Steph’ Adebayo
The essence of our calling in this time of decadence is to preach the redeeming word to all and sundry, regardless of the limitations and challenges facing us. The church and body of Christ is task with great responsibility of winning souls for Christ and enlarging the Kingdom of God throughHoly Spirit inspired available means. Though, the scriptures has not failed and will not in its authenticity and position towards the likelihood of having several fake and adulterated version of the gospel in time like this, but as custodian of the revelation, we must strive not to deviate on the course of true gospel and evangelism.
Having digested this, it is also imperative to distinguish between soul winning and soul robbery in this context, so as not mix it up and at the end,MISS IT ALL. It a shame today that many of what we called soul winning is not but a typical example of soul snatching/robbery, which is really causing a great diversity to the body of Christ, which ought to be united for one purpose.
I might be criticized negatively or otherwise for this but apparently this is a burden upon my heart and needs to be shared so as to reminisce on the level of danger and calamity that has befallen the church with imminent ones in waiting, if proper action and measures are not employed accordingly.
The true meaning of soul winning in the right context is to bring back lost souls from the fangs of sin, deliverance from the stronghold of evil and the danger of hell, to the light of the gospel with the assurance of eternal life with Jesus. This should therefore be approached with total readiness to obey the basic principles of soul winning and evangelism. This will also lead us to the point of rugged and ‘true evangelism’ in quote. True evangelism will only target the redemption of souls with no string attached and the office of the EVANGELISTmust see to this, to avoid total jeopardy of that purpose. We must also note that anything devoid of the mentioned above is not to be termed soul winning.
To buttress my view on this, I recalled few years ago at about 2pm in the noon time, I was at the church venue preparing for a programme and suddenly I saw a young man who happened to be an evangelist approaching. The moment he got to the gate of the church, he dropped his public address system and starting preaching, ringing his bell rigorously and sweating profusely in the hot sun while the programme is about to commence. As he saw members approaching the church for the programme, he doubled his energy as he was sharing gospel tracts to them.
I was watching as he was doing this with all his strength and eventually when our programme started, we couldn’t hear him again because our sound system has overshadowed his voice and he had no choice than to leave. Then I asked myself, is this where he should be if truly he wants to evangelize? What happen to the rural areas and other places where the gospel has not reached?Several questions were popping in my head but I had no choice than to concentrate for the programme. Truth be told, we might say the young evangelist is naïve and needs to be educated on venues to be when going out for evangelism but are we not worse as a body of Christ(Church)?
The church of God is not targeting lost souls anymore but to steal members of one denomination through dubious means (all in the name of innovative programmes) to start up another. Some churches will go as far as convincing members of another church to leave their local assembly to join theirs with promises and incentives in a way to lure them off. Some ministers will disrupt their local assembly deceptively and manipulate the members to start up their ministry. The evangelism we claim to be doing today is not targeted at lost souls anymore but on readymade members of another denomination and we foolishly claim ownership of these members. This is alarming and ridiculous!
It made me sick when I see the rate at which some churches want to eagerly rent some space in LAGOS CITY to start up a ministry while they can as well harness the absence of a single church in some rural areas. Every church want to have their Headquarters in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, neglecting the ordinance of ‘GO YE INTO WORLD’. No wonder we keep moving at a spot as body of Christ. We have so much MAJOR on the minor and MINOR on the major and we expect revival to happen. Another complication that has eaten deep into the system is unhealthy rivalry that has emanated through the presence of micro churches contending for space in the same venue.
I personally made my research and I discovered that you will never see 2 or 3 Mosques (either of the same or different faction) existing side by side in a location. They will allow one to thrive in that location while others will be taken to another location. I have seen more than 5 churches in a location contending for space. We might say it’s good for the expansion of the gospel but the news and report we are hearing about them does has defeated that purpose. Am not a judge of this matter but just stating the obvious.
Several souls are out there yearning for the gospel of salvation. We have several harvest that are wasting away and we are going about hijacking members of one denomination to the other all in the name of soul winning. We need to wake up from our slumber!
Appreciation to the few ones, who are keen on taking the gospel to the learnt and breadth of the world by organizing rural evangelism with the intention of building more place of worship for them after then but a body that is divided against itself cannot stand. A more reason why we must make this our sole responsibility as a body.
Let’s leave those who are already saved and let’s go all out for those who haven’t heard at all.As a body of Christ let’s stop this attitude of robbing Peter to pay Paul. While the devil is ravaging on taking many to hell, the church is task to take to them heaven, this is our goal and not otherwise.
The Lord will help us to see menace and adjust for necessary corrections for kingdom emancipation.