Preaching Series

I usually work to vary SS/AM/PM so they don't overlap topics. Good challenge, but the Bible is so rich . . .

Good advise from the good Doctor, I agree.
Murph

 

A lot of it for me depends on what I have recently come in contact with. I might come across something in reading that spurs my interest. In the last year I have preached through 1 John on Sunday mornings (35 or 36 messages I think -- it started in 2001), preached a series on Gen 1-11 entitled "How Things Got the Way They Are" (about 15 or so messages I think), then a series on Rev 1-3 entitled "What Kind of Church Does God Want?" (11 messages).

I like to preach a couple of verses at a time though the Genesis series was larger passages. I hate topical messages or series. They are much harder to prepare for me. I like to sit down and dig in a text.

Right now, I am preaching a series on our mission statement and am spending a few weeks on the glory of God in the church. Last week and this week is Ephesians 1:3-8 and 9-14 on The Glory of God in the Gospel of Grace.

Lately, Sunday nights have been devoted to a topic related to Sunday morning. It is great because my mind has been thinking on it anyway, the people's minds are prepared for it because of hte morning message, and it means I don't have to shoehorn everything into the morning message. For instance, this week, I preached about the spiritual blessings of election, predestination to adoption, and redemption. Sunday evening, I did a topical study on why we believe in election.

One of the best series I ever did (in terms of response) was a series from Proverbs that was basically topical. Addressing life situations from Proverbs. I preached on "Women, Wives, and Mothers -- In that order" for mother's day and "Men, Husbands, and Fathers" for Father's Day. I preached on emotions (both up and down), work, industry, and initiative; children and parents; money; etc. It was about 12-13 weeks as I recall. The people loved it. I may develop a second series on that. They were hard to prepare however.

Wednesdays are normally devoted to the memory verse for the week. This quarter is a verse by verse class on Colossians and all of our memory verses for the quarter are from Colossians. The classes will probably go longer than the quarter since in 3 weeks I have covered eight verses.

How's that for a broad answer?

 

Hmmm...let me give you my schedule and see if it helps.
I preached a 10 week series on worship, followed by an Advent series. My Sun AM in January is "Starting the New Year Right" with assorted messages. Sun PM I'm doing a brief series on the church. On Wed I'm doing studies of Women in the Old Testament that will last about four months. I'll soon be preaching through 1 Corinthians on Sun A.M. In the summer I'm heading for a brief overview of systematic theology based on "Know the Truth" by Bruce Milne, a 13 week series on sharing the gospel. In the fall, I'll be preaching through Ephesians and Nehemiah.

I prefer to go book-by-book, but there are times you have to do other types of series. I suggest "Planning Your Preaching" by Stephen Rummage (Kregel).