"He that winneth souls is wise." - Proverbs 11:30
Winning souls is of high importance. It is a priority for the Christian and the local church. In order to win souls, you have to be engaged in some aspect of evangelism.
In many cases, we have regulated evangelism to a few generalized activities rather than a broad range of diverse activities that impact and influence people to engage in a relationship with Christ. Truthfully, evangelism is a mixture of both of these.
According to Vine's Expository Dictionary, "evangelize" means to proclaim glad tidings; preach the gospel (Luke 1:19; 9:6; Acts 21:8). When we participate in activities that share the gospel, the "good news" about Jesus Christ, we are involved in evangelizing.
Our evangelistic activities should span beyond simply inviting people to worship services and events at our local church. All that is saying is that someone has to come onto our territory in order to get what we have to offer. That is not the type of evangelism that wins souls. That simply gets them through the door for the pulpit and the choir to do the work of the soul winning.
Charles Spurgeon said it profoundly when he said:"Our main business is to win souls." Winning souls is work. The Bible references good works as a means for opening the door for winning souls. For example, in Matthew 5:16, we see that by letting our light shine, others will see our good works and call upon the Father in heaven. As we do good works, we begin to get people engaged and interacting with the people of God for a good cause. As we do more good for those around us, it will begin to get the people who benefited from those good works to look beyond us and to our source of support and strength.
In 2014, we will look at more of the nuts and bolts of evangelism. We will begin to discover that we can do more and discover the power that God has given to us to influence, inspire and impact our fellow man, just by letting our lights shine before men.
Stay tuned for more on this topic as we engage in an ongoing effort to strengthen the church and the Christian to do more with what God has already given to us.
