Message series

Not a pastor, so just offering up my opinion.

I don't like series. Seems most of the time they are done so that the pastor has material for a certain amount of time. They normally seemed forced rather than led. There is also always too much reiteration of last week's material for my taste. I can remember what was preached the week prior and don't need a 10-15 minute recap . I guess the recap is for the benefit of those that didn't hear the previous message, but it's a bore for us who did.

 

Stand alone... I like to let the spirit guide my path but I like to preach series while on revival. I like a theme for the week with a subject each night building on the theme.

 

I'm not a pastor, but I enjoy when a preacher goes through a book in the bible from start to finish. I don't like stand alone preaching as well, but that's just my personal preference.

 

Am a pastor and I preach series, mainly through books of the Bible. Right now:Matthew in the AM, Starting Ephesians in the PM, and Nehemiah on Wednesdays. I take a little bite of Scripture and work it over pretty well.

 

On Wednesdays------we are studying the Wilderness Tabernacle's furnature---bringing it all "Home" to the truth that each piece speaks somehow of the Hebrew's coming Messiah!!! We looked for 45 minutes at Exodus 26:1, "Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine-twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubim of skillful work shalt thou make them."

Preaching series is like taking your people to the bank----they come out with spiritual wealth in their pockets

 

I guess driving from Texas every Sunday would be out of the question? Too bad; I would love to attend one of your services. :wavey:

 

Just so happens... My sermons are available online! You can access them at http://www.esnips.com/web/PastorGarysMessages. You have to sign up to download them, but not to listen online.

 

We regularly do series but between the series I usually do 2 or 3 stand alones.

This Sunday morning we begin Philippians. On Sunday nights I am going through Romans. We just finished a 4 years study of the life of Christ done chronologically.

The Holy Spirit guides me as I choose the series. But He has been known to makes changes to "my" schedule. :laugh:

I like going through a book because it keeps me from preaching on my favorite topics while ignoring others. It allows me to preach the whole counsel of God. It also allows people to study ahead and that keeps me on my toes and keeps me fresh.

 

Series almost exclusively, and almost always through books of the the Bible. Why? Because that is the way God inspired it.

Stand alones, IMO, lend themselves too easily to hobby horse preaching, lack of preparation, migrating to easy passages and easy texts, skipping hard texts, proof-texting, and the like. They tend not to develop biblical thinking because the Bible is not systematically handled.

I preach stand alones on a few occasions, but only rarely, and then I repent as soon as I am done.

 

I usually prefer series that are 3-6 weeks in length and while they are topically driven they use Scripture as the foundation. We try to connect with people based on their priority needs and choose series based on where we feel the Holy Spirit is leading our congregation.

Series seem to work well. It is interesting that most recent, progressive (sytle wise) churches are leaning heavily on series in connecting with their people.

Great thread topic!

 

I am into my 16th month of preaching through John's Gospel (we are wrapping up chapter 13 tomorrow). I will take a week off now and again for special occasions like Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, etc., but have enjoyed the process very much. It goes without saying that selecting what I am preaching from Sunday takes care of itself. When we finish John, I may do a thematic series but I will jump back into going through another book for certain.