^[1]Address at Formal opening of Southwestern Seminary, 1960. A portion of this material has appeared in Christianity Today. Used by permission.Century after century the relentless, restless tides of the sea have surged in and out from the shores of our land. In like manner century after century changeable, almost inexplicable fads and movements have surged in and out from the shores of Christianity. Some movements have been majestic and mighty, while others have been miserably minor. As no two waves of the mighty sea have ever been exactly alike, so no two movements in Christianity have ever been identical twins.  

A study of the history of preaching reveals that it too has had its ebbs and flows. By observing these tides, past and present, in their restless movements, one can discern to some degree the status of preaching.  

What is the status of preaching today? In which direction is the tide flowing—in or out?  

The multitude of voices attempting to answer this question do not speak in unity. There can be heard a chorus of voices saying, “Preaching is in a deplorable condition.’’ Those who so speak are not enemies of preaching, rather they are friends who raise their voices daring to hope and to believe that by crying out against abuses, they can help to bring reform!  

A man respected by all of us, Dr. J. Howard Williams, quoted a lawyer friend who said, “Where are the preachers? Where are the men who speak for God?” Dr. Donald Miller, a New Testament professor, cites־ an unknown critic of preaching who said, “If Protestantism ever dies with a dagger in its back, the dagger will be the Protestant sermon.”^[2]The Way to Biblical Preaching (New York: Abingdon Press, 1957), p. 7. 

Why do these and other discerning men speak such discouraging words about preaching?  

Donald Miller sees contempt for the task of preaching on the part of some preachers as one reason for discouragement. In his book Fire in Thy Mouth he gives an excerpt from a letter written by a ministerial student: “I consider preaching as a necessary evil. I shall do as much of it as my position demands in order to qualify for the other more important tasks on which my heart is set. But I could well wish to avoid preaching almost entirely.”^[3]New York: Abingdon Press, 1954, p. 14.

That the world heaps criticism and sarcasm upon the task of preaching is seen as further evidence of the present confused state of preaching. “The discrediting of preaching is one of the marks of our time. ‘Don’t preach at me!’ is an expression which suggests that by many preaching is held in contempt.”^[4]Miller, Fire in Thy Mouth, p. 13. If you listen carefully, you may hear that ”semi-classical” song blaring from -your radio, “Papa, Don’t Preach to Me.” A teen-age rowdy dramatically said to the Texan of television fame, “All right, go ahead and give me your sermon.” The Texan replied, “Boy, I am not going to preach to you. I just want to talk to you.” Preaching is beneath the dignity of a TV cowboy, and the ׳Texan at that.  

Neither the minority voice of confused students, nor the strident tones of a popular song, nor the pious voice of a television cowboy would be so damaging were it not for the tragic fact that these opinions are joined by those of vast numbers of otherwise capable preachers who hold commonplace convictions about the task of preaching. That no sense of conviction or assurance about the minister’s work hangs over the American pulpit is the studied judgment of Webb Garrison, outstanding author in the field of preaching.  

Luccock reports that many ministers conduct themselves after the fashion of H. G. Wells’ croquet player who said:  

I don’t care. The world may be going to pieces. The Stone Age may be returning. This may . . . be the sunset of civilization. I have other engagements. . . . I am going to play croquet with ׳my aunt at half past twelve today.^[5]Halford E. Luccock, In the Minister’s Workshop (New York: AbingdonCokesbury Press, 1944), p. 45.

Others find cause for alarm about preaching today in the “clown complex” occasionally found in some ministers. Because rhetoricians, statesmen, politicians, salesmen, and preachers have known for centuries that humor can be and is a devastatingly effective weapon, some men have wrongly and tragically elevated humor to the first place of importance among homiletical devices. Dr. Ellis A. Fuller, the late president of Southern Seminary, in a sermon in 1946 made a dramatic and moving appeal to the students to refrain from playing the role of the court clown, the fool, the jester, and to live that role for which they were divinely commissioned—the role of prophet for the King of Kings.  

Many today find a significant content drought in preaching and rightly observe that without good content there can be no effective preaching. They have long known that preaching is more -dependent upon content than upon rules and mechanics for its effectiveness.  

That there is a content drought today in preaching should occasion no real surprise when we frankly admit that our generation has seemingly had aversion to study, to work, and to creative thinking. For some reason—laziness, plagiarism, or lack of understanding—modern preachers show an alarming preoccupation with topical preaching and shallow content.  

Professor Luccock strongly urges:  

If you have anything peculiarly Christian to say at this hour,’ for God’s sake, say it! But if you can do nothing but mouth over the slogans of the street corner, or the usual banalities of the chamber of commerce, for God’s sake, keep still!  

The needs of men are not to be met with ‘ten minute ideas’. . . . Without a solid core of theological conviction and proclamation the preacher will soon become like that pathetic creature of Greek mythology, Tithonus, who was changed into a grasshopper. An equally sad figure, the Reverend Dr. Tithonus is also fairly familiar, he is the preacher who has no august revelation to set forth in coherent continuity and so spends his pulpit life hopping about in a delirious zig-zag, a homiletical grasshopper. ^[6]Ibid., pp. 39-40.

As pathetic as any view of preaching mentioned is the confusion of roles which plagues the modern preacher. The major question facing some ministers as they arise in the morning is “who am I today?” Pierce Harris, writing for the Atlanta Journal, said:  

The modern preacher has to make as many visits as a country doctor, shake as many hands as a politician, prepare as many briefs as a lawyer, see as many people as a specialist. He has to be as good an executive as the president of a University, and as good a financier as a bank president, and in the midst of it all, he has to be so good a diplomat that he could umpire a baseball game between the Knights of Columbus and the Ku Klux Klan.^[7]Used by permission of Pierce Harris.

Dr. Samuel W. Blizzard, after a two-year period of research, discovered some interesting facts concerning the roles of ministers.^[8]See “The Roles of the Rural Parish Minister, the Protestant Seminaries, and the Sciences of Social Behavior,” Religious Education (November-December, 1955), pp. 383-92; as well as other articles by Blizzard. Dr Blizzard attempted to find the preacher’s image of himself. He asked thirteen hundred ministers to arrange six roles or functions—preacher, pastor, priest, teacher, organizer, and administrator—in the order of importance according to what they believed to be an ideal pattern.  

The more than seven hundred who replied felt that the minister is:  

1. first, a preacher,  
2. second, a pastor,  
3. third, a priest,  
4. fourth, a teacher,  
5. fifth, an organizer,  
6. sixth, and last, an administrator.  

Blizzard also asked them to arrange the same six roles functionally, according to the amount of time they spent performing these roles. The results were:  

1. first, administrator,  
2. second, pastor,  
3. third, priest,  
4. fourth, organizer,  
5. fifth, preacher,  
6. sixth, teacher.  

During an average ten and one-half hour work day these men spent an average of only thirty-eight and one-half minutes preparing to preach. The time spent on administration was seven times more than that spent on preaching. They declared that preaching ought to be their primary function, but they had reduced it to a weak fifth-rate role by actual conduct and performance.  

There is honest and genuine ground for concern about the present status of preaching. Serious observers of preaching call attention to the dark clouds, not to hurt or to destroy, but to help and to reform preaching.  

In spite of the obvious decadence of preaching, signs of hope are apparent. It is encouraging to see the quickening of interest in preaching throughout the seminaries across our land. An investigation of theological education reported preaching to be one of .five departments common to twenty-five seminaries in 1955. Dr. Richard Niebuhr found in 1955 there were still only five departments common to the same twenty-five seminaries. Niebuhr’s conclusion was that “the ‘classical’ disciplines (of theological education), Bible, Church History, Theology, Pastoral Care, and Preaching, must certainly be included in any theological curriculum. . . .”^[9]H. Richard Niebuhr, Daniel Day Williams, and James M. Gustafson, The Advancement of Theological Education (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1957), p. 86.  

A further hopeful sign is the practice of some outstanding preachers who dare to lock the doors of their offices in order to pray, to study, and to prepare sermons. They are encouraged to believe that when they find messages for the Lord, people will rejoice to hear those messages. They dare to believe that people will excuse them from many aimless activities which plague the modern preacher provided they are busy finding God’s message.  

An additional sign of hope is to be found in the heart-hunger of laymen for pastors who preach the Word. Again and again laymen have volunteered their convictions that ministers should pray more, study more, and rightly divide the Word of Truth.  

Jesse Johnson, an outstanding layman and attorney from Richmond, Virginia, has written:  

To my mind, the first and greatest work of the man in the pulpit is to preach the Word. If God has called him at all. He has called him to do just that. Nothing else should come before it. Nothing else can take its place. Almost every other work in the church can be accomplished by laymen or laywomen, but preaching is still the preacher’s job.^[10]Jesse Johnson, Messages for Men, ed. H. c. Brown, Jr. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1960), p. 88.

Moreover, let US take hope in facts often overlooked in analyzing Blizzard’s report. While it is true that Blizzard has pointed up an alarming neglect of preaching on the part of preachers, it is also true that he has presented documentary proof that all the pressures, programs, and problems of the preachers—all of these combined-have not been able to convince preachers that preaching is not their primary task. Gloriously, wonderfully, thrillingly, ministers still believe that they are first of all preachers. Is this unquenchable desire on the part of ministers to preach imparted to them when God called them to preach? I believe it is.  

The most promising hope that I see on the homiletic horizon is that theologians, biblical scholars, and homileticians have introduced three vital insights concerning the preaching ministry.  

First, they are saying again, as it has not been said for some time, but as it was said in the days of old, that “preaching is vitally important in kingdom affairs.’’  

One of the first to emphasize the supreme importance of preaching was P. T. Forsyth, whose Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind rises like Mount Everest among the literature of homiletics. He said:  

With preaching Christianity stands or falls because it is the declaration of a gospel. Nay more—far more— it is the Gospel prolonging and declaring itself.^[11]New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1907, p. 5.

Among contemporary scholars emphasizing this thought is Donald Miller. In Fire in Thy Mouth he wrote:  

What is Preaching? …To preach the Gospel . . . is not merely to say words but to effect a deed…. To preach is to become a part of a dynamic event wherein the living, redeeming God produces his act of redemption in a living encounter with men through the preacher. True preaching is an extension of the Incarnation into the contemporary moment, the transfiguring of the Cross and the Resurrection from ancient facts of a remote past into living realities of the present. A sermon is an act wherein the crucified, risen Lord personally confronts men either to save or to judge them. … In a real sermon, then, Christ is the Preacher. The Preacher speaks through the preacher.^[12] P. 17.

Robert H. Mounce in his helpful work, The Essential Nature of New Testament Preaching, expressed a similar conviction:  

Preaching is that timeless link between God’s great redemptive Act and man’s apprehension of it. It is the medium through which God contemporizes His historic Self-disclosure and offers man the opportunity to respond in faith.^[13]Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1960, p. 153.

True preaching or witnessing to the divine event of redemption is not limited by the number of hearers, nor is it limited to any particular time or place. A preacher may preach to one, to two, or to a multitude; he may preach beside the sea, in a white frame building, or in a stately edifice; he may preach in Fort Worth or in the great Northwest or in the heart of the riot-torn Congo; he may preach in English or Spanish or Russian; lie may preach for ten minutes or an hour; he may preach from a manuscript with a flowing style and faultless homiletics, or he may preach from a scrap of paper with little regard for rhetoric.  

That there be no misunderstanding, let it be said that the crowning moment for true preaching is in the stated preaching hour in the local church. True preaching, however, includes much more than the stated preaching hour. True preaching involves the preacher’s witness to God’s redemptive act. Because scholars see preaching in this light, they are constrained to say that preaching is vitally important.  

The second vital insight of leading scholars pertains to the content of preaching.  

It is helpful to visualize the New Testament materials as forming three concentric circles around the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ. The first circle is the kerygma (or gospel), which interprets these events with a view to bringing men to faith in Christ. The second circle is the theological expansion of the first. Its purpose is to lead the new believer into a fuller apprehension of what God has accomplished through Christ Jesus. The outside circle is the ethical expansion of the other two. It lays hold on this new relationship of man to God and brings it into focus for practical daily living.^[14]Ibid., 133.

C. H. Dodd twenty-five years ago performed an admirable service by pointing out the basic kerygma, or gospel, of the New Testament. He drew a sharp line between the kerygma and the didache, or teaching content of the New Testament. However, other New Testament scholars point out that there is not so much a sharp distinction between gospel content and’ teaching content as there is a vital dependent relationship. The gospel is the missionary evangelistic message, and upon this basic message is built the proper theological interpretation and ethical application. Rather than there being two diverse contents labeled “gospel” and “teaching,” there is true New Testament content to be labeled “proclamation,” “interpretation,” and “application.” 

The third significant contribution of leading scholars pertains to the importance of communication. They believe that rules and principles of homiletics are vital. Since preaching is a witness to God’s redemptive event, since preaching is God’s way of speaking to man to tell him that he is lost and needs salvation, since preaching is God’s way of instructing his children, it logically follows that the way the preacher prepares and speaks God’s message is important.  

Though we are too close to the contemporary scene to give a final evaluation, it would seem that the history of preaching in recent years has been at ebb tide. There is indication, however, in the hopeful signs of our day that the tide may soon flow in. Before the tide can again flow in, there must be a re–emphasis on preaching as the primary function of the preacher.  

The word ‘primary” allows and demands that the preacher has other functions. Indeed he has many other functions. “The primacy of preaching” means that the most important thing a preacher can do in the course of his week’s work is to preach, to speak for God Almighty. As he prepares and preaches so is he qualified to perform his other major functions.  

The subject, “The Primacy of Preaching,” is not to be understood as “The Necessity for Great Men”; it is not “The Necessity for Great Orators”; it is not “The Necessity for Men with Great Personalities”; and it is not even “The Necessity for Great Preachers.” A man who has a ministry in which preaching is primary may be a great man, a great orator, a great preacher with an outstanding personality, or he may be none of these, but a profound conviction about the kerygma and the didache he preaches and a profound faith in the act of preaching he must have.  

The primacy of preaching means a man called of God will take the stance of a prophet to see and to speak for God. It means that he will be faithful as a herald to get and to speak the message of the King, and it means that he will speak only the King’s message.  

The primacy of preaching means that a preacher’s attitude, his philosophy, his perspective, his stance before God is like that of Amos, Isaiah, Peter, and Paul. The content of his message is the kerygma proclaimed; it is the kerygma theologically interpreted; it is the kerygma ethically applied. The primacy of preaching means that a minister is dedicated to speaking a pure gospel for a Holy God.  

In giving first place to the preaching aspect of his ministry, the modern preacher has ample and notable precedent.  

Preaching was the primary work of the prophet of the Old Testament. The prophet’s role was to see, to understand, and to speak forth for God. He did predict, but basically he preached God’s message to the people of his day. In spite of learned assaults by A. R. Johnson and others upon the position of the prophet as a preacher, the prophet still stands as the earliest and grandest spokesman for God. The modern preacher has many ancestors and one of the noblest is the Hebrew Prophet—the prophet who was a preacher.  

Moreover, preaching was primary in the ministry of Jesus.  

The instruction and example of our Lord cannot be disregarded and is clear as the sun. For the preaching of the gospel He came, and for its high purpose was He born. “And he said unto them. Let US go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth” (Mk. 1:58).^[15] James w. Clarke, Dynamic Preaching (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co.) 1960), p. 128.

About our Lord’s visit to the Synagogue in Nazareth, Luke recorded:  

And . . . Jesus opened the book, and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives. And recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty them that are bruised. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them. Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears (Luke4:1f).  

He testified boldly that he was anointed to preach and to proclaim.  

Three basic tasks comprised the ministry of Jesus: teaching, healing, and preaching. It is the opinion of Mounce and many others that of these preaching was primary.  

We are prepared for the prominence of preaching in the ministry of Jesus by His own declaration that it was for this reason that He had come (Mark 1:58). When the ministry of healing threatened to eclipse that of preaching, Jesus drew apart from the clamoring crowd and moved on to the next town. He had come to preach؛ healing was secondary.^[16]Mounce, p. 29

It is thrilling to know that however important healing was to Christ, preaching was more important. Jesus believed that the soul has more value than the body. Healing was primarily for the body and preaching was primarily for the soul. Jesus was dedicated to that which was of supreme importance.  

Those who have attempted to make a sharp distinction between preaching and teaching in the New Testament and in the ministry of Jesus lack valid reasons for doing so. The record of the Synoptics is such that preaching and teaching overlap and complement each other in concept, function, and terminology. The modern terms “lecture” and “teaching” confuse the issue. In scripture both teaching and preaching are basically related to’ the content and not to theological, educational, or homiletical rules and principles. The New Testament was concerned with content and the Synoptic writers who recorded that “he taught” or that “he preached” would be amazed at the “wide gulf” some men have fashioned between these terms. The ministry of Jesus was one given to an emphasis on preaching and teaching, and these were viewed essentially as one act.  

Not only was preaching primary to the prophets and to Jesus, it was also primary to the apostles. Luke’s record of Apostolic conviction at this point is clearly shown in Acts 6:1f. In this account is found the record of the selection of the seven to help with the business affairs of the church. The apostles wanted to give attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The twelve did not minimize the ministry of table serving, for they had been serving ‘tables, but they said that for them there was another ministry which took priority. They would have agreed with a recent writer who said that “the preaching of the word is prior or it is too late.’’^[17]Clarke, p. 52. Could it have been that their minds and hearts returned to an event on a mountain several months earlier when Jesus called them and sent them forth😕  

And . . . (Jesus) goeth up into the mountain, and calleth unto him whom he himself would; and they went unto him. And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons (Mk. 3:13-14).  

Even though they were often stubborn, slow to learn, grasping, greedy, and contentious, they learned most of their lessons well. By their observation of the actions of their Lord and by their understanding of his commands, they believed preaching to be primary for them. Simon Peter told Cornelius that the risen Lord had commanded them to preach to the people (Acts 10:42).  

(These) early preachers were not of the elite; not many great, not many wise, not many mighty. But the lowliest of them had nobler things to tell than Plato ever dreamed, Aristotle ever argued, or Socrates ever discussed.^[18]Ibid., pp. 28-29.

This unrivaled message was to be given to the world through preaching. “For how shall they hear without a preacher?” asked Paul (Romans 10:14). And to his young protege, Paul admonished “preach the word, be urgent in season, convince, rebuke, and exhort. . . “(2 Tim. 4:28 RSV). To Titus he declared firmly, God “hath in due times manifested his word through preaching” (Titus 1:15).  

Furthermore, preaching has been primary in every great period of advance in kingdom affairs.  

(The) . . . forward movements (of the kingdom) have always been in periods when the preaching of the Word has been magnified. Its spirit and life have risen or declined according to the quality of its preaching. In times of ferment and upheaval it has turned to the prophet-preacher as its instinctive necessity: Chrysostom in Constantinople, Savonarola in Florence, Francis and his . . . men of the Lord on the roads of Europe. And when the candles on many Roman Catholic altars were snuffed and the heart-moving drama of the Mass was abolished, the pulpit expanded and they took their places, Calvin in Geneva, Luther in Germany, Knox in Scotland.^[19]lbid., p. 31.

The work of the prophet, the ministry of Jesus, the preaching of the apostles, and the great advances in Christian history testify with one voice to the supreme importance of preaching. All other functions of the church are related to and support the basic function of preaching. It is only when a minister is first of all God’s spokesman that he becomes a truly effective administrator, a loving pastor, a wise teacher, a sympathetic counselor, and an able denominational leader. The North Star of the Ministry is the task of preaching.  

To proclaim the message of divine deliverance is the most solemn responsibility ever entrusted to mortal man. When the preacher mounts the pulpit steps he does so under obligation to mediate the presence of Almighty God. He is not there to air his own views or to hold up a mirror to the times. It is not enough that he should speak about God; he must allow God to speak. His words must bear the Divine Word. . . . He stands before a group of people whose one great need is to be ushered into the presence of God. . . .  

Who then dares to preach? Who is it that will knowingly assume such responsibility? Only those who have been commissioned by God—those who are compelled to cry out with Jeremiah, “There is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer. 29:9). Only when a man can say, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” will his awkward and stumbling words become the voice of God.”^[20]Mounce, pp. 158-59.

The preacher in the I960’s is surrounded by a galaxy of tools and tasks. Which one will become the dominant task in his life? As he decides, let him be acutely aware that the testimony of the prophets, of our Lord, of the Apostles, and of the strong men of Christian history is that the task of preaching is primary. He should face honestly and boldly the fact that preaching is primary because God ordained it to be so.  

As with the preachers of old, we are not of the elite, not many great, not many wise, not many mighty, but we, too, have been given the glorious opportunity to participate with God by bearing witness to the divine act of redemption.  

By faith let us leave the making of great orators, of great men, of great preachers to the Lord. As for us, let us dedicate ourselves to the task of having a ministry where preaching is primary. Let US also believe in co-operation with God that we will say as did Amos, “The Lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 5:8).  

Let us follow the example of Jesus when he said, ”Let US go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth” (Mark 1:58).