Leadership Journal

At the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1963, Helmut Thielicke, a distinguished German theologian and preacher, heard Billy Graham for the first time. Thielicke had come reluctantly. German pastors had been suspicious of mass rallies ever since Hitler used them to manipulate and seduce their nation.

His visit led to an unlikely encounter.

After the crusade Thielicke wrote Graham: "The evening was a profound 'penance' experience (poenitentia) for me. … When I have been asked now and again about your preaching, I have certainly not been too modest to make one or two theological observations. My evening with you made clear to me (and the Holy Spirit will have helped in doing so!) that the question should be asked in the reverse form: What is lacking in me and in my colleagues in the pulpit … that makes Billy Graham so necessary?" Thielicke concluded: "We learn to see ourselves as various dabs of paint upon the incredibly colorful palette of God."

Graham, characteristically, asked Thielicke how to improve his own preaching.

The two effective but very different preachers were learning from each other.

Now, a half century later, we're still learning what it means to effectively preach the gospel.

Every sermon should have the gospel at its core and an invitational edge. This is not to say that every sermon should aim at not-yet-believers. Most sermons will be heard by people who already have some knowledge of Jesus. But every sermon needs a spirit that invites people to follow Jesus.

How could George Buttrick have known one Advent Sunday morning at Madison Avenue Presbyterian in New York that a struggling young novelist would be present, or that a single question ("Are you going home for Christmas?") would be the spiritual pivot point for Frederick Buechner?

More recently, Efrem Smith, who pastors Sanctuary Covenant, a three-year-old church aiming to be a multi-ethnic, holistic, and Christ-centered community serving urban North Minneapolis, captured the core and the edge of gospel preaching.

One Sunday he preached that the gospel speaks to our lives now as well as our eternal lives:

"How many kids have to die, while we go home still talking about churchy stuff? How many homicides have to happen before we stop playing church and become the kingdom of God in the streets? Kids are dying, and we are in church."

As he invites people to be prayed for, many come forward, for healing, for a reconciled relationship with God, for passion and purpose in their life.

The gospel is the core, with an invitational edge.

So we preach the gospel never knowing what listeners have been drawn by the Holy Spirit. We also preach knowing that those who are already Christ-followers need to be constantly re-evangelized, reminded that our faith journeys continue as they began, by grace. And that the way we preach in the pulpit may be a model for disciples to know how to talk about their faith in the marketplace.

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