Evaluating the preaching in the emerging church in light of traditional expositional preaching : are the homiletical model(s) in the emerging church different than that of the traditional expositional preaching in the evangelical church and are they any more successful in addressing the need of post-modern Christians?

Abstract

Many Emerging Church preachers claim the Bible is not viewed the same way it once was. Consequently ministers need to rethink some aspects of how they go about preaching and communicating. Emerging Church preachers argue that Christianity must develop a new way of describing, defining, and defending the gospel. The aim of this study is to answer the question: To what extent, if any, is preaching in the Emerging Church different than that of traditional expositional preaching in the Evangelical Church and how does one compare with the other as far as success in addressing the needs of post-modern Christians? Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the Emerging Church movement by briefly defining and describing the diverse movement (EC movement) that arose within Protestant Christianity due to a reaction to modernism in Western Christianity. Chapter two provides a literature study where definitions of both preaching styles are considered – emerging style(s) and expository preaching. Included with the emerging preaching style(s) and expositional preaching will be characteristics comprising these styles. Chapter three (methodology) consists of charts, definitions, and descriptions comparing both the modern and postmodern movement through their characteristics and values, purposes for the movements, and homiletics of the movements.Chapter four, "Findings From of The Comparisons From The Two Models of Preaching" consists of the results found from the research. Chapter five, "Conclusions Of Preaching For The Two Models Of Preaching" will consist of a critical analysis of the homiletics in both the Emerging Church and the Traditional Evangelical Church. Chapter six, "Expository Preaching In the Traditional Evangelical Church For Post-Modern Christians" will offer a model as a proposal on how to effectively preach to the postmodern congregation. Chapter seven contains concluding remarks concerning the effectiveness of the traditional expository preaching compared with the emerging dialogical/storytelling preaching for postmodern Christians.