Soul Winning Survey

[Sudsy]

This survey is to reveal our efforts at leading people in making a decision to follow Jesus.

These items may have 'evangelical' wording that you would like clarity about so feel free to ask for more description.

Also give your views on soul winning if you wish.

[Sudsy]

On this subject, I am not famiiar with any of the Mennonite groups in our area except for two who are quite like the Evangelicals in their ways of leading someone to become a believer.

What is the method(s) used by the church you attend to lead someone to be born again / saved ?

I might have missed this but I don't recall a method used like the Evangelicals that have 'altar calls' or the Salvation Army has a bench called the 'mercy seat' and when a person comes to that designated place in the church to be saved there is normally a quick review of what salvation is about and praying with them to 'receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour'. Then a personal follow-up is scheduled to help them get started in their new life.

How is this handled in your church ?

[Neto]

I interpreted "Have never led anyone to Christ" as meaning "Have never prayed with someone to become a follower of Christ", to match the other two items with similar wording. (So I clicked NO on that one.)

I don't think it's the same thing, but I hesitated on this one, because although I would say that I have "led people to Christ", I cannot recall that I ever was the one who "prayed with them" in the typical Evangelistic way. Someone who I thought was a Christian told me later that I was the one who "made it real to them", bringing them to a salvation decision. (We were the teachers for a 5th & 6th grade class in DVBS.) I had no idea this was going on.

We didn't use that sort of approach for the Banawa. Their way is to do what ever it takes to make people they care about happy, so they would have just done it for that reason. I don't actually know what was involved in their "point of decision", but I know that many of them did make that decision. (At what point did Jesus' disciples "pray to become followers of Christ"?)

I did do that sort of 'evangelism', participating in "KEY '73" when I was 17, and later as a ministry requirement in Bible Institute, and also as a part of a national Bible Study group that I cannot remember the name of now. We went to the State University and went door-to-door in the men's dormitory. Later I helped run a book table and did door-to-door with Messianic Mission Fellowship in Minneapolis. Had a long visit with a rabbi once, but he just wanted to talk about Mohammed. But in all of that, I never "scored". It used to bother me, but not any more.

[barnhart]

I have spent years studying the Bible and praying with people who moved into faith and became baptized, but I never thought of it as "winning" or loosing for that matter. I just thought of it as making disciples and teaching Jesus' commands.

[Sudsy]

I have spent years studying the Bible and praying with people who moved into faith and became baptized, but I never thought of it as "winning" or loosing for that matter. I just thought of it as making disciples and teaching Jesus' commands.

My understanding is that the unconverted are already 'lost' in sin. Lost like a sheep without a shepherd. They are under the snare of the devil put another way. To win them over to believing in Jesus is a way of winning the struggle satan is holding them with. Like a wrestling match.

One verse that comes to mind regarding this is Proverbs 11:30 KJV - 'The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.'

I have heard the phrase often used 'win the lost at any cost'. If this is meant that we should sacrifice whatever it takes to see others come to Christ, then I'm OK with that. However, if it means compromising the Gospel that saves us and that results in a new birth, then I'm not in agreement and sadly I think this occurs too often.

[Pelerin]

Hmm. I once talked someone out of praying a sinner’s prayer.

About twenty years ago, I was at a Baptist camp and a young boy (around ten or so) came up after I shared a devotional (that didn’t really have anything to do with “salvation”) and out of the blue told me he wanted me to pray with him to receive Jesus. And so, like a good Anabaptist, I asked him, “Why do you want to do that?”

He told me that he doesn’t want to go “down there”. He had, in fact, already prayed a sinner’s prayer several times, but he’s so afraid of hell that he’d like me to pray with him again to make sure he doesn’t go there. So, I very ineptly tried to explain to him that he doesn’t need to keep praying over and over and that Jesus now wanted him to live for him.

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I’d say it differently and better now—even that last sentence puts it better, I’m sure, than how I put it back then. Still, I hope it had some good effect, but that’s really God’s work and not mine, and if I bumbled it too badly, well then he has other tools besides me. I still pray for him occasionally when I think of him.

[Sudsy]

I interpreted "Have never led anyone to Christ" as meaning "Have never prayed with someone to become a follower of Christ", to match the other two items with similar wording. (So I clicked NO on that one.)

What I was thinking more here was has there been someone you had been sharing the Gospel with and at some point they asked you something like then 'what must I do to be saved' like the jailor in Acts 16:30-31. It says nothing about a prayer but the requirement was to believe in the Lord Jesus and then that was followed by some preaching to them regarding the word of the Lord (which we don't know exactly what he said).

The thief on the cross made a statement of faith regarding Jesus and His Kingdom and that was all Jesus required.


I don't think it's the same thing, but I hesitated on this one, because although I would say that I have "led people to Christ", I cannot recall that I ever was the one who "prayed with them" in the typical Evangelistic way. Someone who I thought was a Christian told me later that I was the one who "made it real to them", bringing them to a salvation decision. (We were the teachers for a 5th & 6th grade class in DVBS.) I had no idea this was going on.

We didn't use that sort of approach for the Banawa. Their way is to do what ever it takes to make people they care about happy, so they would have just done it for that reason. I don't actually know what was involved in their "point of decision", but I know that many of them did make that decision. (At what point did Jesus' disciples "pray to become followers of Christ"?)

Yes, I realize this list comes from an Evangelical methodology and I think Charles Finney started this approach followed by Bill Sunday and Dwight Moody and Billy Graham and others that used a similar way of dealing initially with those who were making a 'decision' to follow Christ. And many treated it as a 'simon says do this' kind of thing to get their ticket for heaven. Yet others really did have a born again experience and a whole new life from this point on. Although many of my relatives became Christ followers with this method of saying 'the sinner's prayer' at a church altar, I know of others who made the decision on their own after hearing a Gospel message and they knew when they had become born again.

I did do that sort of 'evangelism', participating in "KEY '73" when I was 17, and later as a ministry requirement in Bible Institute, and also as a part of a national Bible Study group that I cannot remember the name of now. We went to the State University and went door-to-door in the men's dormitory. Later I helped run a book table and did door-to-door with Messianic Mission Fellowship in Minneapolis. Had a long visit with a rabbi once, but he just wanted to talk about Mohammed. But in all of that, I never "scored". It used to bother me, but not any more.

[Sudsy]

Hmm. I once talked someone out of praying a sinner’s prayer.

About twenty years ago, I was at a Baptist camp and a young boy (around ten or so) came up after I shared a devotional (that didn’t really have anything to do with “salvation”) and out of the blue told me he wanted me to pray with him to receive Jesus. And so, like a good Anabaptist, I asked him, “Why do you want to do that?”

He told me that he doesn’t want to go “down there”. He had, in fact, already prayed a sinner’s prayer several times, but he’s so afraid of hell that he’d like me to pray with him again to make sure he doesn’t go there. So, I very ineptly tried to explain to him that he doesn’t need to keep praying over and over and that Jesus now wanted him to live for him.

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I’d say it differently and better now—even that last sentence puts it better, I’m sure, than how I put it back then. Still, I hope it had some good effect, but that’s really God’s work and not mine, and if I bumbled it too badly, well then he has other tools besides me. I still pray for him occasionally when I think of him.

I had a friend who was at one of these evangelistic tent meetings and the sermon majored on hell. He scurried to the altar to get saved from such a place, 'fire insurance'. In so doing he was born again and Romans 10:13 says 'For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”' God heard his cry and he was born again and became a keen Christian. I think God knows the heart and if someone is truly reaching out to Jesus to be their Saviour, He will save them from their sins as well as hell. But we likely all know of those who made some move to be saved but there was no evidence of a changed heart that comes with salvation and they went right back to their sinning.

[Neto]

I interpreted "Have never led anyone to Christ" as meaning "Have never prayed with someone to become a follower of Christ", to match the other two items with similar wording. (So I clicked NO on that one.)

What I was thinking more here was has there been someone you had been sharing the Gospel with and at some point they asked you something like then 'what must I do to be saved' like the jailor in Acts 16:30-31. It says nothing about a prayer but the requirement was to believe in the Lord Jesus and then that was followed by some preaching to them regarding the word of the Lord (which we don't know exactly what he said).

The thief on the cross made a statement of faith regarding Jesus and His Kingdom and that was all Jesus required.


I don't think it's the same thing, but I hesitated on this one, because although I would say that I have "led people to Christ", I cannot recall that I ever was the one who "prayed with them" in the typical Evangelistic way. Someone who I thought was a Christian told me later that I was the one who "made it real to them", bringing them to a salvation decision. (We were the teachers for a 5th & 6th grade class in DVBS.) I had no idea this was going on.

We didn't use that sort of approach for the Banawa. Their way is to do what ever it takes to make people they care about happy, so they would have just done it for that reason. I don't actually know what was involved in their "point of decision", but I know that many of them did make that decision. (At what point did Jesus' disciples "pray to become followers of Christ"?)

Yes, I realize this list comes from an Evangelical methodology and I think Charles Finney started this approach followed by Bill Sunday and Dwight Moody and Billy Graham and others that used a similar way of dealing initially with those who were making a 'decision' to follow Christ. And many treated it as a 'simon says do this' kind of thing to get their ticket for heaven. Yet others really did have a born again experience and a whole new life from this point on. Although many of my relatives became Christ followers with this method of saying 'the sinner's prayer' at a church altar, I know of others who made the decision on their own after hearing a Gospel message and they knew when they had become born again.

I did do that sort of 'evangelism', participating in "KEY '73" when I was 17, and later as a ministry requirement in Bible Institute, and also as a part of a national Bible Study group that I cannot remember the name of now. We went to the State University and went door-to-door in the men's dormitory. Later I helped run a book table and did door-to-door with Messianic Mission Fellowship in Minneapolis. Had a long visit with a rabbi once, but he just wanted to talk about Mohammed. But in all of that, I never "scored". It used to bother me, but not any more.

I did not intend to disparage the use of an invitation to pray. I was just saying that it doesn't work with the tribal people I've known, because they generally have a keen desire to please the person, especially people with more status, as any outsider generally does.

As far as why a person wants to be a Christian, I strongly suspect that the initial reasons for many are not all that honest or great. What's more important is what happens after that - the teaching & guidance they receive, and their desire to stick with it, even when they began to discover the "hidden costs". There was a book we used in missions classes, by, as I recall, Donald McGavern. I think it was just called "Church Growth". In it he reported on a 5 or 10 year study they did in India. The missionaries ran a school for children, and some fathers openly admitted that they converted to Christianity in order to get their children into the school. (That wasn't actually a requirement, that the parents be Christians, but that was the "word on the street".) At the end of the study they found that many of these same men were now pastors and other leaders in the church - the teaching they received after their 'conversion' resulted in a true conversion.

[As far as native people like the Banawa asking "What do I need to do to become a believer?", that just isn't the way they think. They just did it on their own, and then there was a major shift in their lives. Men encouraged their wives to dress more modestly. They stopped drinking and beating their wives. They stopped having knife fights, etc. (I guess that's also why it's sometimes hard to tell when 'good people' become Christians - they're already so "good" that they have to tell their testimony for anyone to know.]

[Sudsy]

I agree with those who believe there are many things that can contribute to a person being born again. Some say when we get to heaven we will then know the part we played in their salvation. Whether this is true or not I don't know.

Perhaps what is most important is that our lives are producing more of a drawing to the Saviour than a turning away from Him. And I think it can be our religious practises at times that turn people away from God as it was with the Pharisees in Jesus time here. They were extremely keen in their religious ways but Jesus kept pointing out to them that their hearts needed change. Instead of looking at others as Jesus did, they had little concern for others and it was all about themselves and their reputation.

Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost in their sins. To follow His example I believe we will be engaged to do the same in building His Kingdom otherwise how can we say we are followers of Jesus. Perhaps another question for this survey might be 'should there be churcn growth in unchurched people if we are seeking their salvation through what we are doing ?' And not the growth of numbers only but growth in what is obvious as new birth experiences. Thoughts ?