I found this “short” on youtube of a man with cerebral palsy who said that God called him to preach. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IKFdBuInVII That got me thinking about this blog. 1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I also was with you in weakness and fear, and in great trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of mankind, but on the power of God.”

The Greek word for preaching in verse 4 is kérugma: Proclamation, preaching, message: properly, proclamation, the preaching (heralding) of the Gospel – especially its fundamentals (like Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, etc.). It is used in 1 Corinthians 1:²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

There is another similar word: euaggelizó: To proclaim good news, to evangelize, to preach the gospel: euaggelízō (from 2095 /eú, “good, well” and angellō, “announce, herald”) – properly, proclaim “the good message” (good news). In the NT, 2097 (euaggelízō) refers to sharing the full Gospel of Christ – literally, “gospelizing” that announces the complete message of “the good news” (the Lord’s glad tidings). This is the word Paul used in 1 Corinthians 1:¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made of no effect.” The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), translated as “Gospel,” is used in the New Testament, provided in the English Standard Version (ESV). It occurs 89 times in the Greek New Testament.

They basically refer to the same thing. Euaggelizo and euangelion convey the idea of the “good news” aspect of the gospel message. All these Greek words remind us that the 1st century preaching was the announcing of the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that can free us from sin. It’s like the announcement of the birth of a baby. You do that right when the baby is born, when you want to share the good news. It’s like “breaking news” on the TV news channels, news that just happened. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus had just been finished and the apostles went about announcing that good news for the first time. They continued to do that in different places to different people all over the Roman Empire in the next 40 years after the resurrection, but it always involved sinners hearing the basics for the first time (at least for them the first time).

Back to 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and 1:17. Paul emphasized that his preaching of the gospel was not with “persuasive words of wisdom” or “cleverness of speech”. Why? “So that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of mankind, but on the power of God.”

One thing that comes to mind is that most of our “preaching” in churches is not really 1st century gospel preaching to non-Christians (evangelizing). It may be centered on the death, burial, and resurrection but mostly it is just teaching or encouraging Christians and is not focused on converting non Christians. That teaching of Christians (discipling) is needed but it can possibly hinder us from seeing the need to preach the gospel worldwide to those who have never heard the gospel, or at least never heard it explained correctly to them, which would be 1st century preaching. We have a couple of my school’s graduates (and their mates) who are preaching the gospel in Muslim countries where they are proclaiming the gospel to people for the first time. Churches spend a lot of they budget on “preaching” to ourselves, which is really teaching and not preaching, although we call it preaching and those who do it preachers.. Usually there are several very good teachers in each congregation that could do the teaching of the flock in the assemblies or maybe in classes and skip the preaching, but churches seem to rely on the preacher who is more skilled at speech making. Those more skilled speaker preachers bring in all kind of interesting or even funny things to enhance their message. But are we getting people to put their faith in the “wisdom of man” or the “cleverness of the speech makers”? If we have qualified teachers, why don’t we just use them in churches (at no charge) and use our money to actually send missionaries to preach the gospel to people worldwide who have never heard the gospel or seen it in action? Of use that money to print and distribute Bibles all over the world. Of course, that would probably not work in bigger churches since the preacher is so important in the church business since most of church growth is not baptizing sinners but is proselyting members from other churches who like a particular preacher’s preaching.

That is why I encourage people to look into organizations like Eastern European Missions (EEM) who print and distribute Bibles in 30 countries and 20 foreign languages. That organization started back in the 60’s with a few people smuggling Bibles behind the iron curtain. 2 million Bibles and Bible-based materials distributed in 2024 across 36 nations and 32 languages. 570,000 children and teens received Bibles through the Bibles for Kids campaign in 2024. 3,000 trusted field partners in 35+ countries. That’s one of the main organizations that I give my tithes to. Check it out at EEM.org. They also have a new book “The Impossible Dream” that just came out. True stories from 60+ years of God opening “impossible” doors for Scripture across Europe and Central Asia. Those stories will inspire and motivate you to give toward organizations like EEM.

Remember: the Word of God that contains the written gospel message has the power to save. The Holy Spirit works through that word. Give people the Bible so they can read it for themselves and they can become Christians without the aid of some missionary or preacher, although certainly the missionary can explain Scripture to them just as Philip did to the enuch in Acts 8. But we must focus on getting the Word to them.

That’s it for today. I didn’t want to sound cynical about our paid preacher system and the way we do church in America, but I guess I am. Agree or disagree, though, I hope you will consider giving to EEM.

Thanks for reading.