"Expository Preaching" in an age of Distraction

What is "expository preaching?"

Expositional or expository preaching is preaching through a whole book of the Bible, consecutively, week by week.

It has become the accepted norm in many churches, even though it is not found in the Bible. The sermons we find in the book of Acts, for example, rely and refer to multiple verses scattered all over the Scriptures, gathered together. 

For that single Biblical reason alone, no preacher need feel compelled to adopt expository preaching. 

There are times when a church may need a series of sermons about marriage or money or parenting, or other topical themes. There is nothing wrong with the topical method of preaching.

My guess is that the expositional method originates from the academy rather than the Scriptures. So we can imagine students of literature making their way, systematically, chapter by chapter, through Homer's Iliad or Fitzgerald's The Great Gadsby.

Both Topical and Expositional are Valid

It is argued that the expositional method is superior because the preacher is forced to address issues that he would not otherwise have chosen. This is makes human sense. But of course an expositional preacher can decide to expand upon certain verses and skim swiftly over others. It is a fallacy to imagine that expositional preachers preach "the whole counsel of God" merely by virtue of method. The preacher is a fallen biased saint just like everyone else. 

(I once heard an expository preacher make his way through Colossians and completely ignore "I am present with you in spirit." (2:5) Far too spookey for rational minds to grasp, let alone preach on). 

On the other hand it is argued that topical preaching puts the subject choice too much in the hands of the preacher. True. But a wise preacher would want to preach topics which cover the whole counsel of God.

On balance, a mixture of both methods seems wise, and expositional preaching perhaps has the protective edge.

Stand Alone Sermons

But my concern here is how expositional preaching is done today.

In the "olden days" when folk came to church faithfully week after week with few breaks, the preacher could run from one section of a book to the next seamlessly, assuming that everyone who was there last week will be there next week. 

This is not the case any longer and folks might miss a few weeks and never listen to the sermons they missed. 

One way to respond to these circumstances is to make every sermon a stand-alone Word for that day. That may mean rearranging the material and seeking the main theme.

This approach is also just generally wise because in moving from written communication to verbal communication it is often essential to re-organise the teaching of the text. 

The test for expositional-stand-alone preaching - indeed all expository preaching is  this: when someone reads the Scripture preached on in the afternoon let's say, they can say "The preacher explained everything in those verses." 

AI Image: man in jeans with Bible preaching to small congregation in a school hall