Sacred Hamburger

In many churches Expository Preaching is a sacred cow. But David Fitch has reduced it to hamburger in his book The Great Giveaway.

I have made several posts in an attempt to explain his argument. (Here is the initial post.) But the discussion has taken several turns and had become somewhat confusing. So I thought that I would do a quick summary.

First, expository preaching assumes that the text has an obvious, objective meaning once the work of exegesis is done. Because of this assumption, those who take a different interpretation are considered ignorant or heretical. (If you need examples of this look here, here, here, here, and here.)

Second, expository preaching gives the false security of objective truth. There are several subjective elements that are hidden to the producers and the consumers of expository preaching. There is cultural bias read into the text. There are modernist assumptions built into the method. There are personal agendas that seem to be “right there in the text.”

Third, expository preaching treats the text as an object. The preacher operates on it through exegesis. The listeners consume it as a lecture or a motivational speech. This has the effect of robbing the Bible of its authority.

I also presented the case that the historical-grammatical method is not the “perfect method” for discerning biblical truth. It most certainly has its place. But the writers of the New Testament did not use this method when interpreting the Old Testament. And meaning cannot be calculated by plugging grammatical and etymological data into an equation.

I also argued that the meaning of the Bible must always be determined within the context of the Church. This is not to say that individuals should not be doing interpretation, but it is to say that they should not be doing it as “Lone Rangers” disconnected from participation in the Body of Christ.

All this is to describe the problem(s) with expository preaching. I haven’t yet begun to suggest a solution to the problem(s). One reaction might be, “But what other reliable method is there?” Another might be, “So anyone can make up any interpretation he wants without reference to the objective meaning of the text?”

I’ll do my best to answer these and other questions.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”