By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor
ALEXANDRIA, La. (LBM) – Soul winning is not a spontaneous behavior, but a deliberate act of obedience. It is something that must be a matter of intentional prayer (John 17:20), preparation (1 Peter 3:15) and pursuit (Luke 19:10). Indeed, intentionality – under the guidance of the Lord — is a spiritual concept (Prov. 16:3; Luke 14:28; 1 Cor. 9:22-23; Col. 3:23-24).
BIBLE BASICS
Do not misunderstand.
The Holy Spirit is either at work in the hearts of the lost (John 16:8; 2 Cor. 7:10), or He is not. Likewise, He is either working in the hearts of soul winners (John 15:26-27; Acts 1:8; 24:25; 26:25), or He is not.
But throughout the Word, God is explicit that He is not the author of confusion or chaos but of orderliness:
Old Testament
— Jethro helped Moses create an organization of administrators (rulers of tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands) to judge minor disputes, freeing Moses to address the difficult issues (Ex. 18:13-26).
— King David (who was prohibited from building the temple) organized everything needed for the construction, operation and administration of the temple: the plans, workers, gold, silver, cedar, priests, musicians, military, officials and judges … as well as the collection of nails (1 Chron. 22, 25-29). He even instructed Solomon to seek wisdom (1 Chron. 22:12) when given the chance to ask for anything from God (1 Kings 3:5-9).
— Meanwhile, Nehemiah effectively organized the families in Jerusalem to rebuild the city’s 1.5-mile-long wall, which varied in height from 20-40 feet and width from 6.5-26 feet thick, in only 52 days (while fending off attackers).
New Testament
— Jesus gave order within His band of disciples, assembling a cohort of 12 apostles to learn to lead directly from Him (Luke 6:12-16). He also developed a close-knit inner circle of three among these (Mark 9:2-3; Luke 8:49-56; Matthew 26:36-38):
— Importantly, He was purposeful during His three-year ministry in His approach to training His apostles: establishing His authority in Word (Matthew 5-7) and deed (Matthew 8-9); delegating authority to them and sending them out briefly to grow on their own (Matthew 10); completing His ministry in Galilee (Matthew 11-16); preparing for His death (Matthew 17-18); traveling to Jerusalem (Matthew 19-20); and giving last lessons during Passion Week (Matthew 21-25) before His trials, torture, crucifixion (Matthew 26-27) and resurrection (Matthew 28).
— Of course, Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to instruct the church to be orderly in worship matters, too (1 Cor. 14:26-40).
TRIED, TRUE MODELS
So, how do you organize to win souls?
South-wide Centennial Crusades (1945)
Although he is most known for leading the creation of the Cooperative Program, Southern Baptists’ primary channel for funding cooperative missions and ministries, M.E. Dodd, the renowned pastor of the First Baptist Church in Shreveport, was a prolific soul winner, baptizing 7,000 new believers during the 50-year span of his ministry. Additionally, during his ministry among troops during WWI (he volunteered as an Army chaplain but was detoured to serve with the YMCA overseas as a religious worker) he went on a yearlong speaking tour (at the war’s end) to all overseas camps and recorded 5,000 professions of faith as well as 500 commitments to Christian service.
Indeed, it is no stretch to suggest that his focus in creating the Cooperative Program was to facilitate the winning of souls across the Southern Baptist Convention.
As a matter of fact, as part of the 1945 SBC centennial celebration Dodd served as chairman of “an all-out south-wide evangelistic crusade,” with “a conservative estimate, that the organized hosts of Southern Baptists won in the neighborhood of a half-million souls in 1945” [1944, 1945 SBC Annuals].
Moreover, in his report to the SBC, Dodd outlined a model for organizing to win souls using “existing organizations” to form a “very simple general organization” of volunteers.
The (then) Home Mission Board was tasked to pay for the promotion of these coordinated crusades (city-wide simultaneous crusades, crusades in one-church towns and communities, and rural crusades) across the South. Meanwhile, Dodd sought input from state convention leaders and subsequently held a meeting in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, with 300 leaders to develop a plan from these suggestions and recommendations.
Essentially, Dodd formed a triad of coordinators at the state and associational levels, and within the local church he used the pastor to guide a crusade committee’s work and to identify and enlist “personal soul-winners as prayer partners” and “working partners to go two-by-two” to do outreach in the community.
Importantly, Dodd set up a calendar, too.
January and February were dedicated to conduct an area-wide religious census for each crusade, hold all-church evangelism training, and to engage in “special seasons of contrition, confession, consecration and prayer.”
March through September were set aside for conducting each of the three crusade contexts (large cities, small towns and rural areas) with October and November set aside to hold “a second meeting in at least 10,000 churches and for meetings in churches which had not found it convenient to hold a special crusade previously” with an objective of 50,000 total evangelistic crusades for the year.
Meanwhile, December was designated as a time to reach out to old and new members to engage them “in support of all the work of the church and denomination.”
Church or Local Area Crusades
The biggest difference between a one-church crusade and an area-wide effort (with multiple congregations, sometimes among cooperating denominations) is the location (a worship center versus a neutral place such as a school ballfield). Likewise, area-wide crusades tend to be large multi-night events.
Otherwise, the preparation, execution and follow up are similar in design and effort.
Teams are key to organizing any soul-winning event, and they should be formed with the focus of providing the lost an opportunity to make a commitment to Christ and to connect with a congregation who will nurture them in living for Christ.
Prayer: Organizes prayer warriors to pray daily for revival among church members and an awakening among the lost. They will pray for every team and all events, and will prayer walk the neighborhoods where the Outreach Team makes doorstep visits.
The Prayer Team might even work with local broadcasters to have a 90-second daily prayer time just for the needs of the community. The Prayer Team also works to engage every congregation in prayer for the crusade.
Decision Counseling: Is trained to talk with individuals who come forward during the crusade, with the focus of helping them understand what the Holy Spirit might be saying to them. A good resource is Billy Graham’s “My Commitment” trifold counseling guide.
Outreach and Follow Up: Is heavily involved on the front end and back end of the crusade. They will organize events to engage with the community through door-knocking, compassion ministry, flyer distribution and other personal contact efforts. This team also will make calls and visits after the crusade to connect new believers with a church. They need to be trained in how to share the Gospel (“Roman Road,” etc.) as well as Decision Counseling (“My Commitment”).
Youth: Sets up events to reach church youth groups as well as unchurched teens (typically, a pre-crusade
rally, a youth night during the crusade and a follow up rally within 90 days after the crusade).
Publicity: Needs to reach both internal and external constituents. They need to engage church members to be part of the crusade and to invite the public to attend the crusade.
Arrangements: “Many hands” are needed to make light work of such things as setting up chairs. Will obtain a stage, generator, and other equipment to support different events related to the crusade.
Usher & Security: The face of the crusade (parking, offerings). Also trained to identify potential problems
and to diffuse situations. Will coordinate on-site security by law enforcement and a First Aid Station. Key to communications (radios or walkie talkies) among team leaders and key personnel during crusade services.
Finance: Works with local congregations and businesses, as well as local, state and national denominational groups to fund the local effort.
Music: Form a mass choir to kick off the opening night of the crusade.
Hospitality: Will arrange housing and meals for crusade personnel who might be visiting from out of town.
Banquet: For a large area-wide crusade, a banquet will help to inform and enlist congregations to participate. Also, it is an opportunity to raise financial pledges to meet the budget for the crusade.
Typically, six to nine months are needed to launch a large crusade event, and not less than 90 days. Also, prior to the crusade, new believer classes (six weeks followed by six months) need to be formed with prepared teachers. Likewise, ministry leaders need to be ready to put new believers to work right away (hospital visits, food pantry, clothes closet, Habitat for Humanity, etc.) Fortunately, evangelists such as Rick Gage (gotellministries.com), Bill Britt (compeloi.org) and Sammy Tippit (sammytippit.org) have developed manuals and other materials to help plan and hold one-church, area-wide and international crusades. Additionally, the Louisiana Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (lacosbe.org) can provide names of evangelists to help lead soul-winning events.
WIN SOULS
“Never in my forty years of denominational interest and activity have I seen Southern Baptists more united, more hearty, more enthusiastic or more cooperative,” Dodd wrote in his wrap-up report. “This indicates that Southern Baptists are, as they always have been, evangelical in faith and evangelistic in fidelity.”
He observed an experiential truth: soul winning promotes spiritual health and growth among believers.
More importantly, he was obedient to the biblical truth: soul winning defines a believer as Christ’s disciple.
Jesus described Himself as a soul winner, declaring, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost,” (Luke 19:10, NKJV).
Consequently, if we desire to be like Him, we must seek to win souls, too.
