Preaching as the Priority

In a day when consistent, exposition of the Word of God seems to be relegated to the “back burner,” there are still some faithful churches that are committed to making it a priority. The church I pastor is one of those churches. We do not seek to entertain or to provide an array of programs to draw people in. We believe the faithful teaching and preaching of God’s Word must be the priority. If that does not attract people, then we still will not resort to the “marketing” of church.

There will be some who might argue that other matters of the church are the priority. For example, some may say “Soul-winning is priority.” I will fully agree that the winning of lost souls to Christ is to be a vital part of any biblical ministry. The Great Commission has never been rescinded. However, if the pulpit has not faithfully preached the Word, then how does anyone know that? Sadly, because of the dearth of biblical preaching, much of the church’s soul-winning efforts has produced abundant false professions because of the “1-2-3, pray with me” approach. Biblical conviction and repentance has been tossed out, and it would have been taught if the Bible were being faithfully preached.

Others may argue that praise, or worship, or standards (and the list could go on) are what the priority should be. Yet, without biblical preaching, all of the aforementioned will fall into unbiblical practices.  Standards will become either corrupted and compromised, or legalistic in nature.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy was to “Preach the word” (II Timothy 4:2). The aged apostle knew that if Timothy focused on that, the other issues of winning the lost, giving, missions, standards, etc. would all fall into place. On the other hand, non of the other matters much if the Word of God is not being faithfully proclaimed.

Preach the Word!