Ministry Today

Preaching the Big Picture

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Written by Marcus Yoars

QUOTE: “The last few decades have been a period of wanton experimentation in many pulpits. One of the most troubling developments is the decline and eclipse of expository preaching. Numerous influential voices within evangelicalism are suggesting that the age of the expository sermon is now past. In its place, some contemporary preachers now substitute messages intentionally designed to reach secular or superficial congregations—messages that avoid preaching a biblical text and thus avoid a potentially embarrassing confrontation with biblical truth. … In far too many churches, the Bible is nearly silent. The public reading of Scripture has been dropped from many services, and the sermon has been sidelined, reduced to a brief devotional appended to music. Many preachers accept this as a necessary concession to the age of entertainment, and thus are left with the modest hope of including a brief message of encouragement or exhortation at the conclusion of the service. … When we preach, we must remember that what we proclaim is not just a little story, and not just a series of little stories. It is the big picture. We are accountable to the big story of God’s work as it is narrated in Scripture. …Our people can have a deep repository of biblical facts and stories, and yet know nothing about how any of it fits together.” — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler [He Is Not Silent, 10/08]