Engaging Exposition—Akin, Curtis, Rummage

INTRODUCTION

“We believe the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is at a critical point. A crisis is in our pulpits, and this situation is critical,” writes Daniel Aiken, President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1). What hope has a world in crisis if the church of Jesus Christ from its practical center, the pulpit, is flat-lining on the table? At no time in human history has the world needed the message of God’s truth more than today. Likewise, at no time in Church history has the body of Christ needed to hear God’s encouragement and instruction from the Christian pulpit more than it needs to hear it today.

Engaging exposition is not an option. It is an absolute necessity for the health of the church.

The modern pulpit has been hijacked by a “watered-down” counterfeit message filled with man’s practical wisdom at the expense of God’s timeless wisdom. This sad reality has necessitated a more than two-decade public cry for a return to biblical exposition. This appeal has been led by faithful Christian leaders and preachers committed to God-honoring integrity in pulpit ministry. In return to the historic homiletical principles of Biblical exposition born out of inductive Bible study, three seasoned expositors, Daniel Akin, Bill Curtis, and Stephen Rummage, wrote Engaging Exposition as a three-dimensional approach to preaching (5). Their 3-D approach to exposition is explained as the discovery of the text’s meaning, the development of the sermon in faithfulness to that text, and the delivery of the sermon by Spirit-aided human effort. Based on the premise that “engaging exposition is not an option. It is an absolute necessity for the health of the church,” Akin, Curtis, and Rummage deliver a manual for expository preaching that is both corrective and instructive (5). Rather than engaging directly by argumentation the crisis in modern pulpits, they write explaining the principles of faithful preaching. Engaging Exposition is not the presentation of a new homiletical approach but a defining for a new generation the historic commitments to preach the Word as it has been delivered.

THESIS DEVELOPMENT

Part one of Engaging Exposition is written by Bill Curtis. Curtis currently serves as the lead pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Darlington, South Carolina. As a seasoned pastor and former homiletics professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Curtis is uniquely qualified to write with the practicum in mind. Throughout Part one’s more than one-hundred-page explanation of Biblical hermeneutics, Curtis presents sound hermeneutical principles with simplicity and depth.

Make no mistake—bad hermeneutics leads to bad sermons.

Taking the “good Bible study leads to good preaching” approach, Engaging Exposition begins by instructing the student to subordinate his message to the Word through inductive Bible study. A text-driven message must always start with a thorough examination of the text. Curtis addresses the crisis in evangelical pulpits as the fruit of “poor hermeneutics” (10). If good hermeneutics results in good homiletics, then “make no mistake—bad hermeneutics leads to bad sermons” (11).

Curtis defines hermeneutics as — what many call— inductive Bible study. He relates the discovery of the author’s intended meaning in the text as the primary goal of hermeneutics (38). The biblical writers MIT, or Main Idea of the Text, can be “discovered through the careful study of the words, grammar, and style that the author used to write his text, as well as through our understanding of the cultural, historical, geographical, and theological contexts that influenced his life” (39). A preacher has no message from God until, through inductive Bible study, he discovers what God has said in His Word.

The clarity of the hermeneutical principles explained in part one of Engaging Exposition is timely and a strength of the book. Using an intersecting circle diagram, Curtis illustrates the two horizons of the author’s world and the reader’s world intersect in the text’s main idea. The universal principle in the biblical text is the bridge between these worlds. Curtis does an excellent job throughout part one, clearly showing how the meaning and significance of the text are discovered through understanding the genre of the writing, the language clues of the text, and the context of the ancient world. I believe the exegetical hermeneutic Curtis implores every young and old preacher to practice in sermon preparation would if applied, correct most of the pulpit crises of our day.

If your listeners leave with this main idea ringing in their ears and planted in their hearts, with the intent to act upon it, we will have succeeded in our holy assignment.

In part two of Engaging Exposition, Dr. Daniel Akin takes the student from part one’s hermeneutical discovery to the homiletical principles of message development. Akin has been in the academic world of theological training for most of his ministry. He currently holds the position of president at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. Throughout his service in the seminary, he has spent a lifetime emphasizing the local church’s biblical mission to the next generation of local church practitioners. In addition, Akin is widely known as an excellent expositor of Scripture. Leaning on his lifetime of experience and training and the writings of others, part two of Engaging Exposition communicates a well-developed Word-driven, Christ-centered homiletic.

Building on the first two steps of sermon preparation—studying and structuring—Akin elaborates on part one’s core premise by developing the observation that every text has one “main idea that all other ideas” from the text “support and amplify” (129). The chart “How to Study the Bible” from page one-hundred twenty-eight is an enlighting resource that provides a visualization of how the ancient meaning of the text discovered through the hermeneutical process is brought into the present age by the minister through homiletics. Through this diagram, Akin shows that “the bridge” from the text’s meaning to the pulpit’s message is directly related to man’s need, God’s provision in Jesus, and the necessary response that flows out of these Gospel truths. Therefore, the MIT (Main Idea of the Text) is a universal truth that God intends to be delivered, or exposed, through preaching. Akin concludes, “if your listeners leave with this main idea ringing in their ears and planted in their hearts, with the intent to act upon it, we will have succeeded in our holy assignment” (129).

Preaching is not merely a human endeavor.

Part three of Engaging Exposition transitions from developing an expository message to delivering that message. Dr. Stephen Rummage is the Senior Pastor of Quail Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Dr. Rummage completed his Ph.D. in preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Having pastored churches in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana and having served previously on the faculties of three prominent Southern Baptist Seminaries, Rummage writes Part three’s instruction on the delivery of the sermon from the position of extensive experience.

Rummage begins Part three with a question, “What’s the big deal about delivery” (249)? In a homiletical textbook, like Engaging Exposition, the mechanics of sermon delivery certainly have a place. Rummage correctly prioritizes the mechanics of delivery secondary to discovering and developing a text-driven expository message. At the end of chapter twenty-one, he states that “preaching is not merely a human endeavor” (252). Because the “God who called … will accomplish what is necessary to make us an effective communicator,” the priority is always on the message, not the messenger (258). Indeed, the message aided by the Spirit of God is the means of conversion through preaching. Therefore, I agree with properly prioritizing sermon delivery mechanics secondary to the message.

CONCLUSION

Engaging Exposition is a worthy contribution to the genre of Biblical exposition. As a homiletics manual, Akin, Curtis, and Rummage successfully deliver a textbook that explains the discovery of the text’s meaning, the development of the sermon in faithfulness to that text, and the delivery of the sermon by Spirit-aided human effort. Since “engaging exposition is not an option” but “an absolute necessity for the health of the church,” this textbook on faithful preaching will continue to serve local church congregations as it develops the core ingredients of exposition in future ministers. Engaging Exposition is a helpful resource that deserves to be on the reading list of every preacher that desires to pursue engaging, faithful exposition.