Bryan Chapell on Expository Preaching at PastorBlog

Bryan Chapell on Expository Preaching

by Phil Gons on September 10th, 2007

Bryan Chapell (Wikipedia), president of Covenant Theological Seminary , is a well-respected expert on expository preaching. If you haven’t his Christ-Centered Preaching, you need to.

Preaching Today recently conducted an interview with him entitled “The Truth About Expository Preaching.”

Here’s a selection:

Do you think the term “expository preaching” is perhaps applied too broadly?

I think it is, candidly. Often when people use the words “expository preaching,” they get only a theme from a text and then develop that theme out of their own thoughts or from various passages of Scripture. They may well explain a truth in Scripture but may not say precisely what a passage says according to the intent of the author. As a result, the sermon may reflect more the thought of the speaker than of the author.

It can be difficult to bind oneself to what a particular text says; yet that’s the way we believe we are most closely bringing forward the dynamics of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to work in the listeners. In expository preaching, I’m saying what the Holy Spirit has said, explaining it so it makes sense to you; at the same time, I’m being clear what this text says, and you can see it developing even as I explain it to you.

Read the whole interview.

Here are a couple of articles from Chapell that you might find helpful.