YOU CAN BE A SOULWINNER!

 

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

Hello Friends:

Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. I’m continuing with the "Pentecostal Witnessing" book, written by Pastor Aubrey Maye, to encourage myself and others to witness to others the wonderful saving power of Jesus Christ. Today’s post is entitled “You Can Be A Soulwinner!” based on Chapter 4. We’re going to just cover the first part of the chapter.

Daniel 12:3 captures well a very important reason to win souls. Daniel wrote, “Those who have insight will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Which of us don’t want to shine like the heavens and stars?

Pastor Maye wrote that being a Christian gives us the privilege and responsibility of being a witness for Christ. He said we can witness simply telling others what Jesus Christ has done in our own lives. Pastor Maye said simply telling others what Jesus has done for us, “is witnessing in its pure and simple form”, and “it has brought thousands of sinners under conviction of sin.”

He wrote, "With the proper preparation and dedication, we can tell an unsaved person not only what Christ has done for us, but also show from the Scripture what Christ has done for them, and how they can receive the same experience that we have.”

Pastor Maye wrote, “Some people have the idea that to be a personal soulwinner, we have to memorize a great amount of Scripture, but it simply isn’t true." We’ll touch on that briefly later in the post.

THE SOULWINNER’S PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Personal experience of salvation.
• We must have a vital personal experience of salvation, a deep knowledge that our sins were forgiven and that we have peace with God.
• In Luke 10:17-20 Jesus told his disciples that were rejoicing because of what they had accomplished on their missionary journeys, more important was the fact that their names were written in heaven. Jesus was encouraging them that to have a deep personal experience of salvation leading toward heaven is very much more important than anything else in sharing the gospel.
2. Consecrated and Spirit-filled life.
• Merriam Webster defines consecrated as, “Dedicated to a sacred purpose.” We can’t be half-hearted in what we believe.
• Along with consecration to a sacred purpose, we must rely on the Holy Spirit in us to give us the power to share the gospel.
3. Prayer life.
• A dynamic and powerful prayer life is essential to have the spiritual strength to witness. Pastor Maye said that private devotional prayer and intercessory prayer for the lost are musts for us to be effective soulwinners.
• He said, "Prayer is our lifeline to give us victory over sin, and to give us courage to keep at the task of witnessing.” Prayer also renews our compassion for the lost.
4.  Bible Study. 
• Pastor Maye said it isn’t necessary to commit to memory a great amount of Scripture to be a soulwinner. But it is definitely necessary to diligently study the Bible “to show ourselves approved” as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15.
• Pastor Maye wrote that the Word of God is truly the “sword of the Spirit" for the soulwinner (Ephesians 6:17), and that we must learn to use it skillfully and confidently as our chief weapon to win souls.
5. Love for souls.
• Pastor Maye wrote that a genuine love for lost souls is born out of the above-mentioned prayer life, and the study of God’s Word. 
• He wrote that as we deepen our experience in God, we’ll also deepen our compassion for the unsaved. 
• When we become more like Jesus, it’s only natural that we’ll look on the needs of the lost like Jesus did in Matthew 9:36-38 where Matthew wrote, “When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.” ‘

Pastor Maye wrote, “There’s no substitute for real love in the life of a soulwinner.” He went on, “Cold hearts in Christians are prone to make still lips when it comes to witnessing. You can be a soulwinner: But you must first love lost souls.”

Next week we’ll finish Chapter 4, which includes the mental attitudes a soulwinner must have to share Jesus with people. Then we’ll cap off the session with the benefits of engaging in some personal training and developing a planned approach to soulwinning.

See you next time,

Arlen

HAPPY NEW YEAR! PENTECOSTAL WITNESSING, CHAPTER 3: PRESENT-DAY EVANGELISM, by Aubrey Maye

 

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

Hello Friends:

Happy New Year from the Soulwinnersr.us website. I started the website almost a year ago, and I pray that God blesses our efforts greatly of soulwinning in the New Year of 2022, and the Holy Spirit inspires us to introduce Jesus to people in new and exciting ways.

I entitled my post today “Happy New Year! Pentecostal Witnessing, Chapter 3: Present-Day Evangelism” by Aubrey Maye. I was going to do another post on “The Current Anti-Evangelism Wave”, but I want to do a more positive post to start the New Year.

By the way, I wrote to Pastor Aubrey Maye, and he called me this week from Chesapeake, Virginia. I was excited, and He was pleased that I was using his book that he wrote so many years ago. Pastor May said he's currently 83 years old, and he wrote the book at the age of 27 about 56 years ago, which is amazing to me. So, let’s start off the New Year with a bang on Chapter 3 of this wonderful little book!

Pastor Maye encouraged us in Chapter 3 not to be too critical of our current evangelism methods, BUT, that there’s great value in being honest with ourselves in taking an objective look at the following points related to evangelism:

• “What's being done.”
• “What can be done.”
• “What MUST BE DONE now and in the future.”.

He said “after an honest look at ourselves, we'll probably do one of three things: 

1. Attempt to justify our failures in evangelism by blaming the evil conditions of this generation.
2. Attempt to shift the responsibility of evangelism to others.
3. Rise to the task with new determination and faith.

He said, “For the sake of this lost generation, may God help us to do number three.”

Pastor Maye said that after the initial exciting wave of evangelism and Holy Spirit power at Pentecost, there were centuries of a waning in the spiritual life of the church, and of open evangelism. He said evangelism leading to conversions was replaced by rituals.

The 15th century finally ushered in the Protestant Reformation, with Martin Luther and others who turned the tide back somewhat to the right direction, but there was still a significant lack of evangelistic efforts. A focus on evangelism didn’t return until the 17th and 18th centuries with the appearance of such men as John Wesley and George Whitefield.

So, after about 1500 years of darkness with little spiritual focus, Wesley and Whitefield had great evangelistic success in England and America with thousands of lost souls saved, just like in the time of Jesus and the Early Church. It was said of Whitefield that he started preaching from a hillside, down into an open field that can still be seen today. It's estimated that he preached across the field to up to 20,000 people at one time . . . with no sound system! Periods of evangelism, however, waxed and waned in the next couple hundred years after Wesley and Whitfield.

Wesley and Whitefield were noted for mass evangelism meetings, preaching to thousands of people at a time. Mass evangelism meetings were called various names through a couple centuries: “Revival meetings”, "camp meetings", and "city-wide crusades”, to name a few, and they were greatly used by God to bring multitudes of men and women to Christ.

But mass evangelism had its limitations. Pastor Maye said that personal soulwinning among Christians was a very important supplement to mass evangelism?

Pastor Maye addressed present ideas about personal evangelism and soulwinning by considering three keys that we talked about two weeks ago:

1. Soulwinning should not be limited to a few key people like a pastor or an evangelist.
• The job to evangelize should also fall on every spirit-filled Christian to "proclaim" to others the Good News of salvation.
• Pastor Maye wrote that pastors are somewhat to blame for their lack of emphasis on personal responsibility, and encouraging and teaching their flock to evangelize.
• Pastor Maye wrote, "Do we really believe that the responsibility of personal evangelism and the great power of the Holy Spirit ended for good at the end of the era of the Early Church in Acts?"
2. Soulwinning is not limited to certain places. 
• Soulwinning doesn’t have to occur in a church building, a meeting hall, or a revival tent. Most unsaved people won't darken the door of a church, or a revival meeting hall or tent.
• We need to go to them as Jesus and the Early Church did. Pastor Maye wrote, “We have no choice! The Church has been commissioned.” He said, “Many churches, instead of growing, are actually dying because they're shackled by this church building-centered concept of evangelism.”
• Pastor Maye wrote that mass revival meetings are important, but more important is an emphasis on personal evangelism.
3. Soulwinning is not limited to certain times. 
• Evangelism isn’t just a seasonal affair, and we don’t have to wait until the calendar says we’re ready to evangelize.
• Pastor Maye wrote, “Someone has recently suggested that most of us are so busy today working IN the church that we no longer have time for the work OF the Church . . . which is soulwinning.” Pastor Maye wrote, “We usually find time to do those things that we really want to do.

We must want earnestly to introduce Jesus to people in our communities. When we find ourselves so busy that we have little time for any evangelism and no time to train and organize our churches for soulwinning out among the unsaved, we wonder what's happened since Luke said: "Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved." Acts 2:47.

Pastor Maye discussed the following four points:

1. “We must stop losing the battle to win lost souls.”
• The church is making strides in many areas such as Christian education, music, and other areas, but we’re losing the battle to reach the rising, ever-growing population that don't know Jesus.
• Cult groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are growing faster than the Christian church because of their emphasis on personal outreach. 
• If any group reaches out to their community it should be a group of spirit-filled believers.
2. “The church is at a crossroads.”
• The present-day Church is faced with two alternatives.
• The First Alternative: We can continue the present pattern depending largely upon the revival meetings and other pulpit evangelism which is becoming less and less effective in reaching the sinner (because the sinners don't come). OR . . .
• The Second Alternative: We can dedicate ourselves to the training of personal soulwinners, pray for a renewal of Pentecostal power and boldness like in Acts 4:29-31, and take the Church to the lost.
• In order to accomplish this, there may have to be some changes made in local church programs.
• Necessary steps will have to be taken to put the primary purpose of the Church in its proper perspective – “that the saving of lost souls comes first!”
3. "Personal evangelism must be revived!"
• Personal evangelism is encouraged in a few churches, but most times it isn’t encouraged or emphasized at all. Sometimes the youth only are taught and encouraged to evangelize. While it’s a good thing to teach and encourage youth to witness to the lost, evangelism can’t be delegated solely to the youth. It’s the responsibility of the entire Church body.
4. "A revival of personal evangelism has tremendous potential." Following are some key points about the tremendous potential of personal evangelism:
• Personal evangelism can be entered into wholeheartedly because such outreach is overwhelmingly supported by the New Testament.
• Personal evangelism offers the one possibility for a local congregation to actually present the gospel to every person in the community who will listen.
• Personal evangelism not only helps reach the lost, but the lives of individual Christians will be greatly changed, and their experiences deepened as they begin to share their experience of knowing Christ personally with the unsaved.

In conclusion, Pastor Maye wrote that revival won’t come easily. It will only come as the direct result of deliberate prayer, hard work, and action on the part of God's people.

See you next time,

Arlen

PENTECOSTAL WITNESSING, CHAPTER 2: EARLY CHURCH EVANGELISM by Aubrey Maye

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

Hello Friends:

Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. I entitled my post today “Pentecostal Witnessing, Chapter 2: Early Church Evangelism”. Again, it’s based on an old book written in the 1960’s by Pastor Aubrey Maye of the Church of God. This chapter has so many good points it is difficult to contain my excitement. I pray that you also find it exciting.

Pastor Maye said “the sincere Christian of the Twentieth Century (now Twenty-First Century) is “brought face to face with the power of God glorifying His Son through the weakness of human flesh as these early Christians are engulfed by the Holy Ghost. We are challenged by their courage, shamed by their sacrifices, convicted by their dedication to one supreme purpose, and amazed at their almost unbelievable accomplishments.”

Pastor Maye wrote that while the philosophies of evangelism of the early church in Acts were unorthodox by today’s standards, but that due to their effectiveness we should question our ways of evangelism today, rather than to question the way they did it. He said his purpose of pointing in his book to the early church in Acts is that “the reader will be moved to action”.

Pastor Maye gave examples in the early church of “mass evangelism”, and “personal evangelism”. He said the early church wasn’t as concerned about the “how” of evangelism, "but that the job got done".

Mass evangelism came first, and it was very powerful and effective. But as extreme persecution arose the church scattered, and personal evangelism was the outcome of this. (Just a side note . . . this gives me hope that in today’s world of turmoil that God’s Holy Spirit will fill the lives of people to the point where they are inspired to share Jesus with other people.)

Pastor Maye wrote emphatically about the early church, “they were not waiting for the unsaved to come to them, they were busy taking the church to the world.”

He said that “nothing can take the place of the Spirit-filled life in soulwinning”. He said that the young church in Acts had a deep commitment to the Great Commission, in which “was born a sort of “daring” evangelism”. He said that they “dared to believe that if they continued with His Spirit and steadfast in His purpose, they could not fail regardless of the opposition”.

Pastor Maye said that this doesn’t mean they didn’t face discouragement, weakness, or fear. But that fresh infillings of the Holy Spirit strengthened them.

He wrote that “the spirit-filled life was the “norm” instead of the exception in that day.” He wrote that the nature of evangelism was “spontaneous” and “there was no indication that they had to be continuously prodded and challenged” to reach the lost. Pastor Maye said that Christians in today’s church may very well be filled with God’s Holy Spirit, but are hindered by present day misconceptions and traditions that the early church knew nothing about.

Pastor Maye said the following are some present-day misconceptions about soulwinning:

1. “Soulwinning is the sole responsibility of a few specialists.”
2. "Soulwinning should only occur at certain places, like in church buildings."
3. "Soulwinning should only occur at certain times, like at revival meetings."

But the early church in Acts was not hampered by these misconceptions. He said the following about the early church:

1. “Soulwinning was not restricted to certain select individuals.”
• “Every Christian thought it was his (or her) “personal privilege and responsibility to share his (or her) experience with the unsaved.” They didn’t have to wait for a preacher or an evangelist to come along. Pastor Maye said, “They didn’t know any different.
2. “Soulwinning was not restricted to particular places.”
• They were never taught that a church building was required for a person to be saved. “The gospel was just as powerful to save sinners in the marketplace, on the street, or from house-to-house as it was in the temple or synagogue.”
• They took Jesus as “the supreme example” of talking to people everywhere about His saving power.
3. “Soulwinning was not restricted to a particular time.”
• Pastor Maye quoted Acts 5 that said, “the Lord added to the church daily”, “because the disciples were spreading the Good News daily”. They didn’t have to wait until a revival meeting to introduce Jesus to other people.

Pastor Maye quoted J.B Phillips in his book “Letters to Young Churches”. Phillips wrote, “These early Christians were on fire with the conviction that they had become through Christ, literally sons (or children) of God, they were pioneers of a new humanity, founders of a new kingdom.” He said, “They still speak to us through the centuries.” J.B. Phillips wrote, “Perhaps if we believe what they believed, we might achieve what they achieved.”

Do you and I feel like pioneers of a new humanity, like founders of a new kingdom, like children of God? Is it possible for us to regain some of the Holy Spirit inspired conviction of the early church . . . to believe what they believed, so that we might achieve what they achieved?

See you next time,

Arlen

PENTECOSTAL WITNESSING, CHAPTER 1: THE PURPOSE OF PENTECOST

 

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19.

Hello Friends:

Welcome to the Soulwinnersr.us website. I entitled my post today “Pentecostal Witnessing, Chapter 1: The Purpose of Pentecost”. It’s based on an old book written in the 1960’s by Pastor Aubrey Maye of the Church of God. I bought the book from my mother-in-law at her garage sale about ten years ago. It’s become a treasure to me.

I haven't posted in a couple weeks for several reasons: 

1. The holiday season is upon us, which makes us all become busier with decorating, shopping, gatherings, etc. 
2. I couldn’t clarify in my mind what direction God might have me go with my posts. 
3. I was distracted by a number of things, one being sports, especially the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, which has become a fun team to follow, post Lebron James.

But I still feel my primary job, after my mental health career was over, is introducing Jesus Christ to people. To be honest, it should have been my primary job during my career, but it wasn’t. I’m not trying to make up for lost time, but definitely I AM trying to recapture my “first love”, which the Apostle John wrote about in Revelation 2 to the Church of Ephesus.

Pastor Maye encouraged readers of his book to read it prayerfully in light of the following questions:

1. “What is my personal responsibility in fulfilling the Great Commission”?
2. “What can I do to win souls that I am not now doing?”
3. “What is my church doing to evangelize its ‘Jerusalem’?”

Pastor Maye encouraged that the first step is to admit that we aren’t doing enough, and back in 1960’s he said, “we must do it NOW”, and, “The only hope for our generation is this: ministers and members alike, full of the Holy Spirit, moved with compassion, telling people everywhere the old, old story that Jesus lives and Jesus saves – even in the twentieth century” (now the twenty first century).

Let’s dive into this wonderful little book, starting with Chapter 1; “The Purpose of Pentecost”. First off, I realize that some might be put off by the term “Pentecost”. But Pentecost doesn’t mean strange church beliefs associated with speaking in tongues. It means that at the time of the Holy Spirit falling on and filling people, they were celebrating the Jewish “Day of Pentecost”, exactly fifty days after the Passover feast, and immediately after the week of “Harvest” celebrations on the Jewish calendar.

Pastor Maye said there were four reasons the Holy Spirit fell on the early disciples at that time:

1. Act as “a Comforter” to His followers after His departure.
2. Act as “a guide to lead His followers into all truth.”
3. Act as “a teacher” to help His followers remember the important lessons he taught.
4. To remind his followers that His “joy” would be in them, and their joy “would be made full”. John 15:11.

Pastor Maye said that great joy was the result of the Holy Spirit falling on and filling His followers, but joy was, and "is not the primary purpose of the Pentecostal experience”. He said that the joy of the Lord is “certainly essential to the believer”, but “it must always be interpreted as a source of strength and not as an end within itself”.

He said emphatically that the real purpose of Pentecost was “POWER” to give His followers strength when they were weak, to give them courage when they were afraid, and to carry out the true ministry of the Church in the world. He said simply, “the primary purpose of Pentecost was to empower the Church to fulfill the Great Commission”.

Pastor Maye said that Jesus’ followers were not the intellectual leaders of their day, and they could never carry out the task of the Great Commission with their own strength and abilities. They needed the Holy Spirit’s great power to help them to the point where, “they simply could not fail”.

The power His followers felt was not to draw people to themselves, but to take the saving message of Jesus to people everywhere, in every corner of the world, and their personal worlds. Pastor Maye said, “This is evangelism in the fullest sense.”

Pastor Maye said that God’s purpose is very clear according to 1 Timothy 1:15. “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. Very simple, isn’t it? Christ wants to save sinners. Pastor Maye said that saving sinners is “second to nothing else in the work of the Church.”

What then is Christ’s plan to evangelize the world? Pastor Maye said, “His plan was simple. His hope was not based on highly organized and intricate plans of operation . . . PEOPLE WERE HIS PLAN.” “Spirit-filled Christians who make up the Church WERE (and are) HIS PLAN TO REACH LOST SOULS! HE HAS NO OTHER PLAN!"

Where have we gotten off track? How can we get back on track? I’m praying for a move of the Holy Spirit again. It’s our only hope to reach a lost and dying world.

See you next time,

Arlen