Logic in the Pulpit: The Expository Preaching of Pastor Hwa Jong-bu

Senior Pastor, Namseoul Church, Seoul / Reformed Expository Tradition

Namseoul Church in Seoul’s Seocho district was founded in 1975 by Rev. Hong Jeong-gil and has passed through two successions to its current pastor. Hwa Jong-bu earned a B.A. in Political Science and Diplomacy from Yonsei University, an M.Div. from Chongshin University Seminary, and a Th.M. in Church History from the University of Edinburgh. He served a Korean congregation in Oxford before leading Disciples Church (제자들교회) for twelve years (2001–2012). In October 2011, a congregational vote of 576 out of 580 members — 99.3 percent — called him to Namseoul Church, where he has served since January 2012.

Duranno’s pastoral magazine Moksin described him in August 2019 as a preacher in whom “the purity of the Word and the straightforward earnestness of preaching are evident.” The description fits how Hwa himself frames his pulpit aims. This article draws on published interviews, his own books, and Christian press coverage as primary sources to map his preaching methodology.

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At a Glance

• Structure type: Expository preaching — sequential series as the primary format, with occasional sermons alongside
• Theological lineage: Reformed Presbyterian (Presbyterian Church of Korea, Hapdong), in the tradition of Jung Geun-doo and Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Core emphases: Gospel- and Christ-centeredness; logical coherence; manuscript completion before the platform
• Self-acknowledged weakness: Image-heavy and narrative genres such as the Psalms

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Preaching Structure: Sequential Series with Occasional Preaching

Hwa Jong-bu defines expository preaching as “preaching that is faithful to the biblical text — preaching that lets the biblical text speak for itself” (Kidok Newspaper interview, “Expository Preaching Is the Way Forward for a Church That Has Lost Its Way”). The primary format on his Sunday pulpit is the continuous expository series. He has preached through Romans over two years, Ephesians over two years, and Genesis chapters 1 through 45 in a sustained series. Seasonal occasions — Easter, Christmas, Harvest Thanksgiving — receive separate messages selected to fit the theme, and topical sermons appear when the need arises, but the governing format remains expository throughout.

His rationale for sequential series is direct: “A continuous series forces you to preach passages you would otherwise avoid, and that is how the preacher himself grows.” The framing positions sequential exposition not merely as a method but as a form of spiritual discipline — an implicit check on the tendency to circulate indefinitely among familiar, comfortable texts.

The completed manuscript is the non-negotiable anchor of his preparation process. His typical weekly pattern runs as follows:

• Monday: Choose the passage and begin meditation
• Tuesday–Wednesday: Two to three hours per day consulting five or six commentaries alongside published sermons of other preachers
• Thursday–Friday: Settle on three or four main points and fix the logical structure
• Friday evening or Saturday: Write the complete manuscript
• Before the Sunday service: Approximately forty minutes of prayer

“Once the manuscript is finished, the real preparation begins” — this sounds paradoxical until he explains: “At the pulpit, things emerge through words and expression that were never in the text; an invisible communication takes place, delivering content that would not have been possible otherwise” (365qt.com, IDI Disciple interview series). In this model, the manuscript is not a cage that limits spontaneity but a launch pad — the stable structure from which genuine platform freedom becomes possible.

Main points typically number three or four and tend to follow a deductive flow: the theological thesis is stated up front, and the text is then worked through to establish it. This mirrors the pattern of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, whom Hwa explicitly names as a model and whose sermons he studies as part of his preparation. When asked why he admires Lloyd-Jones, his answer is concise: “Because his preaching is logical.”

Core Emphases: Gospel and Christ-Centeredness

Hwa Jong-bu identifies the absence of Christ-centered preaching as the central crisis of the Korean church’s pulpit. “Gospel preaching is far too weak, and there are far too few preachers who are genuinely skilled at preaching the Christ-event.” This is not rhetorical contrast but a theological conviction that shapes his entire pulpit ministry. The closely related critique is the danger of ethical preaching that has lost its gospel root: “If you preach the gospel properly, gospel-shaped ethics will follow.” The principle is not that ethics are irrelevant but that the gospel must supply the motive force from which ethical living flows. In this framework, the gospel is not one topic among others but the structural foundation of every sermon.

Theologically he stands within the Reformed evangelical Presbyterian tradition. A Chongshin Seminary graduate serving in the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Hapdong), he explicitly names Rev. Jung Geun-doo — a leading figure in the Hapdong expository preaching tradition — as the one who showed him that Lloyd-Jones-style preaching was possible in the Korean ministry context. “It was through Rev. Jung Geun-doo that I witnessed firsthand that the kind of preaching exemplified by Martyn Lloyd-Jones could actually happen in Korean pastoral ministry.” The lineage is traceable: Lloyd-Jones shapes a generation of Reformed expositors; Jung Geun-doo brings that model into the Korean context; Hwa Jong-bu receives it and carries it forward.

His published books reflect this approach. Pastor Hwa Jong-bu’s Sermon on the Mount (Boginsasaram, 2017) works through Matthew 5–7 in thirty-three expositions. The structure of the book itself demonstrates the method: theological questions are posed first, and the text is then worked through to supply answers. His two-volume Philippians commentary (Duranno, 2015–2016) is similarly the fruit of a sustained expository series. Both books carry endorsements from Jung Geun-doo and Kim Nam-jun, prominent figures in the Korean Reformed expository tradition, signaling peer recognition within that circle.

On personal piety he insists that “the form of godliness and the power of godliness must always go together,” and he notes that across thirty years of ministry he has never experienced tedium with the Word. The remark reads as personal testimony but also as a conviction: the preacher’s interior resources are directly tied to the long-term vitality of his public ministry.

Use of Original Languages and Historical Background

The governing tendency in his exposition is to foreground the logical structure and theological meaning of the text rather than etymological or archaeological argumentation. His Edinburgh Th.M. in Church History provides a foundation for this argument-driven, historically grounded approach. His frank acknowledgment that image-centered and narrative genres — he uses the Psalms as his example — represent a relative weakness is telling here. For a preacher whose natural mode is propositional and logical, genres whose primary vehicle is metaphor and imagery present a fundamentally different kind of challenge, one he names without defensiveness. This honesty about the boundaries of one’s method is itself a mark of the self-awareness that his approach demands.

References

• Duranno Moksin, August 2019 — Hwa Jong-bu and Joo Yeong, “The Direction of Christian Preaching in a Postmodern and Post-Truth Era”
• Kidok Newspaper, “Expository Preaching Is the Way Forward for a Church That Has Lost Its Way”
• NewsNJoy, Report on the call of Hwa Jong-bu to Namseoul Church
• International Disciple Training Institute (IDI), 365qt.com, “Preachers and Preaching” interview series, Hwa Jong-bu episode
• Christian Daily, Report on election as board chair of Chongshin University
• Hwa Jong-bu, Pastor Hwa Jong-bu’s Sermon on the Mount, Boginsasaram, 2017
• Hwa Jong-bu, Make Joy More Abundant (Philippians, vol. 1), Duranno, 2015
• Hwa Jong-bu, Make Love More Abundant (Philippians, vol. 2), Duranno, 2016

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