The Objective for Preaching

The Objective for Preaching An exhortation on what is the objective for preaching.

The Objective for Preaching
by David Cox

Objective for PreachingIt is amazing to me just how off-base so many preachers can get. There is a God given purpose for a church to exist. When you think about it, we (pastors and churches) are the work of God. God is not doing much outside of Christians, ministers, and churches. Maybe somebody can make a case that He does work outside of that framework, but for every little bit He works outside of that frame, He works thousands of times more within that frame of the church.

But we need to always keep our heads clear, and focus on what is God’s purpose for us. We can summarize the work of God (done mostly through ministers, members, and the church) as being the salvation of souls, and their edification.

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Success is a two edged Sword

Truly, every single missionary wants success. It is extremely important to really understand “what success is for a missionary”. For many people, success can be defined as the 3 B’s: Bodies, Bucks, and Buildings. See my tract ch31 3Bs of success: buildings, bodies, and bucks In this tract I refute those elements of success. The Jack Hyles school of ministry would clearly define success in these parameters. While these things may seem to be success for Christian ministries, it is very unspiritual, and it is very much not what the Bible presents. As far as we know, Jesus had no building EVER. The money aspect of Jesus’ ministry did not appear prominent, i.e. he did not have expensive things a lot of money could buy. When at the end he entered into Jerusalem at the beginning of his final week, he had to borrow somebody else’s “wheels” (a burro, not a nice horse), and he had to borrow somebody else’s upper room. Both of these elements, as well as all the other aspects of his ministry point to a ministry devoid of “riches”. He helped the poor, but he himself and his inner circle walked wherever they went from all indications.

Even the “helping aspect” of Jesus’ ministry is something that is speaking strongly against modern success oriented ministries. Notice that Jesus fed the thousands and healed many. These things were not the appeal that Jesus put forth as his main focus. We see nowhere that Jesus nor his followers went about advertising free food or free healing. These things were not the focus. Jesus’ focus was centrally and exclusively on the Gospel. People came to hear the Gospel, not for the food. This was the advertisement Jesus and his disciples’ used if there were even an advertisement at all. Word of mouth was what would appear to be the only advertisement they used.

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