Many years ago, at the Delmarva Family Camp, I heard one of the best sermons I have ever heard on soul winning. Brother Mel Harell preached that message. His outline was brief and to the point, yet it spoke volumes to those who were there. It is with his permission that I reproduce his outline for you, with a few thoughts of my own.

The Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the birth of the United States of America has offered this column an opportunity to examine the influences of Christianity upon this nation. Our previous three articles have considered how the Age of Exploration introduced the Christian worldview to America, how the revivals and leadership of the Great Awakening both strengthened and expanded Christianity’s influence within Britain’s American colonies and laid the foundations for the American struggle for independence, and how the establishment of the new nation was both inspired and guided by Christian ideals and principles without establishing the new country as a theocratic Christian empire.

One of the most vivid word pictures in the New Testament describes the church as the body of Christ. This is where physiology meets theology. The connection and coordination of the head to the body are essential for the proper functioning of the physical body. In spiritual terms, the connection and coordination between Christ and all the different types of people who comprise His body is necessary to carry out God’s mission for the church.