In his book 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching, Wayne McDill gives seven qualities of effective expository preaching:
- The preacher’s first aim is to discover the text writer’s intended theological meaning in the selected text.
- The preacher seeks to let the text speak again through the sermon with the same theological message.
- The preacher of expository sermons discovers the meaning of the text through a careful exegetical analysis of the text in all its particulars.
- Expository preaching calls for careful consideration of the contexts in which the text was originally written.
- An expository sermon is organized with due consideration to the structure and genre of the selected passage.
- The expository preacher will seek to influence the audience through the use of the rhetorical elements common to persuasion.
- Expository preaching aims for a response of faith and obedience to the biblical truth on the part of the audience. (8-9, numbers added; other formatting original; discussion between points removed)