Although I have preached many stand-alone sermons, the majority of my preaching is in series for several reasons. When I was in seminary and pressed for time, I discovered the value of knowing where I was heading rather than figuring out three sermon passages and ideas each week. Additionally, my understanding of how Scripture is put together and the example of a pastor during my college years lead me to use the Bible book approach often. Further, most topics and themes in the Word require more than one sermon for equitable treatment. Finally, preaching series can model how to put Bible themes together, how to let Scripture interpret itself, and how the Bible works. Special occasions, unfortunate events, and strong convictions from the Lord may lead to stand-alone sermons, but in my experience series are helpful most of the time.
There is a call for topic-based series and Bible book series, and both approaches can utilize expositional or textual preaching, but the question arises as to how one plans those series. In addition to a lifestyle of prayer – personally, for the church, and for the preaching – here are four key elements.
Familiarity – Make sure you are familiar with the main theme of each book of the Bible and the overall themes across the Biblical witness. What are the timeless Biblical principles, and how do they relate to one another? Make sure you are familiar with your people. Knowing your people should improve your planning. In fact, I sometimes write all our people’s names on a whiteboard so I can think through their issues and lives with a view toward my preaching. When you have not been at a church long enough to do this, you can think about what you know about the church, people in similar life stages, and churches like yours. Bible book series can be very helpful at this stage, when there are some very safe bets as to what would benefit a church and there are clear themes in certain books of the Bible. Make sure you are familiar with your context and issues that might impact your hearers, as well as issues they may need to know how to address from God’s Word.
Observation – As a preacher and teacher of God’s Word, careful observation will help you generate ideas for series. What do you hear and not hear in the stories the people tell personally and publically? What are their favorite topics? What hurts, needs, fears, goals, and hopes do they have? Listen deeply in order to understand and love them, and as you do, you will come across ideas for what to say. Of course, listening is not the only form of observation. Watch their patterns of interaction. How do they handle themselves when alone or with others? How does the group or some part of the group conduct its business? What are the hopes, dreams, values, and overall patterns of the church? Observe with a heart for the Kingdom’s increase in them and through them.
Questions – Good questions are very helpful in determining what series should be preached. What questions do your people ask explicitly? What questions are suggested by their lives or the events and trends in the church? What questions do you have as a pastor that, if you were to dig into God’s Word with them, would enrich your walk and theirs? (Caution: Because not all of your people are firmly grounded in their faith, you do not need to pose questions in a way Satan may use to undermine their faith.) Here are some examples of series arising from questions. A man in a discipleship group asked about the greatest threat to the family, and it turned into a ten part series on threats to the family. My long-time question as to why so many Christians seem to relate poorly to others led to a series on how our faith ought to impact our personality. And, sadness apparent in our church led to a series on finding God’s joy in our sadness.
Maintaining a List of Possibilities – However much of the year you plan at a time, I suggest maintaining a running list of possible series topics and books of the Bible from which you have not preached at your current church (ones you feel pertain to them). As you walk with the congregation, listen to them, and pray for them, ideas will come to mind, so write them down. Then, when you sit down to think and pray about the direction of the church, possible gaps in their discipleship and growth, etc., you have some ideas to think and pray over, and you are not starting from scratch.
What other ways have you found helpful for generating sermon series ideas and for planning them?
How do you maintain balance in your preaching – balance in themes addressed, needs of various congregants, various portions of Scripture?