Comments on: More on the “Myth of Expository Preaching”

By: wayne

wayne — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:21:44 +0000

Okay, I just finished reading all 3 parts. I like a lot of what Fitch is saying. Especially about communal and liturgical worship, struggling with the text in community, letting the spirit and tradition (saints of the past) speak and so forth. But I still fail to see how or why this rules out expository preaching. It seems to me he sets up a bit of a false dichotomy between expository and narrative preaching. His description of expository preaching also seems to set up a bit of a straw man. Clear expository preaching was never about topical sermons with bullet points and insight from video clips or other pop culture references. That is a wholes different monster that sometimes implements expository preaching and sometimes does not. Lastly, good preaching (whether “expository” or not) is always informed by the overall biblical metanarrative as well as tradition; but his article makes it sound like true expository preaching has never been anything but eisegesis. I must disagree and insist that the best preaching will be both narrative and expository.

By: wayne

wayne — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:49:25 +0000

Okay, I just finished reading all 3 parts. I like a lot of what Fitch is saying. Especially about communal and liturgical worship, struggling with the text in community, letting the spirit and tradition (saints of the past) speak and so forth. But I still fail to see how or why this rules out expository preaching. It seems to me he sets up a bit of a false dichotomy between expository and narrative preaching. His description of expository preaching also seems to set up a bit of a straw man. Clear expository preaching was never about topical sermons with bullet points and insight from video clips or other pop culture references. That is a whole different monster that sometimes implements expository preaching and sometimes does not. Lastly, good preaching (whether “expository” or not) is always informed by the overall biblical metanarrative as well as tradition; but his article makes it sound like true expository preaching has never been anything but eisegesis. I must disagree and insist that the best preaching will be both narrative and expository.

By: gpen

gpen — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 01:38:29 +0000

Maybe I’m not understanding what’s at issue here, but I don’t see why expository preaching has to be in conflict with any of what Fitch is recommending. For example, why can’t one participate in “sentence-by-sentence exposition & explaining,” while at the same time “describ[ing] the world as it is via the person and work of Jesus Christ,” and so on?

I always thought ‘expository’ preaching (i.e., letting one central passage dictate the topic[s]) was the opposite of ‘topical’ preaching (i.e., letting the topic dictate the passage[s]).

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:59:05 +0000

As a pastor with some preaching duties, I respect these ideas. But I don’t necessarily see them as a movement or change that is necessary. Scripture itself employs both narrative and expository elements. I don’t see why sermons shouldn’t continue to be open to both – as the Spirit moves.

Sometimes non-expository preaching is scary because it places more emphasis on the preacher and his “insight” than upon the Scripture. I have heard this often and cringe. Not to say that expository preaching solves that problem.

I guess this whole discussion feels to me like much ado about nothing. The emphasis on change is too heavy – probably to make a point against what is perceived as the status quou. Either that or it is an unjustifiable (in my opinion) linking of expository preaching with more modernistic thought patterns and the hope to be more “relevant”.

Let’s stop talking about movements of style with such paradigm shifting language. Instead, encourage the preacher to be prayerful and meditative upon Scripture in preperation. Then trust the Holy Spirit to lead the preacher in the way best suited for the congregation and the preacher’s own gifts. Let’s concentrate on the core things and leave the theologuema where it belongs.