The business of the church is to preach the gospel of Christ. It exists for this purpose. Without the gospel, men are lost. The gospel is God’s power unto salvation (Romans 1:16). There is nothing else that the church does that some other organization isn’t doing the same thing, and sometimes doing it better. If the church is not going to conduct a militant campaign of preaching the gospel, it might as well go out of existence. And that is what it will do unless it preaches the gospel.<\/p>\n
It is not the business of the church to operate colleges, soup kitchens, relief kitchens, summer camps, youth centers, entertainment bureaus, ball teams, and the like. If the church goes into the entertainment business in an attempt to reach the people (reach them with what?), men of the world will say, “That’s real Christianity.” But if the church preaches the gospel, men of the world will become displeased – that is the purpose of gospel preaching; to cause them to become dissatisfied with their condition and to become Christians.<\/p>\n
Every inch of the ground which we now occupy has been gained by gospel preaching, by a campaign of teaching the facts to be believed, commands to be obeyed, and promises to be enjoyed. Every Christian should teach, preach, dispute, confute, rebuke, and exhort, and whatever else is necessary to get men to know the difference between Truth and error. This is the work of the church.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by George DeHoff via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 4, December 1992 The business of the church is to preach the gospel of Christ. It exists for this purpose. Without the gospel, men are lost. The gospel is God’s power unto salvation (Romans 1:16). There is nothing else that the church does that some other organization…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[448,941],"class_list":["post-92302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-purpose"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55535,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/church-kitchens-and-fellowship-halls\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":0},"title":"Church Kitchens and Fellowship Halls","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Riggs Church buildings with kitchens and fellowship halls are quite common today because the social gospel has gained acceptance in the minds of many. In fact, more and more churches of Christ are running headlong in that direction with complete apostasy being the only outcome. Unauthorized There is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/outreach\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":1},"title":"Outreach","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jimmy Mickells The word \"outreach\" is an expression that has been coined in recent years. If I understand what is meant by its use, it means an effort by a local church to reach out to those that are lost to save them from sin. That certainly is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/outreach.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2836,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-a-kitchen-just-a-way-to-reach-people-with-the-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":2},"title":"Isn’t a kitchen just a way to reach people with the gospel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I currently stand in the position that it is a matter of opinion concerning a kitchen or fellowship hall. Again, that is where I currently stand. Here where I preach, we do not have a kitchen per se. A majority of the brethren here would like to have one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21623,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-social-gospel\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":3},"title":"What is the Social Gospel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Thetford Have you ever asked yourself \"what is the social gospel?\" Most individuals that have been raised in the Lord's church have come to know and understand what the social gospel is. There are many, many individuals in churches of Christ around the country today that are actively\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/Street_Arabs_and_gutter_snipes._The_pathetic_and_humorous_side_of_young_vagabond_life_in_the_great_cities_with_records_of_work_for_their_reclamation_1884_14579159707-193x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21194,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-heard-about-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":4},"title":"Have You Heard About the Church of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton The churches of Christ are not a denomination. They are neither Protestant, Catholic, or Jew. They are comprised of individuals born again through obedience to the commands of Christ (John 3:1-5; I Peter 1:22-25). The church of Christ is the church Jesus said he would build\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-has-changed\/","url_meta":{"origin":92302,"position":5},"title":"Who Has Changed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne Goforth Sentry Magazine, September 2000 Someone has indeed changed! It has sometimes been argued that \"The anti's have come up a new doctrine.\" Thomas B. Warren, in his book on \"Lectures on Church Cooperation and Orphan Homes,\" argues \"If you can find anyone who taught this before 1955,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}