Expositional Leadership: Shepherding God's People from the Pulpit

by R. Scott Pace, Jim Shaddix

Practical Wisdom to Effectively Lead, Preach, and Pastor Shepherding a congregation comes with many responsibilities. In addition to preparing weekly sermons, pastors manage church teams and minister to a variety of people with different needs. Attempting to tackle these roles separately can be exhausting and may eventually affect the health of the church. How should leaders integrate their roles to effectively shepherd their congregations? This guide shows pastors how to simplify and strengthen their ministry work by integrating leadership, preaching, and pastoring in biblical exposition. Authors Scott Pace and Jim Shaddix clearly lay out 6 categories of leadership―scriptural, spiritual, strategic, servant, situational, and sensible―and explain how to leverage them through sermon development and delivery. Offering practical advice and biblical wisdom related to each role, they help readers find balance in their ministries while nurturing their congregations in healthy, sustainable ways.

Genres: Leadership

160 pages, Paperback

Published January 9, 2024

Reviews

[H.b. Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long believed that expositional preaching is spiritual leadership. However, I have not been to communicate that conviction as clearly or strongly as I desire. Pace and Shaddix have made the argument that pastoring, preaching, and leadership go together in a biblical, practical, and compelling manner. Every pastor-teacher should read this book!

[Will Standridge, II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who preaches week in and week out would benefit from this book.

[John Dekker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thesis of this book is that preaching is central to the work of a pastor, and that he leads by preaching. This is a hot topic - Expositional Leadership was published just a few months before John Currie's The Pastor as Leader: Principles and Practices for Connecting Preaching and Leadership, also put out by Crossway.

I had some disagreements, of course. I am not as keen on topical (p. 72) and doctrinal (p. 105) preaching as the authors are. I don't think it's necessary to give a "gospel presentation" at the end of every sermon (p. 104). And I certainly don't believe that a pastor's church is more important than his family (p. 35).

This book has much to commend it, however. It had some really helpful comments to make about taking genre into account when preaching (p. 49). It has a wonderful discussion about some of the metaphors the Bible uses to describe preaching (p. 96). And it accurately identifies some of the drawbacks in discussions about "servant leadership" today: "we're called to exhibit confidence and conviction that is bold and assertive" (p. 83).

As a pastor, I try to read one book on preaching every year, and I was glad to read this one.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pace and Shaddix’s “Expositional Leadership” argues that the most important aspect of a pastor’s leadership is his preaching ministry. The book navigates scriptural, spiritual, strategic, servant, situational, and sensible leadership. The book gets stronger as it moves along and the best chapter is the last, in my estimation.

What disappointed me most was that Pace and Shaddix at times set up unnecessary dichotomies, for instance, preaching v. leadership (they argue leadership is overemphasized today). I wanted to see a stronger emphasis of the pastor’s Eph 4 role of equipping the flock (it is mentioned once, but downplayed throughout).

While there is a lot to appreciate here, there are some blind spots that, if addressed, could have strengthened the book.

[Dr. David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shepherding the people of God is a multi-faceted task. Pastors are called upon to lead, feed, love, and protect the people of God. R. Scott Pace and Jim Shahddix understand this weighty responsibility and have set forth a remarkable book that will encourage elders carry out their God-given task.

Expositional Leadership: Shepherding God's People from the Pulpit is designed to shepherd church members with authority and integrity. The author arranged the book in six chapters, each of which centers around the pulpit. The themes include:

Scriptural Leadership

Spiritual Leadership

Strategic Leadership

Servant Leadership

Situational Leadership

Sensible Leadership

Each theme includes biblical encouragement and warning for pastors who intend to fulfill the goal of expositional leadership. The term is defined as follows:

Expositional leadership is the pastoral process of shepherding God’s people through the faithful exposition of his word to conform them to the image of his Son by the power of the Spirit.

My hope is that pastors make good use of the principles in this timely book. May expositional leadership help shape the next generation of Christ-followers!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

[Samuel Kassing · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book read like an applied theology course at an SBC seminary.

Overall it is a good argument for connecting preaching to leadership. My one critique is that the connection of prayer to teaching is marginal.

[Mike Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several good reminders about how a pastor should carry out his pulpit ministry in a way that helps his leadership, rather than hurting it.

[Caleb Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Simply stated, there must be a warmth to our preaching and pulpit demeanor. As we confidently proclaim God's word, people should still see us as approachable and accessible." - R. Scott Pace & Jim Shaddix

It's hard to give this book less than 3 stars because it is very Biblical and there's not really anything that comes to mind that I disagreed with (maybe some of their remarks on topical preaching). But generally speaking, I found it not all that engaging and simply a rehashing of material you get in most solid preaching books. I didn't really find the leadership aspect clearly come through. Certainly it is the case that a church is lead (or not lead!) through the pulpit ministry. As such, Pace and Shaddix basically are saying: "Preach the Bible in season and out of season!" Perhaps this book is best for an aspiring pastor thinking about preaching & leadership for the first time. I might enjoy it/appreciate it more in a different season or context, but overall not much to write home about. 2.5/5

[Joshua Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent book. I feel like a 3 star review could be a little low. The content of this book was really good. I was encouraged as I feel I have implemented a large chunk of it. Maybe I just wasn’t crazy with the authors style of writing, just might be a preference thing on my end.

He addresses different types of leadership from the pulpit:
1) Scriptural Leadership
2) Spiritual Leadership
3) Strategic Leadership
4) Servant Leadership
5) Situational Leadership
6) Sensible Leadership

I totally agree with the definition used for exposition leadership and ai believe it is important to all pastors serving in a church.

Expositional leadership is the pastoral process of shepherding gods people through the faithful exposition of his word to conform them to the image of his Son by the power of his Spirit.

[Ryan Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique, and so helpful. Will help you see that faithful preaching is pastoral ministry and leadership, and sets the tone for every other aspect of pastoral ministry and leadership. So many Christian leadership books are heavy on leadership principles and tips and light on the Bible. Expositional Leadership will equip you to lead faithfully without skimping on exposition or “tampering” with God’s word.

[John Dube · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Pace/Shaddix's perspectives on preaching, you'll certainly enjoy this. Very high view of preaching here. Maybe even to the exclusion of other elements of pastoral ministry. For those who may (read, "will") encounter difficulties in pastoral ministry, the chapter on Strategic Leadership from the pulpit is helpful. Furthermore, I appreciated the authors thoughts on Sensible Leadership from the pulpit. It's always helpful to be reminded to not stray from the text. :)

[Bennett Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more general than the title led me to believe. I thought the authors would focus more on strategic leadership via expositional preaching. To be fair, they addressed that in ch. 3, but overall this book reads much more like a general introduction to expository preaching than anything else.

[Alan Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expositional Leadership is a helpful resource to pastors, regular preachers, and aspiring pastors. It walks through the many ways pastors ought to lead from their exposition even when not in the pulpit. I am happy to recommend this work.

[Saolomon Mouacheupao · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters on strategic leadership and situational leadership were helpful. The unique contribution of this book is its attempt to combine the practical leadership that is typically given in other kinds of leadership books, while maintaining a high view of expositional preaching.

[Jake Auton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great practical advice and a strong argument about how to shepherd people well from the pulpit. At times, deep in theory without any examples but quickly saved by easy assignments to immediately implement. Even provides several convicting moments for individuals to wrestle with.

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to leadership and how to use preaching to do it. Self-help books are not generally my favorite but this one has some good nuggets in it.

[Jacob B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good balance of encouragement toward deep dependence on the Spirit and practical insight/advice.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff on preaching and additional warnings and encouragements as we lead as preaching pastors

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for every pastor.

[Evan Mackey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some exposition. Not much leadership. Listen to Jimmy Scroggins on the subject instead... He lives it and shows the fruit from it.

[Kelton Zacharias · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more wisdom on how to put it into practice.