[On preaching] A simple and conversational yet forceful delivery commands both respect and response. Enthusiasm inspires. Logic is convincing, the illogical confusing. As preachers let us have a heart. Let us stop wearying our audiences. Let us make our preaching so absorbingly interesting that even the children would rather listen to us than draw pictures and will thus put to shame their paper-and-pencil supplying parents. But we may as well make up our minds that an absolute prerequisite of such preaching is the most painstaking preparation.
-- R.B. Kuiper, quoted in Iain Murray's fascinating little article on expository preaching.
Jesus is the Word of God
Brilliant quote. In relation to Murray's article, I agree that 'expository' should not be synonymous with sequential. I wonder though whether something that might somewhat address his critique would be working really hard on finding the unifying theme of a passage and preaching that one message (http://watumishiwaneno.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/saying-one-thing/) and the practice (common in the preaching I grew up under) of chosing one verse that sums up or gives an angle on the whole passage (http://watumishiwaneno.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/seeing-a-passage-through-the-lens-of-one-verse/). I love the preaching of Whitfield et al but have also seen the method greatly abused. If 'He gave us stories' then surely we need to preach stories? If we want to ignite a passion for God's word and provoke one another to read it Monday to Saturday surely we need to give examples of reading and mining a decent-length passage for the riches of Christ?