Today while working on the machine folding Slovakian children tracts I got to read the first mark in Mark Dever's book 9 marks of a healthy church. This was on Expositional Preaching.Dever says; "The first mark is expositional preaching. It is not only the first mark; it is far and away the most important of them all, because if you get this one right, all of the others should follow."
Dever sets forth in this chapter a great argument for the expository preaching through books, rather than topics of the bible although he does not say that topical preaching is wrong he does show why it can be flawed.
The chapter flows like this;
Expositional preaching
The central Role of the Word of God
The role of God's word in bringing life
The role of God's word in sanctifying
The role of the preacher of God's word
I think Albert Mohler's blurb (is that realy what thats called?) on the back of this book says it;
"[This book] belongs in the hands of every faithful pastor and all those who pray for reformation in this age."
And so far I certianly agree that the first chapter on expositional preaching belongs in the hands of every pastor.
