Most preachers are harming their churches by overemphasizing evangelistic preaching. Pastoral preaching is not the delivery of an evangelistic sermon, but, rather, it is preaching designed to meet the needs of the congregation through a proper feeding of God's Word.
Preaching the Gospel is evangelism. However, the regular worship service, led by the pastor, is not the primary place to preach the Gospel. Allow me [Adrian Rogers] to restate my argument. Yes, preach the Gospel. However, preachers who are constantly preaching, "Hell is hot, Heaven is sweet, sin is black, judgment is sure, and Jesus saves" are emptying their churches because they are not feeding their sheep. Every sermon may have evangelistic overtones, and every evangelistic message may have therapeutic ideas, but the preacher must be focused in his preaching.
I do not view the preacher's love for souls as the great key that would insure ministerial success. Rather I believe the great key for ministerial success to be the preacher's personal love for Jesus Christ.
If the preacher will love Jesus, he will love what Jesus loves. Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Do you love me? Feed my sheep." Jesus did not ask, "Peter, do you love sheep, or do you love to feed sheep?" but He asked, "Do you love me? Feed my sheep."
A love for Jesus is a greater motivator than a love for people. The motivating factor behind ministry should be the preacher's desire to do something for Christ. The preacher should say in his heart, I want to preach for Him. I want to obey Him. I want to be pleasing to Him.
Rather than standing up before hungry sheep and explaining to them why they ought to become a sheep, the preacher should set his priority upon feeding the flock. The primary objective of church preaching is to feed the sheep.
My greatest evangelistic tool is not evangelistic preaching, but rather the ministry of people bringing the lost to Christ. Sheep who are properly fed the Word will be healthy and reproduce. I conclude virtually every message with an evangelistic appeal, but rarely would I preach a purely evangelistic message.
There is a place, from time to time, on Sunday when the pastor may desire to reap the harvest and preach a confrontational evangelistic message. Those times, in my estimation, ought to be relatively few.
*This question and answer were extracted from "Love Worth Finding: The Life of Adrian Rogers and His Philosophy of Preaching.”
