The Priority of Preaching

It would seem in our day that pulpit work is not held in as high regard as it might have been at another time.  Sometimes the quality of the preaching speaks more to this truth than anything which might be said by those who listen.  Charles Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of another era, wrote this after his life was changed through the power of preaching.  "But my gratitude most of all is due to God, not for books, but for the preached Word, and that, too, addressed to me by a  poor, uneducated man, a man, who had never received any training for the ministry, and probably will never be heard of in this life, a man engaged in business, no doubt of a humble kind, during the week, but who had just enough of grace to say on the Sabbath, 'Look to me, and be saved....' (Isaiah 45:22) 

And then he goes on to finish with these words, "The books were good, but the man was better.  The revealed Word awakened me, but it was the preached Word that saved me, and I must ever attach peculiar value to the bearing of the truth, for by it I received the joy and peace in which my soul delights."   (The Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon) Long ago people spoke of being called to preach, but then came the time when the language changed to speak of people being called to ministry.  And, while the difference is understood and respected, it also seemed to delegate preaching to a lesser place in the life of those called. 

 

It was a life time ago that I experienced God's call to preach.  Why called, I have never understood.  Others could do it better.  But, I was called and so I have preached.  To preach requires a commitment not just to speaking, but to praying and to studying, and to working and believing that in the end it will be blessed by God to make a difference for the Kingdom.  To preach faithfully is never an easy task, but it is the task of the preacher.  When the preacher fails, the church's power can only be diminished.