“Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!“
Matthew 4:19 HCSB
On the morning of August, 16th I received a phone call from my friend, Carl. He sounded down so I asked what was wrong.
He said, “I’m bored outta’ my skull. What do I do?”
I told him to feel better he had to, “do something really fun.”
“I can’t do fun,” he said, “I’m outta’ money.”
I felt bad for him and wanted to cheer him up so I invited him to take part in one of my favorite pastimes, soul winning. After explaining the activity and how fun it was, Carl said, “Sure, why not?”
“Great,” I said, “I’ll pick you up in an hour.”
“Cool, what should I bring?”
“Just a go-getter attitude. And a pair of cross-trainers.”
“OK.”
“Bye.”
“See you.”
I hung up the phone, jumped outta’ bed and loaded up my mom’s van with all the tools needed for a successful day of evangelism: signs attached to sticks, a souls saved scoreboard, business cards (with sinner’s prayer), a spray bottle filled with water (for baptism), tasers and an ice-cooler packed with energy drinks.
After double-checking everything, I drove off and picked up Carl. We were both starving so we b-lined it to the Saturday Market food carts where I bought us some food. As we tossed down a few tacos, Carl said he wanted to hear some live music so we decided to set up next to the Music Fest on Tom McCall Waterfront Park. With 80 degree weather and hundreds of unsaved sinners about, it was the perfect day for soul winning.
After we set up, Carl sat back and watched me go at it. He wanted to see how it was done and would give it a shot after I saved a few souls. I really wanted to show him, so I was relentless from the start. But after an hour of evangelizing I had saved zero souls. Carl was bored. And I was embarrassed. I felt defeated and was ready to go home.
Just as I was about to give up, a fellow believer stopped by and offered me some words of encouragement, “Don’t give up” he said. His exhortation brought to mind Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Then he reminded me of the “eternal inheritance” I’d receive for each soul saved (Bonus Structure). He then said, “Amen, brother” and walked away . That’s when I realized my strategy sucked. If Carl and I were gonna’ save any souls that day we’d have to be more clever. Instead of working harder, we’d have to work smarter.
I was willing to win souls at any cost, even if that meant making a new sign and spending the last $100 on my Oregon Trail Card. And that’s exactly what I did. See what happened below:
Have you come up with a creative way to evangelize? If so, what did you do? What were the results? I’d love to hear from you.
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