Methods of Appeal

1. Allow freedom to choose.
Do not coerce the prospect.
Do not overwhelm him with an improperly motivated appeal.
Present the gospel facts and do it with all earnestness,
but leave the choice with the person.
To go further than this is to take the appeal out of God's hands
and make of it a human instrument.

2. Get a series of decisions leading up to the final big decision.
It is unwise to build up too many convicting points of instruction,
and then at the close, appeal for a decision.
Get the prospect to agree to the various points made in the instructions
as you move toward the conclusion.
If this is done, the final decision will come with more ease.


3. Appeal on the basis of the love of Christ.
After the witness has used Scriptures which pointed up the person's lostness
and his eternal destiny apart from God, appeal on the basis of God's concern and love.
God loves him, though he is a vile sinner and God gave His Son to die
for him on the cross.
Show how the cross is a picture of the love of God.
People will respond to the love of God who would respond in no other way.
Someone said recently, “Fear set me to thinking, but love led me to decide.”

Almost every lost person one one meets is plagued by one of four hindrances,
and in some cases more than one.
People are often possessed with a sense of futility.
They are also frustrated, and many are burdened by feeling of guilt.
Often, people are hostile.
They need the love of God.
They can learn about the love of God only through someone who has received it.
This is one of the most effective appeals.

4. Appeal on the basis of the Messiahship of Jesus.
One must believe that Jesus is the Son of God to be saved.
Salvation is contingent upon one's confidence in Christ as the Son of God.
Jesus came to save sinners (Luke 19:10).
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and believe in thine that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

5. Keep appeals spiritual.
Never let the appeal become emotional or intellectual.
It is a mistake to think that the appeal should strictly intellectual
because one is dealing with an educated person.
Every appeal of the heart has an element of emotions and must be
intellectually executed, but remain thoroughly spiritual.
The spiritual appeal is born of the spirit and is God directed.
The spiritual appeal is based on the nature of God, and is empowered by the Word of God.
The appeal becomes dulled when the flesh is injected.

6. Vary forms of appeal.
The appeal may take the form of a great promise,
“Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest".
(Matthew. 11:28)
Here the Master promised rest from the tossing waves of the troubled life.

To be a Christian brings peace of heart and mind.
It sets one at peace with God and great tranquility supplants stormy fear.
Peaceful progress replaces fruitless frustrations.
Sinners need to know this.
They do not know that salvation affords such blessings for the life on earth.

Sometimes the appeal takes the form of an offer to a fuller life here.
“. . . I am come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
(John 10:10)

Sometimes the appeal comes in the from of a warning, “… For what is a man profited,
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
A warning is not to frighten people, but to alert them to impending danger.
It often marshalls one's best thinking and noblest actions.
A warning Is not a scarecrow to frighten people away from forbidden fruit,
but to mobilize them for destiny.
Let the witness keep this appeal on the intended high level.

The Follow-up
1. Lead the new Christian to unite with the church.
Unless the convert is led to unite with the church, he may easily backslide.

2. Impress upon him the importance of reading the Bible daily and praying.
The Word will keep his faith alive and feed his soul.
Prayer will keep him in close communion with God and give the Holy Spirit
constant access to his life.

3. Urge him to attend worship twice on Sunday and week day prayer meetings of the church.

4. Teach him to tithe and to witness.
No one is in better position to do this than the witness who led him to decide for Christ.

It is imperative that the church promote this.
Unless the church continues to remind the witnesses that it is also their duty to follow through,
many of them may get the mistaken idea their task is finished
when they have led a man to decide for Jesus.