There is a difference between expository study (exegesis) and expository preaching. Byron Yawn is committed to both, and in his book, Well-Driven Nails: The Power of Finding Your Own Voice (2010, Emerald House), he does a masterful job helping us guard against making them synonymous. He writes:...in my departure from seminary I struggled to take all the incredible information exegesis yields and present it in an impactful way. (Kindle loc. 375)To achieve this goal, Mr. Yawn demonstrates his own ability to step back, analyze something to which he is dedicated and expose the blind spots of denial which often accompany a passion or conviction.
Preaching labs, which are designed to treat issues of delivery, bear a striking resemblance to oncology. The treatment for the cancer is nearly as lethal as the condition. In the same way, the treatment for bad preaching is just as lethal as the condition...The most lethal are found in seminary preaching labs....a relentless barrage of really predictable, really dreadful sermons. (Kindle loc. 398)His solutions tackle the categories of clarity, simplicity and passion. His method is to draw counsel from three well-known expository preachers - in order: John MacArthur (clarity), R. C. Sproul (simplicity), and John Piper (passion). In so doing, he pursues, with an invigorating zeal, his goal to restore to the preacher the God-given birthright of expository preaching - the individual freedom to authentically express the preacher's own personal encounter with "the mind-blowing effect of God" discovered in the text.
Although now retired, I intend to review this book periodically for those moments when I have the opportunity to preach, and for the pursuit of my new opportunities for writing.
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