At Southeastern Seminary, gospel-centered expositional preaching is at the center of the vision for pastoral ministry that we are attempting to cultivate among our students. In an age of gimmicky, atheological, man-centered, self-help drivel–and that’s just in the evangelical pulpits!–we believe that local churches will not be healthy without exegetical, theological, applicational, evangelistic pulpit ministries. To this end, SEBTS and IX Marks Ministries are partnering to co-sponsor a preaching conference at SEBTS on September 25-26 titled God Exposed: Awkward Preaching in a Comfortable Age. Lord willing, this conference will be the first of nine such conferences–one for each of the nine marks articulated in Mark Dever’s Nine Marks of a Healthy Church and promoted by IX Marks Ministries. The speakers include Danny Akin, Thabiti Anyabwile, Mark Dever, C. J. Mahaney, and Mike McKinley. For more information, check out this link. We hope to see you there.
I honestly believe the greatest need of the American Church is gospel-based, expositional preaching. We have preached the “drivel” you described, causing severe spiritual malnutrition, then we wonder why our people are not healthy or growing.
May God bless you as you carry out this vision.
Comment by Dave Miller — August 6, 2009 @ 10:11 am
Thanks and I hope to make the conference or listen afterwards to the audio. I do have a question that kind of ties into the post Dave’s comment and that is if your Pastor does NOT practice expositional preaching is that warrant to leave the church? Not heretical or unbiblical in content, just may have nothing to do with the text the Pastor is supposedly preaching on.
Comment by RJ — August 21, 2009 @ 10:14 am