How will anyone have faith without hearing the message?

I am constantly reminded by the call in the Scriptures to proclaim “Jesus is Lord” wherever I am. I see this in the Old Testament as Moses proclaimed the Greatness of God to the Israelites, as the old testament Prophets proclaimed the message to their audiences, as Jesus proclaimed Good News from village to village, as the disciples went out 2 by 2 to proclaim the Kingdom, as the early church were scattered in various cities sharing the message of Jesu, and of course as Paul vowed to preached Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

But, why is this not the message that you here at your church?

Yes, let us show God’s love by loving each other deeply and let us care about the injustices in the world like homelessness in LA, poverty and AIDS around the world, orphans in Africa, human trafficking in Europe and Asia, and the list goes on! And I pray we are the first to care and embody caring for these causes.

But, we also have a message of spiritual brokenness to share! After all, all these injustices are a result of sin, and since Jesus defeated sin and death on the Cross, let us proclaim that in LA and Orange Counties, in our Country and to the ends of the earth.

Here is a great post I read this morning on this same topic!

How will they hear without someone preaching?
POSTED BY SEAN LUCAS

Today, in my morning worship, the section of scripture was Romans 9-11 and smack dab in the middle of it, of course, was these words from Romans 10:14. There were a number of thoughts that struck me:

1) While we rightly must think through all sorts of issues regarding contextualization in order to speak God’s Word into this moment in time; and while we must couple together appropriate deed ministry with word ministry to incarnate the love of Jesus; at the end of the day, the Gospel comes to people supremely, uniquely, ultimately through the preaching of God’s Word. That was the mission that Jesus had (Mark 1:38); that is the mission that he has given to his followers (Luke 24:45-46). We are witnesses to the reality of the Gospel and we must preach that word of witness.

2) These words again confirmed for me the importance of theological education. God’s means for bringing his good news to the world is through the ministry of the Word; his way of doing this is by sending preachers; and the way to equip those preachers is through theological education. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we must have degree-granting seminaries to do theological education; but that does mean that we have structures to provide essential biblical, theological, historical, and pastoral knowledge that can be used and shared with others.

3) And these words come again to me and challenge my sense of calling. My heart has always been for the church and for the ministry of the Word. Am I doing the right thing as a Seminary administrator? Should I be involved in the regular, weekly ministry of the Word in the context of a local congregation? Isn’t the preaching of God’s Word that supreme, ultimate, unique means of God’s grace to his people? Why can’t weekly preaching of God’s Word serve as theological education for God’s people to transform the world?

POSTED MAY 8, 2008 @ 5:07 PM BY SEAN LUCAS
TOPICS: Preaching