Preaching is Not a Sales Job!

With the mandate of soul-winning, preachers and evangelist around the world stay motivated to preach the gospel. This is a commendable activity as ordained by our Lord, yet it does happen that in the enthusiasm of doing a good job - the objective on what the job is and what is our role in accomplishing it is lost.

One of the most overlooked factors is the consideration that our job is to preach the gospel with Biblical foundation; our job is not to win a soul at any cost, including twisting Biblical teachings to arrive at the number of won-over souls set down by the church. This is where a gospel preacher ceases to be a man of God and becomes a salesman!Warnings from the BibleThe Bible is replete with warnings about those who moved away from the true faith in their quest to grab the maximum followers, eventually the lust of the eyes overtaking them, with their own self-importance leading to ruination. The biggest example in the Bible is that of Balaam.

“It is true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives.” Philippians 1:15

Even in the New Testament we read about those who deviated from the faith in their quest to collect followers, assuming large followers as a testimony to their large anointing. Paul also compares his ministry against those whose boasting is only about the size of their ministry and emphasizes its uselessness in standing with God.What is happening today?In churches today you can see the Pastor refraining from asserting Biblical precepts that are so important. He does this to avoid any displeasure among the congregation (who many times have the ear to only hear what they want to hear). The emphasis on numbers, where the quantity (of people) in the ministry or church membership taking precedence has short-changed the quality of Biblical teachings. This is to our peril and we Christians will pay a heavy price as stewards for diluting the faith to make it more appealing.A preacher is not in competition with any other businesses nor are bench-marking against corporate models the right way to run a church. Preaching is foremost the most important and holy activity, separate from any other. It is with this that the preachers must go out into the world.
Where does this leave us?God knows who are his. The preacher’s job is to preach the gospel accurately, after that those whose names are written in the Book of life will come to Christ. Sometimes this may not be immediate but it will happen. A greater power is at work behind the scenes.The trouble arises when the preacher thinks he has to ensure that the soul is won over, focusing on his efforts to force the issue rather than letting the Holy Spirit do the job. In this bid the preacher enters into a territory where he is not supposed to, being overzealous the preacher enters into unbiblical methods to win the account. From here both stand condemned, the deviated preacher and the new believer of no faith.