Leadership

THE GREAT FISHING EXPEDITION By Henry Jaegers

by Henry Jaegers
01/19/17
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE

 Have you ever attended soul winning church? You do not hear very much about them today because for some strange reason the schools have taught an easier way to grow the church. I have been a Christian for 59 years and in all those years I am sorry to say that only two of the churches that I have attended were soul-winning churches. Soul winning, for the most part, sounds intimidating and scary. Soul winning is something everyone agrees is necessary for church growth but why go through all the trouble of the fear and supposed rejection that comes along with being a soul winner? But all that thinking is false. The reason I say that is the soul winning ought not to be that way. It ought to be natural and flowing out from our inner man. We do not need courses in soul winning. Books on soul winning do not usually produce effective soul winners. You cannot memorize an evangelistic outline and expect that this will cause you to become a soul winner.

 It is a great concern to me that soul winning has become the lost chord of the modern church. I believe that it is a departure from what Jesus taught. He said follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Everyone knows that song but the fact is if you are not fishing for men you are not following Jesus. So how do we begin to grow a soul winning church? There are four important principles to conduct a soul winning ministry in the church. You cannot become a soul in her by reading books or taking a soul winning course. If the human element is missing then all it will be his information confined to writing that does not properly motivate men in this matter of soul-winning.

 It is my passion to someday l to conduct a ministry to teach men how to be effective soul winners. In doing this, the first question I need to ask is what qualifications do I have to teach others how tautliners?? Am I a soul winner myself? Do people that I know consider me to be a man who is genuinely concerned about my lost friends and those around me who need to hear the gospel? So, to begin, I cannot teach others what I am not myself, so the first place to start is with me. The two churches I mentioned previously that were soul winning churches had pastors who were dynamic soul winners themselves. Because of this, the people in the church caught the passion and they themselves went out and did the same thing and people were regularly brought into the church through soul winning ministry. I am not interested in writing a book on soul winning, anyone who is attended an evangelical church could do that. My desire is to motivate men not merely give them information. If they are not properly motivated it will merely be had knowledge which accomplishes nothing. So here are four principles I think are essential for effective evangelism.

1. Create understanding through proper instruction.2. Provide a motivational tool through personal example 3 encourage personal employment of the soul winning principles, 4. provide a system of accountability. What I mean by that is when we come back together and share our experiences both of failures and successes it provides an opportunity for learning and the motivation for praying for one another. I would be amiss if I failed to mention the importance of prayer in all of this. We cannot expect the work of the Holy Spirit to produce results in people's lives if we neglect this all-important facet called prayer. Prayer is not something we tack on but is essential for any true work of God to take so once again what are these five essential teaching principles?

One: Proper instruction and clear understanding

Two: A dynamic example of the teacher

Three: A motivation to go and employ the principles

four: An opportunity to come back and share the results of our efforts.

Five: Eective, fervent, essential prayer.

The following materials are presented as a motivation to build a lifestyle that results in effective soul winning.