Outreach & Discipleship

The first revival meeting I ever preached was in Rock Island, Illinois, back in the early 1970s. The church already had another evangelist coming to preach to their adults, but wanted someone to hold a children’s crusade in conjunction with that revival. I gladly accepted.

One of the most important aspects of our soulwinning program has been mapping. We are blessed with a number of soulwinning members who have responded to the call to tell others about Jesus. When they come during our scheduled soulwinning times, we want to help them strategically reach our community.

Largely through the planning and organization of one of my staff members, we recently developed a more comprehensive, five-part discipleship approach. We put the picture of each new family with whom we are working on a piece of paper and are able to track from that one sheet of paper in these five areas:

Sometimes people wonder why I emphasize soulwinning so much. An evangelist once preached at our church and asked how many of our folks went soulwinning on a regular basis. When approximately half of the evening crowd raised their hands, he said, “Look at that amazing sight!”

Christian hospitality is one of the most fruitful of ministry disciplines. Over the years, my wife and I have made a habit of having people over on a regular basis, and we’ve found that opening our home for fellowship often opens hearts for discipleship and mentoring.

Today we are bombarded with information. Our world is filled with advertisements, billboards, TV ads, radio spots, informational flyers, and newspapers all trying to sell us something or persuade us that a product is worthy of our dollar.

Most churches want to reach people; anyone who is actually trying to fulfill the Great Commission gives serious thought to strategies for doing so. Along with an aggressive outreach effort to reach people, many churches employ programs, campaigns, and various other tactics to keep guests once they have come.

If you were a football player, you would think the most precious possession during a game was the football. Should you have the opportunity to receive or intercept a pass, you would run with everything you had toward the goal line, while protecting the ball from the other team.

Christ’s last command before He ascended to Heaven is found in Mark 16:15: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Every person has an eternal soul, and it is our privilege and responsibility to share with them the good news of salvation.

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, members of Lancaster Baptist Church and students of West Coast Baptist College passed out over 10,000 copies of the New Testament. The blessings from this effort were great. Many more people were saved during this effort than during the same time last year.

Different ministries are able to reach different people, and God loves all people. In the decades at our church, God has done miracles in the lives of people through the different ministries of our church.

The men whom Jesus chose to be His apostles found that if they would follow the teaching of their Master, they must recognize that His central teaching had to do with Who He is.

Jesus often ate with unsaved people. He ate with unsaved religious rulers, and He ate with tax collectors and sinners—the unsaved social outcasts. He related to people over breaking bread and displayed the trait later in the New Testament called “given to hospitality.”

Psalm 126 is a post-captivity psalm. It was penned after the Jews made their long return back to Jerusalem. It was written at a time when the nation of Israel was excited about what God had done for them.

When military people are saved and discipled they make great church members. They are different than the average church member due to the nature of their work.

It is very important to understand the difference between believing on Christ for salvation and following Him in discipleship.

Harvey Firestone once said, “It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.” This is true in every area, but it is especially true in the church.

The ministry, by definition, is about people. While it is true that we oftentimes (of necessity) get encumbered with details of work and administrative tasks, ultimately, the ministry is about people.

Christmas is one of the easiest times to invite people to church! But in the busyness of the Christmas parties, programs, and preparation, it’s all too easy to lose this golden opportunity to lead others to Christ.

How do you know if you really believe something is true? Is it because you say you believe it?