In a convocation address to students at Southern Baptist Seminary, President R. Albert Mohler told the future ministers that one challenge they will face is that preaching sometimes appears to be producing no visible response in the congregation, but that is no reason to abandon preaching, he insisted.
“The Word of God goes in and does surgery that the hearer does not even immediately recognize is taking place. It’s in the mystery of the preaching of the Word of God, accompanied by the Spirit, that the believer is conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ in the silent, invisible surgery of the soul.
“If you want quick results, you’ll be tempted to do something other than preaching. If you want instant gratification, you’ll look at some other form of programming or you’ll get excited about some other dimension of ministry at the expense of preaching; but if you want to build Christ’s church and if you want to see Christ’s people conformed to His image, preaching is the indispensable mark of the church.” (Click here to listen to the address.)