I Must Decrease

Yes, He must increase; I must decrease.

Please allow me to share an experience I had tonight. Back in September, I took over our adult TEAM soulwinning ministry at Liberty Baptist Church. Without saying too much, I didn’t take over a thriving, exciting ministry. I knew it would be a challenge. As any Outreach Director knows, the winter months bring with it early darkness and bad weather-both of which hinder soulwinning and follow-up visiting. This spring has been wonderful! We have had up to triple the number of people we had going out a year ago! Things have been great!

This weekend, God sent the rain…more like Noah’s flood all over again. It rained HARD Sunday morning. Though the weather was seemingly against us, the Lord had a plan. He sent the Marsh family to LBC. They both trusted Christ…both as ready to be saved as any adult I’ve ever met. In my life…He must increase; what I think and believe my decrease. See, I had a negative attitude Sunday morning as I drove in the downpour. God had a plan.

The rain continued into today (Monday), with Monday evenings being our TEAM soulwinning and follow-up meeting night. Once again, my negative attitude crept it. The text messages and the “sorry I won’t be able to make it tonight”s came throughout the day. To be honest, I didn’t know if we would have 10 people go out tonight. God had a plan.

You see, God sent 25 people out (more will go on Wednesday and Saturday) for tonight’s meeting. We had two people come to TEAM for the first time tonight! But God’s plan didn’t end there. Three weeks ago, God allowed Greg to begin participating in TEAM soulwinning. Greg came even when he wasn’t sure about all this “outreach” stuff. He came. This week, I gave Greg and Gary a follow-up visit that I honestly thought was a “dead-end” visit, but out of character, needed to be made. The man they visited was in our records as having visited our church within the last month. The man had never visited…knew nothing about our church. I’m still trying to find out how we got his address. God had a plan. You see, Greg and Gary had the privilege of leading this man to Christ…he rejoiced with his entire family…he wants them to come back to study the Bible with them in his home…and Greg and Gary are picking his entire family up this Sunday morning and bringing them to Sunday School and church. God had a plan!

The Marsh family was followed up on. They told us they had visited seven area churches, and we were the first church to make a personal, follow-up visit to their home! They look forward to visiting one of our adult Bible classes next week! God had a plan!!

God also allowed my soulwinning partner to lead a man to Christ. God allowed me to invite a young lady to church this Sunday…she has grown up in church, but was looking for a new place to attend. God allowed two of our ladies to restore a young mother that was discouraged and had missed church for two weeks. God had a plan. His plan was for my negative spirit to decrease, and for His Holy Spirit’s power to increase.

If you are an Outreach Director or soulwinner, I hope this will be an encouragement to you. The percentages of success in door to door soulwinning is not too high. We must understand, accept, and trust that God has a plan. He always does! His plan includes us decreasing, and allowing Him to increase!!