What is the answer to the needs of the Church today where the assaults and infiltrations of false teachings, heretical teachings, and suspect teachings are so prominent? It may be an eclectic approach that diversifies expository preaching with topical preaching as the Holy Spirit leads sensitive pastors. The issues affecting the Church and believers cannot be ignored or suppressed. Sound biblical interpretation and teachings are sorely needed to resist falsehoods and false teachings.
For the better part of my Christian life I have been exposed to expository preaching. Especially in Reformed faith churches, this appears to be the favored model of preaching. I, and perhaps many others, felt a bit of pride that we preferred expository preaching over topical preaching. In fact, we considered expository preaching the summon bono of preaching and preaching par excellence. Unfortunately, that also led us to a bit of spiritual pride.
The expository preaching I was exposed to over the years involved preaching through a book of the Bible, verse by verse—generally a lengthy process. What I did not realize is that it’s only one version of expository preaching. I’ve just recently learned there may be four kinds of expository preaching:
- Verse by verse
- Thematic or doctrinal
- Narrative
- Topical
I’ve been told, “To exposit means to ‘expose,’ ‘open up,’ and is not confined to one approach.” Unfortunately, most of what I’ve been exposed to is that which goes through one book of the Bible at a time. I am not familiar with these diverse versions.
I would consider expository preaching that I’ve been accustomed to as akin to perhaps a seminary class on a particular book of the Bible. Having attended a Christian college with an emphasis on biblical education and doctrine, I attended classes that focused on one book or perhaps two books such as Daniel and Revelation solely. That was most beneficial and edifying. But that was also at a time when there were fewer, if any, aggressive assaults on the Church.
Today, nonetheless, the times and challenges lead me to a change of heart and perspective. Expository preaching focused on a book and verse by verse focus involves a lengthy measure of time. It fails to address serious issues currently facing the church and sometimes encourages forcing on a passage what is not addressed in the context of that passage. In today’s environment of many assaults on the Church and Christianity with false theories such as Critical Race Theory, Social Justice, the LGBTQ+ agenda normalizing homosexuality, Transgenderism, religious liberty, sexuality issues, and more, I sense that expository preaching exclusively, as I’ve been exposed to it, fails to meet such assaults and does not challenge Christians to be faithful to the “whole counsel of God.” One book exposition of the Bible does not address the “whole counsel of God” on such issues as does topical preaching. Perhaps the thematic or topical forms of expository preaching do, but I’ve not seen that where I worship.
Let’s consider what we see in Scripture itself. Was Jesus’ preaching expository or topical? What about the Apostles? Don’t we see them treating and addressing various topics throughout the New Testament? And didn’t they refer to various Scriptural references to emphasize their points? To me, this latter point relates to their appealing to the “whole counsel of God.”
Did the Reformers preach solely expository sermons, or did they preach and teach addressing doctrinal and other issues? Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion certainly focuses on individual doctrines and issues. However, Calvin did preach through books of the Bible which, I’ve been told was termed “lectio continua,” and his commentaries were based on his sermons. “This form of preaching, ‘lectio continua,’ is one way of preaching expositorally.” We can only guess that some might have preached expositorially and topically combined to deal with an imminent issue or doctrine.
Haven’t Church counsels throughout Church history been confronted with diverse issues to be judged as orthodox or heretical?
This is not a denunciation of expository preaching, but rather an attempt to acknowledge it is not the only model for preaching, especially in a world where the fast pace of non-biblical theories are infiltrating churches and Christians’ hearts and minds, which need to be addressed simultaneously before they become naively embraced by the flock.
With so many false theories—some even quasi-heretical, if not totally non-biblical—assaulting and infiltrating conservative Evangelical and Reformed churches, there is a need for freedom coming from the Holy Spirit to address such issues for the preservation of a pure faith and Gospel. In Acts 20: 27, Paul declared: “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” This is exactly what the Church needs today, “the whole counsel of God.” Book by book and verse by verse may not meet that need in the Church. The Scriptures offer an overall view of the “whole counsel of God,” which is why topical might afford a better and preferred enlightenment at critical or crucial times.
What is the answer to the needs of the Church today where the assaults and infiltrations of false teachings, heretical teachings, and suspect teachings are so prominent? It may be an eclectic approach that diversifies expository preaching with topical preaching as the Holy Spirit leads sensitive pastors. The issues affecting the Church and believers cannot be ignored or suppressed. Sound biblical interpretation and teachings are sorely needed to resist falsehoods and false teachings.
As a believer who has preferred expository preaching, I reluctantly admit there is a very real need for topical preaching in light of the challenges of the times. Nonetheless, such topical preaching should also be expository, opening up God’s Word as clearly and thoroughly as possible.
Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.
