How to Develop an Expository-Topical Series in Youth Group
This is part three in a series about “What I’m teaching at Youth Group.” You can read part 1 and part 2 and part 3 here. The first two articles demonstrate two ways youth workers are teaching expository series in their ministries. This week and last week are designed to instruct readers how to develop a book-of-the-Bible or an expository-topical series.
I firmly hold to the necessity of expositional (verse-by-verse) teaching. Consistent exposure to faithful exposition through books of the Bible roots believers in the richness of God’s Word. However, I believe the most outwardly fruitful series I have taught was a recent topical study on love.
We often pit expositional and topical teaching against one another, but is there a way to do both? And if so, is there a place for both in student ministry?
The Slippery Slope of Topical Teaching
One of the dangers of topical teaching is that it often superimposes a topic onto the Bible. Instead of allowing the Bible to speak by drawing meaning out of the text (exegesis), the topical preacher is prone to look to the Scriptures as support for already-determined points, thus reading meaning into the text (eisegesis).
For a long time, I steered myself away from the slippery slope of topical preaching by avoiding it completely. But then I heard a well-respected preacher (I cannot recall who) say that he didn’t have anything against topical preaching as long as it was expositional. I hadn’t considered that the choice between topical preaching and expositional preaching was a false one.
I have come to see that topical messages and series can hold a fruitful place within the context of student ministry as long as proper expositional tools are employed.
A Principled Approach to Topical Preaching
Last year I decided to teach a topical series on love for a few reasons. Internal to our group, I was observing some brokenness among historically strong friendships, noting a sudden surge in dating relationships, and having some conversations with parents concerning these things. External to our group, false and detrimental ideas about love in our culture seemed to be prevalent and gaining traction. Taking a semester to unpack what the Bible had to say on the topic of love would be a worthwhile endeavor. As I did so, I was reminded of a few important truths about the nature of crafting an expository-topical series.
Expository-Topical Teaching is Demanding
All of our teaching—including topical—should be expositional. This requires significant exegetical and hermeneutical work in order to arrive at a proper interpretation and appropriate application. For an expositional message, this work is mostly focused on a single passage contained in a single literary and historical context. For a topical teaching, however, all this groundwork is done for each passage that in the study. If that groundwork is neglected, it can be easy for the teacher to read foreign meanings into texts because a given topic is not always treated the same way in every text.
So, a word of exhortation here: If you are not willing to put in that work, then don’t teach topically. Don’t take shortcuts. With each teaching, steward God’s Word well by refusing to cut corners simply because you are drawing on multiple texts. Keep in mind that we are not just teaching a single message, but also modeling to your students what the study of the Scriptures ought to look like.
Expository-Topical Teaching Connects Faith to Life
While application to life is a primary goal of all Bible teaching, a topical series can achieve this uniquely by providing extended time focusing on one topic. What I found through our series is that students were increasingly thinking and talking about the topic of love with each other.
Our small group leaders told me about how their discussions had grown richer and the students increasingly engaged as the series progressed. This topical series offered an extended meditation for our entire group on the nature of biblical love and what this Spirit-produced fruit ought to look like in and through the lives of believers.
Topical Teaching Models Both Systematic and Biblical Theology
Instead of being an occasion for careless theology, topical teaching can actually be a wonderful way to model for students a rigorous theological method and to help them develop a robust theological foundation. For our study on love I leaned heavily into systematic theology, which allowed me to point to various biblical passages. This also enabled me to offer an extended answer to the question, “What does the Bible say about love?” While we should certainly avoid abusing prooftexts, a faithful systematic overview of certain theological topics edifies students in a unique way.
Typically, I use a biblical-theological approach for topical teaching, tracing the topic as a theme that is developed throughout the biblical narrative (moving from creation to fall to redemption to consummation). Expository-topical teaching is a way to model a commitment to biblical studies and theological engagement that helps students begin to develop not only their own theological foundation but also frameworks for understanding topics biblically.
The Format of Our Topical Series on Love
One of the ways I sought to retain an expositional mindset for this particular topical study was that I anchored each week’s teaching in a single foundational text: 1 John. I began each week’s study there before springboarding to other biblical texts. I also pointed to 1 John 4:7-12 as a foundational text for how we understand all the forms of love presented in Scripture. So we continually reiterated the following truths in considering love in its various forms and contexts, all drawn from this passage:
God first loved us.
Jesus alone models what perfect love looks like.
Our experience of love is broken and distorted, and true love is not natural to us.
Our love is rightly shaped and perfected only by abiding in God’s love.
Through that theological grounding we were then able to launch into the various forms of love that are presented through the Scriptures and what God reveals about pursuing those forms in a way that honors the Lord.
While I have enjoyed the richness of walking verse-by-verse through various books and sections of Scripture with students, I am thankful for the lessons I took away through this expository-topical series, and pray that this is an encouragement to you in shaping such studies for your group.