Expository preaching

== The Individual Choice Method ==
When the passages are determined by the preacher or the individual church, the preacher has the freedom to work out which passages are studied at particular times. In such a situation, the preacher will sometimes preach through an entire book of Scripture, which generally allows a far more detailed look at the text being studied. Under some circumstances, preachers may prefer to preach through whole books of the Bible systematically over a long period of time. For example, suppose a preacher decides to cover the book of I John. On the beginning week of the series, the preacher may explain and apply [[1 John]] 1.1–4, then 1 John 1.5–7 the following week, then 1 John 1.8–10 after that, and would continue until all of 1 John is covered. Then another book of the Bible is examined, or else a specific topic is covered for a time (few if any churches use the expository method exclusively, even where it is predominant topical studies are used as either "breaks" between books or to cover a specific area of concern to the congregation).

*The key advantage of this system is that the preacher is forced to expound passages that may not be examined or applied normally under a topical series.
*The disadvantage of this system is that certain parts of the Bible (especially the Old Testament) may be overlooked. The preacher is also able to ignore those parts of the Bible that might appear to contradict his selected text or his sermon's points.

Other preachers may preach from isolated texts{{snd}}from Genesis 1:3 one week, and Isaiah 5:12 the next. Expository preaching does not always have to mean preaching series of sermons on a similar theme or book of the Bible.