Hi Octavius,

Thanks for the link. It really helped explain the idea. Before reading the article, I was a little concerened because "experimental" seems to have a subjective connotation to it, i.e., preaching based on primarily one's experiences instead of Scripture. But, in reality that wasn't what is meant at all. Do you think that in light of today's culture, there may be a better way to refer to this style of preaching instead of experimental? I only say that because until one is given a good definition of what is meant by experimental preaching, the initial idea is probably not what is meant at all.

Anyway, I especially liked the following quote,

Quote
Preaching Christ. The experimental preaching of the Reformers and Puritans focused on preaching Christ. As Scripture clearly shows, evangelism must bear witness to the record God has given of his only begotten Son (Acts 2:3; 5:42; 8:35; Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 3:1). The Puritans thus taught that any preaching in which Christ does not have the pre-eminence is not valid experiential preaching. William Perkins said that the heart of all preaching was to 'preach [only] one Christ by Christ to the praise of Christ'. According to Thomas Adams, 'Christ is the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line, the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus'. 'Think of Christ as the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures', advised Isaac Ambrose. In this Christ-centred context, Reformed and Puritan evangelism was marked by a discriminating application of truth to experience.

Whenever I hear a sermon, the thing I look for the most is to hear about Christ (taught correctly of course). So often, nowadays, the experiential/experimental part is taught but Christ is left out. I really think that is wrong.

John