006 - Prologue

Part One A PLEA FOR EXPOSITORY PREACHING

PROLOGUE WITH A VIEW to gleaning information from which we might be enabled to draw some positive conclusions relative to the expositional method of preaching, a questionnaire was recently circulated among a representative and widely scattered group of ministers. The majority of them are located in the South, though some are in the North, but all are conservative. Some are now serving as professors of homiletics or as executives, but all have been in the pastorate. In some cases they are men who were known to give emphasis to the expositional ministry, but this could not be said of all of them.

There was a remarkable unity of opinion revealed in the replies. Each one was requested to “write a brief paragraph setting forth your personal convictions relative to the value of expository preaching.” Remarks such as the following were typical of the replies to this request:

If a minister desires to stay in a pastorate much over two years he must be an expository preacher. The messages which are best received are expositions of key passages. In my judgment the need for expository preaching is paramount. It is sad that there is so little of it today; and that first, among other reasons, accounts for our impotency.

Prevalence—it is almost unknown today. Value-beyond calculation. I use it exclusively, or nearly so. God has always honored the Word when so preached, in the growth and usefulness of His people.

I give expositions of Bible books morning and evening to my congregation. I find it feeds the flock, grips young people, sustains interest. (Italics ours.)

Expository preaching is the best. Our preachers are so busy in promotional work that they are not giving the time necessary for expository preaching. People are hungry for it. If preachers knew how to do it, expository sermons would be as popular as topical sermons.

It is very rare these days, and the Church is paying a high price for lack of a constructive, all-round Bible teaching ministry. It is the most valuable type of preaching for building up an intelligent and spiritual church. I am following the expository method most of the time. I have covered the New Testament—much of it many times, and about seventy per cent of the Old Testament. Nothing builds up saints like it.

It is the only kind of preaching which has any true value or authority.

There is very little of it done these days. It would be profitable for all ministers to employ it a great deal of the time. Because of the manifold programs in churches today most of us neglect the “dig” required for it. I employ this method about one-fourth of the time. I must give more time to this field.

There are many reasons why there is far too little of it today. The schedule most preachers have to follow, the speed of the program, the lack of time for preparation, seem to be the greatest hindrances. I am not an expository preacher in that I follow that pattern of preaching week by week.

I believe it to be the richest and most needful type of preaching.

It seems that there are very few who even attempt it. I try to do more expository than any other kind. In my opinion this is the most effective preaching to be done. We have few expository preachers because of the cost involved. Many men lack knowing how. The most valuable but most neglected type of preaching, at least two-thirds of my preaching is expository. Most men would do more if they had learned how.

I try to do some of it and I believe our people need more of this kind of preaching. Some men can, and some men cannot, do it well.

Some of these comments came from men who are pastors of large, progressive city churches and, in some cases, they have been on the field for twenty or thirty years. In addition to the foregoing, it was also requested in the questionnaire that four or five names be given of preachers in their own state, who were known to give at least some emphasis to expository preaching, as well as a similar number from any area in the country. Not many names were given, and there was some duplication. In some cases those who were mentioned were men of great ability in the pulpit, but not in the realm of exposition, a fact which they themselves would readily acknowledge. The one supplying the name was doubtless assuming that the man would excel in that realm as in others. One man who is in position to speak with authority said that he did not know of one. The author was rather surprised to find that the information gathered by this means most emphatically endorsed his own conclusions, which may be summed up briefly as follows:

1.    That expositional preaching is by far superior to all other types of preaching.

2.    That there is evidently very little of it being done today.

3.    That the ministers have either not been trained to do it, or they do not give the time necessary to expository excellence.

It seems that there are two primary reasons why men do not give the necessary time to it. First of all, the multiplicity of pastoral duties and complexity of programs crowd it out; or there is an unwillingness to spend the hours in diligent concentration. In some cases it may be a combination of both. A further request in the questionnaire was for the titles of some books which had been found helpful in the technique of expositional treatment. The replies to this were rather meager. One man who is well-read, and who is both a pastor and professor of homiletics, summed it up this way:

During recent years I have read many books on preaching. From them three definite impressions have been made with reference to expository preaching:

1.    Many of them are loud in their praise of expository preaching.

2.    It is generally recognized that little actual expository preaching is being done.

3.They offer very little help to the man who really wants to do expository preaching. In the light of these conclusions it is to be hoped that the following pages will offer some practical assistance to those who would like to excel, to some extent at least, in the realm of expositional preaching.