Empire Baptist Temple

From Preaching to Teaching

Dr. Ronald L. Tottingham

America is hurting. She is reeling to and fro like a drunken man. She has putrifying sores untended.

Her spiritual hospitals are lacking proper medicine to heal. There is not a famine for God's Word yet, but there is a famine. "How?" we ask. Well, we've seen the subtle move from old-fashioned preaching to teaching.

We were told this would come - when they would "heap to themselves teachers." And that the day would come when teachers among them would bring in damnable heresies. The spiritual hospitals (churches) have succumbed to these teachers. Teachers via video, teachers via seminars, teachers via radio Bible classes, teachers, teachers, teachers!

Where are the old-fashioned preachers who stand in the demonstration of the spirit and power? We are told that to grow an aggressive church nowadays we must have an "attractive teaching ministry." Due to the "attractive" Bible studies outside churches we are told we must compete. Personally I never felt I was competing with Bible studies which use mistranslations and avoid doctrine. And to believe that the Word of God is absorbed wholly through a teaching ministry is to not understand what the Bible declares itself.

Titus 1:3 declares that God has chosen "to manifest His word through preaching," not teaching.

I know the Bible teaches teaching but we are still told that God's penetrating is via preaching. Secular half truth (if that much) is buried (penetrates) inside through hearing with seeing with participation, or "hearie, touchy feelie" but God's Word is absorbed through preaching. Now Satan loves the non-lecture, participatory, visual teaching as it's a move away from preaching, which lost and carnal folks enjoy as less convicting and more entertaining or plain more enjoyable to the natural man.

But we are told today that we need "attractive" teaching. Paul came not with attraction but in demonstration of power. I recently read one Sunday school promoter which said that we should enlist a whole corps of teachers. (He was not a pastor himself.) Then he goes on to state that we are limiting ourselves because we see only a few really good teachers around. His solution - enlist large numbers of teachers.

I suggest perhaps starting more local churches would be more biblical. If each church would divide into a new local church for each 200-300 and have a preacher, we would likely see much more true evangelism and mission work done than we will with 10,000 new Sunday school teachers and units in a single large church.

God places the greatest emphasis on preaching and how shall they preach unless called and sent? Today, we see teaching pastors, counselling pastors, evangelistic pastors, administrative pastors, etc., but few real "God-called" preachers of the "fire in the bones" variety.