A few weeks ago, I published an article here on Preaching & Preachers introducing what I’ve come to call High-Altitude Spiral Preaching, a philosophy and methodology for preaching whole books of the Bible at the book level, not as a replacement for ground-level exposition, but as a complement to it.
Since then I’ve had several encouraging conversations with pastors and teachers who are intrigued by the idea, curious about how it actually works in practice, and wondering whether it’s realistic in the press of weekly ministry.
That’s why I was grateful for the opportunity to talk through these ideas at greater length on BJU Seminary’s Theologically Speaking podcast. In that episode we move beyond the written article into a wide-ranging conversation about exposition, book-level preaching, long-range planning, and the pastoral payoff of helping God’s people see Scripture from a higher vantage point. I also give a teaser about the session I’ll be doing at this year’s CoRE Conference on the use of notes in preaching as an aid to sharpen our delivery.
Key Questions We Explore in the Podcast
Here are some of the questions we wrestle with during the interview:
- What if preaching a book too slowly actually obscures the author’s intent?
- How does preaching only at ground level shape (or misshape) a congregation’s sense of the whole Bible?
- What vantage points are your people never getting if you never step back and look at the book as a whole?
- How might preaching the same book multiple times over several years (each time from a different angle) actually relieve pressure rather than add to it?
These aren’t merely methodological questions. They’re pastoral ones.
Takeaways for Preachers
Here are a few key takeaways from the conversation:
- High-altitude preaching helps congregations know where they are before they zoom in.
- Faithful exposition isn’t confined to paragraphs; it can occur at the level of themes, structure, and canonical function.
- Selectivity isn’t a weakness. It’s a necessity when preaching whole books.
- High-altitude spiral preaching assumes you’re thinking in terms of years, not just weeks.
- Ground-level exposition remains essential; high-altitude preaching enriches it.
If the article sparked your interest, I think you’ll find the podcast conversation clarifying, realistic, and pastorally grounded. It gave me the chance to explain not only what high-altitude spiral preaching is, but why I believe it can serve the long-term health of the church.
You can listen to the episode here:
My hope is that this conversation encourages you, not necessarily to change everything you’re doing, but to lift your eyes occasionally, help your people see the landscape, and then lead them back down into the text with greater clarity and confidence.
As always I’d love to hear how you’re thinking about these things in your own preaching ministry.