by Joanne Beckley<\/p>\n
I find that expository preachers often do not really ask, What’s the purpose of this sermon? What should it do in people’s lives? If you say, “Why are you preaching on Romans 5?” some preachers answer, “Well, because last week I was in Romans 4. Next week I’ll be in Romans 6.”<\/p>\n
Until we have figured out why the passage would be important to people today \u2014 not just tell them that but show them that (e.g., How would it work in their business? How would it work in their homes? How does it work in their thinking?) as we bring the biblical text and the modern world together \u2014 we haven’t done our job.<\/p>\n
So we are not preaching to people about the Bible. We are preaching to people about them from the Bible. And that means that there are two tensions: the tension of the biblical text (crucial, vital, and important) and the tension of the folks who are listening to us. Good preachers work has to see to it that their sermons have that balance of biblical truth and contemporary relevance. That’s why being biblical and contemporary is the art of Christian communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Joanne Beckley I find that expository preachers often do not really ask, What’s the purpose of this sermon? What should it do in people’s lives? If you say, “Why are you preaching on Romans 5?” some preachers answer, “Well, because last week I was in Romans 4. Next week I’ll be in Romans 6.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[536,451],"class_list":["post-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-preaching","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48010,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/context-and-exposition\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":0},"title":"Context and Exposition","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary P. Eubanks The burden of these remarks consists of three points: The value of (immediate) context for Bible interpretation has been overrated. This exaggerated conception of the importance of context has, in turn, been used to justify an over-emphasis on expository preaching. The over-use of expository preaching holds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43932,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-tell-people-im-not-interested-in-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":1},"title":"How do I tell people I’m not interested in preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Hope you can answer a question of mine that I need a biblical answer to. What to say to people who come up to you and ask you, \"Why don't you preach?\" I tell them not everyone is meant to be a teacher, and like it says in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40788,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dangerous-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":2},"title":"Dangerous Preaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Sewell Hall A man who accepts the task of preaching the gospel accepts a dreadful responsibility. \"My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment\" (James 3:1). Application of these words may not be limited to what we commonly term local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Firecracker_And_Mouse.png-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20733,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-questions-should-brethren-ask-of-a-man-wanting-to-preach-for-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":3},"title":"What questions should brethren ask of a man wanting to preach for them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have a couple of other men here who fill in with the preaching service\u00a0occasionally and have asked me for suggestions that might help them improve.\u00a0 One of them has expressed an interest in possibly looking for a preaching job.\u00a0 So, I believe a \"preacher training class\" would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93954,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/those-sorry-young-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":4},"title":"Those “Sorry” Young Preachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Hall via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 14 No. 8, August 2014 We hear criticism all along of the young preachers among us: \"They don't preach like the older preachers,\" they say. That's funny! It sounds like what people said of us older preachers when we were young. The truth is,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93183,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-preachers-follow-pauls-example-and-not-accept-pay-for-preaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":2354,"position":5},"title":"Why don’t preachers follow Paul’s example and not accept pay for preaching?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Corinthians 11:1, we are commanded to follow the example of the Bible, so why don't preachers today follow Paul's example and not take money for preaching so as not to hinder the Gospel of Christ? Reason I ask this question is because from 1950s-1970s preachers were ranked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}