Answers for Pastors

Isn’t expositional preaching too monological and one-sided? Don’t people better learn through dialogue?

9Marks
Some people resent expositional preaching’s monological mode. One man stands up for many minutes and preaches while everyone else listens. Isn’t this unfair or even oppressive? What about conversation? Certainly, there should be plenty of venues in the life of the church for conversation, whether through inductive Bible studies, follow-up sermon studies in small groups, or other contexts. 

Is expositional preaching the only kind of preaching a pastor should do?

9Marks

No, expostional preaching is not the only kind of preaching a pastor should do. But…

Do we see examples of expositional preaching in the Bible?

9Marks

Yes. Some of these are more distant historical precedents and some of these are clear examples of expositional preaching—preaching that explains and applies the main point of a biblical text.

Why should a pastor preach expositionally?

9Marks

A pastor should preach expositionally because God works through God’s word. God speaking is God acting.*

What tips do you have for dealing with bad leaders that you inherit in a new pastorate?

9Marks
Pray.  Pray for wisdom. Pray for humility. Pray for unity between you and your church’s other leaders. Pray that God would work in their hearts. Preach the Bible. All genuine change in a church comes as God works through his Word. Pray that God would use your teaching of his Word to change the hearts of your leaders.

Why should expositional preaching include biblical theology?

9Marks
Bibilical theology is necessary in order to understand the text. We can truly understand a text of Scripture only by situating it within the overall narrative of redemptive history.

How should you deal with a bad statement of faith, church covenant, or church constitution that you inherit in a new pastorate?

9Marks

It depends on your circumstances. But here are four different tactics that you might find helpful.

Why should expositional preaching include systematic theology?

9Marks

Is there a contradiction between systematic theology and faithful preaching of the text? Can we faithfully do both?

9Marks
Recently, some people have begun to argue that systematic theology inherently distorts the meaning of scriptural texts. They argue that any “system” imposes foreign thought-structures onto biblical texts, necessarily tampering with their meaning.

What should an installation service seek to accomplish?

9Marks

In a nutshell, an installation service should clarify and underscore the responsibility the pastor has toward the church and the responsibility the church has toward the pastor.

What should a pastor do whose people don’t like expositional preaching?

9Marks
Spend more time preparing excellent sermons. Spend more time studying the text, meditating on it, praying over it, making sure you understand it. Spend more time praying for the members of your congregation by name, asking God how the text might apply to them. Sacrifice other items in your weekly calendar so that you can prayerfully prepare excellent sermons.

Why don’t people like expositional preaching?

9Marks
They have no appetite for it. Non-Christians typically have little desire to hear God’s authoritative Word. Yet we who are Christians can have weak spiritual appetites, like children who want only junk food, when the meat and vegetables of expositional preaching will do us far more spiritual good. We may not like expositional preaching because we’ve never been trained on solid foods.  

What are some practical ways for a new pastor to get to know his church and its community?

9Marks
Learn everything you can about your people. Get to know them by name. Learn how they became Christians, what their experience at the church has been like, and what they are struggling with and encouraged by in the church.

Should expositional sermons be evangelistic?

9Marks

Absolutely! Why?

Why doesn’t expositional preaching require a verse-by-verse approach?

9Marks

Some people associate expositional preaching exclusively with an approach that plods through books of the Bible one verse at a time. While this is certainly one way to preach expositionally, it is by no means the only way.