These last few weeks have submerged me in the wonderful realm of preaching the Bible. More specifically, though, I've been grappling with the idea of expository preaching and if there is an occasion where "dialogue"—verbal, interactive dialogue—is acceptable during the Sunday morning church service (note my qualification of the Sunday morning service only; I deliberately have excluded such studies as the Sunday evening service, mid-week service, a home community group, etc.). In my thinking, reading, and consideration of God's Word, I am convinced that preaching via monologue is the best way to communicate on a Sunday morning.One of the quotes I came across was from Jack Hughes. Enjoy!
Many pastors are struggling to keep their churches from becoming like the church of Sardis. They try biblical exposition, but something doesn’t seem to be working right. They faithfully preach the word, but contrary to the promise of God in Isaiah 55:11, the word of God seems to come back void. Their church doesn’t grow spiritually or numerically. People don’t seem to be responding. As they struggle to maintain a good attitude and fight the good fight, they see the church that doesn’t do expository preaching growing by leaps and bounds. Legions of cars pack the car park of the ‘seek sensitive church’ Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Wednesday night because it is meeting ‘felt needs’. . . . It can make an expositor have second thoughts. ‘Maybe biblical exposition is a cultural thing. Times have changed. Maybe expository preaching is out, and we should try something new.’ Snap out of it! Don’t even begin to entertain such thoughts. Satan is willing to trade solid biblical preaching for numerical growth. He would be glad to fill your car park if you will dump expository preaching. Satan skips with joy when expository preaching is substituted with anything else. He knows, if he can get rid of expository preaching, he can steer the church any way he wants. Satan knows that, when faithful preaching is set aside, the church will become vulnerable to his subtle deceptions and become ineffective.From: Jack Hughes, Expository Preaching with Word Pictures, 8–9.
