Great Soul-Winning Churches - Elmer Towns

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growing.” The neighbors object to the fact that within 15 minutes every Sunday morning, over 200 cars come down their road. Early in the church’s ministry, they needed land for expansion, and one morning, arriving at church, found the neighbor had blocked off his driveway so they couldn’t get to their parking lot. The church was using the neighbor’s drive at the time. Powell went to see the man and tried to buy his property. He said no. The people prayed, and 30 days later the man called and sold the house cheaper than Powell originally prepared to offer. The church has also been criticized because it stands against “Key ‘73,” being alienated from others he thought were Christians in the neighborhood. The church has a Bible Institute under the direction of Ken Amsler, dean. There are 66 part-time students on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, Monday and Friday nights. Powell plans to make the institute into a full-time school. Recently, when Dr. Jack Hyles spoke in the church, a visitor bought his book, Satan’s Bid for Your Child. When the visitor took the book to his pastor, that minister criticized Hyles. The man quit and came to Reimer Road Baptist Church. The bus workers were praying for $5,000 for buses. This man gave the $5,000. A couple of months later, Powell went to Southern Ohio and bought six buses for $6,150. When he asked his people to pray for this money, the man once again gave the total amount. The men of the church helped build the new building and, according to Powell, “God sent us Fred Butcher, who was an excavator.” Powell led Butcher to the Lord and later Butcher’s company did all the digging, supplied the steel work and prepared the parking lot for the hardtop. The building that cost the church $160,000 has been appraised by the bank at $300,000. Every morning at 8:00 a.m. a number of men join Powell to pray for the general needs of the church. Especially do they pray for men who have lost their jobs; they hold these men up to God. The church does not have a janitor; the men and women keep it clean and also do the maintenance on the buses. Paul Bunell worked all week; he asked God to help him get off on Saturday so he could work around church. When he was off on Saturday, he told his wife this was God’s day and he would serve Jesus at the church, leaving his chores for during the week. He works from 8:00 to 4:00 doing odd jobs. Mr. Gilbertson, a visitor from West Virginia, was driving in the area when one of the church buses backed into his car. The church’s insurance company would not give Mr. Gilbertson a new door, only pound out the dent, so the deacon board offered to pay the difference. Gilbertson didn’t want the church to bear the extra expense and was so impressed by their testimony that later, when he moved to the area, he joined the church and gives many hours each week serving Christ around the buildings. A man came forward for salvation during a regular service. The people knew him and when Powell introduced him to the congregation, Powell said, “You’ve been a rotten father.”
“Yes, sir.” “You’ve been a rotten husband.” “Yes, sir.” “Will you promise God to serve Him, treat your wife and children properly?” “Yes,” Smith said. The people in the church understand Powell’s straightforward approach in dealing with people. THE FUTURE Next year, Powell plans to start a Christian grade school, beginning with kindergarten and adding as many classes as the need demands. He plans to make the Christian Bible Institute into a Bible College full-time, preparing young men for the ministry. The Akron Bible Institute went out of existence, so Powell feels that, since there is now no place in the area to train young men for the ministry, he should do it. He plans to add a youth director in the near future to minister to his young people. Powell wants to build an auditorium for 1500, turning his present building to a gym to use with his Christian schools. He has announced that by 1974, he will be listed among the 100 largest Sunday Schools in America. He feels the Sunday School will average 1,500, have a high day of over 2,000 and he will baptize 300 next year. Chapter Eighteen Central Baptist Church, Huntington Beach, California Thomas Ray, Pastor “The Church of Boundless Vision. . .Boundless Energy. . .and Boundless Outreach” The Central Baptist Temple of Huntington Beach, California, has no human reason to explain its explosive growth from 97 in Sunday School three years ago to an average of 1335 this fall, with a high day of 3237 on October 8. The church facilities had space for only 500. Four years ago the church’s future was doubtful; before calling Thomas Ray as pastor, a group of the members met to decide if the church should continue or disband. Today, Pastor Thomas Ray sees no reason why the church should not have unlimited outreach. He demonstrated the possibilities when last Easter he distributed 40,000 tickets and over 10,000 came to the city park for one of the largest Easter egg hunts in the city’s history. The congregation expected 2,000 for its annual Roundup Day this fall, yet had the staggering attendance of 3237; according to the report of
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Table of Contents Foreword Great So
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Churches, I tried to include deeper
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Sunday School was held in a room ou
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Monroe confessed that he floundered
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In addition to being large, the Sun
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iblical principles, not to institut
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hurt his ministry. But he did. Huts
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the furniture. There are four other
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The church was averaging 250-300 in
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Beach. Gray chuckled. “Our people
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planted grove of palmetto that says
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Pastor Ware feels the church has gr
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company in town tried to rent three
Page 27 and 28: Worth, where Pastor Fleming studied
Page 29 and 30: 12 buses, paying between $1295 and
Page 31 and 32: For a number of years, Cummons held
Page 33 and 34: churches and have used the Twelve D
Page 35 and 36: working of the Holy Spirit. Wallace
Page 37 and 38: The children are divided into Sunda
Page 39 and 40: Baptist Bible Church, Elkton, Maryl
Page 41 and 42: God dealt with him about his sin. H
Page 43 and 44: Last summer the camp registered 808
Page 45 and 46: ank. Evangelist Talbert Moore let t
Page 47 and 48: school was packed out, they moved t
Page 49 and 50: Gary Coleman grew up in Dallas, Tex
Page 51 and 52: automobile mechanic went forward du
Page 53 and 54: Sunday school superintendent, the s
Page 55 and 56: Soul Winning at Emmanuel Pastor Han
Page 57 and 58: School and church organization. He
Page 59 and 60: After his conversion, when people h
Page 61 and 62: complete preparation for the second
Page 63 and 64: in the newspaper the number of visi
Page 65 and 66: Emmanuel Baptist Church is ministry
Page 67 and 68: forward, but after the impromptu me
Page 69 and 70: won to the Lord a number of hippies
Page 71 and 72: His persistence that has led to the
Page 73 and 74: Pennell had been praying about reac
Page 75 and 76: Another factor that changed Pennell
Page 77: When Powell wanted to build the chu
Page 81 and 82: First Ray met individually with the
Page 83 and 84: On Safari Sunday an elephant was br
Page 85 and 86: II. THE CONVERSION OF BOB KELLEY Bo
Page 87 and 88: When Kelley first came, he took the
Page 89 and 90: Great churches are built by great m
Page 91 and 92: that men are lost—yet the call to
Page 93 and 94: people going into the Lord’s serv
Page 95 and 96: The words of George Mueller are app
Page 97 and 98: delivered me from all my fears” (
Page 99 and 100: average husband. However, he should
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done. They are leery of accepting a
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