How I Find My Next Series
January 1, 2002
Direction from life's surprises
Many sermon series have surprised me. The planning process I've used for 25 years has been interrupted by inspiration and circumstance. I learned to listen to these interruptions, for the Spirit often speaks through them. When a prominent church couple's marriage publicly disintegrated, the congregation and I were stunned. We needed healing. So over the next two and a half months, the congregation and I engaged in sermonic "group therapy." We addressed several marital wounds, from divorce to substance abuse. The Spirit prompted me to respond to the circumstances, and he used the timing to minister to us all. My discernment is fallible, and I rely on others' advice to check my judgment. An attorney in our church once alerted me that I had made a crisis in my life the focus of my messages. I was preaching out of frustration. An honest colleague provides God-sent accountability to keep my motivations spiritual, rather than self-centered.
Find your congregation's "hot book"
I preach book by book through Scripture. But not just any book. There is a time for the Old and a time for the New, a time for Ecclesiastes, and a time for Jude. My challenge and joy is discerning which is the "hot book"-the book God addressed to people who faced the same struggles and questions my congregation is facing today. For example, if I discern legalism is strangling our church, the hot book may be Galatians. If we're planning worship, Psalms may be sizzling. Recently, I was troubled by Australia's unbiblical attitudes about sex. Nearly every engaged couple that came to me from outside the church had been sexually active. Our movie rating system grants graphic sexual scenes a PG rating. Then one night, I overheard a teen ...
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