Ok, so I’m not sure these are the most important reasons, but right now to me they are. In no particular order:

1. Where else can one hear the Gospel?
You could argue that we should be spreading the Gospel in our work, school, neighborhoods…but reality demonstrates that this happens very infrequently, if at all. I’ve been on staff in a pastoral role–yet how often do I or someone else with my experience do so? In addition, very few people read their Bibles regularly, so they’re not receiving the Gospel from this source either. If we feel preaching the Gospel with distinct clarity doesn’t need to be central in our church, we are living in a dream world, and we will continue to see spiritual illiteracy exploding in our pews. We already know there is biblical illiteracy; I’m afraid it’s worse than that.

2. People tend to stop believing the Gospel.
We came into this faith by believing that we had no righteousness to offer, but could only dare to hope in Christ’s. But after a little time in the faith, we start thinking otherwise of ourselves. We start relying on our ability to obey Christ instead of relying on Christ himself. We are constantly moving away from this (Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it!). The Gospel isn’t just needed when we first convert–we are needing to be constantly converted from our old way of thinking.

3. We don’t really understand the Gospel that well.
No matter how well I think I understand it, every time it is preached I recognize how little I really grasp of it. It needs to be told to me over and over. Not just that Jesus died for my sins–but what are the implications? What does this really mean? Tell me more about such love! Tell me more about how worthless everything else is in comparison! (Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all!) I may think I really understand that…but clearly I don’t.

4. The Gospel is the power of God.
So many churches today state in one way or another that they are all about transformation. This word is quickly becoming irritating to me. It’s thrown around too much. But I understand why–because that word greatly describes what it means to be a Christian, a disciple, a fully-devoted believer–whatever word your church also throws around. But how does this transformation take place? Is it by having three points that all start with the same letter? Or by being more relevant with my sermon series? This may help for sure, but the real power is in the Gospel itself. The more I believe in Christ and Him crucified, the more I am transformed. Not the more I am pushed to be a better Christian, or the more I am coddled into thinking I’m fine the way I am.

5. The Gospel, as delivered to us from the Apostles, is the foundation.
And Christ himself is the cornerstone. That’s what Paul says about how to build a thriving church. While it’s important to understand so many other things by which our lives are built–shouldn’t we keep the main thing the main thing? And if it really is the main thing, that will undoubtedly be demonstrated in our preaching.