Encouraging Words from Cary Schmidt » soulwinning

SL Podcast: Opening the Front Door

Cary Schmidt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:12:28 +0000

The audio file above is the newest Spiritual Leadership podcast from Pastor Paul Chappell.

This lesson is entitled “Opening the Front Door.” In this session, Pastor Chappell shares some biblical and practical insights on how to welcome more visitors into your church. The Spiritual Leadership podcast is a free resource from Striving Together Publications (a ministry of Lancaster Baptist Church and West Coast Baptist College).

You can subscribe to this podcast through iTunes and listen on your computer or iPod. You can also receive the complimentary outline with each lesson. Click here for more information about subscribing.

We pray that this resource will strengthen and equip you in God’s work!

Welcome, Guests—Meet Mystery Babylon

caryschmidt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:56:25 +0000

Breaking the church growth rules, the Bible works once again!

How would the seeker-sensitive, church growth experts and the leaders of the emergent church movement answer this question:

What passages would you not preach on when you have the most first time guests at your church?

Certainly, on that short list would be Revelation 17—The Great Whore of Babylon! Save that one for much later.

Staying in his series on prophecy, Pastor Chappell preached this week on “The False Church or the True Saviour.” His message to a room of first time guests was from Revelation 17—the coming one world church. As we prayed before the service, we even marvelled a bit that the Lord would lead him to such a weighty approach to the gospel on this day.

I learned three lessons from Pastor Chappell’s message at this week’s Open House Sunday:

1. The Holy Spirit Must Be Obeyed—weeks before the first guest was invited to Open House, Pastor Chappell felt the Lord leading him to this passage and this topic for his gospel message on Open House Sunday. I love being a part of a church where the Holy Spirit’s agenda comes first. The Holy Spirit always trumps surveys, statistics, church growth experts, and human logic.

2. People Need Truth, Not Merely Wit—As the message unfolded, the first two points were literally about mystery Babylon. Amazing! Dr. Chappell did a great job of explaining and teaching through the text, and the crowd was listening intently and following their notes carefully. Sure he could have kept it light and pithy—but people were responsive to the preached truth.

3. Hard Truth Can Be Preached with Love—the tone of the whole message was positive and compassionate. The final point was simply—The Invitation of the True Saviour! While the first two points set up a dire picture of one-world compromise and deception (the wide road that leads to destruction), the final point shared the one way of salvation (the narrow path.)

The aisles were backed up with people responding to the gospel during the closing invitation. It was a great lesson and reminder that God’s ways are not our ways! He still does His best work when we step out of the way and let Him be God.

10 Highlights of LBC Open House!

caryschmidt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:48:08 +0000

Many of you have been praying for our annual Open House at Lancaster Baptist Church. Today was amazing, so I thought a quick report was in order. Here are the highlights:

1. The church family knocked on approximately 80,000 doors. What a delight it was to see church members going out soulwinning all week at various times. There was a great team spirit! God has always blessed the fact that we don’t set “attendance goals,” but we do set “work goals.”

2. Many were saved during the week. Before Sunday ever arrived, we were able to share the Gospel with many in the community and see them come to Christ. Pictured above is Karl and his daughters. We had lunch together at Open House, and we are praying for their continued spiritual growth!

3. We prayed all week. During several church prayer times and then much at other times, we asked God to bless the efforts and the preaching of the Gospel.

4. Spiritual battle is always a part of the process. There were many ways we sensed Satan fighting the outreach, and we asked God for a hedge of protection.

5. Pastor Chappell preached a tremendous Gospel message and broke all the rules. Staying in his series on prophecy, he preached this week on “The False Church or the True Saviour.” His message to a room of first-time guests was from Revelation 17—the coming one-world church! While the seeker-sensitive philosophies of our day might avoid a passage like this, Pastor Chappell stood and warned the lost not to buy into the “all roads lead to the same place” philosophy of our day. He contrasted the coming false church with the one way of salvation—Jesus Christ. It was a fantastic message that proved two things—hard truth can be preached with compassion, and God always blesses truth! (This is worthy of its own post… coming soon.)

6. The aisles were flooded with people coming for salvation. For the invitation we had to sing seven verses of Just As I Am as people were literally lined up down the aisle, waiting for a counselor! It was just awesome to see. The preached Gospel and public invitations still work—even when the message is from Revelation 17!

7. The courtyard was filled with people being led to Christ. As I walked through the hallway, it was overwhelming to see all the people in the back hall and in the courtyard being led to Christ. For me, the great highlight was seeing Dana and Lance both dealing with people who came forward.

8. Hundreds of first-time guests came and were responsive. As we sat at lunch with our guests (even the ones yet unsaved), they were fascinated by the message and the accuracy of Bible prophecy. We look forward to seeing others saved during the follow up in the coming weeks.

9. Souls were saved at lunch. As our guests left, Dana and I enjoyed meeting others at the lunch. As I looked around the room, I noticed Pastor Chappell sitting at a table with one man and an open Bible. He was leading him to Christ at the luncheon. These two pictures were a blessing!

10. It’s a joy to serve the Lord with my family. One of the greatest blessings of this day, for me, was seeing my children get involved with Mom and Dad and their church! All week we enjoyed serving God together—soulwinning, praying, hosting, counseling, serving lunch, giving people rides to church—it was just fun. I’m thankful to see my children developing sincere hearts for the Lord and others.

Much more could be said! To God’s glory, it was a blessed day. Pray for the continued follow up and discipleship of new believers.

Done—Free eBook in Chinese, Spanish, Romanian

Cary Schmidt — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:14:06 +0000

The Free eBook – DONE – is Now Available in Chinese and Spanish

Thanks to the help of a wonderful team of burdened volunteers, the minibook DONE is now available as a free eBook in Chines, Spanish, and Romanian. The Spanish version, “HECHO” is also available in printed form through Striving Together Publications.

The Chinese version was translated and placed in parallel with the English—something we thought might encourage a Chinese person to read it. Many Chinese desire to learn and practice English.

These three eBooks present the gospel in Chinese, Spanish, and Romanian with many Bible verses. This eBook contains a clear explanation of God’s plan of salvation.

Perhaps you know of someone (a friend or missionary) who could use these resources. Please tell them to use them freely. They can be downloaded and passed on from the links below. Please pray that God will bless these resources and use them to bring souls to Christ.

If you have a story about how the Lord has used DONE, consider sharing it below.

A Must-Read Soulwinning Story

Cary Schmidt — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:28:10 +0000

While on vacation with my family last week, I received this email. It powerfully encouraged my heart on many levels. I pray it will encourage you that soulwinning still works.

Dear Pastor Schmidt:

I just finished reading your book “done.”. I thought you might like to know how I came upon the book.

I live in Alabama. About 11 am yesterday (Tuesday, July 21), I received a knock on my door. I am usually never home at 11 am and was in fact actually headed out the door when I heard the knock. I am a Life Insurance Agent with a national company and my late departure was due to a morning spent thinking about some difficulties I am going thru at work.

On the other side of the door, a gentleman introduced himself as Toby Weaver and explained his reason for being there. We talked for about 15 minutes or so and I accepted Jesus as God’s gift of eternal life.

What is truly amazing is that a man from thousands of miles away was interested enough in me to take the time to go door to door, ask questions, listen to my problems, and offer a solution to them. Of course, in 15 minutes you can only learn so much but I was just impressed that someone would even bother.

The result was that I went to church last night for the first time in 8 years. At the service. Dr. Weaver gave me the book “done.” I also bought “Church Still Works” by Dr. Chappell as well.

You know, hurting people are not looking for nifty sermons with stage props, lights, and rocky music. We are looking for someone to knock on our door, ask, listen, offer a solution, and invite us to church.

Oh, and the girls from the college were fantastic! You can tell they love to sing about Jesus.

Sincerely,

Tyler

Tyler later wrote Dr. Weaver asking about some good books to read—as he was planning to trash many of his books on philosophy. He is a voracious reader and has a hungry heart to grow. I was also touched by his response to me in an email today. Here’s what he said:

…Maybe in the future I can enter into discussion with you. It seems I have more questions than answers. But for now…”it is finished”…seems like it means “final” and “for all time”. Everything else I guess is in the details!

You gotta love that spirit! “It is finished!” Thank the Lord that’s what matters the most! The spirit of this new Christian encouraged me. I hope it encourages you as well!

Click here to download “Done” or share it with a friend!