july2001


	SHOULD EVERY CHRISTIAN WIN SOULS


	*"Brother Lovett, do you believe every Christian should be a soul-winner?"*


	I stunned a visiting pastor when I said, *"NO, not any more!"*

You're going
to have
to explain that


	You should have seen the look on his face. *"You're going to have to explain that,"* he said.


	SCROLL DOWN TO READ MORE


	Okay, let's go to a busy courtroom and we'll see the difference in action.


	The witness takes the stand, ready to tell what he knows. The prosecutor on the other hand is highly trained and skilled in asking the questions that help convict the defendant.


	The soul-winner is like that prosecuting attorney, whereas the witness is like the one on the witness stand, telling ONLY what he knows. Clearly soul-winning is one discipline and witnessing quite another. They should not be confused.


	NOT ANY MORE

For years I believed every Christian should be a soul-winner. Because the Lord had given me a simple plan that made it EASY and FUN for me, I thought everyone should be able to do it. So convinced was I, that I held seminars in the western states teaching men and women HOW to present Christ alive. The Lord refined the skill to the place where almost ANYONE could be taught HOW to share the Lord and press for a decision.

Then I was approached by a denomination to teach some of their KEY BUSINESSMEN the skill. I was also asked to keep track of the results. Prior to this I had never really done a systematic follow-up on those I had taught. Well the results staggered me and broke my heart. I found that only 2% of those graduating from the courses went on to be soul-winners. The rest simply WOULDN'T DO IT—even though they knew how. My heart sank. I began to follow up on others I had taught. Sure enough, the same discouraging statistic held. Only 2 out of 100 trained would actually go on to win souls.

What was wrong? The method was simple enough and easily learned. The plan was extremely effective. Those who went on to use it would win anywhere from 50 to 500 souls a year. I knew it wasn't the plan. What was it then? Ah—I finally saw it. There is a big difference between KNOWING HOW to do something and HAVING THE STRENGTH to do it. I was training many people to do a work for which they DID NOT have the personality strength. I decided to wait on the Holy Spirit and let Him show me what to do.

THE HOLY SPIRIT'S ANSWER

The Spirit of God arranged for me to see the solution "by accident." A man and his boy came to visit PC. The boy had brought along his ball and was bouncing it against the wall.

Then the accident happened. It landed on the roof. We had to get out a ladder to retrieve it. As the father was climbing up the ladder, the Spirit whispered...

"Sam, you've been trying to get people to go from the ground to the roof in one jump!"

I knew what He meant. I was asking people to go from silence to soul-winning in a single leap, without any regard for their personality strengths.

My soul fairly shouted within me. I saw my error and answer at the same time. Here I had been asking people to do the HARDEST JOB in Christianity, with no prior help of any kind.

Soul-winning is more difficult than selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and I was expecting timid and shy Christians to do it— just because I gave them the words to say.

A good teacher always meets his people where they are and then takes them STEP BY STEP where he wants them to go.

I was expecting them to do the most frightening, terrifying work a Christian can undertake. Well that man on the ladder recovering his boy's ball, was the Holy Spirit's way of telling me...

"GET DOWN where the people are and then lift them up ONE SIMPLE STEP AT A TIME!"

That meant I was going to have to come up with some kind of a LADDER and start people off at the bottom.


	THE HOLY SPIRIT STARTED TEACHING ME


	I had a lot to learn. It took a little time for me to realize that only the tiniest percentage of Christians have the strength for aggressive soul-winning. Then the Holy Spirit began leading me to conduct witnessing experiments. I was searching for a beginning point that would match the strength of every Christian. In time a marvelous plan emerged that worked just like a LADDER.

The bottom rung was the easiest of course, with each successive step getting a little bit harder. That way a person could stay on one rung until he had the strength needed for the next step. At last I had a way of helping every Christian obey the Great Commission and HAVE FUN doing it. I called it the LADDER-METHOD of witnessing, because it actually lifted people from silence to aggressive witnessing—one step at a time. More importantly, it allows every Christian to find his OWN COMFORT LEVEL. Since we're not all made alike, some are going to reach the limit of their ability at some point on the ladder. That's the beauty of this method—it allows everyone to find the level where he can serve the Lord best (Matt. 28:18-20).

Some years ago there was an 86 year old lady in our fellowship named Alice. She was so crippled with arthritis she could barely walk. Yet she longed to witness for her Lord. On one occasion I took her to the market. When we pulled into the parking space, she spied an open window in the car next to us. Very deliberately she opened her purse and took out a tract. As she feebly climbed out of our car, she braced herself against the one next to us. She let the tract fall from her fingers onto the front seat of that adjoining car, where it would await the owner and tell him about Jesus.


	*"I saw you do that Alice and I'm proud of you!"*


	She beamed— *"Well didn't you tell us in our witnessing class that we should all witness from 8 to 80!"*


	I smiled back. The joy on her face was precious. That tiny bit of action had filled her breast with holy satisfaction. I knew if she could witness, there wouldn't be another person in the body of Christ who couldn't know the same thrill.

OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSING

As I said before, I used to get only 2% results from trying to make soul winners out of people in one jump.

Now using the LADDER-METHOD I get ONE HUNDRED PERCENT results.

How come? When you work with people at their COMFORT LEVEL, they enjoy serving the Lord. The Spirit of God is prodding every Christian to witness, but if he thinks he has to go out and win souls, he won't do it. And here's what's so thrilling. I am now getting MORE SOUL-WINNERS. That's right. Many graduates from our witnessing course find they now have the strength to go on and use the soul-winning plan. The witnessing course BUILDS STRENGTHS in them they didn't have before.

Beyond that, I am convinced that witnessing is the shortest route to the POWER of God. Action on our part begets action on the part of God—no matter how feeble. The simplest steps of witnessing, EVEN WHERE NO ONE SEES YOU DO THE ACTION, can bring a terrific anointing. If you feel the Spirit's call deep in your heart to witness to your private world—you're going to like the ladder method. Don't worry about being shy, the Holy Spirit will help you with that. Listen to what this course did for Mary in North Carolina. She went all the way up the ladder:


	"I thank God for the wonderful time I've had climbing the witnessing ladder. I'm a changed person. This has been a course in getting to know the Holy Spirit as I never knew Him before. He has become so precious to me. I praise Him for leading me to your wonderful program for teaching shy Christians how to witness."


	I could share hundreds of testimonies, all grateful to Jesus for helping them become witnesses via the ladder-method. But I'll leave it for Him to bear witness that this is HIS plan, not mine. He taught it to me that I might help His people. I praise the Lord that He is now gaining witnesses for Himself all over the church.


	WITNESSES PRODUCE SOUL-WINNERS

Not only are individual Christians concerned about their personal obedience, but pastors have a difficult time getting people to participate and follow through with visitation programs. The truth of the matter is, their people are downright scared and shy about doing that kind of work. It is a terrifying thing to stand before a strange door and hear the sound of approaching steps. You don't know what to expect. It takes a lot of personality strength to meet that kind of threat—and only one Christian in 50 has it.

Ah, but it can be developed. And the way to develop it is by starting out with the SIMPLEST STEPS OF WITNESSING and watch your strengths grow as you climb the ladder.


	This month we're featuring our book, WITNESSING MADE EASY, which presents the LADDER-METHOD. Pastors should be thrilled with what can happen in their churches when their people start to witness. What's nice is the method is so simple the ENTIRE FELLOWSHIP can be involved.


	Then watch a new zest and spirit sweep your fellowship! People who get involved with the Holy Spirit become better givers, pray better, testify with enthusiasm and infect others. They become more loving and long to help the pastor carry out his programs. There is no church anywhere that experiences more joy than one filled with witnesses.




	Click On Book For More Info.


	And for those of you who have longed to experience the Spirit's power, you're going to enjoy what you find in this book. It will be the answer to the ache in your own spirit. At last you can be the kind of a Christian... YOU LONG TO BE!

If you think your pastor would be interested in a witnessing program for your church, show him this article.


	This article is Copyright 2001 by Dr. C. S. Lovett and is found on www.cslovettbooks.com