It is our view that expository preaching builds the church for the long haul. Churches have been steadily reducing the amount of Biblical information available to disciples.Midweek services, if they are held, have little teaching content. Sunday night services have been abandoned by droves of churches. Sunday School attendance once led in all churches. Now it is down to about 60% of the main morning service attendance nationwide.
Classes have shifted away from a teacher that shows what God says in the Biblical text to raising questions like "How do you feel about this verse?" "How did you feel when you had an experience like the verse talks about?" The effort is to get away from teaching that has the ring of authority.
Hymns, with their great teaching contents, have been replaced by praise choruses. The "teaching one another in psalms, hymn and spiritual songs" has been replaced with tofu tunes.
The "God is deaf" musical fashion trend has turned up the audio and put choruses on a nearly-infinite loop. The exact words may be repeated five times without stopping and with enough volume to send tinnitus suffers to the exits.
The preacher's main avenue left to teach the Bible to the present and oncoming generation of disciples is the expository sermon. Even if his time is limited to 20 minutes on a Sunday morning, he can communicate the message of the Lord effectively by learning economy of language and effective ways to illustrate.
It was in the early 1970s that we recorded this lesson on Expository Preaching and its message is still relevant. The recording has been edited from 122 minutes to 39 minute.
To listen to the 39 minute version now, click here.