Samer

That sounds absolutely wicked. They don't follow through because they're not saved. They're not saved because they haven't truly been convicted of sin. Galatians 3:24.

[quote="DQ"]
Our church in NJ used the Phoster Club for ladies and the Fisherman's club for men. It is basically a program to train people how to lead someone to Christ. It requires that they memorize a set script and stick to it verbatim. When someone gets saved, they log that into their notebooks. Then they work on getting the saved person to church and baptized. The clubs are also built on rewards. With a certain amount of souls saved(50)in your log book you get a pin. I forget some of the other rewards as you progress.

It is a pretty good program but it has its pros and cons. It does come in Spanish too if you live around a lot of Latinos.
The pastor's wife used to make us recite that script no matter what. We were not allowed to say anything in our own words. Many times she would stick her foot in the door making them listen to her presentation when the person at the door wasn't interested. She said to me that our job is to tell them the gospel whether or not they want to listen. I don't know if that how they do it in Hammond, but I am a bible college graduate and I didn't really need a script to read off of. I prefer to listen to the Holy Spirit and tailor my soulwinning to the person at the door.
It is good for someone or a group who has never done any soulwinning and is scared to death. It does deal heavily with the fear factor.

Rewards are fine, but sometimes it can get out of hand. When the ladies got more confident and started winning people, we would fight over who got the next door because one more soul meant getting the next reward.

As far as effectiveness goes, I am not sure. we all won many souls that year, but none of us ever got them to come to church, get baptized or discipled. Not one. Sometimes I felt that our fast food approach wasn't getting through to them, and that they would pray whether or not they wanted to just to get rid of us. Only God knows. So, it will be interesting to see what your results are with the club.
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I had a look at this when it was first announced, and found a very helpful site listing the differences in the NIV 2011, for anyone to search.
http://www.biblewebapp.com/niv2011-changes/#039-002


A few changes stood out to me as being exceptionally bad. One of them was in Malachi.

Malachi 2:15,16, Authorized Version:
(15) And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
(16) For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

Malachi 2:15,16, NIV 2011:
(15)
Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.[d] So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
(16) “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”[e] says the LORD Almighty.

Look at the multitude of changes there!

When did God make one?

Genesis 5:1-2
(1) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
(2) Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

God created man. God created them--Adam and Eve--but gave them one name--Adam. Adam and Eve were created as one, in unity, in God's image--in the image of a triune God--as Elohim Jehovah--having a plurality of persons in one united essence. Remember, Eve's name was not given until after the fall. Before, Adam and Eve were called by their name Adam.

And that word "one"--"did not he make one?"--is the Hebrew word "echad," indicating a unity.

Ok, so the NIV 2011 completely gets rid of any idea of "Did not He make one?". Sorry Adam and Eve, and sorry united husband/wife couples.

God had the residue of the Spirit. Meaning, after He made Adam and Eve one--after He breathed the breath of life and made them a living soul, He had "plenty more Spirit where that came from." God had plenty of breath left to breathe, and could have created many more wives for Adam--but He only created one, so they could be a unity.

Ok, so sorry Holy Spirit, and sorry again Adam and Eve, but the NIV translators did not understand the phrase "residue of the Spirit," so they decided to change the literal translation and just make something up that fit their idea of what the verse should say.

And why did God only make one unity--one Adam and Eve--why do man and woman come together as one? That He might seek a godly seed.
Wow, such an important phrase.
One, God wants a man and woman to be united as husband and wife, loving each other, and before God as one, because that is the ideal way to raise children up to love God. I think society has proven this out--a huge proportion of people in jail grew up without a father. Every child needs a father and mother who love each other!
And two, God wanted one Adam and one Eve that He might seek a godly seed, which is Christ. Jesus is the godly "seed of the woman" that God had been seeking and preparing for all through Old Testament history. There was one Adam and Eve, and there could only be one Messiah, because He had to be the perfect God Himself come down in flesh to save us.

The question is "Why did God make a unity?" The answer is that He might seek a godly seed. The NIV 2011 gets rid of the question altogether, and splits the answer, making the first half the question, and the second half the answer. So sorry fatherless children, now we no longer know how important it is to children to have united husbands and wives. And along with that goes a possible reference to Jesus Christ, referred to in Genesis 3:15 as the seed of the woman.

The Authorized Version tells us "take heed to your spirit." The NIV 2011 replaces this with "be on guard." What's missing is, not only should we be on guard (or take heed) against outside influences against our marriage and family, but we should also (and especially!) be on guard against influences from within our own hearts. If I keep my heart right with God, and my thought life pure, God will give me the strength to do right, even if corrupt influences sneak in through no fault of my own. If I am careless, and take no heed to my own spirit, then I can destroy my family from the inside, without any help from the devil.

Mark 7:21-23
(21) For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
(22) Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
(23) All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

The NIV 2011 removes the caution to take heed to your own self. But 1 Corinthians 10:12 says "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall"!

And of course the NIV is right that we shouldn't be unfaithful to our wives, but I like the stronger language of the Authorized Version, which commands us to "deal not treacherously." Today we might call it a little fling, or an affair, or unfaithfulness. Let's call it what it is--treachery! That's not to say God can't forgive it, but it is a much greater sin than society makes it out to be. The homosexuals don't need to destroy the institution of marriage, because we heterosexuals and professing Christians have already made it a laughingstock. Marriage, adultery, divorce, remarriage, rinse and repeat... But God calls it treachery, and Jesus forbids it in Matthew 19:9.

So interestingly enough, in Malachi 2:16, God no longer hates putting away! Now, the man who hates and divorces his wife does a disservice (violence) to the one he should protect. That leads me to wonder, is divorce and remarriage ok as the divorced couple doesn't hate each other? (Or on the other hand, is it ok to hate your wife as long as you don't divorce her?) It's strange how they pair hate and divorce together as being a problem, when the truth is, when a couple has come together before God and men, and made a lifelong vow to God and each other, to love each other for richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, etc., etc., till death do they part, and then divorce after 72 days because of "irreconcilable differences"--God hates that. And I'm sorry, because it affects a lot of people, and it has affected people in my own family, and it saddens me, and it's a very sensitive topic; but God hates it. And when God says He hates something (and from what I've read, the Authorized Version translated this fairly literaly from the Hebrew, and most other translations agree), let's not water it down to appease a crowd (which is exactly what I think the NIV is doing here).

The NIV 2011 is just bad news. In these two verses, they have managed to completely destroy the biblical doctrine of a strong, united marriage, and in so doing, have attacked a few other important doctrines as collateral damage. Amazingly, the NIV 2011 is somehow even worse than the NIV 1984 and the 2005 TNIV. All in the name of progress!