Proclaimer Blog
Introducing Expositional Preaching
One of the most encouraging things I saw in the US was the desire to promote and practice expository preaching in the local church. In fact, this is one of the affirmations of the T4G crowd:
Article IVWe affirm the centrality of expository preaching in the Church and the urgent need for a recovery of biblical exposition and the public reading of Scripture in worship. We deny that God-honoring worship can marginalize or neglect the ministry of the Word as manifested through exposition and public reading. We further deny that a Church devoid of true biblical preaching can survive as a Gospel Church.
Expositional preaching is preaching in which the main point of a biblical text becomes the main point of the sermon and is applied to life today. This is how pastors should preach. God calls pastors not to preach their own opinions or agendas; he calls them to preach his Word. Expositional preaching is what gives life and health to the church. It's what shapes, forms and reforms the church. It reveals God to us. It confronts our sin. It comforts us. It brings us to Christ. And it teaches us how to live together in a way that puts God's glorious character on display for all the world to see.
- We're not saying expositional preaching has to go verse by verse through a book of the Bible
- We're not saying expositional preaching rules out topical preaching as a legitimate practice
- We're not saying expositional preaching is just a series of lectures, the main goal of which is information transfer
- We're not saying expositional preaching is marked by any particular style
- We're not saying expositional preaching is not evangelistic preaching
These obviously require more explanation. You'll have to buy the book. Anecdotally, pastors I had meals with had also caught the vision. I hesitate to say this – but as a movement within conservative evangelicalism it feels that the US is where we were 20-30 years ago. Sorry, US readers! But the UK has got to be ahead in something! That's not to say that there have not been proponents and practitioners for generations. There have. One thinks of Haddon Robinson in the seminary and guys like R Kent Hughes in the pulpit. But, to this uneducated observer at least, it feels that there is now real momentum. Praise God for that.
So, expository preaching is dead! Long live expositional preaching.