping.
  4. Leave them in public restrooms
7. Teach a soul winning class. If people don't come to the class, use a few sermons to teach it. The purpose of the church services is to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Eph. 4:11
Encourage every member to promise God they will do everything in their power to win at least one person to Christ in the next 12 months.
Make sure that your people understand that most "churched" people are unsaved. In many parts of the country, most churches do not preach the true Gospel. We are not judging them. If we don't know they're lost, we won't try to get them saved.
Ask each member to ask God to put 5 people on their hearts who need to be saved. Ask them to keep the list of 5 in their Bibles and pray every day for all 5.
1. Pray for them to be saved
2. Pray for an opportunity to speak to them
3. Pray for boldness to speak to them when the opportunity arises
4. Actively seek natural opportunities to speak to them
5. Invite them to special activites at the church
Plan 4 major evangelistic events (services) per year - 1 per quarter.
1. Pick natural times when it is easiest to get people to come to church:
2. 1. Christmas
  2. Easter
  3. Back to School
  4. One more
3. Do these events in a Sunday morning service. Every quarter use 12 Sunday services to equip and edify the saints and 1 Sunday service to be purely evangelistic.
4. Have a special musical program, special speaker, special testimony, special something or somebody to give your people a reason to invite their non-Christian friends and acquaintances, and to give unsaved people a reason to want to come.
5. A week after the Event, sponsor a "Welcome Dinner" for everyone who got saved during the event. Invite everybody who was saved after the previous event. Hold it at a nice restaurant. Make sure they understand the church is paying for their dinner. Use the dinner as an informal way to get to know the new people and to acquaint them with the various ministries of the church.
Begin a 13-week rotating "New Life Class" for new believers.
1. Teach the same material every quarter
2. Invite the new Christian to start as soon as they are saved and stay in the class 13 weeks. Then get them into another class. Things to cover in the New Life Class:
3. 1. Review of Salvation and the Assurance of Salvation
  2. Baptism
  3. Prayer - We talk to God
  4. Bible Study - God talks to us
  5. Can I Trust My Bible?
  6. The church
  7. Tithing
  8. Soul winning
  9. Bible Content - cover Genesis to Revelation in 1 lesson
  10. Overcoming sin - 1 John 1:9
  11. Handling discouragement in the Christian life
4. You might want to get them into a second class for new believers at the end of 13 weeks. My favorite is a 52-week class in Systematic Theology for laypeople.I call it, What the Bible Teaches. Too many Christians don't know what they are supposed to believe in. I have received more positive comments from the theology classes than anything I have ever taught. Even seasoned saints tell me they have learned more about the Bible in What the Bible Teaches than they learned in any class in their entire lives. (It's not my teaching - it's the subject and the approach... meaty, but not too deep).
As soon as one special service is past, begin to build up for the next one. Always build for the next event.
1. Have your people bathe the evangelistic service in prayer for 3 months.
2. Encourage them to pray for the 5 people on their "hit lists" to come.
3. 2-3 weeks before the special service, have your people invite their 5, as well as the others
Baptize your new Christians as soon as possible after they get saved. Baptize during the Sunday morning service if your church has the facilities to do so. It is very encouraging to see baptisms 2-4 times every month.