Don't Be Typical
5 Common Ways Preachers Fail God's Word
By John Meador

Expositional preaching is not “typical” preaching. It is powerful, anointed, text-honoring preaching. Exposition is detailed preaching; it is preaching the Word (not just about the Word).  It is demanding, convicting, nourishing preaching, but it is not typical preaching.

It is common to hear what some call “skyscraper preaching.” That is, some messages consist of story after story after story after story. In the preacher’s excitement about cool stories, he allows the stories to become the content—he uses stories to illustrate the truth of the text (which, by itself, is fine), but the stories become the sum total of his sermon.

Jesus was a story-teller, but the stories were the vehicle by which truth was ultimately brought to confront the listener. The stories of Jesus were sometimes puzzling and not always pleasing. They were stories designed to make people think about truth that was actually being delivered. For the preacher with a Bible in hand, too many stories keep the people from the real content that is life-transforming. Use stories, by all means, but actually preach the Word!

In Texas, where I live, there is a preaching joke that makes the rounds, and is sometimes used to introduce other preachers from Texas in a humorous way. “He is famous for his ‘longhorn preaching’,” they will say, “a point here and a point there and a lot of bull in-between.” This is, unfortunately, quite common. When we take points from the text, but then add our commentary as the bulk of the message, we’re really (perhaps unintentionally) depending on our views and pet themes to flavor the text more than the context warrants.

I see this in the media all the time. A fact is reported, and immediately the anchor embarks on a running commentary or slant that belies the political bent to come through. In the media, it leaves me with distaste and distrust for that station. Could it be that “longhorn preaching” breeds the same distaste and distrust for the ministry among people? We’ve got to be less impressed with our perspective and more impressed with God or we risk losing the power of Scripture in our messages.

Then there is “motivational preaching.” There is a great deal of popularity for this kind of preaching, which is not preaching in the truest sense (i.e. expositing the Word), but rather a motivational talk designed to get people to feel something, do something or give something. The originator of the message is not a text as often as it is the burden or goal of the communicator. He or she wants you to come away encouraged, uplifted, or motivated in some way. The Bible is often used to anchor a few points in the message, but the text is more of an afterthought than it is the central thought. Context is usually violated in such messages, and any references are used without thought to what they actually mean. There is no question that people feel uplifted after such a message, but there is great question as to whether they understand that what they’ve experienced only lasts until the next fix. On the other hand, God’s Word abides forever.

“Springboard messages” also come to mind. The image here is of a diver who runs to the end of the diving board and leaps into the water. In this type of sermon, the speaker begins with a text and never returns during the duration of the message.

For example, I heard a message on prosperity one time where the speaker began with an interesting text out of the book of Proverbs that we don’t hear many messages about. He actually got me interested in what he was going to say about the text – and I was eager to go with him on this journey. After reading the text, however, he majored on the word “prosperity” and never came back to why it was used, what it meant and how it applies. I was lost in his zeal for us to have prosperity, and, before long, he was lost as to what to say next. He should have come back to the text. There was a great message there, but he never got to it. What a tragedy.