Why Topical Preaching Is Effective And Yet Not The Best

Throughout my years in ministry, I’ve had people come talk to me about preaching. They weren’t necessarily talking to me about my preaching, often times, it was actually about other preachers, but nonetheless about preaching. This article has been years in the making and I finally decided to write it. I hope it’s helpful and useful for whomever and wherever conversations lead you. I hope it stays that way — conversations; not arguments or even a desire to convert another side, but God-honoring, grace-filled, agape-loving, people-respecting conversations.

Without further ado, here are 11 reasons why topical preaching is effective (the last reason is why it’s not the best). Topical preaching is:

Missional

Paul in Acts 17 arrives in Athens to notice that he had arrived to a different culture and people of a different worldview than his own. He was Jewish and now had become Christian. The group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers didn’t exactly understand him so Paul took a different tact with the Athenians. He spoke of Scripture while not even using Scripture. That’s interesting. He goes through creation to the cross in an interesting way that might be a bit too vague for the average Judeo-Christian in order to reach this new people for Jesus.

Now am I saying that the Apostle Paul was a topical preacher? No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that Paul wanted to reach his audience through preaching the truth of the Scripture, but he changed his form and approach to adapt it to the culture. This is what missiologists often try to help Christians understand. For example, many missionaries have travelled to countries and regions where there was no literacy in the indigenous people group. So how do you teach them the Bible as we North Americans often are taught? You have to teach it orally. So do massive groups of illiterate cultures memorize the Scriptures word-by-word? No, they story tell it and do their best to capture the heart, soul, and thrust of the message.

We have a whole nation, particularly for our purposes here, the Unites States of America, that doesn’t get the Bible. Sure they can read. But they aren’t passionate about reading the Scriptures as other Christians are. Sometimes what works for Christians, doesn’t work for non-Christians. And you need to keep the truth of Scripture while adapting the form and approach.

Enter topical preaching. Topical preaching is missional at heart, desiring to reach the non-believer, pulling them from where they currently are, to where the Scriptures invite them to land. Maybe it’s not for everyone. Topical preaching may not help people to know how to read the Bible from beginning to end, but perhaps that’s not even the goal of preaching. There are other avenues to achieve that. Perhaps classes, small groups, and discipleship can help fill out what’s missing in preaching. Regardless of how you might feel about topical preaching, this is a great place to start — it’s effective with the non-Christians in mind, to reach those far from Christ, that they might be brought near and become followers.

Expository

Topical preaching is expository preaching. Expository preaching simply means anytime you preach in a way to expose or explain the text. Too simple? Here are actual definitions from people you and I love: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/erik-raymond/what-is-expository-preaching/

What you’ll find are varying degrees of definitions even among the greats. Some prefer to shape their own version of what expository preaching is while others open it up a little bit more. It’s important to understand that expository preaching is just that — exposing the text. If you like a certain way to preach the Bible, perhaps you are just favoring one definition over another, but it doesn’t mean other versions aren’t also expository.

Executive Editor of Preaching on Christianity Today has a great quote on this matter:

“Exposition is the process of taking the results of our exegetical study and fashioning it for understanding — shaping a message in such a way that the people can understand this biblical truth for themselves and then recognize how it applies to their own lives.” — MICHAEL DUDUIT

Does topical preaching do this? Absolutely. Topical preaching is a great way to marry understanding the Bible and recognizing how it applies to people’s everyday lives.

Theological

In seminary I read a classic book called “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem. It’s the primer on Christian Theology. You know what I realized? I realized that Christian Theology is basically topical theology. We try to answer questions like “What does the Bible say about the Holy Spirit” — we call that Pneumatology. “What does the Bible say about Salvation” — we call that Soteriology. You can’t get a clear understanding of these core theological foundations without understanding them topically. You have to see what the entire Bible says about that one specific topic. Topical preaching allows me an expansive and thorough look at the entirety of Scripture to understand how to grapple with an important theological question or how our church fathers developed our core foundational theologies.

Inherently Biblical

We don’t find a particular way of preaching in the Scriptures. Jesus often didn’t teach the Scriptures (at that time the OT were the Scriptures) verse-by-verse or even an entire a passage at a time. He certainly didn’t go through books of the Bible. For example, Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount was inherently, by definition, topical. He took various topics: on the Law, on being Christians in our world, on murder and anger, and so on, and moved topically, weaving in Scripture throughout his talk.

We also find that in Acts 2, Peter, standing up before thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, giving an impassioned sermon, and for the first time in Christian history, does so with the Holy Spirit indwelling in him. What does he do? He somehow uses Joel 2:28–32, Psalm 16:8–11, and Psalm 110:1 in his sermon. He doesn’t give much context and seems to use these passages, the best way I can describe it is, prophetically, to make his point.

In other words, there does not seem to be a one-way, right-way to preach the Scriptures of God, but God used topical preaching effectively to bring people to salvation and freedom in the Scriptures. It’s inherently biblical.

Preaching the Word

When we look at the commands in Scripture to “preach the Word”, I think we often get an image in our mind. What image do you get? I get an image of a preacher on the pulpit “bringing it” (whatever that might mean or look like to you). The Apostle Paul instructs Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 to do just that:

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.

Whatever image we may have when thinking about the application of this passage, both “preaching” and “the word” meant something different to Paul and Timothy. “To preach” means to proclaim and “the word” (logos) can refer to Jesus directly or the sayings or teachings of Jesus. Often it meant “proclaim the gospel” so the Apostle Paul often preached the word in the streets, in the temple courts, in prisons. It wasn’t limited to our current North American lens of preaching as we do it today. Of course, today, we also include “preaching the word” to mean proclaiming and teaching everything in the Scriptures, not just Jesus or His sayings.

Whether that’s in small groups, behind a pulpit, in the streets, when we talk about the gospel, when we talk about Jesus, when we help people understand the Scriptures, we are preaching the word. Topical preaching is a great and effective way to preach the word.

Not Proof-Texting

One of the criticisms of topical preaching is that it can lend itself to proof-texting. Proof-texting is making the Scriptures say what the preacher wants it to say rather than letting the Scriptures direct how a preacher understands that passage. I think this is a fair point. Topical preaching, while it can be susceptive to proof-texting, it’s not necessarily the case.

I can’t speak for other preachers, but I know for myself that when I do preach topically, I strive to do the hard and necessary work of handling the Scripture with integrity because that’s the calling of God on a pastor and preacher’s life.

But it’s also true, that in the culture and era I live in, preachers should also be aware that everyone has access to the same amount of tools, articles, and theologians or preachers on the same passage. Which means people can look it all up and call a preacher out on proof-texting, so we should also make sure that even if we’re preaching topically that we do indeed do the passage justice.

All that said, when done with solid integrity, topical preaching can be an effective way to teach the word of God.

Relevant

What does the Bible say about race? What does the Bible say about justice? What does the Bible say about sex? If you’re starting from Genesis and making your way through Revelation at some point, chances are, you may never know. Or it might be a really long time before you get to one of these topics because it’s not part of the book series. Before the preacher or the church gets there, you may have even moved on to another church or location.

It’s also possible that you might be in super long series, like the book of Romans. You’re on chapter 8 and it’s year 3. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you might also feel like you’re not feeling the connection. You have bills to pay. You are discouraged often. You’d like for someone to address depression, how to find purpose in your vocation, or how to deal with an unfair boss. Because you’re in a long book series, you just may not feel like you’re connecting with what’s going on in your life.

This is where topical preaching can really connect. You can design sermon series that speak to what a person is struggling with and bring in the life-giving power of Scripture. You can speak to the ethos this person interacts with everyday.

Topical preaching doesn’t only address relevant issues in a person’s personal life, but it also allows the Spirit of God to stop a preaching series if He wants to, in order to speak on something that is happening communally or societally. After 9/11, many churches needed pastors and preachers to speak on that particular issue. But if you’re unwilling to deviate from a book series, that’s not going to happen. Topical preaching gives the preacher the freedom to address relevant issues in a timely way in response to the Holy Spirit.

This is one of many reasons topical preaching is effective. It takes the powerful, transforming, and freeing truths of Scripture and packages it in a way, like a sermon series, to speak on matters most pressing to you, the people around you, or society. It merges, if you will, truth and creativity, to deliver something beautiful — human connection to God’s truth.

Depth-Oriented

Topical preaching sometimes gets the rap that it may just stay on the surface. What I’ve found is that surface or depth isn’t confined to an approach, but to a preacher. I’ve heard preachers who preach verse by verse, and go deep into the text, but aren’t sure how it connects, sometimes at all, to our lives. I’ve seen other preachers who perhaps are more “textual” (vs topical) who also like to stay at the surface of both text and life.

Topical preaching is actually aimed at going deep because it focuses a message on one particular topic which means you can have layers and layers if you want to. You can also go deep into the text because again, it focuses the topic and it can focus the passage, which means you can really bring out the power of the original language, still examine the historical and cultural elements, and deliver something powerful.

I was talking to another preacher recently about a similar point and used Simon Sinek as an example. Now, Simon Sinek isn’t a biblical preacher, but he does deliver speeches really well. He focuses on one topic with simplicity, and yet in his focused topic, he brings out layers of depth and richness. While not a biblical preacher, what it revealed to me is that you can take a topical sermon and have both richness in the exposition of a text AND richness in the exposition of life.

A Powerful Medium of Communication

Topical preaching is effective because it’s a great way to deliver content to places like a book, blog, or big events, such as conferences. Even preachers who do not preach topically on Sunday mornings still end up communicating topically. If you’ve ever read a book, it’s essentially topical preaching. Ever heard of John Piper’s famous “seashell” sermon? That was topical. In fact, it became a powerful book called “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Can you guess the topic? It’s about not wasting your life, or more positively, how to spend your life for that which is most worthy.

In fact, almost all conference speakers speak topically. It’s because topical preaching is an effective way to focus your impact for a specific purpose.

As we think about topical preaching, we can expand this to topical communication. Sunday services aren’t the only spaces where we preach and communicate. We preach God’s Word through many different mediums (books, articles, church classes, small groups, conferences, and so much more); there’s no precedent that limits preaching to our Sunday services alone. This makes topical preaching all the more effective at communicating with precision and power.

The Majority

The majority of Christian preachers in North America (I can’t speak for the world) are topical preachers. I don’t have a stat on that but it was told to me by the current President of Fuller Seminary, Mark Labberton, in a preaching cohort, so it’s got to be worth something.

I’m not saying that majority rules. I say this to expand our box. Most of us operate in a small space. I’ll admit that I operate in a small space compared to the wealth of amazing Christian people in our nation and around the globe. I believe diversity helps us to see and appreciate God and His creation more and more because it expands our box. For example, I’ve come to really embrace active worship (raising of hands, jumping up and down, etc.) because I was able to break outside my box by other traditions and people who worship differently from me.

Most of us have been taught that preaching should only look like one way. I believe that knowing that topical preaching is in the majority may help us to begin to travel outside our box, learn from others, and be willing to expand our boundaries

Not the Best

I’ve saved the best for last. I love topical preaching. I get to both flex my Bible exegesis muscles and put a lot of art and communication tools into it. But it’s not the best. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that I don’t believe there is a best. I have great respect, admiration, and appreciation for varying preaching forms. And I think this is my main point. Proponents of a certain way of “expository preaching” don’t recognize that they are really embracing a very specific preaching form among other preaching forms. That form isn’t the best either. It’s just one of a few.

Here are a few approaches I’ve come up with:

Anecdotal — Preaching based primarily on the recounting of stories which convey a moral lesson. There is definitely a Scripture or passage used, but the main content is primarily anecdotal rather than directly from the text.

Topical — Preaching where the minister decides on a topic and then searches Scripture for biblical texts or a primary text applicable to the topic. They may stay with one central passage or fill out the idea with various passages.

Textual — Preaching that refers to a passage of Scripture but does not use the main point of the text as the main point of the sermon. This could be a variant of topical preaching, but differs in that instead of focusing on the passage, may use a Scripture or passage as a springboard to talk about the topic.

Expository (expositional) — Preaching that takes the point of the text as the point of the sermon. They preach through the Bible, through a lectionary, chronologically, or from Genesis to Revelation in their own pace, going through books of the Bible. Some people may even refer to this as “verse-by-verse.”

Narrative Preaching — using the story of the text like a drama, play, reading that pulls the audience as if they are right there. Rather than teaching the Bible like an analytical document, this approach brings the audience into the story almost as to relive it.

I have great appreciation for varying preaching approaches and forms as long as it’s done with integrity, authenticity, and excellence.

Finally, at my church where I pastor, I try to do a mix of preaching approaches. At least once a year, among many topical sermon series, I always include at least one Bible book series (Matthew — Sermon on the Mount, Daniel, Genesis, Ephesians, Ecclesiastes, to name a few). Rarely, but I try to push myself, I try to preach narratively. It’s an art form not practiced by most preachers; it’s found primarily in Black preaching congregations, but I’d like to embrace and lead out in more of it.

Any way you cut it, preaching is challenging. I value each preacher who brings their humble best to the table. What was most helpful about this list for you? My greatest hope isn’t that we would rest in a preferred preaching approach, but that we could sit and listen to different people when they speak, teach, preach, and communicate the Word, being able to receive what’s being taught, granted that all is kosher. I want to have an open-handed posture to receive the teaching of God’s Word rather than a posture of critique.

Let’s learn to be both great receivers and communicators of God’s Word.