Great Soul-Winning Churches - Elmer Towns

This chapter deals with the spiritual qualities that a pastor needs to build an aggressive
growing church. In my book, The Ten Largest Sunday Schools, I pointed out the principles that
were necessary to build a church. I believe those principles are grounded on Scripture. Some
scoundrels have attempted to follow those principles to build a large church, but their efforts fail
because they have denied the spiritual dynamic, without which a church fails. I wrote a second
book, America’s Fastest Growing Churches. Once again, I described ten churches growing
super-fast according to American standards. At the end of that book, I talked about attitudes and
philosophy. Once again, I realized something was missing. It’s possible for a pastor to have the
right attitude and philosophy and still fail in God’s work. A pastor needs the spiritual power of
God to build a soul-winning church. In this book, Great Soul Winning Churches, I have
described nineteen outstanding churches, each growing in its own way. The pastors are godly
men and one of the reasons for their growth is the spiritual zeal and maturity of these leaders.
These churches are growing because of the pastors’ spirituality.
I do not claim that these men are perfect; and each of them would be the first to confess
to his own lack, each man has his own faults. But like the lonely pine that rises above the forest,
its strength enables it to stand against the storms. So these pastors have grown strong in spiritual
leadership because they have risen above mediocrity.
The following principles are an attempt to characterize the spiritual life of these pastors. I
tried to be as broad as possible, but to fully characterize the spiritual principles necessary to be a
great pastor one would have to be as broad as the New “Testament. If I wanted to keep this
section short, I could have used the command of Jesus Christ, “Follow me” and said they have
done that. This section is written in outline form as a profile on what is needed in the personal
life of a minister.
1. Desire coinciding with God’s will.—Many men desire to build a large church for the
wrong reasons. Some desire a growing church to bolster their ego; others desire to build a great
church for financial security; while some pastors have been conditioned as children to seek
success. They simply attempt to build a large church because their nature demands that they be
successful.
Deep within the heart of a successful pastor is a desire to do God’s will. “Delight thyself
also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Ps. 37:4). A minister must
submit his desires to God so that, through prayer, Scripture reading and fellowship with
Christians, God’s desires become his yearning. The psalmist writes, “Lord, all my desire is
before thee” (Ps. 38:9). Paul expressed that he had “great heaviness and continual sorrow in my
heart” (Rom. 9:2). This desire was bent towards soul winning: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and
prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Rom. 10:1).
A great church begins in the heart of God’s servant, and it begins with a deep wish to
reach lost people for Jesus Christ. The desire to build a great church is more than a passing
fancy; it springs from deep love and compassion. These men have identified with Jesus Christ
their Master who “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and
preaching the gospel. . .But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on
them” (Matt. 9:35,36). Bob Gray, of Trinity Baptist Church, Jacksonville, expressed the words,
“We can’t let people go to Hell.”