Expository Or Experiential Preaching

In your thread, relate what you have learned about the importance of person and spiritual-preparedness in your own preaching ministry. Also explain the balance between academic, expository preparation versus solely spirit-let (or experientially-led) preparation.

            So what is the difference between expository and experiential preaching, they sound similar?  To the untrained person they would not automatically recognize the difference.  Even a trained person for that matter may still have some difficulty recognizing the difference is the latter is done well.  To be an expositor of God’s Word means that you rely on the text and what it meant to the original audience while making it applicable to todays society. An experiential preacher is one who claims to be Spirit lead and does not do very much study of the original setting and focuses the majority of the time on what the Bible does for the person, without using Scripture to fully support their stance.

            As for my preaching I am first an expositor and then an experiential preacher. I believe that in order to have a proper sermon it must be based off of the Word of God, and nothing else. That does not mean we do not use other things for emphasis, but our basis is Scripture. A good example from my life comes from delivering the same sermon to two different groups about a month ago, the first time it was to a small group of guys and I had not prayed as much over the sermon as I should have and did not feel the presence of the Lord during my delivery and relied solely on my manuscript. Fast forward about a week or two and I delivered the same message to a congregation and was “prayed up”. During that delivery I felt the Lord using me and he gave me some illustrations and things I had not thought of or used in my previous delivery. I am willing to bet that the congregation was better fed than the small group of men. Not to say that the Lord could not use my message. Charles Spurgeon says, “Feed the people always with knowledge and understanding, and let your preaching be solid, containing food for the hungry, healing for the sick, and light for those who sit in darkness.”  (An All Around Ministry, Chapter 6)There is less of a chance we can properly be solid if we don’t try and understand the work done prior by the author.

            I think that there is room for both forms of preaching in the preacher and should be used as a compliment to one another. Meyer says, “There are many kinds of preaching, and his the wise and successful man who knows how to very them.”(Meyer, Expository Preaching 25). In my humble opinion we should do the foot work of study saturated in prayer and trusting the Lord to give us the words that need to be heard by the audience. He can use your written words while giving you things to say during your time in the pulpit that we should be open to receiving. I believe that expositors have the chance to be more faithful to Scripture.