Improving Expository Preaching through Greater Variety in Sermon Structure and Delivery at White Rock Baptist Church, British Columbia

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to improve the preaching at White Rock Baptist Church through the intentional use of variety in sermon structure and delivery. The project laid a biblical foundation for variety in expository preaching by considering the Lord's use of different but complementary methods to proclaim truth and by examining six sermons from the Acts of the Apostles.

A study of the works of a number of homileticians corroborated the concept that true expository preaching actually elicits rich variety. Such variety is best achieved by an organic rather than a mechanical approach.

The thesis was tested in a series of twelve sermons on the Acts of the Apostles by means of two related questionnaires. The survey confirmed that preaching is indeed improved by variety in sermon structure and delivery, provided that such variety derives from a creative exposition of the passage at hand.