(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'll see you in the next video. The first seminar here is going to be about starting the conversation and I think that starting the conversation is one of the most important subjects because probably the start of the conversation and the end of the conversation are the two most difficult things and they're also two of the most important parts of soul-witting. So when it comes to starting the conversation it starts first of all just when you get to the door and knock on the door. And a lot of the things I'm going to be talking about in the next few minutes have to do with mistakes that I've seen. So I'm not just talking about off-the-wall crazy things. These are things that I've really seen and the good examples I'm going to use are things that have actually happened too. And so over the course the next couple days I'm going to break down everything about how to go soul-witting from first getting there to when you leave. But today right now I'm just covering only just starting the conversation. Just that one thing. But it's an important part of the equation here. So first of all start with a friendly knock. Now I've been with so many people soul-witting that just. And it makes people on edge. It makes people nervous. You've already created tension and anger and frustration before you've even said anything. So you don't want to start off on a bad foot like that by banging on the door. So start out with just a nice normal friendly knock. And when they come to the door greet them with a big smile. Be nice. Be friendly. Be personable. Not only that it's good to say that you're Baptist right away. Because you don't want people to mistake you for being a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon or something else. Even if I just go to the door and people just take one look at me before I've even opened my mouth and they're just like no. And they just go to slam the door. I usually if I can just kind of get in there and just yell I'm Baptist you know just to at least let them know. Because I don't mind people rejecting me but I just want to know what they're rejecting. Because I've had some people go to slam the door and I said from Baptist Church. Those are the words I usually yell out are just from a Baptist Church. And then they'll stop oh yeah come on in you know I thought you were the Mormon. In fact one time I was out soul winning and this car drove by and these guys are yelling at us out the window. I couldn't even understand what they were saying but they were angrily yelling at us out the window. Ten minutes later the car pulls around and says oh man I'm so sorry I thought you guys were Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm a Baptist too. He turned out he was a saved Christian and he was just so angry that he thought that we were out spreading lies or false teachings. So anyway I like to you know start out knock friendly knock big smile be nice and let him know right away who you are. The first thing out of my mouth is you know hi I'm just here to invite you to Faithful Word Baptist Church. Something along those lines just to let them know right away who you are and where you're from. And that leads right into the next thing I want to say which is don't waste people's time. Cut to the chase. I know one thing that irritates me when the Jehovah's false witnesses come to my door is that they beat around the bush. They don't even tell you that they're Jehovah's Witnesses. You have to ask them you know are you a Jehovah's Witness? Oh well yeah you know get out of here. But the point is you don't want to beat around the bush and waste people's time. So you know just let people know it's polite to just let people know right away who you are why you're there. Be friendly. Let them know you're from a Baptist Church. And then you're gonna start to ask the person a couple of questions to figure out where they are spiritually. Now you want to ask questions but what you don't want to do is interrogate people. And I've seen a lot of people treat this almost like an interrogation or that's the way it comes across. So they're not smiling. They're not friendly. And then they just start hammering the person with questions. Now there are some questions that you ask to get things started. The first question that I like to ask is just are you a Christian? So I knock on the door. Hi my name is Steve Anderson. I'm from Faith Forward Baptist Church. I just want to invite you to church. Are you a Christian? The reason I like the question are you a Christian is that a lot of people are going to give you a positive answer. So then right away it's like oh okay great you're a Christian. So that's a little common ground right there with a lot of people. So I just ask them are you a Christian? Or I might ask them do you go to church anywhere? Just to kind of figure out where they are spiritually. Now if the person says no. If I say are you a Christian? They say no I'm not. Well then I don't really need to ask any further questions to figure out whether they're saved. Because if I'm asking are you a Christian? They say no. They're obviously not saved. So here's the way I look at this. The purpose of asking questions is to learn the answer. And that seems pretty obvious but I don't like to ask people questions that I already know the answer to. You know if I ask somebody a question it's because I'm looking for the answer. So if I ask someone are you a Christian? They say no. I'm not gonna say well if you died today do you know for sure you're going to heaven? Because they just said they're not even a Christian. So therefore I already know that they're not saved. So if at any point in this questioning process I know that the person's not saved then I know I need to present them the gospel and that's what I'm gonna roll into at that point. So what I do is I say are you a Christian? If they say no then I say well listen what I'd love to do is just take the Bible and show you from the Bible how you can know for sure that you'll go to heaven when you die. It'll take about ten minutes. Can I just go through that with you real quick? And then hopefully they say yes and I can show them the gospel. Okay if they say yes I'm a Christian then I might ask do you go to church anywhere? They let me know what kind of church they go to. Gives me a little bit of a feel for what kind of a background and then I say to them well more important than church if you were to die today do you know for sure that you're going to heaven? Now if they give me anything less than a for sure yes I know for sure. If they give me anything like I hope so. Here's the thing if they say I hope so that's not knowing for sure or if they say well yeah I think I would I think so that's not a no so. So if there's any doubt of I hope so I think so probably then at that point again I need to present the gospel to this person. So if they give me anything less than a no for sure here's what I say next I say well can I show you from the Bible how you can be a hundred percent for sure? The Bible says we can know for sure. Can I just take a few minutes and show you from the Bible how you could know for sure? Or can I show you where in the Bible it says that we could know for sure? Something along those lines. So anything less than a hundred percent I don't feel the need to ask them well how you know what makes you think you're going or what you know because I want to ask as few questions as possible. You know I want to ask some necessary questions to start the conversation and figure out where they are spiritually but once I realize this person's not saved or this person needs to hear the gospel then I just roll right into it and I ask them first I say you know can I go ahead and show you from the Bible how you can know for sure? Can I just take ten minutes and just run through this with you? Now when I first started out soul-wanting I didn't ask people's permission. When I first started out soul-wanting I just showed up and if they weren't saved I just started giving them the gospel and and I would I wouldn't stop until they stopped me. You know what I mean? I mean I would just I'd get in there and I would just preach to them whether they wanted to hear it or not and until they stopped me I was just gonna keep going and let me tell you why I stopped doing that is because I realize I only have so much time. I only have so much breath. My throat is only gonna last so long. I don't want to waste my breath on somebody who has no interest in hearing what I have to say. So I found that yeah I could cram the gospel down somebody's throat that had zero interest and spend ten minutes preaching to somebody who's just glazed over thinking like what do I have to do to get this guy to stop talking to me? But what's the point when there's somebody else down the street who wants to hear the gospel? So my mentality is I'm looking for somebody who wants to hear what I have to say. I want to preach to somebody who's interested in the gospel so if somebody has no interest I give them that way out by saying is it alright if I show this to you from the Bible? Now I I really want them to say yes and I you know I'll do everything I can to get them to allow me to do that but I'm not gonna cram it down their throat if they don't want to hear it simply because I'd much rather spend my time talking to people that do want here because you'll find if you go out and knock enough doors you will find a lot of people who would love to hear that message. Even in the most unreceptive area you keep going you'll find people that are thrilled to hear that message. So why waste your time on somebody who's not even listening? In fact if I'm giving somebody to the gospel and about halfway through I can tell that they're just kind of looking around and zoning out and not paying attention I'll say to them hey I got about six minutes left on this you know would you like to hear the rest or are you good for now? You know because I want to talk to people that are listening so that's why I asked them if I can show them the gospel. Now let's start over again. Okay I get there. I'm from Faithford Baptist Church. Are you Christian? Yes. You go to church anywhere so-and-so the church. More important than church do you know for sure if you died today you'd go to heaven? Anything less than a hundred percent. What do I do? I want to show them the gospel right? So if it's even if it's I probably would or I'm pretty sure that's not a hundred percent unless they say yes I do. Yes I know for sure I'm going to heaven. Now if they say yes I know for sure I'm going to heaven then I follow it up with well what do you think a person has to do to make it into heaven? Now usually they're gonna give you an answer that's very wrong such as you know live a good life go to church be a good person believe in yourself you know rescue animals you know all the different answers that we've gotten out there of you know what they have to do to go to heaven. So when they tell me the wrong answer right there then I very gently kindly and in a friendly way I say you know a lot of people believe that the Bible actually says something different than that. Can I just show you what the Bible says it'll only take a few minutes only take ten minutes whatever and but I don't just say well that's that's the horrible answer that's you know you you're not even close you're gonna split hell wide open buddy you know because I'm trying to be nice I'm being friendly I just met this person and I don't want to come across too heavy-handed or rude or mean or anything like that and so I I kindly mentioned to them that the Bible says something different than that but usually I'll soften the blow by saying something like well you know a lot of people think that same thing I've you know a lot of people told me the same thing but let me show you what the Bible says and then I roll into that now let's say they give me the right answer what's the right answer believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you know that's what we have to do to make it in heaven it's all by faith right or or Jesus did everything it's his death barrel and resurrection that's why I'm going to heaven it's nothing that I'm doing or I'm earning they'll give you a good answer like that well then if they give me that great answer then the next thing I'll ask the final question is do you believe that there's anything that you could ever do to lose your salvation or do you think it's possible for a person to lose their salvation because you're not gonna believe this but people will sometimes they'll give you the right answer on the boy I just believe just accept Christ as Savior whatever but then when you ask them that next question of is there anything you could ever do to lose it I can't even count how many people then turn around said well yeah you I mean you can't just live however you want you know it's like they just told you that it's just by believing it's just by receiving Christ the Savior but then in the next breath is well you can't just live however you want and what does that reveal that reveals that they're actually not trusting Christ for salvation but that they actually have a works based salvation because they believe that they're continually working to stay saved and whether you have to work to get saved or work to stay saved that's the same thing now when I first started out soul winning you know I was taught the basic soul winning plan that was around before I was born typical just Romans Road soul winning the type of soul winning that my parents did when they were younger the type of soul winning that churches have done for a long time and my method of soul winning is is pretty close to that method but I'll tell you the big difference the one thing I tweaked when I started soul winning was that I added that question about eternal security see everything else I was taught by others of you know asking them where they go to church do you know for sure if you died today you go to heaven how do you know you're going to heaven that type of thing but they never asked that question of can you lose it I'll tell you why I added that question because I just went soul winning so many times and I would run into people that I knew weren't saved Roman Catholics people that are just part of denominations that are very workspace but they'd give me an answer like oh yeah you just have to receive Christ as Savior or accept Jesus into your heart or something like that and they give me that answer and I saw so many soul winners that I would be with just accept that answer oh great then you're saved then yeah that's exactly what we believe but I'm thinking to myself this person's a Roman Catholic or this person's a oneness Pentecostal you know these people they don't believe that that's all you have to do so I found that that other question of can you lose it and that really opened the door to give a lot of people the gospel that a lot of my old soul winning partners would have just pronounced them saved and moved on to the next door when in reality that person was not saved and make no mistake about it we strongly believe that if a person doesn't believe in the eternal security of the believer that person's not saved and you're gonna hear that a lot at this so winning conference because that's a key point and you know I don't want to steal my own thunder or pastor Jimenez's thunder on those points but we strongly believe that so when it comes to starting the conversation that can be a diagnostic question that can help us to realize where people are in error now let's say somebody's not interested let's say I go through my questions with them and I ask them can I show you what the Bible says about how to know for sure you're going to heaven only take 10 minutes or it only take a few minutes you know and if they say no no I'm busy I don't have time that's an answer we're gonna get a lot so just expect to hear that a lot don't worry about it that's normal a lot of people are gonna just not have time and and not be interested have no interest well if they're not interested like that then I still want to leave that person on a positive note here's some wrong things I've seen out soul winning with people is you know oh no I'm not really interested really whatever I mean I've literally I've been so winning with somebody and literally the person said oh no thanks and they just went like they didn't even say bye they just they just go yeah who cares whether your soul goes to heaven or hell who cares right oh no no by all means go back to your video game you know now look we don't want to be rude like that's not going to accomplish anything having that kind of an attitude right even though we might be thinking those things you know I'm cooking dinner right now it's like well really because I don't smell anything oh I'm real busy oh you're busy so that's why you're holding the video game controller in your hand huh because you're so busy right but you know we don't want to be rude so if someone says oh I'm busy no thanks I'm not interested take no for an answer okay but but here's what I like to do in that situation okay because remember I told you in my early days I would just cram the whole gospel down their throat whether they want to hear it or not and when I say early days I'm saying long before I was a pastor okay when I was just first getting out there soul winning like man we got to get people safe and my heart was in the right place but I didn't realize I was burning up a lot of effort and time that would have been better used down the street with somebody who's actually listening okay so if the person is not interested though even though I don't want to spend 10 minutes talking to them when they have no interest what I do want to do is plant a seed you know I'd like to take the opportunity at least plant a seed so what I often do is say can I just leave you with one verse and most people will accept the one verse nine out of ten people will say sure yeah let me just leave you with one quick verse sometimes I don't even phrase that as a question I just say okay well I'm just gonna leave you with one quick verse and I just leave them with that one quick verse because I've already acknowledged though that I'm ready to walk away you know so make sure that they know okay no problem like I don't have time let them know that you're accepting that you're taking no for an answer hey no problem I understand I'm just gonna leave you with one quick verse nine out of ten people are gonna accept that verse and I'll give them a verse now you know depending on what church they go to I might use different verses or just it's really just what I feel like quoting at that moment it might be John 3 16 it might be Roman 6 23 it might be Ephesians 2 8 and 9 it might be 1st John 5 13 but just whatever the verse I quote them that one verse and then I expound that verse to them in a couple of sentences I just give them a little truth from that verse whether it's John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life you probably heard that verse before haven't you it's pretty familiar to most people but notice what it says whosoever believeth it doesn't say whosoever lives a good life whosoever goes to church whosoever does good deeds those are all good things to do but it says who sort of believeth in him should not perish all right God bless you have a great day okay now every once in a while I'll leave them with that one verse and sometimes they'll give me a reaction that they're very interested in what I just told them so life has been no no thanks I'm not interested okay well I'll just leave you with one quick verse I quote them the verse and then they'll give me a reaction like oh wow that's really it I've never even heard that I've never thought about that Wow now if they give me that kind of reaction then I'll press the issue and I'll say hey listen let me just show you a little more you know have you got five minutes have you got ten minutes let me just show because I've then sometimes had those turn into a situation where now they are interested you know because it's sort of like the expression goes the appetite comes with the eating you know my wife came to me a few mornings ago and and she wanted to feed me this big breakfast and I'd already been up at like 4 in the morning and just binged on a bunch of cereal okay so I'd already eat a bunch of cereal at 4 a.m. so she comes at me with this cooked breakfast at 8 a.m. like no no I've already eaten no thanks no I'm not hungry no thanks and then she's just like are you sure you know it was like it was like these poached eggs avocado and crumpets and and bacon so I'm like well you know what I'm just gonna eat that bacon you know I'm too full for the right I'll just do the big but you know what after I ate one piece of bacon and I ate another piece of bacon and then I ate the crumpets with the avocado and the eggs and everything and I ended up eating the entire plate I'm I even went back for a little more what because once you start eating right you get hungry even if you didn't really think you were that hungry and I'm kind of hungry right now just in case you're wondering but anyway the point is that sometimes when you give people that one verse sometimes they'll all of a sudden act excited and wow that's amazing well then at that point I'd say hey sure you don't just have 10 minutes I'd love to show you the rest oh yeah sure and I've had that turn into but if I show them that verse usually you're gonna be at the same place you were before the verse was presented and then you just say hey God bless you have a great day now especially when you're in Phoenix Arizona is this true because we have 200 and some people going soul winning every week we're gonna be back at that door again we'll be back I mean there there are many many areas that we've knocked six seven times receptive areas near our church anything within a 15-20 minute radius of our church we shall meet again so what so I don't want to be rude and burn that person because you know we might be able to let that seed sink in a little bit be watered and then come back another time and water that thing again and so we want to leave on a positive note now let's say I get to the door and the person just right away is sending me strong signals that they have no interest in what I have to say you know sometimes you open the door and just from the moment they see you even after you've said you're Baptist they want nothing to do with you you know what I just I take off I leave like if I open the door and somebody just says I'm not interested I don't say you know well more important than you not being interested do you know for sure if you die today yeah yeah so like if somebody if I just if I just say hey I'm from faith forward Baptist Church and they just say I'm not interested then I say all right have a good day I mean look before the the sentence is even fully out of their mouth I'm already leaving why because I have better things to do I have other doors to knock where people are interested so if I open the door and I don't even get to my question I don't get to anything it's just you know hey from faith for Baptist no no no no no no no no no then I'm just like all right have a good day see you later right why beat your head against the wall when there are plenty of fish in the sea just move on to the next door no big deal so if they say no right away just blow you off then just take off just get out of there they have no interest if you go through your questioning and then you get to the point hey can I show you and they're like well no I don't have time whatever leave them with one verse expound it to them quickly and then head out unless there's an obvious change that now they're interested now another good thing to do besides just leaving them with one verse that I often do especially if it's a young person is I pull out the business card you know like pastor manly Perry was talking about the business card has the video with the Bible way to heaven on it our business cards are a little bit different they're like a YouTube card so young people see it right away and you know they connect with it and it says right on it the Bible way to heaven and here's what I tell them oh you're busy you don't have time well listen here's a video on YouTube that'll explain to you the same thing it's only seven and a half minutes long would you please just take like seven and a half minutes and just watch this video later would you do that yeah sure I'll watch it yeah I'll check it out thanks usually people are really friendly and happy to do that so I tell them about the video and say you know because a lot of people are just shy they're nervous they they're weird about talking to you at the door but they might go watch that video if they have an interest other people are gonna get saved right at the door there are all kinds of people in this world so that's why we have all kinds of hooks in the water we've got the soul winning hook we've got the internet hook because we just want to reach people any way that we possibly can so the card that has the video link is effective don't use it as a substitute for preaching the gospel yourself I don't want to get all the rewards in heaven that's my reward if they watch my video no I'm just kidding I'm joking just kidding but my point is you know you need to open your mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel don't leave all the soul winning to me or anybody else right you get in there and you show them the gospel because you know what there are a lot of people that would never get saved listening to me but they'll listen to you and there are people who would never listen to you but they'll listen to me why because everybody's different and it takes different kinds of people so God can use us all in different ways to reach different people so you know the video a single verse at least that way you're planting a seed now I've only got a couple minutes left but what about in your personal life friends family co-workers and the best thing about that kind of soul winning is that it's really easy to disciple those people because you know them personally so you can actually keep helping that person grow you know a lot of people that I've worked with and I've won to Christ I've been able to then ride in the work truck with them and play preaching popping in CDs of preaching and listening to that or listening to Alexander Scorby reading the Bible with co-workers that I've won to the Lord hey let's learn more about the Bible you know you just got saved and so I've had a lot of great experiences with discipling and mentoring and training people that I won to the Lord that were my relatives or friends family co-workers because you're gonna see those people over and over again so we don't want to only go soul winning door-to-door but we also want to do this in our personal life so when we're talking about starting the conversation that's relevant to our personal lives as well right because we want to be able to start the conversation on that airplane start the conversation in the work truck start the conversation at a family gathering here's a good rule of thumb if you're alone with someone give them the gospel you say I'm waiting for an opportunity if you're alone with someone give them the gospel that's your opportunity now sometimes if you're in a group and there are a lot of people around it can be difficult awkward ineffective when you're alone with someone that is a great time to give them the gospel so how do you start the conversation well the way that you start the conversation is that you just bring up the subject of church and that's not a hard thing to bring up let's say you're getting to know someone you're chatting with someone whether it's on an airplane whether it's on the job whether it's with your friends it's not a strange question just to say hey do you go to church anywhere do you ever go to church I mean that's is that just a crazy question so that's a pretty natural smooth way to bring up the subject of spiritual things is to say do you go to church anyway or are you a Christian right now once you've asked the question are you a Christian or do you go to church anywhere guess what now you're back at the door so here's one of the most important things I learned about soul winning in my personal life do it similar to the way you do it at the door because I remember before I became a door-to-door soul winner I would try to witness to my relatives my co-workers my friends and I never had any success I always failed at it okay and here's why because I would just sort of dialogue with that person and it would just kind of become a discussion or an argument or a chat session and you just kind of get off on rabbit trails and you're just kind of all over the place well when you go door-to-door soul winning you're kind of following a plan you kind of have a program because you're doing it over and over again week after week after week month after month so you get good at it you get in a routine you get a system down that works you get methods that work listen if those methods work use them in your personal life so if you can get to the point of are you a Christian which is a super normal question to ask right do you go to church anywhere then you just say well hey more important than that do you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven and then you're right into your normal pattern of soul winning that you're used to so it's it nothing could be simpler nothing could be easier so one of the biggest tips if I could just give you one tip about soul winning in your personal life is do it similar to the way you do it at the door the more similar it is the more successful you'll be because you're successful at the door you know and I think soul winning door-to-door is much easier than soul winning in your personal life because when it's door-to-door you're thinking like I'm never gonna see these people again so you don't really care if you if you if you make an idiot of yourself but you really don't want to embarrass yourself in front of your friends family and co-workers so you're a little more nervous right the pressure is on door-to-door is the way to learn you want to win your relatives to the Lord you want to win your co-workers the Lord you know what go door-to-door soul winning that's where you're gonna get the tools and the skills and the experience that you can turn around and be an effective soul winner in your personal life that's been my testimony because I failed failed failed failed failed then I got in a soul winning church went door-to-door and then succeeded succeeded succeeded succeeded in my personal life because of the fact that I got the experience out door-to- door and let me just close on this point you must truly love people and the reason I bring this up is because I talked about at the beginning being friendly big smile being nice to people and throughout all the points that I've just given you a theme of it is be nice be friendly be kind be polite but I'll tell you what makes this easy if you actually love people then being nice and friendly and kind and loving and smiling comes naturally because you're being real it's actually coming from the heart okay now if you do not love people if you don't have a warm heart and love in your heart as you do this then it might be a struggle to try to smile and be friendly and people can kind of read you even subconsciously through your body language and the way that you're acting that if you don't like them or if you don't care about them or if you're just being robotic and you're not really interested in them but when you truly love people from your heart that comes across and people will sense that and they'll be much more likely to listen to you you say well how can I love someone that I just met well you know Jesus loved people that he just met because if you remember the rich young ruler it says Jesus beholding him loved him that guy was an idiot he was prideful he was not saved he wasn't gonna get saved he was self-righteous but yet in spite of his sins Jesus loved him Jesus beholding him loved him and you know what when that door opens and you don't know who's gonna be behind that door but when that door opens you've got to love that person you got to want that person to be saved not so that you can get someone saved but so that that person goes to heaven because you love that person and you're there to help them now you say what if it's a horrible reprobate here's the thing you got to give people the benefit of the doubt you know they're innocent until proven guilty you know maybe they maybe it is the most horrible person ever and the worst reprobate spawn of Satan that opens that door sometimes that's gonna happen but you know what you should go into it though assuming that this person is ready to receive the gospel and let them prove you wrong and I don't care if they're covered in tattoos and they have more piercings than if they fell out of a fishing tackle box and if they are all you know goth out and and whatever you know what so what so what you know can't you love people that are different than you and we shouldn't just assume that someone is a horrible reprobate just because they look strange because we're living in some strange days where even people that are normal people even nice people sometimes look like freaks and we got to be able to see past that because a lot you know we don't want to just jump to conclusions now if somebody comes to the door in drag or something it's like all right I'm out of here you know what I mean I'm gonna get out of there as fast I can if some dude is in drag that's not what I'm talking about I'm just talking but but look there are a lot of guys today they're just effeminate and they're not even queer they're just effeminate that's the society we're living in folks welcome to 2018 America and there is so we don't want to just assume the worst and jump to conclusions give people the benefit of the doubt you know and and and go into it with love in your heart for that person and you have to truly care you can't fake it you've got to actually love people and actually care and that's one of the best soul winning tips love people care about people that's gonna make you do a good job be thorough why because you actually care because you actually love that person and you know people can feel it when you love them they can also feel it when you're just going through the motions let's bow our heads and have a brief word of prayer father we thank you so much for the the job that you've given us Lord what a great job to go out and and win people the Lord and Lord you've committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation you've given us that work to do before your second coming Lord help us to be faithful to do it and help us to do it for the right reasons and with love in our heart and with a tear in the eye and help us to learn as much as we can over the next three days so we can become a better soul winner in Jesus name we pray amen you you you you