Relative Importance of Expository Preaching
There has been some discussion among preachers of the relative importance of expository preaching. Some churches give Scripture the dominant position over all other sources of religious understanding. This is most common in fundamentalist and evangelical denominations that take the position that the Bible is God's inerrant word, and contains sufficient information for the Christian to understand their faith and how they should live their lives. In historical theology, these churches may adhere to the Reformation teaching of Sola Scriptura which is present in the statements of faith of a number of mainline denominations (e.g., chapter 1 of The Westminster Confession of Faith).
In practice, many Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches are not regularly exposed to Expository preaching from the pulpit. Despite this, expositions of scripture are more likely to occur in these churches than in non-evangelical ones. The exposition is unlikely to be influenced by material from outside the Bible (though such material may be mentioned in the sermon, for example the writings of a commentator on the passage), but instead involves detailed comparison of one Biblical text with other texts on the same subject in order to reach a synthesis.
However, in churches that elevate church tradition, individual experience, and/or human reason to a level on par with Scripture, expository preaching (if used) will include reconciliation of the Biblical text to other sources:
- Congregations with a strong view of church tradition or church authority (common in churches with a strong hierarchical structure) will want to know how their denomination has traditionally interpreted the passage.
- Congregations with a strong belief in personal experience (common in the charismatic and Pentecostal circles) will want to understand how the passage relates to their experiences.
- Congregations with a strong belief in human reason (common in churches which reject the view of Biblical inerrancy) will want to know what modern research has to say regarding the authenticity of the passage.
Regardless of these differences of emphasis, however, most preachers and congregations would agree that preaching must be honouring to God rather than to human beings. In practice, this means that the preacher as expositor should be concerned with speaking about what God sees as important. This will be of little use, however, if it does not connect to what the people in the congregation see as important - even if it only does so by seeking to upset their priorities. But the principle must be that when a church is exposed to expository preaching, they are being enabled to hear God speak rather than being told what they think they need to hear.
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