During the time I spent in youth church during my teen years, one specific topic kept coming up. Something that everyone in the church should be familiar with by now. It is, after all, one of the most important precedents of our faith.
Soul-winning. Everybody knows about it. Everybody knows it is important. But how many young Christians take part in this?
Young Christians are encouraged by their pastors to go out and share the good news of the Lord. They are encouraged to help those who are lost and need a guiding hand to find the light. Some people do not care to hear about our faith, but still need to know. They need to know about the Savior of this world and that Him and only Him can give them eternal life.
There is a world out there that is dying spiritually that needs the gospel.
How can we change the world? How can our generation affect the course that our lives are heading down? What can we do to make an impact?
In the Bible, we can find many examples of those that caused a great change. Esther was able to save her people from genocide. Jonah preached one sentence, however begrudgingly, to the wicked city of Nineveh, and the Ninevites repented. Moses performed miracles and was able to help the Israelites escape captive from Egypt.
Many great people have caused great change in the last few hundred years. Throughout our lives, we hear about these great preachers. The spiritual revivals during the 1700s that were known as the Great Awakening were greatly affected by the preaching of George Whitefield. Jonathan Edwards also had a huge impact during this time, especially with his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
In the 1780s, Robert Raikes started the Sunday school movement, and Sunday school is now a fundamental part of many churches today. During the late 1800s, D. L. Moody preached at revivals around America and Britain with the help of his song leader Ira Sankey, and he started the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Billy Sunday was a baseball player turned evangelist who was active from 1896 to 1935 and preached about 20,000 sermons.
When looking at all the great people in the Bible and throughout history, and all they were able to accomplish and change, it can be hard to think that we can do something so profound in the world today. It can be kind of hard to imagine doing great things for the faith when comparing yourself to prophets who could perform miracles and disciples who walked by Jesus’ side... but we are forgetting an important thing. A change doesn’t have to be huge to be great. Those national revival changes were able to happen because they reached the individual. It affected the individual, and that is who we need to reach.
Some will grow up and be missionaries to foreign lands, traveling pastors around the States, and preachers within their church. But we do not need to be the next grand evangelist that turns people to the altar every time they preach. No matter what path the Lord leads you down, there are always ways to reach individuals with the gospel.
Go to people’s houses and ask them if they have a church. If not, invite them to yours. Hand out gospel tracts, if your church has them, to people you meet. You can also ask new friends about their beliefs. People might have their lives eternally changed if someone simply invites them to church.
If someone has never been to church or heard of Jesus, how will they become curious and learn more about it?
Yes, it might seem scary to talk to random people that you have no idea who they are and how they will react to you or your faith. You might not want to create an uncomfortable atmosphere around friends, but none of that matters in the grand scheme of life or death. Saving lives should be more important than avoiding awkward situations.
An individual’s life can be greatly changed when we reach out, and they in turn can cause a great change in others.
Maybe you’re still in high school. Maybe this is your first year in college. Maybe you just got your Bachelor’s and are ready to go out there into the world. No matter where you are in life, you can still affect a great change in others if you just reach out.
