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Another post by Craig Groeschel on the Swerve blog calls pastors to preach the gospel every time. In his “10 ways to Make Your Spiritual Invitation Stronger” post, he lists these action steps:

1. Truly believe in the power of the gospel to change lives.
2. Recognize that not everyone is saved (including some people who have been members of your church for years).
3. Hate sin. Explain repentance. Preach Christ.
4. Don’t promise a better life. Promise a better eternity and the Holy Spirit to lead you through this life.
5. Preach as if this is someone’s only chance to hear about Christ. It might be.
6. Present the gospel in every message.
7. Call for a decision.
8. Trust that the Holy Spirit has already been at work in someone’s life.
9. Believe people will be saved.
10. Worship God when they are.

Isn’t it amazing that this is a call to pastors? Seriously, shouldn’t we all get this before we accept a call to preach? Well, we should, but we don’t always do this. In particular, I have been to services where decisions are never given. The messages are delivered specifically to those that believe in Christ already. Same with the gospel message. Many services have messages based on scripture on how to be a good parent or good steward of your finances or give money when times are tough to be blessed, yet they never touch on the gospel of Christ’s saving grace.

Another important point here is that I think a lot of pastors don’t really consider that they may have only one chance to connect with someone. God is infinite and he may use several people to call on someone to be saved, yet the road may stop with you. You may be the last hope of seeing someone come to know Christ. Is that reflected in your preaching?

One of the advantages of starting in youth ministry is relating to the statistic that 70% of teens that have been part of a church will leave and never come back once they go to college. That is 7 out of 10 students that will walk away from their faith and choose the world over the kingdom of heaven. If I know time is short, then I know I have take advantage of every opportunity. In the end, I am not perfect and I have failed at times. If I truly believe the gospel has the power to change lives, I must preach it every time for the sake of seeing one more person experience transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we can’t confirm through our own examples from the pulpit that the gospel as has the power to transform lives and that we trust the Holy Spirit has moved before us to soften hearts, how can we expect those in the seats to believe it and live it? Doesn’t the world deserve our best effort to preach the gospel and Christ crucified every time we speak? Are we to be agents of change in revolutionary ways to spread the love and gospel of Christ or should we resort to messages of having better lives for ourselves without repentance and belief that the gospel saves?

This is my act of obedience I must live by and hope that there is still time to see more lives eternally affected through the kingdom of heaven. Romans 1:16-17 will be on my devotional list this week and thanks (as always) to Pastor Craig Groeschel for challenging me and helping to strengthen my faith and ministry! May my ministry come to reflect what God put in my heart every Sunday, rather than what will cause people to like me or consider me to be a better preaching pastor. The transformation must start with me.