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Expository Preaching


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Just wondering how many attend or are members of a church where the Pastor preaches in an expository style. What I mean by that is he preaches verse by verse through a book or preaches a particular passage but goes through it verse by verse.

I have not been traveling as much as I used to so I don't hear a lot of other preachers in person anymore. We do have guest preachers that come and missionaries that come to our church. One thing I have noticed is a lot of the preachers I am hearing will read a passage of Scripture or maybe only a couple verses and pick out one phrase from what was read and build a sermon off of that idea. Often times your Bible is no longer needed after the Scripture is read because we don't turn anywhere or reference what was read in the original passage or verse. I have also noticed that often times this type if preaching is filled with illustrations and personal stories to drive the point home.

Just wondering what others are hearing, seeing, and being exposed to. Is this predominantly what is going on or maybe a certain "circle or group". Thank in advance.

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As a guest speaker in a church it is hard to do expository preaching because most time you only have 1 to 2 services and need more than that to thoroughly go through a passage of scripture. As a pastor my Sunday morning service is usually evangelistic as that crowd is usually the largest crowd and not always there week after week. My Sunday afternoon message is usually a series that thoroughly goes through a topic in the Bible, that usually jumps all around scripture and not just one passage. My midweek message is very expository as we go through verse by verse in a book of the Bible. Each crowd that we have for our services is different, and I found for our crowd that this format works best.

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52 minutes ago, BroMatt said:

As a guest speaker in a church it is hard to do expository preaching because most time you only have 1 to 2 services and need more than that to thoroughly go through a passage of scripture. As a pastor my Sunday morning service is usually evangelistic as that crowd is usually the largest crowd and not always there week after week. My Sunday afternoon message is usually a series that thoroughly goes through a topic in the Bible, that usually jumps all around scripture and not just one passage. My midweek message is very expository as we go through verse by verse in a book of the Bible. Each crowd that we have for our services is different, and I found for our crowd that this format works best.

Bro. Matt's style is how I was when I was a Pastor. After I left the ministry in 2008, we joined a church where the pastor preached strictly using expository preaching. Sunday Evening continued the Sunday Morning passage with Wednesday night being a different book. I have grown to love this style and miss it. My pastor in NC is a Textual preacher. He preaches through a passage, but only preaches expositorily on Wednesday's.

Preaching using the expository style is much easier to ensure that one is staying within context of the passage. All three methods of preaching are good as long as the preacher stays in context.

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2 hours ago, Pastorj said:

Bro. Matt's style is how I was when I was a Pastor. After I left the ministry in 2008, we joined a church where the pastor preached strictly using expository preaching. Sunday Evening continued the Sunday Morning passage with Wednesday night being a different book. I have grown to love this style and miss it. My pastor in NC is a Textual preacher. He preaches through a passage, but only preaches expositorily on Wednesday's.

Preaching using the expository style is much easier to ensure that one is staying within context of the passage. All three methods of preaching are good as long as the preacher stays in context.

I appreciate all the responses. And that is really my point. Even if you are a guest preacher or a missionary traveling do you have to take something out of context to preach a topical sermon? Obviously you aren't going to preach through the Book of John in one service but is there not a difference in taking I Kings 22:20-21and preaching "I will persaude him" and taking II Corinthians 5:14-21and preaching about reconciliation?

In the example in I Kings you have taken the phrase I will persaude him completely out of context and then a sermon is built around being a soul winner, basically 3 points and a poem on how to persaude men or why you should persaude men, etc... In II Corinthians you can take that passage and preach exactly what reconciliation means. You could preach why someone needs to be reconciled, how a person is reconciled, and what a person should do after they are reconciled. You can do that staying in the text and preaching what it says in context and add supporting Scripture as needed. 

The point is I hear a lot more of example 1 than I do of example 2 and I am wondering if either is more prevalent or the norm? 

Either or both of those examples may not be the greatest but I was thinking on the fly.

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3 hours ago, BroMatt said:

As a guest speaker in a church it is hard to do expository preaching because most time you only have 1 to 2 services and need more than that to thoroughly go through a passage of scripture. As a pastor my Sunday morning service is usually evangelistic as that crowd is usually the largest crowd and not always there week after week. My Sunday afternoon message is usually a series that thoroughly goes through a topic in the Bible, that usually jumps all around scripture and not just one passage. My midweek message is very expository as we go through verse by verse in a book of the Bible. Each crowd that we have for our services is different, and I found for our crowd that this format works best.

I agree with the way you have chosen to reach the different audiences. This was the way I learned in my first missionary church. It has the potential to feed each group. One other thing it does is if the messages other than the worship service on Sunday morning are expository, it has the potential for some one that does not attend every service to become curious about what the difference is if they attend one of the services they do not normally attend.

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1 minute ago, AdamL said:

I appreciate all the responses. And that is really my point. Even if you are a guest preacher or a missionary traveling do you have to take something out of context to preach a topical sermon? Obviously you aren't going to preach through the Book of John in one service but is there not a difference in taking I Kings 22:20-21and preaching "I will persaude him" and taking II Corinthians 5:14-21and preaching about reconciliation?

In the example in I Kings you have taken the phrase I will persaude him completely out of context and then a sermon is built around being a soul winner, basically 3 points and a poem on how to persaude men or why you should persaude men, etc... In II Corinthians you can take that passage and preach exactly what reconciliation means. You could preach why someone needs to be reconciled, how a person is reconciled, and what a person should do after they are reconciled. You can do that staying in the text and preaching what it says in context and add supporting Scripture as needed. 

The point is I hear a lot more of example 1 than I do of example 2 and I am wondering if either is more prevalent or the norm? 

Either or both of those examples may not be the greatest but I was thinking on the fly.

Adaml

There is a lot of sloppy preaching out there. Whether one preaches Expository, Textual or Topical, the preacher is responsible to ensure that he uses passages properly and in context.

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I have had a problem with the terms expository, textual, topical. Every expository sermon has a topic and should use supporting texts; every textual  sermon should have great exposition and a topic; every topical sermon should have supporting texts and great exposition. I have heard men think they were expository but only gave a running commentary to a passage. I think of Paul's recorded sermons and they weren't very expository by our standards. I have preached verse by verse at times, and series based on themes, but always careful to give good exposition and supporting Scriptures.

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Paul, great attempt at saying nothing with a lot of words!

AdamL, I agree, your first example is horrible and is a twisting/misrepresentation of Scripture. Nothing wrong with using a verse/passage as a springboard for a topical message - as long as the verse used as the focal point is not taken out of context. If it does not have anything to do with the Biblical teaching that someone is trying to present, then it should not be done. AND for a topical sermon to be true to God’s word, it must take into account all the Bible passages dealing with that precept (even if they are not presented in the message, they should NEVER contradict the rest of the Bible on that topic).

Typically, on Wednesday nights, my pastor works his way through a book expositionally (currently working through the book of Mark). Sunday school services are usually working through a quarterly of some kind - though previously I believe he worked through a survey of the Bible for a year or so before I came back regularly to this church. The main Sunday morning service is whatever message the Lord lays on his heart. While the evening service message is often working through a series, but could be topical or expositional depending upon the theme.

My pastor had a heart attack right after the service last Wednesday night, and last Sunday and tonight we had various men in our church preach whatever the Lord laid on their heart. I preached a topical sermon tonight (actually a character study on John Mark*), but it treated each passage dealing with Mark, Barnabas, and his mother Mary’s house (the upper room where they gathered for prayer) in an expository manner (if I could say that) - defining words, pointing out various things in each passage, etc.

*A sermon on the theme of the God of second chances and new beginnings, showing how the Lord gave both John Mark (the rich young ruler, who later departed from Barnabas and Paul on their missionary journeys) and Paul those second chances and new beginnings. Hope that made sense. 

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