Not the Usual Mumbo Jumbo

Gentlemen, Here is a very helpful email that Dr. Jones sent me concerning the list of NT. terms for preaching that I preesnted at the last meeting.

"Let me elaborate on the point I only hinted at at the end of the Mon night internship meeting, re: your list of NT verbs for preaching. Feel free to pass this on to the interns. I was quite interested in your list, since there is much overlap in the list below that I use in teaching on the personal ministry of God's Word (a.k.a. biblical counseling).

Key personal ministry verbs found in the Greek NT in the key passages below (Greek font is BibliaLS):

Noutheteō (νουθετεω) = to instruct, admonish, warn; to bring God’s Word into someone’s life to call, challenge, and warn him to change, because we care about him. (Acts 20:31 [w/ tears!, individual ministry]; Rom 15:14; Col 1:28; 3:16; 1 Thes 5:14; 2 Thes 3:15; Tit 3:10 [noun]). Used 11x in noun or verb form.
Didaskō (διδασκω) = to instruct or teach someone God’s Word. (Col 1:28; 3:16)
Parakaleō (παρακαλεω) = to encourage or exhort; to help a person by encouraging or exhorting (context suggests precise nuance) him to follow Christ (Heb 3:12-13)
Katartizō (καταρτίζω ) = to restore to usefulness someone who is caught up in a sin struggle (Gal 6:1)
Alētheuō (ἀληθεύw) = speaking the truth (lit. "truthing," ptc.); to speak (and live) the Gospel within the church communty to help people grow in Christlike maturity (Eph 4:15, ἀληθεύοντες)
Let me interact a bit:
1) God does not call us to "preach" or "counsel" or "teach" (he didn't write in Eng), but didasko, euangelizomai, parakaleo, etc. IOW, we must begin w/ the Bible's own language in the verses, in context, and inductively work from them to discern the God-prescribed mode of ministry, and then translate them into our English language. For example, when Paul summarizes his ministry in Col 1:28 as doing noutheteo and didasko, and then enjoins the same ministry (same verbs, reversed order) upon the entire church in 3:16, what specifically did that mean methodologically then for the Colossians and now for us?

2) At the risk of sounding anti-Reformed, I do not believe in "the primacy of preaching" but in "the primacy of the ministry of the Word in its various biblically prescribed/described modes and settings." In the Gospel accounts, Jesus spent much, if not most, of his ministry time in personal ministry, more than in preaching. In Acts 20:17ff, one of Paul's most autobiographical descriptions of his ministry, he summed his ministry as both public preaching/teaching and house-to-house private counseling/discipling (20:20). That's not to disparage preaching, just to keep the Bible's bigger picture before us.

3) A parallel example re: evangelism: EV's in Acts regularly translate euangelizomai as "preach the Gospel," but the contexts in which that verb is used can be public or private, e.g., Acts 8:4 (which Carson contends should be better translated "gossiped the Gospel").

4) I assume there may be verbs that are distinctly public -- maybe kerusso, I don't know w/o studying it (can one "herald" a military victory to just a few people?) -- but I guess my response to your list is to caution us that many of them are not distinctly "preaching verbs" per se, distinct from other modes. They seem to be "Word-ministry verbs" used in the NT for both public and pvt ministry."

-Pastor Dwayne