by By Thom S. Rainer 21 Dec 2004

What style of preaching is most effective? My research team’s surveys of the leaders in churches that reach the unchurched provide fascinating insights into their types of preaching. We asked them to estimate the percentage of their sermons that reflect each of five styles:

Expository: Primarily an explanation or commentary on the biblical text; expounds the central idea of the text; often includes preaching through a book of the Bible.

Topical: Typically a sermon built around a topic with biblical application to that topic.

Thematic: Usually a series of sermons developed around a central theme or idea, but does not typically involve preaching through a book of the Bible.

Narrative: Story form that, from the beginning to the end, develops the plot of the story as a theme; a biblical truth presented in parable form.

Doctrinal: A sermon or sermon series focused on a particular biblical teaching or doctrine.

We recognize that preaching styles are not always mutually exclusive. For example, an "expository" sermon on Ephesians 2 may sound very similar to a "doctrinal" sermon on soteriology, or salvation, using the same text. Nevertheless, the pastors were asked to identify the style that most closely represents their preaching. The expository style of preaching was the dominant approach, but only one of the pastors preached one style of sermon all the time. The others saw wisdom in varying sermon approaches, although more than 80 percent of the pastors never preach narrative sermons.

According to their comments, these leaders found the expository style to be the most faithful to the text and used it because it helped them avoid choosing sermons based on their own present preferences. And the expository style was preferred by ministers preaching more than one sermon a week. Some 44 percent of pastors surveyed preach at least two different sermons each week. These pastors were more likely to preach expository sermons than the leaders who preached only one sermon each week.

So does the expository preaching style have the most impact on the lost? We could argue for a strong relationship or correlation between expository preaching and evangelistic effectiveness. Can we make any definitive conclusions? No; not from a statistical perspective.

Only one of the 101 pastors we interviewed preached exclusively expository sermons. All of the other pastors saw value in preaching topical, thematic and doctrinal messages. And two of the leaders interviewed never preached expository sermons, yet their churches were still effective in reaching the unchurched. Thus, while expository preaching is indeed the dominant preaching approach among these leaders, it is not the only effective style.

One conclusion the leaders we interviewed made, however, echoed that of the unchurched. Both groups claimed that whatever the style, preaching itself is important. A majority of the leaders thought the power of the preached Word was underestimated in reaching the unchurched.

We asked these evangelistic leaders to share with us the key influences on their preaching and communicating. They rated eight different influence on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being not an influence and 5 being the most important influence.

Rising to the top of a list of influences that included participation in a conference or seminar, Bible studies about effective preachers/communicators, books on effective preaching/communication, were three key areas of influence: the example of a mentor, seminary or college training, and experience in church work.

Since we had already heard numerous times about the importance of a mentor in other areas, we were not surprised to discover the influence of a mentor in preaching. Nor were we surprised to find the value of experience in the preaching task.

We were surprised, however, to hear that college and seminary training was almost as influential in preaching as having a mentor or experience in church work. These results are significantly different than the results of the question that asked the importance of seminary or college influence on leadership.

According to the leaders of the effective churches, while higher education made a significant contribution in training for the preaching task, it woefully under-prepared these leaders for the day-to-day functions of leadership and the longer-term function of vision casting.