Winning Souls, Or Making Disciples?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Mat. 28:19

I wonder if, in our zeal to win souls, we are more focused on saying the sinners prayer with them, and less on winning them over to faith in Christ? We can get people to pray, and we can fill out the convert card. But have they been born again, or just prayed a prayer?

I wonder if getting people filled with the Holy Spirt with the evidence of speaking in tongues is as much to connect them to God as it is to get them to be Pentecostal? Speaking in tongues is the evidence of the infilling with the Holy Spirit. An unmistakable sign. Tongues does not save you, but it identifies you as a true believer in Christ. Without speaking in tongues, something vital is missing.

Water baptism is important. Jesus said it is part of our job to baptize those who have been saved in water. Baptizing people is not a religious ritual, it is a powerful event when the filth of a sinful life is washed away. It identifies us to the church and to our friends and family that I am a real Christian.

If you answered an alter call and got saved, good for you. Some do the same thing and nothing happens. No miracle of God takes place. Discipleship is the process of living out the Christian life in a local church.

"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth," Gal. 3:1