The Equipping Ministry, Student Workbook, SW15

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T H E E Q U I P P I N G M I N I S T R Y

imagery, metaphor, and symbol, and still be effective in communicating the heart and soul of the Bible, the story that we preach to the world and the Church?

Never Without an Invitation

The nature of the content of the Gospel is that it demands response and action: repentance, surrender, obedience, faith, transformation. To preach the Word without this understanding has led many in both the pulpit and the pew to see preaching as largely a sharing of information rather than a challenge to transformation and formation in Christ. Baptistic and congregational traditions have for many years connected the preaching of the Word to an “Invitation to Discipleship,” where the hearer, whether lost or saved, is enjoined to respond to the spoken Word right then and there while under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Although this practice has largely been abandoned in many evangelical settings today, this idea of invitation is literally built right into the liturgy of many Baptist congregations. The reasoning behind this is solid. They view the preaching of the Word as so important that it cannot be presented without call to response; and in some of these congregations they take the next hour to discuss the sermon and its implications. The heart of this understanding is the belief that every time the Word is proclaimed the Holy Spirit is present, and he may elect to so move on the heart of a person that without our invitation for action and acknowledgment, they may ignore his voice altogether. What do you believe about the role of this kind of invitation to the preached Word wherever it is given, whether to those who do not believe or to those in the Church? Should we always have an invitation to discipleship moment whenever the Word of God is preached? Why or why not? The Holy Spirit of God, who both inspires and illumines the written Word of God, is central in every dimension of an effective preaching ministry. Apart from the Holy Spirit, the preached Word will produce no spiritual fruit, remaining ineffectual and unheeded in those who hear it. The Spirit works through individuals prepared for his leading, i.e., one who has obeyed the call of God to preach, embraced the power of the Word of God for salvation and change, and who seeks a mastery of the Word of God through disciplined study and liberated application, in his or her own life as well among those they seek to save and influence. Throughout the preaching ministry process, the Spirit thwarts the devil as he seeks to veil and blind the minds of unbelievers, and empowers the preacher through his

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Restatement of the Lesson’s Thesis