Expository Preaching

Like most, I copied my pastor and those preachers that I liked. This probably applies to any type of preaching. Read widely, jot down ideas, and spend time listening to story tellers. Those will help, but it can't replace the sense and confirmation from the Spirit that there is something God wants you to say to his church.

 

I prepare by reading the text and doing my own exegesis before consulting commentaries. It is critical to good preaching that an expositor also be an exegete.

 

It was not so much a personal call as it was a confirmation by my then pastor. There are many in ministry today that confuse desire with a calling. Personal calling appeals to the American mindset. We like to think we are rugged individualists who are captains of our own fate. The truth is that God has given the church elders to not only shepherd the flock, but to train other faithful men (2 Timothy 2:2). I counsel young men who are interested in ministry to make their desire known to their pastor and elders. Come under their authority. Seek their counsel. Heed their advice. They may recognize pastoral gifts. They may also recognize problems that need to be addressed or cause difficulty in being a minister of the gospel.

 

My church had an extension of Luther Rice back before they started working toward a regional accreditation and pulled all of their extensions back. My pastor was also my mentor, and college prof. We had around 40 budding pastors at any one time being mentored in our church. We were taught exegesis, sermon structure, Hermeneutics, and given plenty of opportunity to preach. In our preaching classes we preached 10 minute sermons and all the other preachers would fill out written critiques as we did and then we were given those to go over.

I spent 4.5 years preaching in the nursing home ministry, 1 year with Good News Jail and Prison ministry, and I spent some time traveling around the state of Florida training churches how to share the gospel. I was discipled by my pastor and was given plenty of opportunity over the years before my first pastorate to preach.

A desire to preach may in fact be your calling and you just may be confused about what context that calling will yet be. What I would do if I were you is to speak to your pastor about this and see if he would be willing to disciple you in preaching. As you go along work to find different venues to preach such as the nursing home and jails etc. If you just sit still and wait for some call to be crystal clear before moving it will never happen. The clarity on a call will come in service.

But again if your are feeling a desire to preach then that may in fact be your call.

 

I Tim. 3:1 "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." As has been mentioned desire may be the information you seek. And as you said, you have praying to do so me thinks you are on the right track!

 

Wow. Reformed and I had very similar experiences. And, yes...you DO have a lot of praying. May I suggest Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones's book on preaching?

 

Permit me a story that indirectly relates to the thread.

A former pastor of mine also taught homiletics at nearby Mid-Continent University, a Baptist school in Mayfield, Kentucky.

Each of his students was required to prepare and preach a sermon to the rest of the class. It had to be an expository sermon, not what my pastor called "topical trash."

One of the students was already in full-time evangelism. When his turn came, he preached a topical sermon. My pastor, the professor, gave him an F.

Upon receiving notification of his grade, the student stormed into the professor's office. "Why did you give me an F? God told me to preach that sermon."

The professor replied: "God told me to give you an F."

 

Good Question!

Rick, I love your candidness. While it is true that you first, and foremost should know beyond doubt that you've been called to preach. Then, you work out your style with the prayerful groanings of the Holy Ghost.

When I first started, preaching from a preformed, well prepared sermon was the only way I'd go to the pulpit. Keep in mind, that five, six, seven-page script was a result of tons of prayer and study!

Then I felt the nudge to preach the message in front of me with the leading of the Spirit, and in the initial days, I'd get going, and then realize I was off script, and get frustrated as I couldn't find my place once I realized I was not on script. It was a confusing, frustrating time.

Then [and I'm talking years] I went to outline, and once God weaned me from the scripts and outlines and showed me His Spirit would give me the words; I went to a scriptural passage, with notes on the margins of all my pages. I had several folks ask if they could look at my Bible, as they felt the messages were super and they wanted to see how God was working in my preparation and delivery. You should see my Bible? I have hundreds of messages notated on each page. In fact, now I can open the Word, and according to what I sensed the needs of the group were, I can preach up a storm, just from the verses and completely LEANING on the Holy Ghost!

In fact, there was a time I wanted to preach this way, but never thought I'd make it beyond the scripted messages. Man, God is awesome, and He gradually took away my crutches, and got me in tune with what He needed to say and how He wanted it said!

That is not to say any of the other ways are wrong, or that my way is superior. That is not what I am saying! It is just the comfort level I now have, and there are good things to say about each style of preaching! You just find what YOU feel comfortable with and then be open to what He teaches and leads you to!

As for knowing I was called ... it was definitely UNMISTAKEABLE. If you want to know what it was that led to my calling, write me, and I'll share!

God bless you my brother, and know you will be in my thoughts and prayers as you seek to elevate your ministry in His name and to His glory! Just be patient, and God will lead you to, or away from the call to preach! raying:

 

My educational background is that I have an undergraduate degree in Bible, seminary degree, and a PhD in theology. So I received quite a bit of instruction in the ways to develop and prepare for a sermon.

I don't always preach expository sermons, but I always preach sermons that dig into the text of Scripture.

Generally my method is square out how the text naturally flows and where the "paragraph breaks" (there are no paragraphs in Greek) occur to find the thought divisions in a book or extended passage. Then I focus on a paragraph (or two) and begin by laying out the text in Greek, working through it (parsing, identifying key words, and creating a rough translation), then I start doing some lexical work and refine my own translation a bit and do (not always but often) diagram key sentences and phrases to see the thought flow.

After the textual work is done, I go and consult relevant commentaries and add notes around the text. (I'm usually working on an excel spreadsheet for the passage that combines with a word document) From this spreadsheet I go and summarize points and thoughts for each sentence and place it within the framework of whatever the author(s) is/are attempting to do and say.

Then I create my sermon using either an inductive or deductive approach to structure my big idea. Out of the big idea I build my points. In these points I lay them around the text we are talking about that day. Then I add relevant commentary notes and observations about the text including secondary or support texts. Finally, I add my illustrations and such.

Then I make sure it fits into my timeframe. I prefer only to preach for 30 minutes flat and attempt to make it by 25 if I can. Because I speak out of a big idea, I really try to make that the central thing which is remembered alongside the text we investigated.

People love having someone dig into the Scriptures with them. My topical sermons stay rooted there as well. Hope that helps.

A fine place to be, work it out in the midst of ministry is what I always recommend.