The Itinerant Pulpit

My Preaching Philosophy

A philosophy is the guiding factor in how a person conducts himself. In preaching, whether one realizes it or not, each preacher has a guiding set of rules or principles by which he studies the Word, prepares the messages, and delivers them. For the inquisitive pastor or the merely curious listener, here is a brief detailing of the guidelines by which I operate with God's Word.

1. I Firmly Believe that the Text is God's Word.

Firstly, I firmly believe that God inspired Scripture in a verbal fashion. In other words, He didn't just inspire thoughts. He inspired the very words of Scripture. This means that words are important. God meant what He said. So I study the words and how God puts them together.

2. I Try to Discover, Not Invent.

Too many people today come to God's Word seeking to impose their own thoughts upon the verses, instead of allowing Scripture to speak for itself. As several other preachers have said before me, "Our job is to discover what God has said, not invent what He did not." Nehemiah 8:8 reads, "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." This is an excellent passage that lays out for us 3 aspects of delivering truth from Scripture.

Firstly, they read in the book distinctly. This means that they were careful to go through the details of exactly what it said. Ezra was careful in his reading and his discovery of what God said. He was not careless. It was the power of Scripture that was the driving factor here.

Secondly, they gave the sense. This is the explanation of the truth. First came the details, now the explanation of those details. They explained to the people not just what God said, but what it meant. This is the responsibility of the preacher, to explain the meaning of the passage.

Finally, they caused them to understand the reading. This is the practical outflow. Too many people stop before this step. This is the element of the listener. We are not to be satisfied unless the hearers realize that this truth affects them! As preachers, we are not preaching to empty chairs or pews. We are required to take God's truth, and explain it to real people.

The best preaching method to accomplish these goals is applied expositional preaching. This means that we literally "expose" the text of Scripture to the listeners. Doing this requires that we treat the text as a continous whole, not as a mere collection of isolated verses. God had (and has!) something coherent to say through the writers. Other than much of Proverbs, the Bible was not meant to be taken in short chunks. It was written in continuous thoughts. Our responsibility is to discover those thoughts through the illumination of the Holy Spirit Who will guide us into the truth.

Preaching expositionally does not require that a preacher remain in only one verse or passage. In fact, the Bible is the best commentary on itself. One text may be amplified or even explained by another. I believe that expositional preaching has to do more with the manner in which we approach the text (as a continous, connected whole rather than isolated sentences) then it has to do with limiting our scope of study. Isogesis occurs when one interprets a small portion of Scripture while ignoring the rest of Scripture. One could think he was simply doing an extremely narrow exegesis in the name of expository study but in reality be sliding toward isogesis. We must be careful to always exegete carefully, in context both of the immediate passage and of Scripture's teaching as a whole.

I say applied expositional preaching because exposition isn't enough. While many would say that true expositional preaching will naturally lead to application (and I would heartily agree) just because it leads to it doesn't mean the preacher always does it! The real-world analysis of many who otherwise preach expositorily reveals that there are some who relegate application to a few "tacked-on" thoughts at the tail end of the message when most people are packing up their notes and belongings to leave the service. Expositional preaching is the best method to represent God's truth to the hearers, but it is most powerful when it is applied specifically to one's every-day life. After all, there is no impact without contact.

3. Putting Handles on the Truth is Important.

I call this "putting handles on the truth" because it has to do with the practical outflow of Scripture. God's Word was not meant to be only studied, but to be obeyed. All too often we are satisfied with merely understanding truth, but yet we do not obey it. Sometimes, we understand the truth, but we don't know exactly how to put it into practice. I try my hardest to outline a path for us to put God's truth into practice. I try to answer the question, "What does this look like?" Sometimes I will ask that question out loud during a message, "So what does this look like?"

Unfortunately, there is sometimes a reaction against practical preaching. For some, they are reacting against the 20 minute topical sermon that is mostly fluff, and draws its power from illustrations, not from Scripture. Indeed, that kind of preaching hurts, not helps, the local church.

However, it is also harmful to react and go to the other extreme, abandoning all practical application of Scripture. The point is that the power comes from the text, which can be explained by illustrations, and then applied to everyday life. If one examines the preaching of Jesus, they will find that the Lord used just as much illustration as He did explanation. The parables are wonderful examples of word pictures Christ used to get the practical aspects of truth into the minds and hearts of His hearers. If this was good enough for the Lord, it ought to be the pattern for us!

4. I am Passionate About God's Truth.

Paul preached passionately. He preached to persuade men. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" He was not saying that the final results were dependent upon him. God alone gives the increase. However, Paul was saying that he did not preach merely to inform, but to motivate, to move his listeners. He wanted them to respond to the Lord. He preached passionately.

Peter preached with conviction. The writings of John bear his heartbeat. The Lord spoke from His holy heart. We do not know their vocal inflections of course, but they believed what they preached to the core of their being. We should do no less.

I preach passionately because I believe God's message passionately. I preach with conviction because I am convinced. Different men have different personalities given to them by God, so one man may preach more loudly when he preaches with conviction while another may preach softly but just as much from the heart. Volume isn't the issue. Believing what God has said to the core of one's being is the issue. It is hard to speak lightly of that which you hold dearly!

Let us pray that God will continue to raise up preachers who cry with Jeremiah, "But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." If we have properly examined the text and patiently explained the text, then let us passionately proclaim the text, saying, "Thus saith the Lord!"