Session 6—The Theology of Soul Winning: The Church Is Mission

Synopsis

Before training members in methods, the Personal Ministries leader must be grounded in the theology that makes witnessing not optional but essential to the church's identity. The church, as the body of Christ, shares Christ's own purpose: He came to seek and save the lost, and His Great Commission—'go and make disciples of all nations'—is given to the whole church, not a select few. A recovered biblical concept is vital here: the unbiblical division between 'clergy' who are spiritually strong and 'laity' who are spiritually ordinary traces to medieval church hierarchy, not Scripture. The Greek laos simply means 'people'—God's people as a whole—while kleros, the root of 'clergy,' refers to the shared inheritance of all believers, not a separate spiritual class. Because every Christian is gifted by the Spirit for ministry, all believers are ministers, with pastors and teachers given specifically to equip the saints for the work of ministry, not to perform it in their place. Nine motivating factors reinforce this, including that witnessing builds Christlike character, that the church functions as one body needing every part, and that the finishing of the gospel is tied to Christ's soon return. This theology transforms outreach from a burden imposed on a few into the shared calling of the whole priesthood of believers.