02.06. Think On These Things

6. THINK ON THESE THINGS

Faith

Faith is a definite asset in giving an invitation. Draw your net with the assurance that God is there. The meeting is His, so expect results. While you are pulling from the pulpit, God is working in the audience. Have faith; we are "workers together with God."

Know Your Crowd

The soul winner should study his audience. Watch faces for signs of conviction. When you see someone under conviction, slip quickly to his side and invite him to come. Just a word from the preacher at such a time has brought thousands into the Kingdom.

Be Honest, Sincere

Be careful never to leave a question or a doubt in anyone’s mind as to your sincerity. You are dealing with immortal souls, and on this dealing may hinge eternal life for someone.

Be on the Alert

Always be on the alert both to the voice of God and to a change in the attitude of your audience. Often in the midst of a hard invitation, a thought will grip you to exhort on some other line, change your proposition, or change your song. Such impulses should be obeyed and you will find they will often change the tide.

Serious Thought

The invitation is a time for serious, positive, deliberate thought. If there was ever a time when a man needs all his wits about him, it is when he is making this all-important decision of where he will spend eternity. Never use anything which might distract his thinking from these lines.

Keep Your Invitation

It is seldom wise to turn the invitation over to another or to grant anyone’s request to speak to the audience. In most cases it will hinder rather than help.

Use the Pastor

As a rule it is not wise for a pastor to take over the invitation unless the evangelist requests him to do so. However, the evangelist can often use the pastor to great advantage. Frequently when I have found myself failing in the invitation I have asked the pastor to make an appeal and seekers were the results. At times I have taken it back and at other times I have let him close it.

Holding On

After a long invitation, yet still feeling we should not quit, I have been able to get a new start and grip on the situation by saying, "This is the last stanza, unless the pastor suggests we sing another." Most pastors will sense the situation and make the suggestion, which will put you in the clear to continue your invitation. The pastor’s suggesting it will make the folk feel better about it.

Move About

There is usually quite a tension immediately following an evangelistic message and it is hard for the unsaved to be the first to make a move. ’This tension can be relieved and the invitation aided greatly if the pastor, or someone in the audience who is vitally interested, will step out in the aisle and move about in the audience.

After several services with such tension and no move, I have privately requested the pastor or some interested layman to do this, and it has helped me in getting a break.