Converts Down The aisle

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sword

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Did the great preachers of the past have converts down the aisle every week?

In many sermons, preachers spoke of their soul winning experiences and how many people they had seen saved but did they get them to church. Did their converts make public professions of faith and get baptized.
I have read that Bob Gray, for over 30 years as pastor of Longview Baptist Temple, almost always had one or more of his new converts in church each Sunday. No easy feat.

What about the others, was it do as I say, not as I do.

PLEASE COMMENT INDIVIDUALLY IF YOU HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THESE MEN OR OTHERS:

Jack Hyles: First Baptist Hammond
Curtis Hutson: Forrest Hills Baptist Church
John Rawling: Landmark Baptist Temple
Tom Malone: Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac
Harold Sightler: Tabernacle Baptist
Lee Robertson: Highland Park
G.B. Vick: Temple Baptist, Detroit
George W Truett: First Baptist Dallas
W. A. Criswell: First Baptist Dallas
Jerry Falwell: Thomas Road Baptist Church
 
I don't deny that they exist, but except for Jack Hyles, I have never met a convert of any of those men. Throw in Bob Jones Sr., Jr., and the 3rd, and I still haven't met any of their converts. I'm afraid that my beloved hero, John R. Rice, also makes the list. Oral Roberts, Rex Humbard, and R.G. Lee also make the list. I concede that I might have met some without knowing about it.

I have met three people, besides myself, living for God, who were saved through the ministry of Billy Graham.

After leaving Hammond, I have met four people who were saved through the bus ministry of FBCH.
 
sword said:
Did the great preachers of the past have converts down the aisle every week?

In many sermons, preachers spoke of their soul winning experiences and how many people they had seen saved but did they get them to church. Did their converts make public professions of faith and get baptized.
I have read that Bob Gray, for over 30 years as pastor of Longview Baptist Temple, almost always had one or more of his new converts in church each Sunday. No easy feat.

What about the others, was it do as I say, not as I do.

PLEASE COMMENT INDIVIDUALLY IF YOU HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THESE MEN OR OTHERS:

Jack Hyles: First Baptist Hammond
Curtis Hutson: Forrest Hills Baptist Church
John Rawling: Landmark Baptist Temple
Tom Malone: Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac
Harold Sightler: Tabernacle Baptist
Lee Robertson: Highland Park
G.B. Vick: Temple Baptist, Detroit
George W Truett: First Baptist Dallas
W. A. Criswell: First Baptist Dallas
Jerry Falwell: Thomas Road Baptist Church
Click to expand...

I believe Bob is lying, sorry, I just do.
 
sword said:
Did the great preachers of the past have converts down the aisle every week?

In many sermons, preachers spoke of their soul winning experiences and how many people they had seen saved but did they get them to church. Did their converts make public professions of faith and get baptized.
I have read that Bob Gray, for over 30 years as pastor of Longview Baptist Temple, almost always had one or more of his new converts in church each Sunday. No easy feat.

What about the others, was it do as I say, not as I do.

PLEASE COMMENT INDIVIDUALLY IF YOU HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THESE MEN OR OTHERS:

Jack Hyles: First Baptist Hammond
Curtis Hutson: Forrest Hills Baptist Church
John Rawling: Landmark Baptist Temple
Tom Malone: Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac
Harold Sightler: Tabernacle Baptist
Lee Robertson: Highland Park
G.B. Vick: Temple Baptist, Detroit
George W Truett: First Baptist Dallas
W. A. Criswell: First Baptist Dallas
Jerry Falwell: Thomas Road Baptist Church
Click to expand...

Lee Roberson at Highland Park made visits weekly.  My family is the result of such visits.

Nobody in leadership at HAC or FBCH had recent stories of people in church or visits made or souls won.  All of the stories were from when they were young and full of zeal.  The exception would be Johnny Colston who was the visitation pastor and basically lived at the hospitals.

Other IFB leaders boast of their stories, but do not go out on visitation at all.  One fellow in KY even scheduled a family vacation on the day of the church's largest outreach training day.  It makes good preaching, but it isn't done by most of them.
 
Binaca Chugger said:
sword said:
Did the great preachers of the past have converts down the aisle every week?

In many sermons, preachers spoke of their soul winning experiences and how many people they had seen saved but did they get them to church. Did their converts make public professions of faith and get baptized.
I have read that Bob Gray, for over 30 years as pastor of Longview Baptist Temple, almost always had one or more of his new converts in church each Sunday. No easy feat.

What about the others, was it do as I say, not as I do.

PLEASE COMMENT INDIVIDUALLY IF YOU HAVE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE OF THESE MEN OR OTHERS:

Jack Hyles: First Baptist Hammond
Curtis Hutson: Forrest Hills Baptist Church
John Rawling: Landmark Baptist Temple
Tom Malone: Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac
Harold Sightler: Tabernacle Baptist
Lee Robertson: Highland Park
G.B. Vick: Temple Baptist, Detroit
George W Truett: First Baptist Dallas
W. A. Criswell: First Baptist Dallas
Jerry Falwell: Thomas Road Baptist Church
Click to expand...

Lee Roberson at Highland Park made visits weekly.  My family is the result of such visits.

Nobody in leadership at HAC or FBCH had recent stories of people in church or visits made or souls won.  All of the stories were from when they were young and full of zeal.  The exception would be Johnny Colston who was the visitation pastor and basically lived at the hospitals.

Other IFB leaders boast of their stories, but do not go out on visitation at all.  One fellow in KY even scheduled a family vacation on the day of the church's largest outreach training day.  It makes good preaching, but it isn't done by most of them.
Click to expand...

It is refreshing to see Pastor Wilkerson's converts in church on some Sundays.  I find it also interesting that the pastor that our job as soul winners is to prepare the unsaved people for the Day of God's visitation.  It might be the day you speak with them and it may not be.  And yet without the high pressure tactics of a used car salesman, there they are in church and getting baptized.
 
I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of these guys were very faithful witnesses and soul-winners. However, in the ifb world so much is based on illusion and visual perversion. Just because you can persuade someone, or several someones, every week to church and down the aisle does not equate to salvation.
 
BALAAM said:
I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of these guys were very faithful witnesses and soul-winners. However, in the ifb world so much is based on illusion and visual perversion. Just because you can persuade someone, or several someones, every week to church and down the aisle does not equate to salvation.
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I agree completely, but having converts in church at least indicates effort from the soul winner / personal evangelist to invite people to church and encourage them to come.
 
Lee Robertson, G.B. Vick, Jack Hyles & Curtis Hutson each had one of the nations fastest growing churches in their day. Everything I?ve read indicates they personally invited many of the early members of their churches and took an active role in the churches growth. Did their churches get so big that they no longer had time for evangelism or did they just get tired & no longer had the energy they once did? 
 
sword said:
BALAAM said:
I have no doubt in my mind that a lot of these guys were very faithful witnesses and soul-winners. However, in the ifb world so much is based on illusion and visual perversion. Just because you can persuade someone, or several someones, every week to church and down the aisle does not equate to salvation.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, but having converts in church at least indicates effort from the soul winner / personal evangelist to invite people to church and encourage them to come.
Click to expand...

I agree Sword. Years ago in fbch one of our members who is also a friend of mine had a visitor in church on a Sunday night. He was showing him around and I overheard him tell the visitor that we had 10,000 people baptized in the past year. Poor guy looked around and said, "Where are they"?

One of the things that I could never settle in my mind is that the thousands and thousands that were supposedly saved on a weekly basis were nowhere to be seen. I know of people who would claim hundreds on a weekend and never see one of them in church. Always wondered.
 
I assume it is a problem of balance. All soul winning and no discipleship.

The great Commission calls for seeing people saved, getting them to church to be taught & trained then sending them out to repeat the process.

I suspect with so much focus on step one, steps 2 and 3 get neglected.
 
Bob Gray in Texas drove around and picked his converts up so they could be in church. My husband drove with him during a big day once.....
 
sword said:
I assume it is a problem of balance. All soul winning and no discipleship.

The great Commission calls for seeing people saved, getting them to church to be taught & trained then sending them out to repeat the process.

I suspect with so much focus on step one, steps 2 and 3 get neglected.
Click to expand...

I assume many were taught a salesman presentation delivery of the gospel.

Get them saying yes and move right into a prayer. If you ask most people at the end of a presentation of the gospel, if they'd like to pray to receive Jesus 9 out of 10 nobody is gonna say no.  I was taught this way.


I was with a man out one day and he was giving the the gospel to a man in his house. And the way he did it was not like I had ever seen.

As he was giving the gospel he'd explain something, then he'd look at the man and wait, wait for the man to ask another question and he'd turn to another scripture explain and wait look at the man and wait if the man had another question he'd do the same as he'd done before.

The man didn't pray and get saved. After we left the gentleman I was with turned and said, I could've got him to pray but as you could see he was resisting.

I'd never seen anything like it in my life. The Lord taught me a lot that day.

#1. When witnessing you must know much more than the Romans road to effectively give the gospel.

#2. Wait and let them ask questions don't try to control the conversation.
 
Sherryh said:
Bob Gray in Texas drove around and picked his converts up so they could be in church. My husband drove with him during a big day once.....
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Is followup with your converts no longer taught? Is it too much effort to go back & invite them to church? Why do so many churches rarely see their converts get in a church & began to grow as Christians. Is this not how it is suppose to be?
 
Sherryh said:
Bob Gray in Texas drove around and picked his converts up so they could be in church. My husband drove with him during a big day once.....
Click to expand...

I was in the area and visited the church Gray was pastoring.  I got there probably a half and hour before Sunday School started.  About 15 minutes later I saw Gray drive up with a couple he had won to the Lord the day before.  I can only testify of the Sunday I was there.
 
The prayer of Jesus.

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It's a unrealistic expectation of these blowhards to achieve real salvation using man made guidelines.

 
RAIDER said:
Sherryh said:
Bob Gray in Texas drove around and picked his converts up so they could be in church. My husband drove with him during a big day once.....
Click to expand...

I was in the area and visited the church Gray was pastoring.  I got there probably a half and hour before Sunday School started.  About 15 minutes later I saw Gray drive up with a couple he had won to the Lord the day before.  I can only testify of the Sunday I was there.
Click to expand...

No doubt Gray claimed you as a convert.  Did he baptize you too?
 
This is a question for those who attend "soul winning" type churches.

Does your pastor ever have his new converts in church?
Do they come forward & make public professions of faith? Do they get baptized?
Do other soul winners bring their converts to church?

This is what we were taught & trained but is it no longer practiced?
 
I attend a soul winning church.

But this is our prayer every week.

Father, draw men and women to your Son.

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day
 
sword said:
This is a question for those who attend "soul winning" type churches.

Does your pastor ever have his new converts in church?
Do they come forward & make public professions of faith? Do they get baptized?
Do other soul winners bring their converts to church?

This is what we were taught & trained but is it no longer practiced?
Click to expand...

Yes
 
sword said:
This is a question for those who attend "soul winning" type churches.

Does your pastor ever have his new converts in church?
Do they come forward & make public professions of faith? Do they get baptized?
Do other soul winners bring their converts to church?

This is what we were taught & trained but is it no longer practiced?

Sword, the problem is that most "great, soul-winning churches" got most of their people from other churches, and they were already saved. Most of their leadership consists of people who were already saved, attending another church, and wanting to do something with their lives. FBCH is a notable exception, but most "great soul-winning churches" are in the Bible Belt.
Click to expand...
 
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