Okay Let's try this Again How many use Gospel tracts?

Right, but they're sending them to an individual who opens his mail by hand.

If you want to do that, then that's up to you but what kind of "witness" is it to get somebody in trouble with their bosses?

Ernie, at the bank where I worked, we recieved nearly 1,000,000 pieces of mail per shift. There is no way to do it by hand.

Also, with such a large volume of mail, there's no practical way to inspect each individual piece by hand.

Besides, you're assuming that people read the tracts. Where I worked, I had about twenty people under me and nobody read them. They just cursed the people who sent them for making more work for them and threw the tracts away.

It just doesn't make much sense to say, "I'm going to make more work for you, get you in trouble with your boss and possibly jeopardize your performance bonus. Now, let me tell you about Jesus."

It is really that much to ask to be considerate of other people Ernie? Of course, having read many of your posts, I know you'd go ahead and do what you want regardless of thise around you, anyway.

Mike

http://www.keylife.org

 

Some Tracts are good and others are bad. Personaly I like scripture tracts such as The Great News: Gospel of John (NIV) that you can buy in bulk from the American Bible Society. I would avoid Chick Tracts or tracts with a poor presentation of the Gospel. In giving out the Gospel of John you are giving out the Gospel and not somebody's interpretation of it. It should be pointed out that the 4 Gospels many believe were the first tracts passed alone to others and put on town bullentins.

Most people may not read them but for every 99 that doesn't there is that 1 that will. It is a simple way to witness every day.

 

We use them in our FAITH ministry. However, they are not the ones that go with FAITH, rather ones that our church has printed.

I should use them more with tips and such!! But I better make sure I don't stiff the waiter and then give him/her a gospel track !

cbc ><>

 

Warm Christian greetings!

As an evangelist with the Open Air Mission in England (by the way, we beat Argentina to-day in the World Cup, lovely, lovely) I have read literally thousands of different tracts to assess their usefulness (or otherwise!).

There are a lot of tracts I simply would not use because they are soppy or sentimental. But, a well written tract, using plenty of scripture is worth using because it is sowing seed. The tracts I use from the Open Air Mission have a coupon at the back to enable the reader to fill his/her name and address in and send to the mission office. They then receive a Gospel of John and various other booklets. Each year about 1,000 people from all over the UK and abroad do this. When one considers that OAM is a small mission this is very encouraging.

So my short(!) answer is Yes, use them and use them liberally.

Kind regards,

Robert J Hutton

 

I've got to agree with Mike. What kind of witness is it to the people at Walmart or at the Library who have to pick these things up when they fall out of the toilet paper roll, shoot out the blow dryer (tell me I was having a bad dream when I read that)or need to be cleaned out of the library books? Ask the folks at the library or at Walmart for permission to do that in their facilities. If they say yes, roll them up in the toilet paper and shoot them out the blow-dryers all you want. What kind of testimony do you leave for Christ and your church if doing so without permission and causing someone else to clean up what they consider as litter.

This may hurt feelings, but for many people tracts are nothing but a cop out. Rather than engage people where they are about the beautiful grace of God toward us sinners, we try to sooth our consciences with an impersonal tract in a roll of toilet paper!

Not against those who use them, if used in appropriate situations and if clearly communicating the wonderful grace of God toward spiritually dead sinners.

Steve

 

Warm Christian greetings!

I gather that some folk are against leaving tracts lying around in public places, or putting them in books etc.

You may be interested to know that in England a lady was recently released from prison after spending 18 years there for murder. A documentary was made which was broadcast on national TV. In this she spoke of how she had been converted and that God had taken all the hate out of her life. How did she hear the Gospel? While in prison she was clearing out a cupboard and found an Open Air Mission tract (how it got there, no-one knows). She filled in the coupon on the back and sent it to their office in London. Upon reading the material sent to her she was converted. This was about six years before her eventual release and she has maintaned a faithfuly testimony ever since.

I fully accept that tracts should not take the place of personal 1 to 1 witness but they are a powerful tool in God's hands for the salvation of souls. Indeed, a man in our church (who has been a faithful Christian for over 30 years) was first put on the road to salvation through reading a Billy Graham tract left lying around on the ship that he was serving on while in the merchant navy.

The full truth of the good done through tracts will only be realised when we reach glory. In the meantime don't be put off by other people's negative comments - carry on carrying on!

Kind regards,

Robert J Hutton

 

when I worked at McDonalds we would sneak tracts in between the buns of cheeseburgers. We reached millions of people a day that way. Also sometimes we would roll them up real small and stick them into the straws of milkshakes. What was great was sometimes someone drinking their shake would start laughing!! and the tract and milkshake would come shooting out of their noses!!
Yeah, witnessing can be a hoot sometimes.

anyway, let me get this straight, not only have we become so unable to witness face to face, we now resort to hiding tracts in TOILET PAPER ROLLS!! (maybe Chick Tract has one where the priest peels his face off at the end and is actually a demonic hemorrhoid??)

In Acts, after being whipped by the temple guards, the disciples prayed for boldness not an easy way out. Maybe that is what many of us should be praying for today, boldness, instead of a new way to sneak tracts to people.

paul

 

I agree. I don't really know what the point of putting a Chick tract in a roll of toilet paper was (although I do find it oddly appropriate - but do take the staple out first).

I'm not against tracts in principle, but I think it really says something about us and our ability to engage the culture that we have to rely on them to the point we do.

I don't use tracts for a couple of reasons. The biggest being that there's just no substitute for bulding relationships.

Mike

 

Does my slickness in hiding tracts in books, pants pockets, and toilet tissue cause someone to be saved or start down the "path toward salvation?" Or does my God draw and save people regardless or in spite of my questionable methodology? I get the feeling the old argument of the ends justifies the means is being applied by some. You can use that argument to justify any practice or wrongdoing. Some on this thread would go nuts if I promoted smoking marijuana with my friends as a way to reach them for Christ (I don’t, by the way). I’m sure I could find a salvation story of this about as soon as you could of someone being saved by a flying projectile from a blow dryer. Would my ends justify my means? Not on your life.

Nothing wrong with handing a written presentation of the gospel to someone. It is the methodology of some that some of us are down on.

Carry on by all means in legally and ethically passing out your written presentations of the gospel, but please do me a favor and keep your fingers off the tissue paper I may need to use someday at WalMart. As Mike mentioned earlier, you should take a minute and think about how others will react to some of your questionable methods.

Steve

 

I use such tracts as The Gospel of Jesus Christ to the World, put out by The Little Red Book people. We distribute Christmas theme tracts during the holidays. We include tracts with all our literature distribution, such as giving out John/Romans door to door. Quaility and content are very important.

I like to put a tract in every business reply envelope I receive in my "junk mail". Tracts were instrumental in my starting to think about spiritual things. I mocked the gospel before I believed it. So what if the unsaved are still mocking it, there's still hope for them.

God doesn't have a secret service. If you're not witnessing or doing something to get the word out, it makes me wonder what kind of salvation you've got. Quit making excuses and obey our Lord's commands. Go ye... What's so hard to understand about that?

 

Hi Josh

Wouldn't you say that most non-Christians think most of what we do is laughable ?

 

If enough people put tracts in junk mail reply envelopes, maybe we'd stop getting junk mail.

 

Also, I have passed out Spanish, & Cambodian language tracts in our city. Seeins' how I only speak English...

I don't use Chick Tracts, not because I don't agree with them, but because they are usually too long, and they tend to put people off. I like the Fellowship Tract League. Short & to the point.

http://www.fellowshiptractleague.org/

Believe it or not, sometimes people don't want to hear about Jesus. So I give them a tract & ask that they read it when they get time. I also give them to toll booth operators, mailmen, I have given them to prostitutes, gone door to door with them, leave them at ATM machines, you never know how they will be used. If you have your Church's address & phone # on the back of them, maybe somebody will call & ask questions.

 

Warm Christian greetings!

You may be interested in a group called Grace and Truth who publish some outstanding tracts in the NKJV. Their web site is:

http://www.gtpress.org

Kind regards

Robert J Hutton