'...this I have resolved on, to wit, to run when I can, to go when I cannot run, and to creep when I cannot go.'

Saturday 19 November 2011

Evangelistic preaching

On one of the blogs I occasionally visit I saw a note about evangelistic preaching, advocating regular preaching of that nature from the pulpit. I am by no means so sure about that. Just for starters I want to distinguish between evangelistic preaching and gospel preaching. The difference, as I see it, is that the former addresses itself distinctly to those who are not Christians, while that latter expounds themes centred on the Gospel which can be applied both to unbelievers and believers. In other words the former is person centred preaching, the latter subject centred preaching – though it must be applied to be preaching at all. In many cases today congregations are almost exclusively made up of believers (the great majority) or those who attend regularly but have made no distinct profession of faith. If you are going to preach the Word of God to the people who are there – and that is surely what preaching must be about – it means that distinctly evangelistic preaching will not have so great a place in our services of worship. But are services of worship the locus for evangelism anyway – especially in these days?