Personal Soul Winning

One of the great things about preaching is seeing people come forward to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Of course, since the pastor is giving the invitation, that means that someone else in the church gets the privilege of leading that person to the Lord. Though I rejoice in the salvation of anyone who comes to saving faith in Christ, I really prefer to be the one who actually leads the person to Christ myself if possible. Therefore, I must make opportunities for myself to lead people to Christ outside of the church setting.

On the Saturday before Easter, we had a community Easter Egg Hunt at a
local city park that drew a crowd of around 300 people. We had the
karate team Breaking Point from Liberty Baptist Church in St. Pete come
over and help us, and they did a good job of presenting the Gospel.
During the invitation, a number of children came forward to be saved,
and in addition to the children, a mother came forward with tears
streaming down her face. She was escorted by two of our ladies who had
invited her to come that day. We went a few yards away from the crowd,
and under an old oak tree I led Anne Rodriguez to the Lord. As I began
to share the Romans Road with her, her thirteen year old son, Tyler,
showed up and he later prayed the sinner's prayer as well. Before the
day was over, my wife had led her daughter, Brianna, to the Lord also.
I couldn't help but think of the Scriptures that say a certain person
was saved and their household. Anne's husband was not their that day so
pray for his salvation as well. His name is David.

You might say, "Preacher, do you really think they got saved?" Well,
would it surprise you to know that Anne showed up for Sunday
School and the worship service? The last thing she said when she
left Sunday was “I will see you on Wednesday night”! Was I wired to
preach on Sunday morning? Absolutely! Because the Lord allowed me to
personally lead someone to Jesus Christ the day before. I think the
greatest thing outside of my own salvation is leading someone else to
Christ. My personal confession is this, if I really believe that
winning people to Christ is so great, why don't I do it more often?
Sometimes with all the work we must do in the ministry we get
sequestered in our Ivory Towers and forget that our ministry is with
people and not with programs! Jesus was a personal soul winner, and if
we are to be His disciples we must be personal soul winners as well. It
is hard for a pastor to preach on soul winning to his people when he
isn't doing it himself. By the way, when was the last time you
personally won someone to Christ?

Have a great day! Go out and win a soul to Jesus!

Ron Williams
State Chairman