The Soul Winner

How to Lead Sinners to the Saviour

Charles H. Spurgeon

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781622453757
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

A must-read for anyone who loves God and their neighbor. As an individual, you may ask, How can I, an average person, do anything to reach the lost? Or if a pastor, you may be discouraged and feel ineffective with your congregation, much less the world. Or perhaps you don't yet have a heart for the lost. Whatever your excuse, it's time to change. Overcome yourself and learn to make a difference in your church and the world around you. It's time to become an effective soul winner for Christ.As Christians, our main business is to win souls. But, in Spurgeon's own words, "like shoeing-smiths, we need to know a great many things. Just as the smith must know about horses and how to make shoes for them, so we must know about souls and how to win them for Christ." Learn about souls, and how to win them, from one of the most acclaimed soul winners of all time. In this book, Charles Spurgeon discusses: •The role of conviction
•The need for holiness in the soul winner
•Why simplicity is more effective
•How to be interesting
•How to pray for the lost
•How to deal with failure
•The role of discipleship
•How to engage others to help

Chapter 1

What Is It to Win a Soul?

We will begin our discussions regarding this subject by considering the question: What is it to win a soul?

This may be answered best by first describing what it is not. Soul winning is not accomplished by stealing members from already-established churches, just to train them to utter our peculiar pronunciation of Shibboleth (Judges 12:4-6). Instead, soul winning means bringing souls to Christ rather than making converts to our assembly.

Sheep-stealers beyond the walls of the church are not acting in a brotherly fashion. Concerning these, I will say nothing except that they are not brethren, and they must stand or fall before their own Master. However, we think it reveals an absolute lack of excellence of any kind to build up our own house with the ruins of our neighbors’ mansions. Instead, we prefer to quarry for ourselves.

I hope we all identify with the large-hearted spirit of Dr. Chalmers when he was told that such and such an effort wouldn’t be beneficial to the special interests of the Free Church of Scotland, although it might promote the general religion of the land. In response he said, “What is the Free Church compared with the Christian good of the people of Scotland?”

What, indeed, is any church? Or what are all the churches put together as mere organizations if they stand in conflict with the moral and spiritual advantage of the nation? Or if they impede the kingdom of Christ? It is because God blesses men through the churches that we desire to see them prosper and not merely for the sake of the churches themselves. Unfortunately, there’s selfishness involved in our eagerness to enlarge our own number of people. May grace deliver us from this evil spirit. The increase of God’s kingdom should be desired more than the growth of a sect.

It would be a great trade to make a Paedo-Baptist brother into a Baptist, because we value our Lord’s ordinances. But rather, we should labor earnestly to raise a believer in salvation by free-will into a believer in salvation by grace, because we long to see all spiritual teaching built upon the solid rock of truth and not upon the sand of imagination. At the same time, our far-reaching objective isn’t the revision of opinions but the regeneration of natures. We long to bring men to Christ and not to our own peculiar views of Christianity. Our first concern must be that the sheep are gathered to the great Shepherd. Afterwards, we will have enough time to secure them for our various folds. To make proselytes is a suitable labor for Pharisees, but to bring men to God is the honorable aim of ministers of Christ, And save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. (Jude 1:23).

Next, we don’t consider soul winning to be accomplished by hurriedly penning more names to our church-roll in order to show a good increase as a growing church at the end of the year. This is easily done and worth no more than the ink and paper used to record the roll. Yet, there are those who go through great pains using their skills to bring about such an outcome. However, if such tactics are to be regarded as the beginning and end of a minister’s efforts, the result will be deplorable.

By all means let us bring true converts into the church, for it’s a part of our work to teach them to observe all things Christ has commanded. However, this is to be done to make true disciples and not Christians in word only. If we aren’t careful to obey in this matter, we may do more harm than good at this point.

The church is the body of Christ and introducing unconverted persons into the church weakens and degrades it. For this reason, what seems to be an apparent gain numerically may be a real loss from God’s point of view.

I’m not among those who criticize statistics, nor do I think they produce all manner of evil. As a tool, they do much good if they are accurate, and if men use them lawfully. It’s a good thing for people to become aware, through statistics, of a decrease. So they see the true need and are driven to their knees before the Lord to seek prosperity. On the other hand, it’s by no means an evil thing for workers to be encouraged by positive results set before them. I would be sorry if the practice of adding up, deducting, and giving the net result was to be abandoned, because it’s good to be aware of our numerical condition.

As long as we’re discussing the matter, it’s worth noting that those who object to the statistical process are often the same people whose unsatisfactory reports should somewhat humiliate them. This isn’t always the case, but it is suspiciously frequent. I heard the report on a church the other day, in which the minister, who was well known for dwindling his congregation to nothing, somewhat cleverly wrote, “Our church is looking up.” When he was questioned about his statement, he replied, “Everybody knows that the church is on its back, and it can’t do anything else but look up.”

When churches are “looking up” in this fashion, their pastors generally say statistics are very misleading, and that you can’t tabulate the work of the Spirit or calculate the prosperity of a church by figures. The fact is, if the figures are honest, you can calculate very correctly. If all circumstances are taken into consideration and there is no increase, you may gauge with considerable accuracy that there isn’t much being done. If there is a clear decrease among a growing population, you may suppose that the prayers of the people and the preaching of the minister are not of the most powerful kind.

But, still, all manner of hurrying just to get members into the church is most harmful, both to the church and to the supposed converts. I remember very well several young men who were of good moral character and religiously promising. Instead of searching their hearts and aiming at their real conversion, the pastor never gave them any time to think about their spiritual condition. Instead, he pestered until he persuaded them (not the Spirit) to make a profession.

He thought they would live under a state of servitude to holy things if they professed religion, and he felt quite safe in pressing them because “they were so promising.” He imagined vigilant examination would most likely discourage them and might even drive them away. So, to secure them, he made them hypocrites. The result is that, at the present time, these young men are much further away from the church of God than they would have been if they had been upset by being kept in their proper places and warned that they were not converted to God. Yet, their names are listed on the church roll.

It causes serious injury to a person received into the number of the faithful unless there’s good reason to believe he is really regenerated. I am certain of this, because I speak after careful observation. Some of the most glaring sinners I know were once members of a church and were, as I believe, led to make a profession by undue pressure, well-meant pressure but lacking judgment. With this said, don’t think that soul winning is made certain by the multiplication of baptisms and the swelling size of your church. After all, what do these reports from the battle-field mean? “Last night fourteen souls were under conviction, fifteen were justified, and eight received full sanctification.”

I am weary of such public bragging – this counting of unhatched chickens, this exhibition of doubtful spoils. Lay aside such numberings of the people and idle pretense of certifying in half a minute that which will need the testing of a lifetime. Hope for the best, but at the height of your enthusiasm be reasonable. Inquiry rooms are all well and good. But if they lead to idle boastings, they will grieve the Holy Spirit and work abounding evil.

Soul winning is not merely stirring up excitement. Excitement will accompany every great movement, but we should ask whether the movement would be sincere and powerful if it was as quiet and serene as a drawing-room Bible reading. You can’t very well blast great rocks without the sound of explosions, nor fight a battle and keep everybody as quiet as a mouse. On a dry day, a carriage doesn’t move along the road without creating some noise and dust. Friction and stimulation are the natural results of force in motion. So, when the Spirit of God moves and men’s minds are stirred, there will be certain visible signs of the movement. However, these signs must never be confused with the movement itself.

If people imagine that stirring up dust is the object of a carriage rolling by, they can take a broom and quickly raise as much dust as fifty coaches. However, they will be committing a nuisance rather than bestowing a benefit. Excitement is as incidental as the dust, and it is not for one moment to be aimed at. When the woman swept her house, she did it to find her money and not for the sake of raising a cloud of dust, Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? (Luke 15:8).

Don’t aim for sensationalism and “effect.” Flowing tears and streaming eyes, sobs and outcries, crowded after-meetings and all kinds of confusion may occur, and might be accepted as attributes of genuine feeling, but please don’t plan their fabrication.

Very often when converts are born in excitement, they die when the excitement is over. They are like certain insects which are the product of an exceedingly warm day, and die when the sun goes down. Certain converts live like salamanders that find themselves in the fire. They expire at a reasonable temperature. I don’t delight in religion which needs or creates an impulsive, hotheaded convert. Give me godliness which flourishes upon Calvary rather than upon Vesuvius. The greatest zeal for Christ is consistent with common-sense and reason, while raving, ranting, and fanaticism are products of another zeal which is not according to knowledge (Romans 10:2). We prepare men for the secluded gathering of the body of Christians who have one common faith and discipline and not for the padded room at Bedlam. No one is sorrier than I that a caution like this is needed. But as I remember the wandering thoughts and whimsical purposes of certain wild revivalists, I can’t say less than this and, in fact, could say a great deal more.

What is the real winning of a soul for God? Since this is done by a means to an end approach, what are the processes by which a soul is led to God and to salvation? I take it that one of the main actions consists in with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). Instruction in the gospel is the beginning of all real work upon men’s minds. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20). Teaching begins the work and crowns it too.

The gospel according to Isaiah is, Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live (Isaiah 55:3). It’s our part, then, to give men something worth hearing, in fact, to instruct them. We are sent to evangelize or preach the gospel to every creature, and that is not done unless we tea...