by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
UNORTHODOX WAYS OF WINNING SOULS
The usual way to do soul winning is to knock on a door, introduce one's self courteously, and pleasantly present the plan of salvation. Sometimes, however, God saves people through the use of unusual and unorthodox methods, and oftentimes He even uses what we would call the "crude."
While pastoring in Garland, Texas, I had a group of men who went to the lobby of a fashionable downtown hotel one Christmas Eve night. They tried to witness, but no one would listen; so they all stood up in the lobby and started singing Gospel songs. (Not a one of them could carry a tune in a sack.)
A crowd gathered to hear, and as soon as enough people had stopped, the "singers" each took a person and began witnessing to him. When they lost their crowd, they would sing again. Again and again they repeated this procedure.
When I heard about it, I chuckled under my breath. Was I ever surprised and convicted a few days later when I received a letter from a successful businessman. He had written the following:
"I am a businessman. I had to make a trip to Dallas, Texas, over the Christmas holidays. I begrudged having to make the trip. You can imagine how lonely I was on Christmas Eve having to be away from my family.
"I went to the lobby of my hotel just to be with someone when I saw a motley crowd of fellows singing Gospel songs in the lobby. I was amused but felt drawn to them. Suddenly one of them had a Bible open, showing me the way of salvation. Though I could hardly realize what I was doing, I did receive Christ then and there as my Saviour. It became the greatest Christmas ever..."
On another occasion one of our soul winners was driving by a new shopping center. Many lines were forming where chances for prizes were being given to each person. The prizes were to be awarded at a later drawing.
Suddenly my soul winner grabbed a handful of tracts, took a place next to one of the lines, and started passing out the tracts. The people, thinking that this was another chance game, formed a line and began waiting to get the tracts. The line grew. Someone hollered from the rear of the line, "What's this a chance for?"
The soul winner, who was passing out tracts as fast as he could, shouted back, "This ain't no chance. This is a sure thing! This is a give-away."
"What are you giving away?" The inquirer asked.
"A free home," was the soul winner's answer.
Folks started leaving other lines for this one. They did not know it, but they were receiving an opportunity for a free home in Heaven.
Then there was the fellow who promised the Lord he would talk to every person he saw walking as he drove home from work. He stopped and talked to every pedestrian, and he won hundreds this way.
Then there was the fellow in Hammond who would take a couple of hours each Saturday to drive up and down the highway picking up hitchhikers so he could witness to them.
A member of my church in a former pastorate was won to Christ by a little boy in San Antonio, Texas. My member was a truck driver. Once when he parked his truck in a public place in San Antonio, a little boy ran up to him and said, "Hi, Mister! Are you saved?"
"Naw," replied the unimpressed truck driver.
"You'd better hurry," said the little boy. "Jesus is coming real soon, and you are going to Hell!"
That did it. The truck driver got saved.
Then there was the little girl who was playing church one day. She was the preacher; her dog and cat and little brother formed the audience. She "preached" the Gospel to them, and during the invitation time she fell under conviction and was saved.
She is now a grown woman but still points to that play church as the time of her salvation.
