Our Job: Preaching
March 7, 2011
Dear Friends,
We asked the question, “from God’s perspective, what is our job here on earth?” Our answer was that our job is to get as many people into the Kingdom of God as possible. We suggested that this takes many forms, the first of which is preaching.
It bears mentioning that when I say it is our job to get people into the Kingdom, it is in the same sense that we would say it is a farmer’s job to grow a crop. The farmer goes into the field and tills the ground. The farmer plants a seed. He tends to the field to give the seed the best possible chance of growing and producing fruit. Yet, as we are told in 1 Cor. 5:6, God gives the increase. In the end, God gets all of the credit for the crop for without Him, nothing would happen. The seed would not germinate. The rain would not come. Without God, where would you get the seed in the first place? We need then to approach this humbly as Christ explains to us when he says,
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.(Lu 17:10)
I would submit to you, however, that far too many people use the recognition that God is ultimately responsible for the increase as an excuse not to till the ground, plant the seed and tend to the field. Sadly, we move from a self-recognition as “unprofitable servants” who are working as hard as they can to actually being truly unprofitable servants who are doing very little.
I believe that one of the main reasons we don’t preach is because we don’t understand what preaching is. We have put the concept of preaching in a narrow little box that only a limited few are capable of doing. We see preaching as public lectures, going door to door, or maybe even street corner preaching. While these would certainly be included in the wide array of preaching activities, preaching is far broader than that. Preaching can include virtually any activity in which you develop relationships with people for the purpose of bringing them “the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.”
One of the best preaching activities I was ever involved in was me and others playing soccer with little kids for a week in a black township in South Africa. The net result of this was an ecclesia had 35 attendees at the service one Sunday and about 135 attendees at the service the next week. This proves a maxim of preaching. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Why do you think Jesus “wasted” so much time in his ministry healing people, going to feasts and feeding people? May I suggest to you that this aspect of Jesus’ preaching was not incidental, but just as vital as his sermons and other forms of teaching? People had to not only hear about God’s loving message to mankind, they had to witness it. It was all part of a package.
We can preach playing games. We can preach raking leaves. We can preach eating, sewing, gardening, swimming and kite flying. Yes, we can actually have fun preaching! If the idea of preaching immediately makes you cringe, please take some time to rethink the concept. Any time there is a chance to build a relationship with another human being and share our hope, this is preaching. The key is whether we recognize these activities as opportunities to gain people for the Kingdom of God. We can build relationships with our coworkers, neighbors and other acquaintances, but if we never show them how wonderful life in Christ can be or we don’t tell them about our savior, all these relationship building activities are just that – relationship building activities – not preaching.
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Rom. 10:15)
Have a great week,
Comments»
No comments yet.