Proclaimer Blog
The benefits and pitfalls of expository preaching?
Well, you might not agree with Dr Peter Masters of the Metropolitan Tabernacle on everything. I'm pretty sure he doens't agree with everything about us. Nevertheless, there are some important points he makes in this article on expository preaching. The first half is the strongest and well worth a read. After promoting the cause of expository preaching, and rightly so in our opinion, he sounds an important negative warning:
Another disadvantage that often accompanies expository preaching (whether consecutive or not) is that the method of the preacher somehow steamrollers down the method of the Holy Spirit. The preacher comes at the text in a certain logical way, examines it, and then lays out his points, his applications, scarcely noticing what the style of the text is. He treats it as a didactic passage even if it is an historical narrative or a parable, or a graphic miracle. The preacher puts everything through his expository ‘mincing machine’ regardless, and his presentation is exactly the same in every sermon. He has failed to follow or adjust to the method of communication employed by God. Expository preaching can easily degenerate into a bullying, mechanical process, even a clinical procedure, stripping out the story-form or other diversity of presentation featured in the text.
God save us from the mincing machine. BTW, a very helpful book on this subject is Preaching with Variety.