Common Soul-Winning Mistakes
Soul-Winning Lesson 9
Ecclesiastes 4:13: Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
Presenting Mistakes
The way that we present the gospel is just as important as the message of the gospel being spread itself, and should be done with grace, wisdom, and zeal. Proper body language and use of the Bible are two areas of great blunder.
Your body language:
- Make the environment of peaching ideal. Take the person you are preaching at to a place nearby which is most favorable to preaching (e.g., shaded, less noisy), and cut off all distractions (e.g., a loud television, earphones with music playing). For those who are sitting down, it is usually best to have them stand up (a symbol of seriousness; see Job 33:5), though not always—if possible, you should sit with them (a symbol of fellowship; see Job 2:13; Matthew 9:10).
- Wisely position your stance. Be closer to the person, within about a half meter. Turn your body toward them, forming as close to a 90o angle as possible, where you can face them and be close enough to show them the scriptures you are turning to.
- Keep their attention. Maintain their attention by pointing to the scriptures, by looking directly at them as you communicate truth, and by verbally requesting their focus at times (see Acts 3:4). Look at them in the eyes as a frequent and default gaze, maintaining eye contact as much as possible (see Proverbs 4:25; see also John 4:35, “look on the fields”) whenever not drawing their attention to the Bible.
The use of the Bible:
- Wisely position your Bible. Angle the Bible toward the person you are preaching to, in their line of sight, facing them. It should be appreciably easier for them to read the Bible than you, and you should not even have to be able to read the verse being shown, because the verses should be memorized. Also, it should be at a readable height for the hearer. If they are tall, the Bible should be extended higher; if they are short, it should be descended lower.
- De-clutter your Bible. Keep papers and other extraneous objects out of your Bible, and free your hands by having a bag of some kind with you (see Luke 22:35-36; see also I Samuel 17:40).
- Finger the Bible. Lightly trace the verses you want the person to see with your dominant fingers as you are reading it alongside them. This will greatly increase the likelihood that they will read the text in their mind as you read it aloud, which increases their comprehension and retention.
Wording Mistakes
For the most part, it doesn’t matter what you say to people, but rather what people think you mean. What you meant by what you said means almost nothing, only what they understood.
Proverbs 25:11: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
Frequent problems arise when our wording is off. Beside what was discussed in Lesson 6 about extra-Biblical (e.g., “Ask to Jesus to come into your heart”), un-Biblical (e.g., “Give your life to Christ”), and misunderstood Biblical (e.g., “Repent”) words, there are other ways people’s wording can confused their hearers. Other confusing terminology includes saying things like, “believing is how you gain your salvation,” “Let me show you how to earn your salvation,” or, “Grace helped you to be saved.” All of these are wrongheaded ways of speaking about obtaining eternal life, because such words entail human effort and work.
Further, it is an error that some make when they speak to the person as if they are already saved, with kind but untrue wording/sentences cast in a past tense (“grace saved you”). With one who is not saved, we must always speak of their salvation in a conditional tense; for example, “if you believe…,” or, “what if you believe.”
Moreover, when preaching, it is good to use their own terminology against their beliefs. Utilization of the verbiage of those to whom we are preaching more surely facilitates proper understanding:
| Sample Conversation A | Sample Conversation B | Sample Conversation C |
| SW: What do you have to do to go to heaven?
P: Obey the commandments. …later… SW: Does this verse say that you have to obey the commandments?
|
SW: The Bible says that all we have to do to go to heaven is to believe.
P: You don’t have to repent of your sins? …later… SW: So, what if you believe and you don’t repent of your sins, where would you go? |
SW: What is the one thing we must do to go to heaven?
P: Following and loving God. …later… SW: Jesus did not say that you have to follow and love God to go to heaven.
|
Key: SW = Soul-Winner; P = Person
We need to also be careful that when we lighten the doctrine of eternal security, we do not “build again the things which I destroyed” (Galatians 2:18). When you tell people “We don’t have to obey the commandments to go to heaven,” it is somewhat counterproductive to later precisely say, “We have to obey the commandments,” even if you preface it properly. Be very wise about how you word your “lightening” of eternal security.
Incorrect Doctrinal Assertions
When we believe in Jesus, we do not become children of Jesus, but rather children of God (the Father) (John 1:12; Galatians 3:26). At the moment of faith, Jesus (the Son of God) becomes our brother (Hebrews 2:11), and God the Father becomes our Father (e.g., Matthew 6:9).
We should emphasize the name of Jesus, and to all––especially those who say one must “believe in God” to be saved––we should repeatedly say that one must “believe in Jesus.” This is because Jesus’ name is a saving name (Acts 4:12), and everyone more readily understands the true sense of believing “in Jesus,” but not usually believing “in God.” Whereas “God” is vague (it could be just any “god”), Jesus’ name is specific. Also, the phrase “believe in God” usually connotes mere propositional knowledge (the fact the God exists), which is not what we mean to convey (we mean to express that we need to trust in Jesus to be saved). It is not true, however, that we do not have to believe in God the Father to be saved, because one who acknowledges the Son also acknowledges the Father (I John 2:23; see also II John 9), and must go through the Son to get to the Father (John 14:6; 10:9). As Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me” (John 12:44).
I Peter 1:21: Who by him [Jesus] do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
Another misconception regards the definition of “eternal life.” Eternal life is primarily a state of being, not a place. Someone who believes “has” everlasting life (e.g., John 6:47). Heaven is only referred to as “life” in the Bible because it is a place of vitality and rejoicing (Matthew 18:8-9) where the spiritually living go. Eternal life is not life after death; it is life that lasts beyond death (John 11:25-26).
Questioning Mistakes
The questions we ask (or don’t ask) have a profound impact on the understanding of the hearer. One mistake is that soul-winners simply do not ask enough questions. Like with the pattern of Jesus in the gospels, preaching should be balanced with questioning. We should be questioning when expounding some verses, and certainly when reasoning with the person. Further, no discussion of eternal security is complete without a couple of good questions regarding it. Consider asking at least one of each these types of questions in the category of eternal security questions:
- Generic: If you believe in Jesus, and disobey God/sin/don’t do good things, would you go to heaven or hell?
- Specific: If you believe in Jesus, but then kill/steal/get drunk, would you go to heaven or hell?
Another fault is committed when we ask questions that they cannot answer. We are commissioned to “teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19), and teachers do not quiz students on untaught material. The interrogative remarks we offer to people should always have obtainable answers. For example, one should not be asked what Jesus did for us until after the work of the Savior has already been explained, and we ought not to fish for “the one thing” one must do to go to heaven from the person we are preaching to until we have thoroughly proven that “believe” is the answer.
Preaching Mistakes
As we preach Christ’s gospel, there are multitudes of avoidable faults that we can evade if we would have the proper methodology nailed down in our minds and tongues. Don’t begin talking to someone by asking if they have time to listen, begin by questioning them.
Productivity When Preaching. After Jesus ascended to heaven, the men witnessing the ascension simply stood looking upwards indefinitely with awe. Two angels appeared, and asked, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” (Acts 1:10-11). When we go preaching the gospel, we must be singularly minded about saving as many people as possible. We should work so as to be able to say at the end of a soul-winning outing, “I saved some” (Romans 11:14; I Corinthians 9:22). Every opportunity we have to even possibly preach the gospel to someone should be taken, especially if we have already heard the gospel preached recently a couple times by the person(s) we are soul-winning with. Simply put, we should conduct our soul-winning time as if we were being paid in heavenly rewards on a commission rate, not on an hourly rate.
Guarding When Preaching. As we preach the gospel, the roaring demonic lion, Satan, roams about us, hoping to prevent the person from getting saved by any and every means. We must therefore “be sober” (be serious) and “be vigilant” (be watchful) as we preach the gospel to someone. God likens himself to a lion that ferociously guards its prey (see Isaiah 31:4), and otherwise describes lions as being “greedy” of their prey (Psalm 17:12), not wanting any to take it from them. So, we ought to match the devil’s lion-ness by being heavenly lions as we preach the gospel, not letting anyone come in between the person we preach to and the Savior.
Speed When Preaching. As we preach, we should not speak too fast nor too slow. If we are too fast, our rapidity will confuse and go over the head of people; if we are too slow, our sluggishness will bore and lose the people. It is a mark of good speech to give emphasis by slight pauses, but of bad speech to falter in long moments of silence. Be moderate in your speaking speed so as to be perfectly understandable, adjusting speed with the audience, according as they are “able to hear it” (Mark 4:33). Of all things that should be spoken with care, the Bible is chief. Read verses more slowly and emphatically, to bring their truths to bear upon the person.
When you notice that someone is receptive, but their time is sincerely limited, we should preach noticeably quicker to ensure they get saved. Be cautious in how you apply this tip though––oftentimes people who are rushing are not really interested.
Plan When Preaching. Of Jesus it was said, “it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer” (Hebrews 8:3). We need to have a definite plan for what we will say as we preach the gospel. Have a roadmap of verses that you intend to take the person through. Beyond that, you must also preach thoroughly each point of the gospel. Do not skip over the reality of hell or the work of Jesus. When teaching the doctrine of hell, take a moment to briefly describe the eternal fate of the damned. When teaching the doctrine of Christ, be sure to quote some verses and state some facts about the Lord: e.g., his deity, his perfection, his atonement.
Moreover, it is a persistent problem that gospel preachers often cannot clearly differentiate the five gospel doctrines of (1) Sin, (2) Hell, (3) Christ, (4) Salvation by Faith, and (5) Eternal Security. Resist the urge to move onto the next point until their belief has been confirmed in the doctrine at hand. You must also recognize the distinctions between (4) and (5), in questioning, verse citing, and in reasoning.
Citing when Preaching. Do not needlessly quote entire verses which detract from the point you are attempting to get across. As long as it does not violate the meaning of the verse in its context, you are free to, as the apostles did, merely quote parts of verses (as in: Romans 6:23; Revelation 21:8; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Acts 16:30-31; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 2:21). Also, refrain from quoting verses around typically used verses that could be misunderstood (e.g., John 10:27; Matthew 7:21). When quoting the Bible, be diligent to make exact quotations of scripture, because exact quotations are better, more authoritative, and also more edifying.
Reasoning Mistakes
In the context of the forgiveness he offers, God said “Come now, and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18). Paul had a custom of reasoning with people in his gospel preaching (Acts 18:4, 19), “out of the scriptures” (Acts 17:2). In order to be able to rightly and effectively reason with an unsaved person about the gospel, one must have a strong command of the biblical-theological arguments for the doctrines of salvation by faith and eternal security. A mastery of the proofs of these fundamental doctrines is crucial to be able to win any soul to Christ.
It should also be noted that it is best to contradict the person you preach to on several fronts whenever they have a false idea. If they display great misunderstanding, park it on their foolishness, and take it away from them. Do not be overly generic when someone presents particularly resistant though receptive objections (“But didn’t Jesus say that we should go and sin no more?” or “But doesn’t the Bible say we shouldn’t continue sinning?”). Be erudite; be wisely worded; be adaptive yet resolute.