4 kinds of Preaching Style

I will be teaching later in our School of Campus Ministry. I am excited to have  a chance to speak to my fellow workers about a topic I am passionate about – preaching.

The Bible puts a high premium on preaching. 2 Tim 4:2 commands us to ministers to PREACH THE WORD.

There are 4 kinds of preaching style being commonly practiced in churches today and I am not an advocate of any style but I do advocate preachers to not bore people with the WORD.

The Bible is living and active – it convicts people of their sin and one of the gravest sin is sleeping during a sermon which means if as a pastor I bore people to sleep then I am part of the problem. Anyway here are the 4 styles of preaching.

1. Expository preaching – this is preaching through a book of the Bible verse by verse. I have never tried this but would really love to. Some of the pastors who use expository preaching are Mark Driscoll and Matt Chandler.

2. Textual preaching – this is how I usually preach. This style falls between expository and topical preaching. Churches that offer sermon series usually have this style of preaching. Textual preaching is preaching on a section of the Bible without preaching the entire book of the Bible.

3. Topical preaching – this preaching uses several Scriptures of the Bible to address an issue or discuss a topic. This is the most used style of preaching.

4. Narrative preaching – this style is gaining some grounds nowadays especially with the concept of storytelling being widely used in the business world today. I rarely use this style as some of the portions of the Bible are not narrative. The letters of Paul to the churches are not narratives. Example of books that are narrative are Ruth and Esther.

My suggestion is that as preachers of the Word we use different styles of preaching and not get stuck with one. We can not be legalistic on what we should use but be adaptable and open to what the Spirit leads as you prepare your messages.

what is your preaching style?