Experiential Preaching

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We hear a lot about it, but what is it exactly? Experiential preaching, or experimental or applicatory preaching, is textual preaching that lays the law and gospel across the heart of the hearer. It seeks to interlace the listener’s mind and soul with the text, rather than simply presenting a history or abstract of redemption’s theological thought.

From a Puritan and Reformed perspective, experiential preaching is considered a crucial element in the Christian life, emphasizing the importance of personal tasting of law and grace and the life of holiness within. Our forbearers believed that the gospel should be preached in a way that touches the pith and marrow of the listener’s heart, leaving the Holy Spirit to do His sovereign work upon them. He is the only true Preacher.

As the Puritans demonstrated, experimental preaching often uses vivid imagery, real-time problems, and personal testimony to engage listeners and help them understand the gospel's message in a way that doesn’t leave them alone. But more than this, this preaching realizes that a preacher cannot save a soul. Underneath all man’s preaching efforts, the Holy Spirit alone brings about brokenness for sin, repentance and faith in the heart, and a desire to walk in newness of life according to the pattern shown to us in the life of Christ.

In this preaching, the Covenant of Grace is the central theme, and Christ is that Center's center. We believe that the gospel is a message of God's covenantal love and grace toward sinful people.

The gospel is not a set of theological concepts and moralization of life. Nor is it primarily an emotional exercise of soulish metaphysics void of boundaries. Rather, it is a fitted message of grace to sinners by Christ, and a personal transformation and renovation that changes hearts and lives forever by sovereign grace. Experiential preaching, in the hand of the Spirit, links heaven to earth, bringing God almost unbearably close, but never near enough, until faith passes into sight in glory.