Preaching-Its Importance – Part two

Excuses For Not Preaching

Some of the following we might have said . . . many we have probably thought

1. Too many things to do.
2. Saturdays are my only free days.
3. There are lots of other ways of serving the ecclesia.
4. In Bible times, they had the Holy Spirit.
5. They already know what I believe. (at work, or other friends)
6. I don’t want to get into an argu­ment.
7. The best way to preach is by example.
8. Nobody ever listens.
9. I don’t know the Bible well enough —they’ll come up with things I can’t answer.
10. I don’t want to be thought of as being that

Let us analyze these excuses, one by one:

1. “Too many other things to do,” O.K., there are, I will admit. It’s a question of priorities: where does preaching come on your list of priorities ? Is it #6, #10, #20 or instead at the top somewhere? If it is #10 or #20, then will you ever get around to doing it? NO!! There will always be things to do—things that will push preaching to the background. So unless we decided ourselves (no one can make that decision for us), to make preaching an important part of our lives, it will continue to remain in the back-seat.
2. “Saturday’s are my only free days.” (I know that some Brothers and Sisters work on Saturdays, so this excuse would not be used by them.) For those who do not work on Saturdays, first of all, it’s not entirely accurate. Sunday afternoons are generally free half days. But more importantly, the answer to that excuse could easily be—”So?” We as a people today probably have more spare time than any people who ever lived.
   Paul preached while making tents for a living. I’m sure the prophets preached while at the same time having to work for their daily bread. Quite possibly, many of them had much less time to preachthan we do in this modern 20th century society, with all of our conveniences and time savers. Yet they made time. So must we!

3. “There are lots of other ways to serve the ecclesia.” This is so true. There are Brothers and Sisters who work diligently on the hall. There are Brothers and Sis­ters who prepare classes for Sunday School. There are arranging brothers, em­blems sisters, Sisters who prepare food for meetings and in larger ecclesias, many miscellaneous duties that Brothers and Sis­ters must perform. The response has to be, though, “Should all of these essential things necessarily diminish the place of preaching?” And the answer should be “NO!” Preaching can and should be done regardless of other things that likewise must be done. And if we say that there aren’t enough hours in the day, we’re simply fooling ourselves. We can and do make time to do almost anything that we really want to do. So the reason for our not preaching like we should, probably lies in another direction.
4. “In Bible times, the Apostles had the Holy Spirit.” To this, it must be said, ‘This is true, and in our days, we don’t’, but what we have that they did not have, is a copy of the Bible that can be picked up and held, can be marked in, has center marginal references, has blank pages in front and back for notes. What we also have are concordances,, Christadelph­ian works on all types of subjects and many good ones on first principles. So, although we don’t have the power to perform miracles, what we do have is the Bible and many aids, and our own minds that we can use to reason with people who will listen, if we really want to.
5. “They already know what I believe.” (at our jobs) First of all, people are forgetful. We might have told a few people about a few things we believe, but unless we continue to bring things up at every opportunity, the few things we have told them are soon gone. Probably what is true with most people who have used this excuse is, that they have said one or two things about the Truth that have basically been ignored, so the reaction has been to stop and say, “Well, I’ve tried.” Of course, what we should do is bring up something else. Maybe a new point will strike a chord. Even something controversial might work. But one thing to remember is: always be prepared to tell them or show them why we believe what we do. Just saying, “Our church teaches a poor way of stating it. A much better way is, “We believe that the Bible teaches . . . because in Matt., Luke, etc. it says …”

6. ‘I don’t want to get into an argument.” First of all, many people have come into the Truth although at the beginning they enthusiastically argued against it. Paul went into the synagogues and argued with the Jews. Jesus Christ argued publicly with the Scribes and Pharisees. Although many tend to shy away from this today, many don’t, and oftentimes, those that do argue for the Truth have great success. The dangerous thing is to make “I don’t want to get into an argument . . .” an excuse for not doing or saying If there are only two choices in a particular situation and if the choices are: (1) remain silent, or (2) arguing for the Truth, we must push our shyness to the rear and come forward and as Jude says, “earnestly contend for the Faith.”
7. “The best way to preach is by example.” I feel badly somewhat, calling this an excuse, because it is such a true statement. A very good way to preach is by example. But sometimes I get the feeling that Brethren who say this, are making an excuse for not actually talking about the Truth. It is a good thing to refrain from cursing like our colleagues. It is a good thing to tell others that we would rather not go out drinking with them. It is a very good thing to try and be Christ-like in everything we do and say. But unless we actually tell them of our hope, will they ever come into the hope of salvation? The truth of the matter is, we must do both: preach by our example and preach by telling others of our wonderful hope. With the combination of both things, along with constant prayer to God for His blessing and help, we can and will be successful.

8. “Nobody ever listens.” This simply cannot be true. Some people will listen. But even if it were true, does that relieve us of the responsibility? Noah is called ‘a preacher of righteousness’, and Noah helped convert no one except his family, though he tried for years and years. The honest truth is, that there are people out there who will listen. When you go to a Bible School that you haven’t been to in a few years, look around at the new Brothers and Sisters. Then if you ask as to how they came in, many have come in from the outside through either individ­ual or organized preaching efforts. Read the Ecclesial news in the Tidings or the Christadelphian. Every month there are new Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, many of whom came in due to the efforts of Bro. X or Sis. Y, and, of course, through God’s giving the increase. So, this excuse just doesn’t stand up. Laziness in preaching is a terrible thing. It cannot be justified and we dare not justify our own, with excuses such as this one.
9. “I don’t know the Bible well enough. They’ll ask me questions or use verses on me that I can’t answer.” First of all, by the simple fact that we are baptized Christadelphians, it can be safely generalized that we do know more than most everybody we talk to. Probably much, much more. It always astounds me when talking to people in the world to find out how dismally uninformed they are, on even the most elementary parts of the Bible. It is true, however, that in preaching, we will run into some who have their ‘once saved, always saved’ verses or ‘Trinity’ verses down pat, and can quickly spout them off. In cases like this, we need to know how to talk to them. So then, for us to negate the second part of the excuse, ‘They’ll ask me questions that I can’t answer’, for us to alleviate that problem, requires study and perhaps Bible marking. Bro. Ron Abel’s Wrested Scriptures’ book and Bro. Roberts’ Christendom Astray’, can come in handy here. An important thing to remember, though, is not to forego preaching until after we have read these and other books. We must do them side by side—preaching and studying, studying and preaching, for our best teacher is going to be experience.

10. “I don’t like being thought of as being that different.” This really is the only honest excuse. The reason that this is such an honest excuse is that it seems to be inherent within human nature to want to be accepted by our peers. One of the big problem that face teenagers today is what is called ‘peer pressure.’ Because of this, many have ruined their very young lives by giving in to alcohol, drugs and sex. It all goes back to them wanting to be ‘one of the crowd.’ But teenagers do not have a monopoly on this problem. We, as adults, feel it. I feel it at my school where I teach. I’m sure you feel it at your job. One sure way of being considered ‘out of it’ (as some of my 5th graders would say), is to talk about the Bible. But has it really been all that different down through the years? I would guess that in every age, this desire to be socially accepted and also the desire to follow God’s command to preach, have constantly butted heads with each other.

In reading Bro. Eyre’s two Books, ‘The Protesters’ and ‘Brethren in Christ,’ we can see how different brethren of hundreds of years ago handled this conflict. Despite the fact that they were thought of as being different, they continued to preach; and because they persisted, many were tortured and imprisoned and many even died a horrible death.

When we look at the preachers in the Bible, we see that they too, were constantly harassed. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit, other prophets were persecuted and murdered, the 12 apostles apparently all died as martyrs as did Paul, and, of course, our Lord Jesus suffered horribly and died on the cross at the hands of men who insisted that he conform to their way of thinking, or else. One thing that all of these men and women had in common was that for them, it was more important to obey God and preach, than it was to conform to the will of their persecutors. In this connection, I always think of those verses in Acts 5:40-42, “When they (the council) had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”

Now we come back to ourselves. We live in a free country. The authorities, at least at the present time, promise us protection in contrast to harassment, if we so desire to preach. We have all kinds of aids to help make preaching easier and more attractive to the public. We can easily get Christadelphian films; for a few dollars, put ads in newspapers; have Bible presentation folders, which present elements of the Truth in a neat, attractive way; we have access to printers who can print up thousands of attractive fliers that we can put on peoples’ doors as we freely walk up and down their streets.

Still, we come back to the basic question: “Why don’t we preach like we should?” Is it fear of embarrassment, a shyness about going up to someone’s door and talking about what is ‘the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes?’ Is it laziness? Is it lack of conviction that the Truth really is the Truth ? Whatever the reason is, we must put forth effort to try and overcome our problems and Preach—whether it’s on Saturday afternoons with our Brothers and Sisters, or whether it’s at our school or our job or in our neighborhood; whenever, and wherever we can, Brethren and Sisters, we must preach!! We cannot treat this like an extracurricular activity that we can either choose to, or choose not to participate in, without it affecting our salvation one iota.

Our choice will affect our salvation. As Jesus said, “Whoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven. But whoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he comes.”