Do gospel tracts actually work? (Full Version)

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merelynapping -> Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/20/2008 11:15:44 PM)

I'm just wondering. Has anybody here recieved Christ because they read a tract? or does anybody know someone who has? I know it probably is not the most effective way to share the gospel but does the Lord use them?



funny_girl -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/21/2008 12:12:47 AM)

I personally didn't but if the time is right, it can plant a seed. I'm sure there are people that have. What works for one may not work for another.



Ignited-Faith -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/21/2008 8:21:49 AM)

I have met a few people who were saved through reading a Tract!
Years ago I went to hear William Schnoebelen speak and he gave his testimony! He was raised Catholic, then got into other things, amoung them Satinism. (His testimony will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!) He was friends with Witches etc. One day two of his witch friends were over his house... There was a knock at the door. It was a couple of Christian Ladies. They offered him a track they said he could read it later. He took it, and he and the witches drew mustaches etc. on the faces on the track and mocked it... About two years later, he was contemplating Suecide. He remembered the track, found it in a drawer, read it, and cried out and received the truth about Jesus!!! He is now a Christian, spreading the Light of the Gospel of Christ, to those in a dark world! (After hearing his Testimony, I got on fire to spread Tracks!)

Another Testimony I know of:
A woman at my church gave a Testimony of how she was given a track one day. She shoved it in the visor of her car... One day she was so depressed, she took a Very Fast drive in her car hoping to crash.
She heard a voice tell her to drive her car into the Lake. She started to excellarate towards the Lake, when suddenly, something fell onto her lap and startled her! She slamed on the break, and saw it was the Tract.
She read it, and gave her heart to Christ!!!



DaveW -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/21/2008 9:24:59 AM)

I have met a couple, but that is out of thousands of believers I have met over the last 45 years. Not too good a percentage.



catlady11 -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/21/2008 9:33:19 AM)

Absolutely! My Mom was getting getting radiation treatment and there was a tract in the waiting room. It was about John 3:16. I remember thinking it sounded great but too bad I'm Jewish - the promise of eternal life is not for me. I was raised by non-religious Jewish parents and was brain washed to believe that because we are Jewish we are to have NOTHING to do with Jesus. When I told another Christian about John 3:16 he told me it's for ALL people. That's when I received Christ.



merelynapping -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/21/2008 1:59:33 PM)

Hey, thanks people.
That's what I wanted to know. I don't care about the percentages.



Szaftoo -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 9:31:57 AM)

Tracts were very big when I was a teenager. Most of the time people wanted to know what they were which gave us an opportunity to witness before they even read them. In today's world, people tend to not be interested, however, if even one seed were planted, it would have been worth it.



jbow -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 10:46:16 AM)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2168020971058383388

J



countrygal7008 -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 10:54:33 AM)

The Lord will/can use anything where His name is being declared, even by a non-Christian. Tracts, statistically, have been proven to not have a high rate, especially when used instead of face-to-face witnessing. Personally, I would question how they can put statistics on salvation??

My personal preference is lifestyle witnessing, which I am very actively doing. But I know many don't agree with this, either.

Whatever you feel led to do, go for it! If you feel led of God, then He will use it.

I, too, know of at least one person who was saved as a direct result of a tract. I also know of at least one person who was saved as a direct result of street witnessing. Another statistically not highly acclaimed way to witness. As I said, if it is of God, He will use whatever means He has asked.



colliefan -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 12:11:39 PM)

God will work in the manner He chooses. Some may be drawn to Christ by the message in the tract, some may be pushed away from Christ by the manner the tract was thrust upon them.

The key thing is the message. St. Fransis of Assisi said that we are to preach the gospel always and when neccessary to use words.



sunshine4God -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 12:28:36 PM)

I think they might work but I have a suspicion most people just toss them.
Real relationships work better and witnessing face to face I believe.



turtlesforever -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 2:36:43 PM)

The missionaries that we worked with down in Mexico, one of the national pastor's family came to the church as the result of a tract. The missionaries came trhough his village, and passed out tracts to the kids standing around. After the missionaries, and the kids left the are, the pastor's mom walked through and found a tract, and called up the church. That has been over 20 years ago now, and both families are strong in the church.



JimboFletch -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 2:48:41 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sunshine4God

I think they might work but I have a suspicion most people just toss them.
Real relationships work better and witnessing face to face I believe.

I agree. And it's the only way Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church won converts.



Ephesians4_32 -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 2:58:25 PM)

I definitely believe that tracts work! Why? Because the written word of God is as powerful as the spoken word. When I was LDS, Christians avoided me like I had the plague. I joined a Christian book club knowing that I would receive nice clean literature. I knew the LDS church would prefer that I read only their literature, but I believed that the real issue was whether or not the literature was "clean." Okay, I had not been through the temple ceremony, sinced changed, that portrayed ministers as hirelings of Satan. In 1972, I read Corrie ten Boom's The Hiding Place. I cried and cried and was convinced that she was as good a Christian as any Mormon I'd ever met. Over the years, I continued to subscribe to Christian literature. Today I am a Christian (not because of a close relationship to any Christian).



tapestry -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 6:09:12 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: merelynapping

I'm just wondering. Has anybody here received Christ because they read a tract? or does anybody know someone who has? I know it probably is not the most effective way to share the gospel but does the Lord use them?

They must be doing some good, the Mormons and JW's are beginning to use them now, and they do not imitate something unless it is working for the Christians.
I personally, feel that anything that helps promote the gospel and get people thinking about the things of God is good.



Roberta_ -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 6:15:17 PM)

I suppose they could work, but I've never met anyone who was saved based on info from a tract.



dejavuallovragain -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 7:06:30 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ignited-Faith

I have met a few people who were saved through reading a Tract!
Years ago I went to hear William Schnoebelen speak and he gave his testimony! He was raised Catholic, then got into other things, among them Satanism. (His testimony will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up!) He was friends with Witches etc. One day two of his witch friends were over his house... There was a knock at the door. It was a couple of Christian Ladies. They offered him a track they said he could read it later. He took it, and he and the witches drew mustaches etc. on the faces on the track and mocked it... About two years later, he was contemplating Suicide. He remembered the track, found it in a drawer, read it, and cried out and received the truth about Jesus!!! He is now a Christian, spreading the Light of the Gospel of Christ, to those in a dark world! (After hearing his Testimony, I got on fire to spread Tracks!)

Another Testimony I know of:
A woman at my church gave a Testimony of how she was given a track one day. She shoved it in the visor of her car... One day she was so depressed, she took a Very Fast drive in her car hoping to crash.
She heard a voice tell her to drive her car into the Lake. She started to accelerate towards the Lake, when suddenly, something fell onto her lap and startled her! She slammed on the break, and saw it was the Tract.
She read it, and gave her heart to Christ!!!



The sad thing about this post is that Schnoeblins testimony has been proven to be a lie. Most tract I have seen are not theologically sound so I shy away from them.



RJR_fan -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 7:59:33 PM)

quote:

Most tracts I have seen are not theologically sound so I shy away from them.


I went through a whole rack of tracts at a local evangelical church. All were variations of the "four spiritual laws" theme, none had any appeal in terms of the concerns of real live people today -- and not a one had a word to say about the Kingdom -- and its King. The gospel, the brazen, blaring, heralding of the King's reign, was emasculated, truncated, neutered. Jesus demoted to a salvation appliance, that could be controlled by following the prescribed ritual. What ever happened to the living, reigning, Monarch with an ongoing agenda for the whole world, that the whole Bible testifies to? How many people follow a "Romans Road to nowhere?"

35 years ago, I frequently used tracts as conversation starters and had some evangelistic success. We live in a different world, today. Attempts to buttonhole people and "convert" them generate resentment in a media-savvy generation that is immersed in sales pitches.



colliefan -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 8:40:03 PM)

quote:

Attempts to buttonhole people and "convert" them generate resentment in a media-savvy generation that is immersed in sales pitches.


Some years ago I worked with a local ministry at the NC State Fair. I always tried to initiate a dialog instead of doing a sales pitch. I got in trouble b/c I failed to close the deal and get people to pray the "sinners prayer."



Ignited-Faith -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 9:34:15 PM)

Dejavuallovragain,
Would you please share where you head that "Schnoeblins testimony has been proven to be a lie.?" (I heard him give it personally, and I never heard that it was not true.) Thank you!



bluestone -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 9:49:39 PM)

I have found that most people get irritated by them. Or laugh at them. I don't use them at all anymore.

I think chic tracts are just plain offensive.

In this day and age, it is a very low tech tool that, IMO, makes Christians look backwards. Just opinion, however.



sunshine4God -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 10:03:56 PM)

[

I think they might work but I have a suspicion most people just toss them.
Real relationships work better and witnessing face to face I believe.
[/quote]
I agree. And it's the only way Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church won converts.
[/quote]

Amen!



RJR_fan -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 11:06:00 PM)

quote:

Some years ago I worked with a local ministry at the NC State Fair.


My little girls got button-holed by a "child evangelism" worker at that fair a few years ago. I bore the experience with resigned good humor, but was thoroughly unimpressed with the attempt to do an end-run around the daddy God had given them!



RJR_fan -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/22/2008 11:10:56 PM)

quote:

Real relationships work better and witnessing face to face I believe.


Family to family evangelism is a practice worth practicing. People from Muslim cultures, for example, cherish family relations, and enjoy seeing parents and children enjoying one another. And kids profit from being able to put a face to prayer requests. Let's face it, most families are miserably aware that they've lost control over their interfaces to the outside world. An evangelist who respects, honors, and supports the unbeliever's family, by dealing with the whole family in a godly way, is a breath of fresh air in a mercenary milieu.

When you visit your Muslim friends, greet the husband first, for example.



valiant007 -> RE: Do gospel tracts actually work? (4/23/2008 8:26:14 AM)

They never worked for me.

But I do have this story of a young lad out in the Middle East. He picked up one half of a torn tract and went in search of the other half. He eventually found it, put the two halvs together and became a believer in Jesus.

Divine guidance. Praise the Lord

[:)][:)]

Blessings always in Jesus

David



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