Watsonville Christian Church
We meet at the Watsonville Woman's Club building, 12 Brennan St., Watsonville.
Website: watcc.org Phone: 784-1429 E-mail: watcc@att.net.
We are a Christ-centered, Bible-teaching, Christian church. We're open by 9 a.m. Sundays for setting-up and fellowship.
We have a pre-worship service prayer meeting for anyone desiring to attend, offer prayers, make prayer requests, or just sit-in.
Our Worship Service begins at 10 a.m. and includes beautiful music and life-changing teachings from the Bible. Our teachings are expository,
meaning we go through the Bible verse-by-verse explaining how to apply it to our lives. A Bible is given to anyone desiring to use during services and to keep.
We stay and fellowship after the Worship Service. Our mission is to teach everyone to live unconditionally surrendered to Jesus Christ. You're invited!
From GotQuestions.org:
Question: What is expository preaching?"
Answer: Expository preaching involves the exposition, or comprehensive explanation, of the Scripture; that is, expository
preaching presents the meaning and intent of a biblical text, providing commentary and examples to make the passage clear and understandable. The word
exposition is related to the word expose -- the expository preacher's goal is simply to expose the meaning of the Bible, verse by verse.
As a method, expository preaching differs from topical preaching and textual preaching. To prepare a topical sermon, the preacher starts with a topic and
then finds a passage in the Bible that addresses that topic. For example, for the chosen topic of "Laziness," the preacher might refer to
but the path of the upright is a highway.
is brother to one who destroys.
In a textual sermon, the preacher uses a particular text to make a point without examining the original intent of that text. For example, someone could
use
she gives birth;
before the pains come upon her,
she delivers a son.
8 Who has ever heard of such things?
Who has
ever seen things like this?
Can a country be born in a day
or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no
sooner is Zion in labor
than she gives birth to her children.
9 Do I bring to the moment of birth
and not give
delivery?" says the Lord.
"Do I close up the womb
when I bring to delivery?" says your God.
10 "Rejoice
with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice greatly with her,
all you who mourn over her.
11 For you will nurse and be satisfied
at her comforting breasts;
you will drink deeply
and
delight in her overflowing abundance.
12 For this is what the LORD says:
"I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm
and dandled on
her knees.
13 As a mother comforts her child,
so will I comfort you;
and you will be comforted over
Jerusalem."
In both topical and textual sermons, the Bible passage is used as support material for the topic. In expository sermons, the Bible passage is the topic,
and support materials are used to explain and clarify it.
To prepare an expository sermon, the preacher starts with a passage of Scripture and then studies the grammar, the context, and the historical setting
of that passage in order to understand the author's intent. In other words, the expositor is also an exegete--one who analyzes the text carefully and
objectively. (See our article "What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis?") Once the preacher understands the meaning of the
passage, he then crafts a sermon to explain and apply it. The result is expository preaching.
G. Campbell Morgan, pastor of London's Westminster Chapel and known as "the prince of expositors," taught that a sermon is limited by the text it is
covering. Every word from the pulpit should amplify, elaborate on, or illustrate the text at hand, with a view towards clarity. He wrote, "The sermon is
the text repeated more fully." A sermon's primary function is to present the text.
While exposition is not the only valid mode of preaching, it is the best for teaching the plain sense of the Bible. Expositors usually approach Scripture
with these assumptions:
1) The Bible is God's Word. If every word of God is pure and true (
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.
and your servant loves them.
2) Men need divine wisdom in order to understand the Word (
"Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ.
3) The preacher is subject to the text, not the other way around. Scripture is the authority, and its message must be presented honestly, apart from
personal bias.
4) The preacher's job is to clarify the text and call for a corresponding response from his hearers.
An expositor cares little if his audience says, "What a great sermon" or "What an entertaining speaker." What he truly wants them to say is, "Now I know
what that passage means," or "I better understand who God is and what He requires of me."