The Academy for Expository Preaching – A Review
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The Need for Pastoral Evaluation
Pastors should be constantly learning. Thankfully, in this day and age, there are a number of ways to continue learning. From conferences held by larger organizations and seminaries to online tools provided to continue sharpening your abilities, pastors have a wealth of resources available to them.
While these resources are invaluable, they lack a level of review. Week after week, pastors stand in pulpits proclaiming the Word to their congregations. Generally, the only feedback pastors receive on their preaching is a short word of encouragement from congregants as they leave the service. Rarely does a pastor’s preaching get a “peer review.”
The Difficulty of Further Seminary Training
Seminary education is one pathway to “peer review.” It is a must before entering the ministry, to evaluate a man’s call and giftedness for ministry. However, further seminary education is often not feasible once in the pastorate, especially for the lone pastor of a small church.
I encountered this reality myself. Presented with a pathway to pursue another degree, the workload seemed insurmountable. There just was not enough time in a week. As a solo pastor, my responsibilities included preparation for at least 3 sermons a week, administrative tasks relevant to our ministry, counseling sessions, planning and execution of outreach and fellowship activities, and the attention needed by my family.
All of this pulls a pastor in several different directions weekly, and the thought of adding formal seminary education on top of all my other responsibilities was insurmountable. Yet, I knew I needed to continue honing my abilities as a pastor and expositor of God’s Word.
A Welcome Alternative
As I pursued further sharpening of my skills through conferences and seminars, I had the opportunity to attend The Institute for Expository Preaching held by Dr. Steve Lawson and put on by his OnePassion Ministries. The institute is a two-and-a-half-day seminar where Dr. Lawson provides lectures on preaching as well as opportunities for interaction through Q&A sessions and personal interaction with the attendees.
I found the institute to be immensely helpful as a refresher of the principles of exposition I learned in seminary and as a challenge to implement other helpful suggestions. Though I found the institute to be greatly helpful, as time went on and the institute grew in popularity, they were no longer held at a location convenient for me to attend.
However, in the fall of last year, I received an email from OnePassion Ministries that introduced the Academy for Expository Preaching. Upon perusing the information in the email and the website, I was excited for this opportunity. After speaking with church leadership, I received approval to pursue the Academy. Waiting until the holiday season settled down, I signed up in April of this year and began my 12-week journey.
The Structure of the Academy
Lectures
The Academy is structured in three modules, which include a total of 28 roughly half hour lectures. The lectures include engaging and helpful content that moves from the history of preaching in the Scriptures to the demands of Scripture on preaching. The lectures close with specific instruction on the development and delivery of a sermon.
I found these lectures to be very helpful, especially the survey of preaching throughout the Scriptures. Throughout the lectures, Dr. Lawson models proper exposition so that you not only hear what expository preaching should be but you also are able to observe it.
Reading
During the 12-week program, you are asked to read three books on preaching. The assigned reading amounted to around 850 pages over the 12 weeks. The books were a nice mix of modern and classic works on preaching. Their content was solidly evangelical and challenged my thinking in several areas. Rarely do you come across a published work where there is nothing you take issue with, and these books were no exception, but I found the reading to be very beneficial. After completing the reading of each book, there is a challenging quiz over its content. The quiz result is included in your final grade.
Assignments
The Academy sets itself apart from other online learning resources through its assignments. The purpose of the assignments is to provide evaluation of the student’s implementation of the process of expository preaching, from the initial interpretation stage to the delivery stage. This “peer review” process was what really drew me to the Academy.
Three assignments must be completed within the 12-week program: an exegetical assignment, a preparation assignment, and a homiletical assignment. The exegetical assignment asks you to make 50 observations of a text, assigning certain categories to help guide you through the exegetical and interpretative process. The preparation assignment builds on your exegetical assignment as you provide an outlined sermon manuscript. The final homiletical assignment has you evaluate a video of your delivery of the sermon you prepared.
Each assignment is reviewed by a grader. These graders are men who are pastors themselves and have demonstrated exceptional facility with expository preaching. I found their feedback to be encouraging and helpful in further improving my own preaching. They engaged comprehensively with my assignments, providing encouragement in areas where I had done well and offering constructive criticism in areas that needed improvement. It was both a confirmation that I was on the right track with my interpretative and homiletical efforts and a challenge to improve. Getting the feedback of other, gifted pastors and expositors is the real gold of the Academy.
Some Critiques
The Academy is relatively new, and with any new endeavor—especially one of this size—there are growing pains. I found communication with those running the Academy to be difficult. At the outset of my enrollment in the Academy, emails would go unanswered for a couple of weeks, and I had a couple emails that were never answered at all. However, this changed as I neared the completion of the Academy.
I also found the quizzes to be more difficult than I expected. This may be because it has been nearly a decade since I sat in a seminary class. I was not expecting the level of detail asked in the quizzes. I also found some inconsistencies in the grading of assignments compared to what was detailed in the syllabus. These amounted to minor frustrations and did not detract from the overall benefit.
Final Evaluation
I found the Academy for Expository Preaching to be a valuable use of my time and resources. I have always benefitted from Steve Lawson’s ministry, and his work at the Academy is immensely helpful. The lectures encouraged and strengthened my commitment to expository preaching as the biblical pattern for proclamation of the Word. The readings and quizzes were a welcome academic exercise and provided helpful content to further shape my own preaching. The real benefit of the Academy was the graded assignments. This “peer review” aspect was exactly what I needed. For a busy, solo pastor of a small congregation, having my exegesis, sermon preparation, and sermon delivery evaluated provided both confirmation that I am on the right track and encouragement to pursue further improvement as I feed the flock.
The Academy is not without a cost. It requires a significant commitment of both time and money. The expectation is that all the lectures, readings, and assignments will be completed in 12 weeks. Considering the over 14 hours of lectures, extensive reading, and required assignments, one must be disciplined in working at a reasonable pace. The Academy currently costs $399, which can be split into 3 monthly payments. They also offer a “Gift One, Get One” option for $499. While the commitment of time and money is not small, I can assure you that it is worth it. I highly encourage anyone who preaches regularly to seriously consider this opportunity. You won’t regret it!
Proclamation of the eternal truths of God’s Word is the most important activity in the world. It is a weighty thing to stand behind a pulpit and open the Scriptures to people. An activity of such consequence is certainly worthy of regular evaluation. Preachers need to be constantly challenging themselves to grow more in faithfulness to the Word. The Academy for Expository Preaching does just that, and it does it well, all to the glory of God.
You can learn more about the Academy for Expository Preaching and apply to become a student at theexpositorsAcademy.org.
Phil Golden Bio
Phil Golden Jr. grew up in a pastor’s home and felt God’s leading into the ministry at a young age. He is currently pastor of Bible Baptist Church of Pittsburgh.
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Any man who desires to become a better preacher really has no excuse not to. I've been to seminary already, but I continue to be challenged, encouraged, and helped by these kinds of training programs. In fact, pastors have a wealth of resources available to us if we're able to invest a couple days and <$500.
In addition to Lawson's academy, here are several other preaching training programs:
- The Charles Simeon Trust (I've attended two workshops in person. They are good, but definitely won't espouse dispensationalism when dealing with prophetic or apocalyptic texts.)
- Preaching Coach (a ministry of Dr. David L. Allen)
- The MacArthur Center for Expository Preaching (another ministry of JMac)
Each program offers its unique features / resources, but all of them provide in-person sermon reviews. The price is often determined by the amount of training / mentorship / review desired.
Appreciate these other resources. I have looked at some of the Charles Simeon trust stuff and it looks good but was unable to determine what level of mentorship/review was included in their resources. They do offer very affordable online classes.
The MacArthur Center does offer sermon review and I have thought about using it as well but The Academy offered a comprehensive review of my exegesis, manuscript, and delivery and that is what drew me to it.
Also, I should mention that they plan to add additional modules/classes to The Academy in the future.
Phil Golden
I have looked at some of the Charles Simeon trust stuff and it looks good but was unable to determine what level of mentorship/review was included in their resources. They do offer very affordable online classes.
Phil, the in-person workshops deal more with flushing out one's exegetical / homiletical outlines based on the shape and structure of the biblical text. In addition to the lectures on expository preaching, they assign you specific passages and place you into a small group with a facilitator. Each man is responsible for studying the passage and developing an exegetical and homiletical outline to then share with the group. These are then critiqued by the facilitator and the other men in your group. After each session, one of the facilitators preaches an expository sermon from one of the passages being studied before the whole workshop.
So, if you want help with delivery, the workshops I attended wouldn't help you with that. However, they will help you hone your exegetical and exposition skills.
Now, Preaching Coach does all the above. Dr. Allen will work with you on whatever you need help with: exegesis, homiletics, delivery, illustrations, or just pastoring in general.
There's another option I forgot to mention. The Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove (!TRIGGER WARNING! Convergence Ahead!) offers intensive Bible training classes for pastors on various books of the Bible. I'm attending one this August on The Message of Matthew. Dr. Don Carson is teaching it (He's the reason I chose to attend). These training classes can be a bit more pricey depending on your meal and lodging situation. The classes themselves are only $45, but if you need meals and/or lodging the price escalates accordingly.
After I finish preaching through Genesis 1-11, I plan to move to Matthew. I figured this would be a great opportunity to get an in-depth look at the book before I formally start my study.
As an "intellectual wannabe", I appreciate the academic resources that Philip mentions, but another great reference is whether a pastor sits down with church members and asks himself a tough question; are they getting it when he preaches? Hopefully that's not too confrontational!
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
...another great reference is whether a pastor sits down with church members and asks himself a tough question; are they getting it when he preaches?
9Marks advocates what it calls a service review after each Sunday service. Part of the service review is examining the content and delivery of the sermon. I have not yet implemented a service review at the church I pastor, but I do solicit feedback from my fellow pastors / elders.
I absolutely agree with the need to evaluate if your people are "getting it." I think, though, that this is more spiritual evaluation than technical evaluation. Which, in some respects, is significantly more important than technical evaluation. I have been moved by the Spirit many times when the preacher's exegesis or delivery may diverge from the expository model. However, to some degree, the preacher is not the one who is ultimately responsible for the spiritual impact of the word proclaimed. That responsibility lies with the Spirit to illumine and give ears to hear and with the hearer who submits to God's word at the prompting of the Spirit. Faithfulness in preaching is measured by the message delivered as the King spoke. Not necessarily if the message is received.
That being said, there is certainly value in seeking feedback from your congregation. I mainly look to our church leadership and our Men's Bible Study group for that feedback, asking them questions periodically of how my delivery is, am I making scripture clear, am I preaching too long, is this series too long... etc.
Finally, one thing I am constantly reminded of is that the power of the Word of God does not depend on the technical abilities of the preacher but on the sovereign working of the Spirit in His people's hearts.
Phil Golden
Speaking as a lay person, not a pastor, I won’t have as deep an understanding of something that is not my field as you guys, but I would argue that the “understanding” of the meaning of the text and thrust of the message is about construction and language, and hence, as I see it, is a technical evaluation, at least in large part.
Certainly the Spirit’s working in a heart with the words of scripture is what makes it go from foolishness to effectual, since such topics are spiritually discerned. But if a message doesn’t make its words, points, and arguments very understandable to the hearer in the first place, it’s not that the Holy Spirit can’t use it, of course, but I would think a speaker would want to do whatever is possible to facilitate the process rather than get in the way, so improvement is always warranted, just as it would be in any field.
I think it’s all well and good if an elder discusses his messages with other elders, but I’ll bet a lot can be learned by talking with both the auto mechanics and the PhDs at the local college in the audience about what the hearers in the congregation are “getting.”
At my previous church, our SS was an “application class” that took place after the service, rather than before, where we discussed the practical outworking of what was preached. Since the pastor taught that class, I figure he learned as much as we did by listening to what questions were asked and what answers were given by the class members.
Dave Barnhart
Dave, absolutely agree that technical evaluation is vital. God uses His word and if we are not giving His Word properly than that is a huge problem. Hence why The Academy is such a valuable resource to preachers because they can pursue technical evaluation.
Phil Golden
I like Tom's comment about service reviews, but it strikes me that the next step is to do something to see what people whose spiritual maturity is "not quite that of an elder" are thinking. Or at least I hope that deacons and elders attain to a greater degree of spiritual maturity than average. :^)
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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