As we pointed out in two previous articles, our study found that preaching is mentioned as the No. 1 method of evangelism. Because of the overwhelming margin, we went back and asked the pastors of these highly effective evangelistic churches to identify their dominant approach to preaching.

We found that the respondent pastors overwhelmingly prefer the expository/textual model of preaching. (We combined four categories into two, expository/textual and topical/ thematic, because respondents do not believe that the differences are sufficient to call them four different preaching models.) Many of these pastors clearly use an expository message as their dominant preaching style, but do not necessarily limit themselves to one approach. Less than one-half of pastors who chose the expository/textual approach indicated that it is their only preaching model.

Expository /Textual

The dominance of the expository/textual preaching style (73.6 percent) is somewhat related to the conservative theology of the respondents. Our discussion with a pastor in North Carolina is representative of this attitude. "If one truly believes that the Bible is the Word of God without error, then the Bible must be the basis for the sermon." He further explained, "While we who preach the Word must use our God-given abilities to make the text applicable for today, we still first preach the text in its historical context. It is the preached Word that has power, not the opinions of men."

Such responses are common among the leaders of the 576 respondent churches. To them, the expository sermon indicates both a belief in and fidelity to the Scripture. Though these pastors do not infer lack of fidelity to Scripture when other preaching approaches are used, their consensus is that the expository approach to Scripture is the most faithful.

The strong preference for expository/textual preaching among these evangelistic churches seems to go against current trends, even in evangelical churches. A recent analysis of sermons from two major preaching journals, over a 10-year period, reveals some fascinating insights into modern preaching. The study classifies the published sermons into four categories.

The first category is best called "expository" because the content of the sermons and their organization are determined by the biblical passage. Sermons in the second category include biblical content, but the preacher imposes his own organization topically. The biblical passage does not determine the organization.

The third group of sermons has no biblical passages to determine the content or the organization, yet the messages are identifiably Christian.

Finally, the fourth category of sermons is neither biblical in their organization nor content, nor do the messages have any discernible Christian truths.

Less than one-fourth of the sermons prepared and preached by "evangelicals" can be classified as expository. And, surprisingly, over one-half of the sermons have no biblical passage as the basis for truth. This contrasts sharply with this study's evangelistic churches, where the expository approach to preaching is dominant.

Topical/Thematic/Life Application

Our respondents once again had difficulty distinguishing between the two preaching approaches of topical and thematic/life application. In follow-up interviews, we learned that our initial survey would have been less confusing if we had merged the two approaches. There are three major themes that emerged in our discussions about the topical/thematic preaching style.

First, this approach to preaching is clearly the second choice among our respondents. However, its second-tier status does not mean that advocates of expository preaching avoid it. To the contrary, the majority of expository preaching proponents indicate that they preach thematically or topically on occasion. In fact, nearly 60 percent of the respondents indicate that they approach sermons thematically on a regular basis. This result is revealing when compared to the one-fourth of the respondents who advocate topical and thematic preaching as the primary preaching approach.

Second, pastors who are positive about thematic and topical preaching believe it is no less faithful to Scripture than the expository advocates. The pastor of a church whose attendance exceeds 700 said, "The majority of my sermons are topical, but that does not mean they are unbiblical. When I preach on a topic, I always ask what the Bible says first. I may not go verse-by-verse in one book of the Bible, but the Word is the basis for the truths I proclaim."

Third, the preaching style is only slightly related to the worship style. Some on the research team anticipated a higher correlation between contemporary worship and topical preaching. Our findings indicate a greater likelihood of topical preaching in contemporary worship, but the degree of correlation is lower than we anticipated. Expository and topical preaching is found in all worship styles.

Narrative/Other Preaching Approaches

Less than 2 percent of the respondents indicate that the narrative approach to preaching is their preferred style. Less than 4 percent either did not respond or answered "other" for their preaching style. Because of the low response, we did not conduct follow-up interviews for these approaches.

Our conclusion is that the dominant preaching style of the pastors who responded is first expository/textual, and then topical/thematic/life-application.