Go Deeper · Church Life

On Preaching

The sermon is the center of evangelical worship. Whether it should be expository, topical, narrative, or something else — and what faithful preaching actually requires — is a live debate.

Curated by Christian Curator · Updated regularly

Last updated: April 20, 2026

TL;DR

Faithful preaching requires biblical accuracy, Christ-centeredness, and clear application, but evangelicals debate whether expository preaching is the only legitimate method. While many Reformed leaders advocate sequential exposition through Scripture books, other evangelical traditions affirm topical and narrative approaches can also faithfully proclaim God's Word when grounded in sound biblical interpretation.

Evangelicalism has always been a preaching movement. The sermon is the center of Sunday worship; the preacher is the primary teacher of the congregation. But what faithful preaching looks like — expository vs. topical, long-form vs. short, text-driven vs. needs-driven — is debated with surprising heat. At the same time, the decline of biblical literacy in the pew is forcing a reckoning: if decades of evangelical preaching haven't produced biblically literate congregations, something has gone wrong.

Key Questions This Topic Addresses

What is expository preaching — and what distinguishes it from other approaches?
What is the biblical case for preaching through books of the Bible?
How do topical and narrative approaches differ from expository preaching?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each homiletical method?
What should evangelical churches expect from faithful preaching in an age of declining biblical literacy?

The Evangelical Debate

Three Approaches to Preaching

How the Bible is preached determines what the congregation learns about the Bible. Three approaches — with different assumptions about the preacher's task, the listener's need, and the nature of biblical authority — shape evangelical preaching today.

Position 1

Expository Preaching

John Stott · D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones · John MacArthur · David Helm · 9Marks

The preacher's task is to preach the meaning of a biblical text — to explain, illustrate, and apply what the author intended to say. Expository preaching, working through books of the Bible sequentially, is the most faithful method because it forces the preacher to preach the whole counsel of God rather than only the passages that suit current needs. It is also the most corrective, exposing congregations to texts they would not choose for themselves.

Key Reads

A Biblical Case for Expositional Preaching 6 Reasons Not to Abandon Expository Preaching

Position 2

Topical / Needs-Centered

Rick Warren · Andy Stanley · Bill Hybels · Ed Young Jr.

People come to church with real questions and real struggles — and preaching that begins with those questions is more likely to be heard. Topical preaching, organized around the concerns of real people rather than the sequence of biblical books, is not less biblical; it simply arranges biblical material differently. The question is not "did the preacher preach from the text" but "did people hear and respond to God's Word."

Key Reads

You Should Preach a Topical Sermon Can Topical Preaching Be Expository?

Position 3

Narrative / Story-Formed

Eugene Lowry · Frederick Buechner · Will Willimon · Tim Keller

The Bible is primarily a story — and preaching should be shaped by story as much as by argument or application. Narrative preaching follows the movement of a biblical text's dramatic tension toward resolution, drawing listeners into the story rather than lecturing them about it. The goal is not primarily information transfer but imagination formation — shaping how people see the world.

Key Reads

Telling the Good Story: An Interview with Steve Mathewson How to Preach Biblical Narrative

What the Conversation Adds Up To

Expository preaching has the strongest evangelical pedigree and the most compelling theological rationale. But the best preachers combine elements of all three: they exposit the text faithfully, address real human questions, and tell the story of the Bible with narrative power. The debate about method is secondary to the question of faithfulness: does this sermon come from the Bible, lead people to Christ, and call for a response?

What ties all three approaches together is a conviction about the nature of preaching itself: it is not performance, not inspiration, but proclamation — the herald's act of delivering a message received from another. The real question evangelicals face is not which method to choose, but whether any method, well-executed, can revive biblical literacy and form congregations in the whole counsel of God.

The Evangelical Conversation, Curated

A Biblical Case for Expositional Preaching

· 9Marks

A foundational definition of expositional preaching and what distinguishes it from other methods. This article explains that expository preaching means the main point of the sermon is the main point of the text — the preacher's job is explanation and application of the author's intended meaning, not the insertion of his own agenda.

6 Reasons Not to Abandon Expository Preaching

· The Gospel Coalition

A sustained argument for why expository preaching remains the most faithful method of handling God's Word even as trends push toward shorter, more topical sermons. The article contends that the Bible's authority demands that sermons be ruled by the text's meaning, not the preacher's preferences or the congregation's felt needs.

You Should Preach a Topical Sermon

· The Gospel Coalition

A counterargument that topical preaching, when done biblically and pastorally, serves the congregation's actual needs without compromising biblical authority. The article lays out guardrails for properly motivated topical preaching — pastoral rather than entrepreneurial — and argues that meeting people where they are is itself a biblical posture.

Can Topical Preaching Be Expository?

· Christianity Today

A balanced CT Pastors piece that refuses the false binary between topical and expository preaching. The argument: topical exposition is still exposition when the preacher submits to the meaning of the text(s) — the problem is not that a sermon is topical, but when it fails to be expositional.

Telling the Good Story: An Interview with Steve Mathewson

· The Gospel Coalition

An interview with Steve Mathewson — one of evangelicalism's leading voices on narrative preaching — covering how to preach Old Testament stories in a way that honors the text's inherent dramatic structure. Mathewson distinguishes moralistic, Christ-centered, and theological approaches to biblical narrative.

How to Preach Biblical Narrative

· Crossway

Seven practical suggestions for preaching a sermon on a biblical narrative. The author urges preachers to let the structure and movement of the text inform the sermon's shape rather than flattening biblical stories into timeless principles — keep the plot moving, honor the literary integrity of the text, and don't take the story out of the story.

The Primacy of Expository Preaching

· Desiring God

D. A. Carson's case — delivered at a Bethlehem Conference for Pastors — for why expository preaching should hold primacy in the pulpit. Carson addresses one of the central claims of expository advocates: that sequential exposition of biblical books ensures congregations hear the entire counsel of God, not just the preacher's favorite passages or the texts most comfortable to their cultural moment.

What Is Hermeneutics?

· Ligonier Ministries

A primer on the hermeneutical principles that underlie every preaching method. Ligonier defines hermeneutics as both the science and the art of biblical interpretation, and argues that pastors must be deeply grounded in the historical-grammatical method — the author's intended meaning — before their sermons can have the authority of God's Word.

15 Preaching Best Practices

· Preaching Today

A practical guide from preachers across traditions on what faithful preaching actually requires in a local church context. Rather than dogmatizing one method, the piece catalogs the habits and postures — from text selection through delivery — that separate sermons that form congregations from sermons that entertain them.

Biblical Literacy in a Postliterate Age

· Christianity Today

A diagnosis of the crisis of biblical illiteracy in evangelical congregations and what it means for preaching when the pew is no longer composed of readers. The piece asks whether expository preaching can still do its work in a visual-media age, and what a renewed picture of "biblical literacy" might look like for postliterate congregations.