Clarifying What I Mean By the Priority of Proclamation

I see in the comment section that there are some good questions about what exactly it means to make gospel preaching a priority. Again, I encourage you to read the book. There you’ll find almost 300 pages on why we think the mission of the church is disciple making by verbal proclamation.

Recently I preached a sermon on this topic and finished with three points of application. They seem germane to this discussion.

First, if we as individuals and churches are becoming more like Christ, there should grow in us a spirit of deep compassion for the needs of hurting people. If we are like Jesus, we’ll see the sadness and confusion and suffering in the world and something in us will cry out, “I want to do something about this. I want to make this better. I am sorry for this pain.” We won’t be able to do everything, but we can do something, especially for those closest to us. Our first obligation is to our family (1 Timothy 5:8). After that, Galatians 6:10 says, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” So our church is the next obligation. But beyond that there is still a command to do good to all as we have opportunity.

What we see from the ministry of Jesus is that he had a heart to capitalize on those opportunities. We must be praying, studying, and growing so that we will have our eyes open to see opportunities for compassion. Jesus cared about all suffering. Jesus cared about bodies and souls. He ministered to bodies as well as souls. So will we if we are his followers.    Keep Reading...