“I would rather win souls than be the greatest king or emperor on earth; I would rather win souls than be the greatest general that ever commanded an army; I would rather win souls than be the greatest poet, or novelist, or literary man who ever walked the earth. My one ambition in life is to win as many as possible. Oh, it is the only thing worth doing, to save souls; and, men and women, we can all do it!” – R. A. Torrey

Tracts are a powerful, practical, and proven tool in winning souls to Christ. Anyone can witness—and anyone can pass out a tract.

Tracts Are Powerful

One of the fathers of communism, Leon Trotsky, once said of their literature, “The most powerful means of propagating communism is the small pocket pamphlet.”

Why do you have so much junk mail every time you open your mailbox? Companies spend millions in printing for one simple reason—it works.

The reformer Martin Luther tore away a third of the Holy Roman Empire from the Pope through the power of the printed word. He declared, “We must throw the writer’s inkpot at the devil!”

Gospel tracts are powerful for one reason—they publish the Word of God (Psalm 68:11; Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:13–14). And nothing is more powerful than the Word of God! By it the world was formed. By it the armies of the antichrist will be defeated. And by it sinners are born again.

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Tracts Are Practical

Tracts fit into real life.

They slip easily into a pocket, a purse, or a glove box. They can be read quietly and privately. They cross language barriers, social barriers, and even time itself. A tract can sit in a drawer, tucked into a book, or lying on a shelf for years—and then, in God’s perfect timing, be read.

They are also remarkably economical. For just pennies, you can place the gospel into someone’s hands.

And think about this—how many people do you come into contact with in a normal day? Gas stations, grocery stores, waiting rooms, doctor’s offices, airplanes, bookstands, even envelopes tucked in with bills. In just a few seconds, during the routine moments of life, you can give someone the truth that can change their eternity.

Tracts Are Proven

History is filled with the quiet, powerful work of a simple tract.

In England, a man named Leigh Richmond once dropped a tract on the pavement and prayed that a wicked man would pick it up, read it, and be saved. The man who picked it up was John Bunyan.

God used a tract titled The Bruised Reed to reach Richard Baxter. Baxter, in turn, wrote works that influenced Philip Doddridge, whose writings were used in the conversion of William Wilberforce—the man God used to help end slavery in England. Wilberforce himself wrote The Dairyman’s Daughter, which was translated into over 50 languages and helped lead Thomas Chalmers to Christ.

Our pastor in Oklahoma City, Dr. Jim Vineyard, was saved after reading a gospel tract someone left in a motel room in Moline, Illinois.

And those are just the stories we know.

There are thousands more that never make it into books. I was reminded of this when a lady called our church to tell me that her brother—whom she had prayed for, for years—received a tract on his door from our church two days in a row. Normally, he would have been irritated. But this time, something was different. He read the tract… then read it again… and eventually bowed his head and trusted Christ.

“Please thank your congregation,” she said.

No one saw it happen. No one took credit. But heaven recorded it.

And how many more stories like that are unfolding quietly, all around us?

A Simple Strategy with Eternal Impact

Where I live in Monroe County, New York, there are approximately 750,000 people. If just 400 believers committed to handing out an average of 5 tracts a day, we could reach the entire county in one year with the gospel. One hundred people could reach the whole county almost twice!

That’s not complicated—that’s just consistent.

So here is a simple challenge:

“By God’s grace, I will hand out ______ number of tracts per week.”

You may never know who reads it.
You may never see the result.

But God will.

And His Word will not return void!