‘And he said unto them, Go ye.’ We are to be an outgoing people. We do not keep the gospel and salvation to ourselves. We believe in the universal tender of salvation, the call of the gospel, the general call to all humanity, and it is the task of the church through prayer to be constantly preaching the gospel to all people and doing its utmost to reach out. That word ‘go’ is so significant. It is a command: ‘Go ye into all the world.’ Preach to Gentiles as well as Jews – all the world. ‘And preach’, proclaim.
We are not very interested in alternatives to preaching, in drama and other means of conveying or presenting the gospel. We believe in the primacy of preaching. That is the term. That it is what God desires, what the Scripture insists upon: words, plain words, presenting arguments to people, remonstrating with them about the state of the soul, presenting Christ and his glories, and his work on Calvary, trying to reflect the lovingkindness and compassion of God. Preach, proclaim: words appeal to the mind, to the heart, to the will – not devices, not gimmicks, not through sentimental manipulation, not through music. We are privileged to use music to accompany our praise and worship, but we don't major on music. ‘Oh you've got to get people feeling’, they say. ‘You've got to move people.’ Today the fashion is heavy rhythmic music, the music drug to try to bring them into almost an altered state of consciousness where they will receive the word, and be more amenable to it. ‘No, no’, the Reformers said to all the paraphernalia of the Church of Rome. ‘Away with Roman theatre.’ And we say today, ‘Away with evangelical theatre.’ It is about explaining, proclaiming, reasoning with souls. Preach, proclaim the gospel to every creature. Every creature! As Spurgeon pointed out, children are creatures too. It includes the young. How many churches now have closed their Sunday Schools. Every creature, every nationality, every age group.