Gospel Meetings...Then and Now

This is probably my favorite time of the year. I have spent most of my life in central Alabama, so summer is a season that is particularly unique. Where else can you find 95 degree temperature with 90 percent humidity? Hey, when I was a junior in high school, on CHRISTMAS DAY the temperature was 85! Anyway, it's a special time for me.



One of the reasons I love summer is because it is "Gospel Meeting season." In churches of Christ, we have traditionally had our big evangelistic efforts during the warmest months of the year. Such was always the case where my Daddy preached. V. P. Black; J. Noel Meredith; Ben Flatt; these were but a few of the men who proclaimed the Gospel.



For many years when my Grandfather and all of Daddy's brothers were living, they would preach a meeting together. Each brother would preach one night, and Pa Hester would close it out the last night. Many souls were saved and restored through such efforts.



Over the years since I began preaching full-time, I have preached in many Gospel Meetings. These are opportunities to travel to different cities and states, create new friendships, and do what I love to do--preach the Gospel. My wife Brenda and our two sons have traveled with me on many of these trips; now, Will and Jonathan are even leading singing for some of these Meetings.



One thing I have often noticed over the past few years in visiting Gospel Meetings at sister congregations is that the focus in such efforts has changed. The urgency from the pulpit seems to be missing. The topics addressed have often shifted away from sin, salvation, and faithfulness to more everyday concerns. In some places, no longer does one hear a challenge offered to folks in denominationalism.



Several years ago, I sat through a sermon delivered by a preacher in a Meeting that addressed, in part, abortion. However, he did not focus on what the Bible says about the subject; he spent much of his time lamenting the fact that he could not go out and protest at abortion clinics--and, that he wished he could lay down on the street along with the rest of the protesters in front of automobiles that were driving into the parking lot!



"So, David, what's your point? Are you saying that YOU know best how to preach a Gospel Meeting?" No, not at all. What I am trying to say is that we preachers need to realize WHY we involve ourselves in Gospel Meetings. We need to save our best sermons for those efforts. We need to proclaim the Word of God with passion--just like the preachers of yesteryear. Save the sermons on depression, worry, and getting along with one's neighbor for your home congregation.



If brethren ask us to come in and preach a protracted meeting for them, we need to give it our best effort--no matter if the congregation numbers 15, 150, or 500. These sermons may be the last ones some ever hear. If you knew the next sermon you preach would be your last, what would you say? How would you say it? Our older preachers used to exhort us younger ones to preach "as a dying man to dying men and women." We need that advice now more than ever before. Theological liberalism, pluralism, feminism, and worldliness have all infected our culture--and, the church as well. Gospel Meetings can do much to help congregations stay strong.