Preaching article2By James P. Balson Jr.

Looking out across the religious landscape of 1969, Welsh preacher Dr. D.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones proclaimed, “I would say without any hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching.”

As we look out, 45 years later, we must concur. In many churches, true preaching is being pushed out of its historically central place in the life and worship of God’s people, and being crowded into a corner, treated as simply one of many equally valid and important activities. Like Martha, many have become “worried and troubled about many things.” Homiletics professor James W. Alexander complained, “I fear none of us apprehend as we ought to do the value of the preacher’s office.”

We must become more like Mary, and choose the “one thing” that is needful (Luke 10:42). Let us take a couple of minutes to be reminded (2 Peter 1:12, 13) of the truths regarding the centrality and priority of Biblical preaching in God’s economy.