by Ezekiel A. Ajibade

How can expository preaching, rooted in a textual analysis of Scripture, be effectively utilized in oral cultures? In Expository Preaching in Africa, Ezekiel A. Ajibade engages this challenge directly, offering practical techniques for integrating African oral elements – such as myths, proverbs, folklore, dance, drama, poetry, and storytelling – into preaching that is both biblical and African. Alongside numerous examples and tools, Ajibade provides a rich overview of the nature of orality, the history and development of African preaching, and the reason biblical exposition must be central to gospel proclamation. He reminds us that it is the word of God, incarnated among us, that has the power to transform lives and revitalize nations. Contextualized expository preaching is not, therefore, one technique to be utilized among many; it is, rather, the heart of biblical teaching and the future of the African church.

While contributing significantly to studies in contextualization and homiletics, this book is immediately applicable to practitioners, especially African preachers and those working in oral contexts.

Abstract: Larry Dinkins discovered, after trying a highly literate TEE approach for Bible study and a western approach to preaching, that the Thai were in fact “preferred oral learners” who responded best to the narrative sections of Scripture. Following a major fail during an orality workshop, he went on a quest to understand how best to communicate to concrete relational learners like the Thai. Dinkins has since been involved with one hundred Simply the Story workshops in ten countries, and has settled on a three-pronged narrative preaching approach that has produced gratifying results with the added benefit of being easily replicated.

This article was published in Mission Round Table 19:2 (May-Aug 2024): 20-28.

When I have taught about narrative preaching, students have sometimes asked me where they can read more about it. I have at times recommended certain books with the caution, “Learn from the author’s homiletical methodology, but don’t embrace his [non-evangelical] theology.” Consequently, I am pleased to commend Treasuring Christ in Seminary, which does not require that warning. Cameron Armstrong ably explains how a high view of Scripture and evangelical theology are compatible with narrative preaching rightly understood. Sermons from his own ministry illustrate well what he means by “narrative preaching.” I recommend this book, and especially for theological conservatives who have dismissed narrative preaching until now.

—Grant Lovejoy