Soul winning has fallen on hard times. Studies show that less than 2% of Christians in America have ever led someone to faith in Christ. The church in the west is losing ground as a percentage of the population.
Soul winning is like prayer. A lot of people talk about it but few are faithful in it.
The goal of the Christian in this life, is to live for the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31). We are called to love God wholeheartedly, and to love our neighbor. Part of loving your neighbor is caring enough to tell your neighbor about Jesus.
The mission of Jesus Christ on this earth was to seek and save the lost. That is what He came for, and He instructed His followers to make disciples. The call of Jesus is a revolutionary call to radically impact our world through the power of the Gospel.
We are purposefully increasing our focus this year at Cross Lanes Baptist on the importance of biblical personal evangelism. We are reaching a "respectable" amount of people for Christ when compared to other churches of similar size and scope. The Spirit of God is moving and we are growing, and more from salvations and baptisms than transfers. I cannot say with honesty however, that we are radically impacting our community through evangelism. We certainly aren't when compared to the impact the early church had. I long for that. I believe when true spiritual awakening comes, we will.
It is always interesting to listen to pastors discuss the state of their ministries. We have this tendency to sugarcoat things and always paint the best picture of our circumstances. The typical conversations go something like this. Pastor 1 asks Pastor 2, "So, how is your ministry going?" Pastor 2 says, "It's great. Everything is going well. We have this going, and that going" and on and on he goes about the blissful nature of the ministry. Pastor 1 responds with his best attempt to top Pastor 2's report. Never would you hear the typical pastor say, "well it took 20 of our church members last year to lead 1 person to Jesus. It has been six months since we baptized anyone."
The problem is the same in both small churches and large churches. Many of our largest churches are heralded for baptizing hundreds of people a year. But the ratios are the same. It sounds good to baptize 300 in one year. But when you factor in that many of the baptisms come from children of church members, and rebaptisms, and that it took 5,000 people to do it, it is less impressive.
For true change to occur in our churches, we must admit the sorry condition that most of us are in. Let's call it what it is, and come before the throne of God in repentance. Let's admit that there are thousands around us who are perishing and on their way to Hell, and for the most part we are doing little to nothing about it collectively. That must burden us.
Some will take offense at that, and appeal to all sorts of excuses as to why they have not led anyone to Christ in recent memory. In the end, excuses are worthless and they aren't going to do your neighbor a bit of good when he stands before a Holy God in judgment.
I have told our church family that I long for the day when week in and week out people are introducing me to their friends, and family, and coworkers whom they have led to Jesus.
The goal is for the church to live and proclaim the Gospel in a compelling way and trust that God will bring the harvest. Conferences won't do it. My father-in-law said, "if conferences would win the world to Christ we would be ministering on Mars by now." Talking about it won't get it done. Complaining about it won't get it done. Blogging about it won't get it done. Writing books about it won't get it done. It will only happen when we fall in love with Jesus, and we are motivated by our love for Him and our love for our neighbors.
I have made a personal commitment this year to renewed personal evangelism. Pastor, this message is for you also. It is not enough to stand up on Sunday morning and deliver a message to the Gospel ghetto, and think you have done your part. For many of you, your people aren't leading anyone to Jesus because you aren't. Stop making excuses. Your excuses won't do it. Do your Father's work and many of the church problems you are experiencing will take care of themselves because the focus of the church is in the right direction.
Are you diligent in sharing your faith, personally?
Matthew 9:37 The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.
Here am I Lord, send me!
I Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
