Lately I’ve been doing a lot of listening to other preachers as I drive here and there—not ‘big name,’ famous people—just a whole range of Aussies from various state and denominations, trying to make faith connect with their congregations and community.

My observation from listening is that preaching seems to have become significantly more expositional in its approach. ie. following a passage of scripture from verse x to y and explaining its content with an occasional illustration if deemed necessary.

The era I learnt to preach in (admittedly self taught) was equally intent on communicating the truth of scripture, but involved more story telling, both to keep attention but also to help people grasp an idea. I am noticing the absence of story from a whole lot of preaching and I am wondering why.

Is it simply a shift in the way people are preaching? Is this method taught exclusively in Bible college? Is it learnt thru watching other pastors? Or do busy pastors no longer have sufficient time to connect real life stories to text?

I get the value of expositional preaching and it was a significant part of our diet when I was a pastor, but I definitely don’t see it as the only way of communicating – and it was also done with an element of story present. Jesus was very big on story – usually real life stuff and he seemed to realise that people ‘lean in’ when a story is told.

From the time I began preaching I knew that stories generally captured and held people’s attention, whereas raw theological explanation tended to see minds wander if the material became tough or dense. Has the approach changed and if so why?

Every time I hear a sermon open with ‘turn in your Bibles to…’ or ‘Today we are talking about X’ and I find myself wondering, ‘why didn’t you try harder to capture your audience’s attention right at the front end?‘ Why open with something so pedestrian?

I remember it being said that you have around 30 seconds to capture people’s attention and if you haven’t given them a reason to listen, then chances are their minds will wander elsewhere. This is where good story is so valuable. When it is used well, preaching becomes less of a theology lecture and more of a way of helping people really engage with the text and find a way to live it out the next day. Of course story can be used badly and can detract from the focus if there is no point to it.

But I’m wondering if I am observing a shift. Have we intentionally moved away from the use of good story telling to more expositional preaching? Or have I generally worked alongside good story tellers and assumed this was the norm?