Soul Winning Suggestions

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.”
[Proverbs 11:30]

“There is no other joy like the joy of winning souls to Christ; and it is possible for every child of God, no matter how humble and ungifted, to have this joy.”

What do we mean by winning souls?

Well what does the Bible mean? It means preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

2Corinthians 5:20 – “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

Sharing the Gospel is a job for every Christian, not just a select group, whom we like to label evangelists and missionaries:

Matthew 10:32-33 – “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.”

When is a good time to win souls?

Anytime whatsoever is a good time to win souls! Make time every day to do something to share God’s plan of salvation with someone, even if it is just a matter of including a tract in with a bill payment. Some ideal times to share the Good News with friends, relatives and others include any kind of family gathering, some of them being: birthdays, baby dedications/christenings, secular holidays, religious holidays, funerals, weddings, anniversaries, family reunions, and hospital visitations.

How should we go about winning souls?

Begin with prayer

Psalm 127:1 – “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it”

Matthew 9:38 – “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

Isaiah 6:8 – “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”

Have a heavenly attitude with regards to who you are in Christ

Well to begin with, we should be as blameless as possible and as friendly as possible. We should greet people warmly with a smile and a nice greeting. There are so many people today who need to meet a person who is a breath of fresh air. Try to act as if you are a visitor from the Kingdom of God, because that is what you are, if you are a true child of God:

Romans 12:2 – “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

If you don’t think you can represent Christ in that way, then get on your knees and plead with God to make you fit for his service and dig into His word where you will find encouragement and strength from verses such as these:

Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

2Samuel 22:33 – “God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.”

Psalm 28:7 – “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

You have much to rejoice and be glad about if you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Have a gracious attitude towards others

Colossians 4:6 – “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

The people you come into contact with may have just come from a place (work, home, etc.) where they were surrounded by people who don’t care or who had a bad attitude. In our negative, critical and sarcastic society it is important, as representatives of Christ, to go out of our way to complement people. Tell someone (cashier, gas-station mechanic, custodian, etc.) that they are doing a good job. Be specific if you can. Don’t be afraid to give someone a tip, either – some change, a piece of candy, a can of soda from a nearby vending machine, whatever… ask God to help you to be creative in this area. Not that you are trying to buy their attention or that you need to develop a deep friendship with anyone before you can share the Gospel with them. Your intention should be to minister to people in the name of the Lord with the intention of best representing the Saviour whose Gospel you are presenting. The bottom line is, if possible and practical, make sure that you don’t neglect to let a person know that you care about them IN A WAY THAT MAKES IT OBVIOUS TO THEM, from their perspective, remembering what the scripture says:

Matthew 5:39-44 – ” 39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

Galatians 5:14 – “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Obviously, if we fail to warn sinners about the wrath of God and yet have done everything else, we have neglected our greatest duty. And please understand that “friendship evangelism” is not being advocated here, which involves witnessing only by our actions or sharing the Gospel only AFTER we have established some kind of relationship with an individual. For more information on the subject of friendship evangelism, you may wish to examine the author’s document titled: “A Look At Friendship Evangelism“.

Be a good listener

Part of graciously sharing the Gospel involves being a good listener. Only then can you best determine what kind of scriptures to share with a person.

Use heavenly conversation

It is important to have a positive, heavenly perspective in your conversation. Focus on things above, talk the opposite of the world, letting your light shine, speaking of things above, not things below:

Colossians 3:2 – “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Talk about how God has blessed you – what He has done in your life, how He has answered prayers:

1Thessalonians 5:18 – “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Of course if you don’t spend a lot of quality time with the Lord in prayer and in the Word, you will have difficulty doing these things. Make a habit of thanking God for things, for praising him, in earshot of lost sinners who need to know that your God is that real to you. And don’t rob God of praise that is due to him, when someone complements you. This is a great time to tell the person ‘thank-you, but it is God who has given me the ability’ (or talent or opportunity or blessing, etc.).

Use the ‘Law’

Romans 3:20 – “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Don’t be afraid to confront sin around you. That’s what being salt and light is all about. As the friends of sinners, we need to lovingly warn the lost that sin has very real and serious consequences now and for eternity. Memorize the ten commandments in Exodus chapter 20 and the verses in Matthew chapter 5 were Jesus stated just how serious sin is by comparing hatred to murder, lust to adultery, etc. Remember, a person can’t see their need for a Savior if that don’t consider themselves lost. To see their lostness, people need to realize that God has laws and that they are lawbreakers who will have to suffer eternal punishment if God does not save them. The lost need to understand how much God hates sin and the severity of the penalty of sin. We should always explain these spiritual matters using scripture rather than our own words, since “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). We should not hesitate to include ourselves when we speak of the fallen state of man and his need for a Saviour.

Present the Gospel accurately

Many churches nowadays preach a modified Gospel, which is not really the whole counsel of God. They try to present the Gospel in a way that is pleasing, or at least not very offensive, to the lost. Some ways that the Gospel is misrepresented today include:

Preaching about the love of God, the grace and mercy of God, while omitting any mention of the judgment and wrath of God.
Preaching that “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”. The Bible says that God hates the workers of iniquity (Psalm 5:5 and 11:5). He does not love everybody unconditionally. In fact, God considers everyone His enemies until and unless He saves them (Romans 5:10).
Preaching that to get saved, all a person has to do is say a prayer and accept Christ as their Saviour. The fact is, the Bible says that Christ accepts us (Eph 1:4-11), it is not we who accept him, because “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom 3:11) and because we are “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1)”. We have no control over our own salvation, because “salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). We are at God’s mercy and He “will have mercy on whom [He] will have mercy” (Rom 9:15). Christians are simply expected to accurately and faithfully preach the Gospel using the Word of God, and then let God do the work of conversion, if and when He chooses (Eph 1:5).
Preaching a gospel that does not include repentance – a change of attitude about sin and a turning away from sin. Jesus said: “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3). But we must not forget that we cannot even repent, unless God, by His grace, grants us repentance as noted in Acts 11:18, Acts 13:48, John 15:16, Mark 13:20 and elsewhere.

Ask thought provoking questions

There are many kinds of questions you can ask to get a conversation started and to get a better understanding of where a person is at spiritually. Some helpful information on this subject can be found in the author’s document titled: “Key Witnessing Questions To Help You Earnestly Contend For The Faith“.

Offer to pray for those you are witnessing to

One excellent way of showing people that we care about them and that we are Heavenly minded is to offer to pray for some very immediate need someone has. After I stop to help someone whose car is broken down on the highway and have done whatever I can or whatever they ask me to do, I tell them that I will pray for them to get home safe (and then I pray when I get back into my car). I almost always hand them a tract too, asking them to please read it. They can read it and God can deal with their heart even while they are waiting for a tow truck. It is also important to let people know that you are praying for their salvation and equally important to dedicate serious time in prayer with God on their behalf.

Specific areas of our lives where we can share the Gospel:

In personal conversation
By letter
By phone
Door-to-door with a church
Tract/literature distribution

1. In personal conversation:Any conversation can be directed towards Christ if we really want it to be. We should be sure to let the other person have their share of ‘air-time’ and we should be good listeners. We can do this by noting a subject that a person is discussing and using some aspect of that discussion as a springboard to eternal matters. The more we study the Bible and the more soul winning we do, the more natural this becomes. God will probably not bring a Bible verse to our remembrance if we never read it.

2. By letter: You can write to friends or relatives for special occasions or just to say hello and to tell them about your blessed Savior and Lord, what He means to you, how He answers prayers and how you are looking forward to seeing Him in Heaven someday, when there will be no more tears or pain or sorrow. You can write as a pen-pal to shut-ins or prisoners.

3. By phone: You can reach people very easily and personally by phone. Many senior citizens feel very lonely and would love to hear from you, either your elderly relatives or elderly church members, etc. (Remember, not all church members are saved – and we need to find out for sure, if we really care about a person’s eternal soul).

4. Door-to-door with a church: Going door-to-door is best done as an outreach of a local church. That does not mean you could not go out on your own door-to-door in your own neighborhood to share the Gospel and to invite people into your home. However, it is God’s plan to use believers in the setting of the local church since no single individual has all the gifts of the Spirit and fellowship of the saints is an integral part of being a Christian. When going door-to-door there are some things to consider that the author has written up in a separate document titled “Helpful Door-To-Door Soul Winning Guidelines“.

5. Tract/literature distribution: Gospel leaflets are available for all situations, age groups, religious background, etc. Tracts can be a very good tool for sharing God’s Word and for starting conversations. However, we must remember that they can be a crutch too. We should not use them in situations where it would be better to spend quality time talking to someone, explaining God’s plan of salvation thoroughly and asking questions to see if the individual understands the Gospel. In this situation, a tract can be used as a form of follow-up to your conversation, especially if you run out of time to talk to the person you are witnessing to.

Ways to use tracts include:

Enclose tracts with bill payments.
Enclose tracts in greeting cards and letters.
Enclose tracts in self-addressed postage-paid envelopes that you get with junk mail (note: it is a better witness if you put your own stamp on the postage-page envelope).
Leave tracts in phone booths.
Leave tracts on tables and counters as you leave a store or restaurant.
Leave tracts on video games in arcades.
Give tracts to a cashier, store clerks, gas station attendants, etc.

Notes about mailing tracts:

It is a good idea to personalize the message of the Gospel. We don’t want to forget that we are introducing people to Christ and that we are representing Him to the world. We are not racking up points for the number of tracts distributed. With this in mind, you may wish to write an explanatory note to include with tracts that you mail to people in bill payments, etc. A sample note is shown here:

Dear friend:

I hope you are having a good day. I’ve enclosed some very important literature because I care about where you will spend eternity. Why would I care? Only because Jesus Christ came into my life and enabled me to care about the souls of people who do not even care about their own souls. Please take the time to read the material because it could be the most important thing you ever read. It could have the answers to questions that you never thought there were answers to. Please make sure that you are not one of the people that the Bible says this about:

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” [Rom. 10:3]
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” [Rev. 20:15]

Take care and may God bless you as you seek to know more about Him and how only He can get you ready for heaven.

Sincerely,

(Your-name, address, phone-number)

Another shorter sample note you can enclose with tracts and evangelistic letters:

Some very important information for those who are spiritually thirsty…
Feel free to pass this on to those whose spiritual welfare you care about.

“And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”
Revelation 21:6

Notes about leaving tracts where someone can find them:

Try to leave tracts where they will not get blown away by the wind. Also, if you are at an airport or at a busy rest stop on the highway you will probably notice that the cleaning staff wastes no time throwing away leaflets left at phone booths. In those situations, it is best to directly hand a tract to someone.

Notes about handing tracts directly to people:

When handing tracts to people and depending on how busy an area you are in, you should give them a courteous greeting like:

“Hi. How are you doing?” and then let them respond. At which point you can tell them something like:

Here is something you may wish to read when you get a chance. It is very important.
Would you like something to read?
Here is some important reading material that I hand out all the time. I don’t like to leave anybody out. Have a blessed day.

If they ask you what it is, be as honest and straightforward as possible. It is not at all appropriate to be cute or ‘smart’. You can tell the person something along the lines of:

It talks about getting to heaven. Do you think about that much?
It talks about things that will matter for all eternity.
It talks about things that will matter to you personally a hundred years from now, even a thousand years from now.

Try to read people’s expressions to see if they even understand what you are saying and to see if they may want more of an explanation. Don’t just throw a tract at them and run.

Don’t forget about those who do not read English: Be sure to carry foreign language tracts with you also, depending on the ethnic background of the people in your area or in the area you may be traveling to or through.

How to select appropriate tracts: The author has written a document that outlines some important things to consider when selecting evangelistic literature. This document is titled: “Good Versus Not-So-Good Evangelistic Literature“.

To whom can we witness?

1. Coworkers: Invite someone to lunch and share with them your faith in Christ and how different life is for you now… how you know why you are here and where you are going, and how you now know how to avoid lots of problems in life that you may have struggled with before. Act like the woman at the well, brother or sister! Go tell it on the mountain!

2. Relatives: Unsaved relatives are usually tough to talk to about the Lord… you will probably have the most success with those you don’t see often and who will feel least threatened by the changes that God has brought about in your life. Don’t give up on any of them – but make sure you don’t overfeed them with the Gospel at any one time. In other words, be a good listener and ask questions to get feedback from them. You can ask them: “What do you think this Bible verse means?” after sharing a scripture verse with them. Make sure you let them know you are concerned about their physical and material needs too. You may wish to read this related article: “Relating To Unsaved Relatives“.

3. Neighbors: Invite neighbors over for dinner or desert or at your next cookout. If they won’t come, bring them a gift. You can enclose a card with tracts or just use the delivery of the gift as a conversation starter. Gifts can be anything… something you baked/cooked, something you made (applying a craft or hobby of yours), fruit or food basket, candy, cookies, cake, whatever.

4. Friends: Ever think of writing a letter to an old high school or college friend to say hello and to share the most important event in your life with them? What about writing to a friend who is just too far away to visit often?

How to get started

1. Pray: On your knees, ask God to help you to care about lost sinners as much as Christ did when he was staggering down the road to Calvary to suffer the wrath of God for all your sins. Ask God to help you act as if you truly believe that people all around you are headed for an eternity in Hell and that God has appointed you as His ambassador to warn them.

2. Repent: For letting laziness and fear hinder you in the past while sinners everywhere were dying without Christ. Most of us, if not all of us get preoccupied with ourselves and things of the world. Ask God whom He would have you to go to and how to go about it. God wants us to get to the point in our walk with Him, to where we can direct a conversation towards Christ and the Gospel as naturally and easily as we used to direct the conversation towards our favorite sin before we were saved. God wants us to treat soul winning the way we treat whatever else is or was a major priority in our lives. He desires that we do everything we can to make time for soul winning and to steer conversations to the Lord. We should be even better at impressing God with our soul winning than we are at impressing our boss with the work we do, or at pleasing our spouse, or at making sure we have time to do all the things that get in the way of our time with God and the things that really matter in light of eternity.

3. Go: Stop making excuses for not soul winning and start doing everything you can to not let anything else get in the way of your efforts to lead people to the One and Only Blessed Saviour. Set aside time each day to pray for specific soul winning opportunities and set aside time to actually reach somebody for Christ, be it strangers on the street or someone you have known for years but have been neglecting to share the Gospel with.

“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” [Psalm 126:5-6]

“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 10:15]