The Servant's Toolbox

THE SOUL WINNER'S TOOLBOX
By Dr. Fred Schindler
Founder, Northeast School of Theology,
Downington, Pennsylvania
http://www.swordofthelord.com/archives/CommittedSoulWinning.htm

Soul winning is work. To do this work, the soul winner needs a
toolbox filled with soul-winning tools. Here is a list of tools you
will need:

1. The tool of prayer. Pray for lost people. I have a list of people
I pray for every day by name. I pray, "O God, deal with their hearts.
O God, show them they are lost." I prayed for my mother for eleven
years; then God saved her.

Some of you came to this altar last week. If you prayed, "O God, I
want to bring others to the altar," then from your toolbox get out
the tool of prayer. Make a prayer list and then pray for those whom
you are going to try to win to Christ.

Prayer! Prayer! Prayer! Pray for power, for wisdom, for discernment;
pray that God will open the eyes of the blind who do not see their
need of Christ. Pray for the hardhearted, for the drunkard, for the
drug addict–pray for them all!

Some of you have lost neighbors, friends, family, children and
grandchildren. How long has it been since you have been on your knees
in agonizing prayer for them? How long has it been since you
visualized your loved one in Hell? That ought to break your heart.

Most of my loved ones that I pray for are over five hundred miles
away. At the Homegoing of my father-in-law, I looked at that crowd.
Then when I got up to start the funeral, I thought, I don't care what
anybody thinks. They've never heard a sermon like this at a funeral,
but I'm going to preach on salvation. I knew I would never get
another chance to get both our families and all those friends
together. I wanted all my loved ones to get saved, but only one got
saved.

I walked away and told God, "O God, I'm so discouraged, but I'm going
to keep on praying."

One day someone is going to walk up to my brother's door and win him
to Christ. How do I know? Because I'm going to keep on praying for
him!

One of the greatest tools in our churches is prayer. We will not have
the power of God, and we are not going to see God bless, unless we
pray.

If you don't pray, you won't have the power of God or anything else
you need to get the work done. How we need to pray!

2. The tool of the power of the Holy Spirit. If the holy Son of God
was anointed with the Holy Spirit, surely we have need of this power
of the Spirit. Oh, pray for power!

The Bible says, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth" (Acts 1:8).

Preachers, Sunday school teachers, choir members–we can do nothing
without the power of the Holy Spirit. Not by our power, not by our
spirit, not by our might, but it is by the power of His Spirit, His
anointing on our lives.

Whether you sing in the choir, receive the offering, work with the
sound system, tend to babies in the nursery or teach a Sunday school
class, you must have the power of the Holy Spirit in your life,
especially if you would win your loved ones to Christ.

Would to God that we would spend more time praying for the power of
the Holy Spirit!

3. The tool of precepts of the Word of God. Memorize Scripture.
Memorize the plan of salvation. When you memorize the Word of God, it
enables you to find your way through the Bible.

When I first got saved, I started memorizing verses, half chapters,
whole chapters, verse upon verse. I would write them on a piece of
paper. While running a machine, I would work on memorizing those
verses. I'd put them on the dashboard of my car. Everywhere I had
memory verses written on cards. I thought Christians were supposed to
do that.

4. The tool of preparation. Would you get in a small plane and fly
with a pilot who had read the manual but had never flown before? Is
he prepared?

We spend the least amount of time at the most important
responsibility we have as Christians–preparing to win people to
Christ. Thank God for churches with good soul-winning programs that
prepare their people to put into practice what they learn.

We give soul-winning books to our reapers and fishers to teach them
how to do it, to prepare them.

If we really mean business about soul winning, we will read
everything we can get our hands on, beginning with the Bible.

5. The tool of practice. Go do it! You say, "I'm so scared!" Just go
do it anyway!

I was only about a week old in the Lord when I first went out soul
winning. My partner said, "Now it's your turn."

We knocked on a door, a man opened it, said a few words and slammed
the door in my face. (That will get your attention!)

My soul-winning partner put his arm around me and said, "That's all
right. Come on, let's go to the next house." (He knew what he was
doing.)

I knocked on the next door–a little quieter this time. The lady who
came to the door was already saved. She said, "Praise the Lord! I'm
so glad you are doing this!"

We went on down the street to the next house, knocked on the door,
and a man answered. I was so nervous that I was shaking. I had
written the first verse in the front of my Bible–Romans 3:23. I
stammered through it. But I had the joy of winning that man to the
Lord–my first convert! I was doing it! I was winning souls. I found
that it is not that hard. In fact, after awhile it got to be fun.

People are going to Hell every day, not just on the night the church
goes soul winning. What about your neighbors, the paper boy, the
grocery clerk? What about the people you see on a daily basis?

6. The tool of confidence. Go with confidence in the work of the
Gospel and the Holy Spirit.

I've been out as a trainer with soul winners. When some of the men
who went with me began to ramble and tell stories, I would say, "Wait
a minute. Stick to the Gospel. Stick to the Good News."

If you'll do your part in telling the story, the Holy Spirit will do
His job of convicting, and Jesus will do His job of saving.

7. The tool of common sense. Use common sense in your approach when
you talk to people. Soul winners need to be bold without being overly
aggressive. Don't say, "Hey, you old dirty, rotten sinner. Do you
know you're going to Hell?" then start blasting him about his dirty
habits. A scriptural soul winner is kind and courteous and loves the
souls of the people he is going to visit.

8. The tool of compassion. Soul winners, take compassion with you.
It's not your job to take the cockiness out of someone; your job is
to tell sinners about Jesus compassionately.

9. The tool of conviction. Do you really believe that people are
going to go to Hell? Could you have witnessed to the one suddenly
killed in an accident on the job? Is that man in Hell because you
neglected to witness to him when you had the opportunity?

Keep in mind that every person you meet could be dead within the next
ten minutes or ten seconds. Understand that he could suddenly die and
go to Hell. Soul winning is serious business.

10. The tool of partnership. Churches send out soul winners two by
two–and that's good–but the Holy Spirit must be the first Partner.

I worked on an assembly line, and very few Christians were working
with me. I witnessed without a church soul-winning partner, but I
wasn't alone. The Holy Spirit was my soul-winning Partner, and He was
always with me.

11. The tool of perseverance. Some have quit soul winning, believing
that it doesn't work anymore. You sorry rascal! Who won you? The most
selfish excuse of a Christian is, "Well, I just don't think people
can be saved today." Someone else says, "I witnessed and prayed with
them, but I don't really know if they got saved." What's that got to
do with it? That's just an excuse for you to quit!

When you came to the altar and made a commitment to win souls, did
you tell God how many you would like to win–or how many you are going
to win? If you told God how many you are going to win, then you won't
quit because you gave Him a definite number. But if you just
said, "Lord, I would like to win a hundred souls this year," what
makes you think you will win one hundred this year if you only won
ten last year?

It does not make God happy when you "want" to win a number of souls,
because likely you won't even set out to do it. If you want to win
souls, then give Him a specific number and don't quit until you have
reached your goal.

In Bible college the teacher in personal evangelism said, "You are to
pass out five tracts a day, and you are to go through the plan of
salvation at least once a week." That didn't sound so bad. Then,
lying in bed around 12:30 a.m., I thought about those five tracts in
my coat pocket that I hadn't passed out. So I got dressed and went
out to find five people.

Around one o'clock in the morning I was standing in the parking lot
of a convenience store waiting to give out some tracts. I probably
didn't feel very spiritual at that time, but the teacher gave me a
spiritual goal, an assignment, and I was going to do it because that
was what I was supposed to do. We need to use that same idea in
getting people saved.

How many did you win last week? Did you tell God you were going to
win them or that you wished to win them? You have to go to them if
you are going to win them.

If you mean business for God, persevere! If you mean business for
God, don't quit! If you mean business for God, don't make excuses!

12. The tool of piety. To be a soul winner, you must be right with
God. You will not be an effective soul winner for Jesus if you live a
slipshod life, an up-and-down, in-and-out, worldly lifestyle. The
whole world will see through you, especially the people where you
work, if your life is not in accordance with your talk. You had
better back up your witness with holy living.

13. The three-pronged tool, "plow, plant and pluck." A soul winner
must be willing to go out and do some plowing. You have to prepare
the soil. You will not get somebody saved every time you witness. You
may have to go back and visit someone you have already witnessed to
before.

Often when I revisit people, I call myself "Pastor Pest." I went back
to the home of someone just the other day. I said, "Look, I don't
want to be a pest. If you don't want me to come back, just say so;
but I am really concerned about you."

He said, "I'm glad to see you."

Why did I go back? I had already plowed up the ground; now I was
doing some more planting and watering. Then one day I hope to go back
and pluck the harvest!

Not everyone you invite to church is going to come. If you tell God
you want to bring ten people to church and some don't come, don't
quit. Keep asking until you find ten people who will come with you.
There is no problem finding lost people to come to church with you if
you keep on plowing.

Be like the old soldier who disappeared from camp. When he returned
he had a whole bunch of enemy soldiers marching before him. When his
buddies asked, "Where did you find all those soldiers?" he said, "The
woods are full of them. Go and get you some!"

Keep going! You have to keep plowing and keep planting in order to
pluck!

14. The tool of priority. Soul winning has to become our priority. It
should not be something you just attach to your weekly
schedule: "I'll come when I can" or "I'll come if I can" or "I'll
come if it's convenient." A fisherman for Christ can always find an
excuse for not going. If soul winning is not a priority with you, you
will use any excuse not to be out looking for lost souls–excuses,
such as, "I have a head-ache" or "I'm too tired" or "I'm already
running late."

Soul winning is not the number one priority in the average Baptist
church, and you know it! Soul winning is not the number one priority
in the average Christian life, and you know it! But if we obey God,
we will put soul winning at the very top of our priority list.

Some of you have been trying to get close to God by reading your
Bible, having daily devotions and walking with God. That's good. But
some of you still don't have a handle on it. God wants to give you
the joy and thrill of being a Christian, but you cannot find it in
just teaching a Sunday school class or having a bus route. The
greatest joy is seeing somebody saved. And some of you have yet to
experience that joy.

There are also those of you who have won souls in the past, but you
have forgotten that joy. You have run out of motivation.

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer should be for others.
Others, Lord, yes, others,
Let this my motto be.
Help me to live for others
That I might live like Thee.
15. The tool of precious promises. What are the promises? Look at one
which God gives us:
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."–
Ps. 126:6.
You say, "Well, I just don't know. I'm not a soul winner." But He
said that you shall come rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you.
One blond-headed fellow, over six feet tall, was called to preach
under my ministry. He's now finishing Bible college and heading for
Maine to start a church. What a thrill to see him! All he wants to
talk about is the Bible and doing the work of God.

There is no greater joy than that, folks–no greater joy than seeing
fruit that remains and seeing them serving the Lord!

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