The Southside Lectures are always a special time for our people. For twenty-three years they have provided us a source of spiritual refreshment and a stimulus to new spiritual growth. Every year, a month or two following the lectures, the elders meet to discuss whether the event is still effective in encouraging our people, reaching the lost, and otherwise stimulating our local work. While the lectures are well-attended by saints from the area and from abroad, they are intended as a help for this local church. They are only effective as they inspire the growth of our people and elicit their enthusiastic participation in making the most of the spiritual opportunities which the lectures provide. Thus far they have done so—and that is what makes the lectures a special time.

This year’s lectures, the twenty-third in the series, are extra special. All eleven of the “young” men who at sometime over the last quarter century worked in the preacher-training arrangement at Southside have returned. Randy King… Fred Gore… Chuck Durham… Marty Pickup… David Curry… Russ Bowman… Tony Mauck… Mike Thomley… Lawrence Kelley… Jason Moore… Bubba Garner… They’re all here! They will all join with brother Bowman in speaking on the great themes from Titus and Timothy, Paul’s epistles to the preachers whom he apprenticed in the gospel. The general theme, “Preach the Word!”, is appropriate given the speakers and their special relationship to this congregation. It is even more fitting given our needs, because the preached word is the need of the hour.

We need preaching. Not just teaching. Instruction alone will not do. By itself, it will not help us. It’s not just information, but motivation we need. Sinners needs to be convicted. The indifferent awakened. The aimless directed. The indulgent ashamed. The timid encouraged. The diffident made resolute. The proud made humble. The selfish made charitable. We need “reproving, rebuking, exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine” (). It’s what the Lord prescribed for our soundness and growth. Preaching. It’s what we need this week.

We need the Word preached. The gospel is not just good news. It is the best of all possible news. It alone meets our needs, answers life’s dilemmas, slakes our thirst for righteousness, and fills the vacuum left by sin’s intrusion into our world. Political or social philosophy won’t help us. Psychology will not do. Entertainment won’t either—it has already taken too much of our prime time and resources. The remedies of men are a momentary nostrum for what ails. What we need is the Book of God made practical. It alone is “profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness”; it alone will make us “perfect, throughly furnished for unto all good works” (). The Word. The Word preached. It’s what we need this week.

These are our real needs. This week is a great reunion with those we love. It’s a time for remembering, for getting reacquainted, for “catching up.” It will be filled with cheerful greetings, warm embraces, happy recollections, and bittersweet departures. But this week is not just about being together, close to each other. It’s about each one of us being closer to the Lord. That’s what we need. That’s what we really need. That’s what we all really need. That’s what preaching will do. That’s what the Word will accomplish. We need this time together. We need these men. We need this message. We need this message preached. But all these needs are the means to the real end. What we really need is a strong, deep, personal relationship with the Lord—a resolute faith, a vibrant hope, a proven character, an unashamed posture. That’s what we need this week, and what this week is about.

The words of Cornelius to Peter on the occasion of his arrival to preach the word of salvation to the centurion’s household are fitting: “Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God” (). We too are present before God. These men, beloved of this church, have answered our invitation to come. The Lord has delivered His message to them, the same message given to the preachers of long ago to dispense to men of every nation who embrace the gospel. They’re here! The message is here. We’re all ready. “Preach the Word!”