I frequently hear or read people who reject expository preaching because it’s not their style. Articles and even textbooks on homiletics sometimes refer to the different preaching styles as topical, textual, and expository. “If you want to preach expository sermons, that’s your style, but it’s not my style,” some pastors say. Others go further and argue that the style of expository preaching will not work in today’s world.
Is expository preaching a style of preaching? Read more…
What is the state of preaching in the evangelical church in 2022?
Are we producing disciples of Jesus Christ?
The answers to those questions are both instructive and discouraging. Preaching today largely avoids doctrine and emphasizes felt needs and life apps. Doctrine divides, so we don’t want to teach doctrine. Felt needs and life apps are winning topics. People want to hear these ideas. Much preaching in the evangelical church today is about attracting people to church instead of teaching disciples to know the faith. We are seeing the results in our evangelical churches, as the 2022 State of Theology survey demonstrates. Read more…
CLICKBAIT OR FREEWAY SERMONS: WHAT KIND OF PREACHER ARE YOU?
What kind of preacher are you? Read more…
EXPOSED BY COVID
A Pew Research Center study published on March 22, 2022, revealed that large numbers of people are not coming back to in-person church attendance despite the decline of COVID. Of those who attended in-person church services once or twice a month before the pandemic, only 67% have returned to church, and 36% of those combine in-person and online attendance each month. One in five people (21%) who had attended regularly before the pandemic now appear to substitute virtual church for in-person church. You can read the full study here. You can read James Emery White’s analysis of the study here. White predicts:
They are not coming back.
I watched a YouTube video on landscape photography this past week to learn some tips on composition. Andy Mumford is a professional landscape photographer, and he made a statement in the middle of the video that was so clear and powerful I wrote it down and posted it on my desk. Read more…
A Christian brother launched a volley of convictions about masks and vaccinations at me in our telephone conversation. He did so without knowing my convictions, and he did not care to find out. He assumed that his convictions were right, so he had the right to express them. Last year, a local church advertised that they opposed the government mask mandate “by Christian conviction” as if those on the other side have no convictions. The reality is that many Christians hold opposite convictions about vaccinations and mask-wearing, leading to a divided church in a partisan world. Read more…
“I don’t have the time for sermon preparation with all the other pastoral responsibilities that demand my attention.”
“Other preachers say it better than me, so why not use their messages to reach my people better?”
“The communication experts know how to craft a message that will attract people much better than I do.”
“If we are going to reach more people, we need to be spending more time studying people than we do studying the Bible.” Read more…
A THREE-LEGGED STOOL – All expositional preaching rests on a three-legged theological stool, 1) exegetical theology, 2) biblical theology, and 3) pericopal theology. These three legs are all necessary for expository preaching.
In 1981, Walter Kaiser sounded a grim warning about a growing crisis in evangelical preaching. The crisis has only grown worse since he warned us about it 40 years ago. The crisis in evangelical preaching is the loss of exegetical theology as a foundation for our sermons.[1] Read more…
“No one knows the Bible today, so talking about the Bible is boring to people.”
“The Bible is not relevant to my daily life. Who cares what happened to Hosea?”
“Our world has changed, so we need sermons that relate to our changed world?”
“You have to preach about what people want to hear if you want to help them with what they need to know.”
“Why do you spend all that time in the exegesis of the text? All that work studying the Bible won’t help you understand the needs of people.” Read more…
