The Supreme Task of the Church

R. B. Kuiper in The Glorious Body of Christ:

"The church's supreme task is to teach and preach the Word of God.  Whatever else it may properly do is subordinate to that task.  This is its supreme task. ... Just because the preaching of the Word is so great a task the church must devote itself to it alone.  For the church to undertake other activities, not indissolubly bound up with this one, is a colossal blunder because it inevitably results in neglect of its proper task.  Let not the church degenerate into a social club.  Let not the church go into the entertainment business.  Let not the church take sides on such aspects of economics, politics, or natural science as are not dealt with in the Word of God.  And let the church be content to teach special, not general, revelation.  Let the church be the church." 
 

Failure in the Intelligent Presentation of the Gospel

From the Letters of Geerhardus Vos, James T. Dennison, Jr, Ed; quoted from Vos's Grace and Glory: Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary.

"Now I do not mean to affirm that in all cases there need be the preaching of false doctrine which involves and open and direct denial of the evangelical truth.  It is quite possible that both to the intention and the actual performance of the preacher any departure from the historical faith of the church may be entirely foreign.  And yet there may be such a failure in the intelligent presentation of the gospel with the proper emphasis upon that which is primary and fundamental as to bring about a result almost equally deplorable as where the principles of the gospel are openly contradicted or denied.  There can be a betrayal of the gospel of grace by silence.  There can be disloyalty to Christ by omission as well as by positive offence against the message that he has entrusted to our keeping.  It is possible, Sabbath after Sabbath and year after year, to preach things of which none can say that they are untrue and none can deny that in their proper place and time they may be important, and yet to forego telling people plainly and to forego giving them the distinct impression that they need forgiveness and salvation from sin through the cross of Christ."