In the same way Morocco states in the Merchant of Venice, ‘that all that glitters is not gold’, Mike Gilbart-Smith wrote a brilliant article for 9 Marks, showing that not everything called expository preaching is expository preaching.

Mike speaks broadly about 3 groups of sermons that miss the mark of expository preaching. His definition of true expository is borrowed from Mark Dever in that it is, ‘preaching that takes for the point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture.”

This post is reproduced here with the permission of 9 Marks.

Expositional Imposters Group 2:

IMPOSTERS THAT FAIL TO SEE THE CONGREGATION

6) The “Exegetical Sermon”: The Text Remains Unapplied

If the “unfounded sermon” totally misses the text, the “exegetical sermon” totally misses the congregation. Some preaching that claims to be expositional is rejected as boring and irrelevant . . . and rightly so! One could just as well be reading from an exegetical commentary. Everything that is said is true to the passage, but it’s not really preaching; it is merely a lecture. Much might be learned about Paul’s use of the genitive absolute, but little about the character of God or the nature of the human heart. There is no application to anything but the congregation’s minds. True expository preaching will surely first inform the mind, but also warm the heart and constrain the will.

A regular diet of exegetical preaching will make people feel that only topical preaching can be relevant, and will model private Bible reading that presumes we can read God’s Word faithfully and remain unchallenged and unchanged.

7) The “Irrelevant Sermon”: The Text Is Applied to a Different Congregation

Too much preaching promotes pride in the congregation by throwing bricks over the wall toward other people’s greenhouses. Either the point of the passage is applied
only to non-believers, suggesting that the Word has nothing to say to the church, or it is applied to problems that are rarely seen in the congregation that is being preached to.

Thus the congregation becomes puffed up, and like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable ends up thankful that they are not like others. The response is not rep

entance and faith but, “If only Mrs. Brown heard this sermon!” or “the local Methodist church really ought to have this sermon
preached to them!”

Such preaching will grow the congregation in self-righteousness, not godliness.

8) The “Private Sermon”: The Text Is Applied Only to the Preacher

It is easy for the preacher to think merely about how a passage applies to himself, and then to preach to the congregation as if the congregation is entirely in the same situation as the preacher. For me it is certainly easiest to see how a passage of Scripture applies to a white British man in his forties with a wife and six kids who works as a pastor of a small congregation in West London. That may be great for my quiet times, but not much use to my church, as nobody else fits that bill.

What are the implications of the text to the teenager and the single mother? The woman in her forties who’d love to be married and the immigrant? The unemployed and the visiting atheist or Muslim? The congregation as a whole and the bus driver or the office worker or the student or the stay at home mum?

 

The private sermon can lead to the congregation thinking that the Bible is only relevant to the “professional” Christian, and that the only valid use of their life would really be to work fulltime for a church or other Christian organization. It can cause the congregation to idolize their pastor and live their Christian lives vicariously through him. It robs the congregation of seeing how to apply the Word to every aspect of their own lives, and how to communicate it to those whose lives are quite different from theirs.

9) The “Hypocritical Sermon”: The Text Is Applied to All But the Preacher

The opposite error to the “private sermon” is the sermon where the preacher is seen as the one who teaches the Word, but does not model what it means to be under the Word.

There are times when a preacher needs to say “you” and not “we.” But a preacher who always says “you” and never “we” does not model how he is only an under-shepherd who is first and foremost one of the sheep who must himself hear his great shepherd’s voice, who must know him and follow him, trusting him for his eternal life and security.

A preacher who preaches like this may make the opposite error to the congregation who lives vicariously through their pastor: he will live vicariously through this congregation. He will assume that his discipleship is entirely about his ministry, and end up not walking as a disciple under God’s Word at all, but only as one who places others under a Word above which he sits aloof.

10) The “Misfit Sermon”: The Point of the Passage Is Misapplied to the Present Congregation

Sometimes the hermeneutical gap between the original passage and the present congregation may be misunderstood, so that the application to the original context is wrongly directly transferred to the present context. So, if the preacher does not have a correct biblical theology of worship, passages about the Old Testament temple might be wrongly applied to the New Testament church building, rather than being fulfilled in Christ and his people. Prosperity gospel preachers might claim the promises of physical blessings given to faithful Old Covenant Israel and flatly apply them to the New Covenant people of God.

 

In the same way Morocco states in the Merchant of Venice, ‘that all that glitters is not gold’, Mike Gilbart-Smith wrote a brilliant article for 9 Marks, showing that not everything called expository preaching is expository preaching.

Mike speaks broadly about 3 groups of sermons that miss the mark of expository preaching. His definition of true expository is borrowed from Mark Dever in that it is, ‘preaching that takes for the point of a sermon the point of a particular passage of Scripture.”

This post is reproduced here with the permission of 9 Marks.

Expositional Imposters Group 1:

IMPOSTERS THAT FAIL TO SEE THE TEXT.

1) The “Unfounded Sermon”: The Text Is Misunderstood

Here the preacher says things that may be true, but in no sense come from a correct interpretation of the passage. He is careless either with the content of the text (e.g. the sermon on “production, prompting, and inspiration” from the NIV of 1 Thessalonians 1:3, though each word has no parallel in the Greek) or with the context (e.g. the sermon on David and Goliath, that asks ‘who is your Goliath, and what are the five smooth stones that you need to be prepared to use against him?’).

If a preacher is not deeply mining the truth of God’s Word to determine the message of his sermons, they are likely being driven by his own ideas not God’s.

2) The “Springboard Sermon”: The Point of the Text is Ignored

Closely related is the sermon where the preacher becomes intrigued by something that’s a secondary implication of the text, but is not the main point. Imagine a sermon on the wedding at Cana in John 2 that focuses primarily on the lawfulness of Christians drinking alcohol and said nothing about the display of the New Covenant glory of Christ through the sign of Jesus changing water into wine.

One of the great advantages of sequential expository preaching is that the preacher is forced to preach on topics he would rather avoid, and to give appropriate weight to topics he would tend to overemphasise. A preacher of “unfounded” or “springboard” sermons can unwittingly jettison both these advantages, and instead God’s agenda is silenced or sidelined.

3) The “Doctrinal Sermon”: The Richness of the Text Is Ignored

God has deliberately spoken to us “in many ways” (Heb 1:1). Too many sermons ignore the literary genre of a passage, and preach narrative, poetry, epistle, and apocalyptic all alike as a series of propositional statements. Whilst all sermons must convey propositional truths, they should not be reduced to them. The literary context of the passages should mean that a sermon from the Song of Songs sounds different than one from Ephesians 5. The passage may have the same central point, but it is conveyed in a different way. The diversity of Scripture is not to be flattened in preaching, but treasured and conveyed in a manner sensitive to the literary genre. Narrative should help us to empathize, poetry should heighten our emotional response, and apocalypse and prophecy should leave us awestruck.

4) The “Shortcut Sermon”: The Biblical Text Is Barely Mentioned

The opposite of the exegetical sermon, this kind of preaching shows no exegetical “working” at all. Though the Lord has set the agenda by his Word, only the preacher is fully aware of that fact. The congregation may well end up saying, “what a wonderful sermon” rather than “what a wonderful passage of Scripture.”

Let’s keep encouraging our congregation to hear God’s voice not just ours, by frequently pointing them back to the text: “look what God says in verse five” more than “listen carefully to what I’m saying now.”

5) The “Christ-less Sermon”: The Sermon Stops Short of the Savior

Jesus castigated the Pharisees: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). How sad that even we who have come to Jesus to have life would bring a whole congregation to study a passage of Scripture and yet refuse to bring them to see what that Scripture says about Christ, turning Old Testament texts into moralistic sermons, and even preaching Christ-less, gospel-less sermons from the Gospels themselves. Imagine the horror of a sermon on Gethsemane narrative that majored on lessons on how we could handle stress in our lives.

If God’s Word is like a vast wheel, the hub is Christ and the axle is the gospel. We have not faithfully preached any passage of Scripture until we have worked our way down the spokes to the hub, and communicated what the passage says about Christ and how it relates to the gospel.

Last week I had the privilege of being with 100 or so other ministry wives at the PT Spring Wives’ Conference at Hothorpe Hall. This was my 18^th PT conference and, as always, I loved it!

I’m married to Richard who is the lead pastor of Woodgreen Evangelical Church – an FIEC church in Worcester. We have 2 teenage children and have been in full-time ministry for 18 years. We’ve been part of the church family in Worcester for nearly 12 years and love living and serving here.

The Wives’ conferences have been significant in equipping me to support my husband and love my church family. I come each year because I need the encouragement and support of other wives who understand the joys and pressures of ministry life. I love hearing stories of how God has answered the prayers we’ve prayed together over the years. It’s a privilege to be able to weep with those who are struggling and celebrate with those who are rejoicing. Every conference is a mingling of laughter, tears, encouragements, shared ideas, and testimonies of God’s grace.

This year, Christopher Ash and Carrie Sandom shared the teaching and their messages complemented each other beautifully. Carrie spoke from Mark 8-10 on the cost of following Jesus. She challenged us to think about where we see the cost in our daily lives and reminded us that the sacrifices we make are worth it – especially when we consider the eternal cost of not following Jesus faithfully. She also encouraged us to uproot the pride we all struggle with and to serve our church families with humility.

Christopher taught from Psalms 37, 69 and 137 – Psalms of Indignation. He showed us how these Psalms can both encourage us and shape our prayers as we struggle with the frustrations of helplessness, despair and injustice we face as believers and, particularly, as ministry wives. It was refreshing to study poetry and to linger over the images and emotions the Psalmists use in response to suffering. I think many of us will find this an ongoing help as we seek to voice our own struggles honestly but with an eternal perspective of hope, justice and deliverance.

The seminars were great for discussing issues specific to ministry. I was especially helped by Christopher’s thoughts on how to listen to our husband’s preaching well – I hope to be more of an encouragement to Richard in this area. There was also plenty of time to pray, rest, relax with a book, walk, chat, eat cake and laugh! I’ve come home refreshed and energised for another year of ministry, thankful for my church family, and grateful for the privilege of serving Christ and his church alongside my husband.

The Spring Wives’ Conference provides a great opportunity to establish friendships, to take time away from the busyness of everyday life for refreshment and encouragement, and to hear faithful Bible teaching applied specifically to ministry life.

If you’re a ministry wife wanting to grow in your love for Jesus and his church, as well as your own husband, it’s definitely for you!

Please pray for the Woodgreen Church family as we seek to reach our community with the good news of Jesus Christ.

We have several evangelistic events planned over the next couple of weeks, and we’d love to see many of our friends and neighbours respond to the gospel.

Please also pray for our follow up Christianity Explored/Life Explored courses.

There are always a lot of people of people who ask for a list of the songs from our conferences.

Here is the song list from Spring Wives 2018 from last week.

• Behold the Power of His Word – Co-Mission
• By Faith – Keith & Kristyn Getty
• Everlasting Arms – Lou Fellingham
• He Will Hold Me Fast – Matt Merker
• It is Well – Horatio Spafford
• No other Name – Trevor Hodge
• O Great God – Sovereign Grace
• Rejoice – Dustin Kensure
• Salvation’s Song – Stuart Townend
• Thank you for Saving Me – Martin Smith
• There is a Higher Throne – Keith and Kristyn Getty
• This is Amazing Grace – phil Wickham
• We Rest on Thee – Edith G. Cherry

The trustees of The Proclamation Trust are delighted to announce that Carrie Sandom will be working for the Trust full-time from September.

Carrie has been our part-time Director of Women’s ministry since 2015, whilst also working for St John’s Tunbridge Wells. Carrie already runs our Women in Ministry conference and a number of training events for women, and oversees the women on the Cornhill Training Course.

Given the recent growth of Cornhill in particular, and the wider need to train women who hold a complementarian view of ministry, the trustees are clear that a part-time role is no longer sufficient, and are delighted that Carrie has agreed to join us full-time.

If you missed Jon’s recent interview with her (published on this blog), you can find it here.

The Core (final year) Cornhill Students recently went on Missions mostly in the UK but also overseas. It is a chance for them to experience different ministry contexts and be blessed by a local church congregation and be a blessing to them in return. We asked the mission teams to write a short report about what they got up to.

We had a great week at St Helen’s in North Kensington. It was the first mission week the church has had since 1986, and they had planned a super week of events themed around the idea of Friendship with God.

We were able to go alone to the monthly Ladies Friendship group, where we enjoyed chatting with the regular attenders and a massive plate of cheese and cake! On Saturday, we held a gala dinner in the church, again, with lots of food and a evangelistic challenge at the end of the evening on how friendship with God is possible. It was great to be part of a week that geared the church up for it first mission in a long time and to meet the regular congregation who were inviting their friends and work colleagues to Christian events for the first time!

Please pray forSt. Helen’s Church North Kensington and also for our Core Students as they consider their next steps after the summer.

If you are interested in applying to Cornhill for Sept 2018, then please click here.

The Core (final year) Cornhill Students recently went on Missions mostly in the UK but also overseas. It is a chance for them to experience different ministry contexts and be blessed by a local church congregation and be a blessing to them in return. We asked the mission teams to write a short report about what they got up to.

“What if we were made for love?” was the title of the evangelistic Bible study, led very ably by Richard, to conclude our 4 day mission week on the theme of love.

To see how different, and how much more desirable, the Bible’s account of the purpose of our existence is compared to the modern day orthodoxy that is naturalism. It was helpful and illuminating to go back to the beginning and to the beautiful creation account in Genesis 2. I am sure I can speak on behalf of all the leaders present in saying that the 14-18 year old participants were a real encouragement in their engagement with the Bible study and with the subsequent “Grill a Christian” panel (which could have gone on all night!).

We could thank God for similar encouragements at Fiona’s evangelistic women’s event, where she gave a talk on love in Luke 7 to a number of guests, as well as my evangelistic youth talk on John 3:16.

During the day, we had been doing home visits and praying for God to be working through us and in the hearts of those we were able to engage with at their front doors. Praise God that as a result of those visits, a few came to the evangelistic events and we pray, as a result of the continuing witness of Grace Church Brockley, that God’s word will continue to be sown in people’s hearts, to grow and yield a hundredfold ! (Luke 8:8).

Please pray for Grace Church Brockley and also for our Core Students as they consider their next steps after the summer.

If you are interested in applying to Cornhill for Sept 2018, then please click here.

The Core (final year) Cornhill Students recently went on Missions mostly in the UK but also overseas. It is a chance for them to experience different ministry contexts and be blessed by a local church congregation and be a blessing to them in return. We asked the mission teams to write a short report about what they got up to.

Luke Cornish and I (Toby Martin) had a great time serving on a Crosslinks/Langham Preachers’ Training Programme in Kathmandu, Nepal! The church is growing rapidly, with increasing numbers of indigenous pastor-teachers and evangelists, but very few of these gospel workers are trained in expository preaching. So, Neil Watkinson has been running these weeks of training in Kathmandu for a number of years.

The programme is an introduction to expository preaching, and includes a Bible overview, sessions on theme and aim sentences, sermon structure. There are also workshops where groups work together on theme and aim sentences for Bible passages, and model expositions on those passages. Luke and I were asked to give a ‘chapel talk’ each (similar to Cornhill morning expositions) and two ‘model expositions’ each. The course was attended by a combination of undergraduate students at Bible college, and gospel workers (pastors/evangelists).

I was hugely encouraged by the growth of the church in Nepal. At a time when we are told that evangelical churches in the UK are at 0% net growth, it is very heartening to hear many stories of people coming to Christ from Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds in Nepal – praise God!

But it was also wonderful to see how much people value this kind of training. One evangelist from the east of Nepal, Dinesh, said to me that his journey home would be 17 hours on a bus, 11 hours in another vehicle after that, and a 4 hour walk to finish off. He was full of joy at the training he had received and was eager to preach to people when he got back. Others on his team said they were going to share the training with several others on their evangelism team.

And yet, as we were reminded as we walked along the streets, there were idols everywhere. From our hotel we could see a large Buddhist temple, and there were images of Hindu gods in many of the shops by the side of the road. So there remains much work for God’s people in Nepal. But praise Jesus that so many people are coming to the obedience of faith!

Please pray for Nepal and also for our Core Students as they consider their next steps after the summer.

If you are interested in applying to Cornhill for Sept 2018, then please click here.

The Core (final year) Cornhill Students recently went on Missions mostly in the UK but also overseas. It is a chance for them to experience different ministry contexts and be blessed by a local church congregation and be a blessing to them in return. We asked the mission teams to write a short report about what they got up to.

We had a fantastic week helping the team at St Anne’s Church in Limehouse with their mission.

It’s a massively diverse area with seasoned East Enders, young city-working professionals, a huge Bangladeshi community and everything in between. The events ranged from evangelistic discussion in a coffee shop, to a family film night, to a men’s breakfast on life to the full, to a night with pie and mash and a rapper come pastor, as well as a great evangelistic Sunday service with Rico Tice.

The team helped reach the local area through door-knocking, teaching at the local school, speaking at all the events, helping setup and serve at the events, praying, and getting alongside people to talk about Jesus throughout. It was a great week of getting out of our comfort zones, seeing what God is doing in another part of London, hearing amazing testimonies about God’s grace, and growing as we served as different parts of Christ’s body together. What a week!

Please pray for St. Anne’s Limehouse and also for our Core Students as they consider their next steps after the summer.

If you are interested in applying to Cornhill for Sept 2018, then please click here.

The Core (final year) Cornhill Students recently went on Missions mostly in the UK but also overseas. It is a chance for them to experience different ministry contexts and be blessed by a local church congregation and be a blessing to them in return. We asked the mission teams to write a short report about what they got up to.

We give thanks to the Lord for a packed few days at Grace Church Sydenham. Our trip included a Vegan and Superfood Bistro event, coffee cart street evangelism and church family ‘billet’ dinners.

As a team we learnt about the importance of being ready to suffer for the gospel. There were lots of occasions where we were rejected by people at their front doors, or rejected while flyering in the freezing cold and rain. However amidst this hardship we also had the absolute joy of sharing the good news of Jesus with others who were seemingly more open – there is a profound joy in evangelism!!

We were also greatly blessed by the incredible hospitality and rich fellowship we enjoyed with the church. This taught us much about the unity that strangers experience when they have Jesus in common – we were so grateful to them for welcoming and loving us so warmly.

Please pray for Grace Church Sydenham and also for our Core Students as they consider their next steps after the summer.

If you are interested in applying to Cornhill for Sept 2018, then please click here.