Preaching QNA: Part 3
Jason asked about my thoughts on utilizing series in preaching:
I’ll offer my evolving theories about the use of series in church. Notice that I said “evolving.” My thoughts about series are different today than a year ago.
Here are some of my thoughts on series:
• I enjoy them because they help keep me organized. Without knowing what’s coming next, I could spend hours trying to figure out what to do next weekend.
• A good series helps motivate people to invite others. Each series offers new motivation to invite new people.
• I like what you can accomplish by saying something for three or four weeks in a row. It is rare we can preach one message on anything and lead a large group of people to change. But if we say something over and over again, we might gain some ground.
• You can accomplish a lot in small groups through series.
My opinions of some of the downsides:
• It seems that churches are copying what’s “hot.” Pastors seem to think, “If a sex series grew attendance at one church, it should grow ours.” Some pastors are gifted and anointed to teach on sex. Others aren’t.
• It seems that churches are copying culture more than speaking to the culture. Why do churches think “Desperate Housewives” or “Home Makeover” is so cool? Maybe they were for awhile… to me they’re starting to look pretty stupid.
• Churches seem to rely on series to grow the church. They wrongly believe we have to have a cool title or great look. If we believe that, we’re in trouble.
• It scares me what some series are becoming. They appear to be more about good advice supported by an occasional Scripture than actually teaching Scripture. (Yes, I’ve been guilty of the “good advice” message. I find myself relying more and more on Scripture and less and less on clever marketing and packaging.)
Please add your thoughts on the use of series in preaching.
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Craig, it seems like you’ve got the series concept down. I wonder though, do you ever find yourself having to extend or shorten a series as it progresses?
Not to be “that negative guy,” but NewSpring just did a “Home Makeover” message on Mother’s Day that pretty much rocked my world. Outdated, sure, but still very effective.
I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t call it “This Old House.” Then we’d definitely have problems :)
Bill
Bill,
We rarely extend or shorten a series.
I’m aware of what NewSpring did and you are right… It was amazing.
(For those who don’t know, NewSpring gave away a home to a single mom whose husband abandoned her. For the record, I think NS is one of the greatest churches in the country.)
My hope is that churches won’t feel like the only thing that works is copying the latest television show and making it a series.
The power is in God’s Word and Truth, not our attempts to be cute/clever/creative.
Craig,
I tend to find series keep me focused. I’ve heard the psychology messages too but I agree with what you said yesterday to not let the message change what the Scripture says. If we do that, then I don’t think that is a problem. I finished doing a series using your book Chazown last week. I didn’t watch any of your messages because I wanted it to be the words God wanted me to say. But I used your book as a guide. BTW, I had a lot of compliments. Thanks.
This week we are starting a 7 week series called “Are you ready for the adventure.” We are talking about “WHY CHURCH?” Why is it important to be a member of church and why it exists. I know for the next 7 weeks what we will be talking about. The in September we are starting a series on the family and climaxing it with a pastor in OK, Paul Burleson leading us in a family emphasis weekend.
This series of posts has been helpful. Thanks.
Craig,
I hope I didn’t come off as a jerk. Truth is, I look up to your entire LC ministry with a TREMENDOUS amount of respect. Nothing but love.
Bill
Kevin,
Glad to hear “Chazown” blessed your people. Sounds like you have a good lineup.
Bill,
You raised a good point. Nothing but love felt… :)
Great points on the downsides…those will really help to keep me grounded.
In speaking to youth I have realized the value of saying the same thing over and over again until they get it. The trick is to say it over and over differently. Doing series really helps me do that.
We just did a series in May and I really felt the whole series was about getting them to remember five words. “Your Decisions Determine Your Destiny”
Craig,
What about the benefits of a series in regards to other resources and material that a church can develop or use to help its members, versus a single message approach?
Do you feel one is more conducive for spiritual development in application and execution when the person is away from a worship experience and the church building and back into the nitty-gritty of their everyday life?
Thanks!
J.G.
I’m not sure what you’re asking. I think you’re asking about supplemental discipleship material…
The teaching we do at church is extremely limited. Anything we can do to extend the life of the weekend message or expand the message is HUGE.
We have a few people who write curriculum based on the message to use in homes and other Bible studies.
Hope this helps answer your question.
Craig,
Sorry for being a bit unclear but you answered my question completely.
I especially like your thoughts about extending and expanding the life of the weekend message.
Is there any way to amplify the teaching at church so that it is no longer limited or is this just an uphill battle? I think you’ve touched upon something very profound here.
Thanks!
Thank You for writing these blog posts.
I’d love a forum from LifeChurch sometime, so we could bounce ideas back and forth about different things.
I’m not a pastor, but this still helps :P
Thank You & God Bless
Craig,
I appreciate your last point the most. Scripture over good advice — please! That is what I long to hear and share with others who are encountering God for the first time.
My recent blog post on my own blog has very much been brough on by some thoughts I have had as I have begun to experience and become a part of lifechurch. I am inspired to change things about my life on sunday morning at the lifechurch teaching experience, and then come the middle of the week we are watching the LDP ‘04 study which is also very “motivational” in nature.
To be honest, I’m starting to feel “over inspired” it’s too much. It’s not that it’s too much bible study, or too much scripture, or time with other believers. Not at all. It’s too much driving life change, without enough time to put into practive what we’re learning.It’s as though it’s too much and I become callous to it all.
Perhaps that is why, as you mention, the ability to say the same thing 4 times is valuable. I think that’s one of the reasons I really valued and grew from the “It’s All In Your Mind” series.
I am excited about the current Jonah series (or any other series that travels through the text of the Bible) because while their is clear inspiration/application there are also difficult challenges and passages that end up being taught, often times we are left learning something that a typical buzz series might never pick up. (I am excited to hear your sermon over Jonah chapter 4).
I love the heart and purpose of lifechurch, and I am learning that while sometimes everyone around me might be delving into trusting God with their fears, or making new commitments…my stage and walk with Christ is slightly more developed, and at times when everyone else is swooped off their feet, I might not, and that’s okay. I think I need to retrain my mind into seeing the Sunday morning experience as a tool to bring others into a starting relationship with Christ, rather than to look for substational food to fuel my own relationship with Christ.
Craig, thanks for teaching scripture and not copying culture. I appreciate you, your staff, your vision, and the opportunities to grow and serve through lifechurch.tv.
J.G.
I am not totally sure of what you meant by “amlify”, but will take a stab at it. I think that it is important for the Sunday teaching to be limited. Otherwise, the service seems either watered down with too much or just too long. Good supplemental material was always the best way in my opinion.
Brandon
Our weekend services have always been based around the Scriptures. We are on a schedule that takes us through the Bible every five years. Every Bible School class from pre-school through senior adults studies the passage of the day, and then the sermon is on that same passage.
What we have recently started doing is “theme-ing” the books. You can see an example at our website: http://www.chcchurch.org. Right now we are going through 1 Timothy and talking about “The Life That Matters.” We just finished Revelation: “Living at Peace in a World Falling to Pieces.”
What we’ve found is that rather than just unrelated sermons from each chapter, this cohesive approach helps people better understand and remember major themes and content of books. It is harder to do on the longer books, but I like putting the series on the back of the Scripture rather than finding Scripture to put with our series.
Nathan
On amplifying, does it help to make the small groups discussion during the week based on the message the previous Sunday?
Thanks for sharing the plusses AND minuses of doing a series.
I tend to like them, especially when organized around a central metaphor, because they seem to help people engage the concept and process it more. There are topics worth covering from multiple angles. They also help keep the messages simple - not needing to cover too many ‘great’ angles in one time. And, I agree, repetition helps things sink in. As a guy working with small groups, it definitely helps to have something to work with.
But I do like what you say on the other end. I hadn’t considered the bandwagon idea or that they can become more advicey than scripture based. It’s true. Just hadn’t thought of it that way. Thanks.
You’ve covered how you develop messages, but how do you go about developing series that are more scripture based? Since people typically start with a topic, does it lead to more advice sermons?
I bumped into Life a few months and I found the idea of series very exciting, innovative and helpful. I was at a stage where I desperately needed someone to repeatedly drive the message into my head (preferably with a big hammer, a few times). The idea of a series was great there. I knew that I was able to come back for more, and I was being gradually changed.
Now when it comes not to viewing but preparing the messages it’s more difficult. My pastor asked me some weeks ago to preach. When I was preparing I was thinking, ‘If my pastor gave me an opportunity to preach more would I like the idea of a series?’ Yes, I wanted to but I found it very difficult to put in practice.
Anyway, having read what you’ve written I think advantages to having a series outweigh disadvantages. I’m hoping it’ll be given to me to try it out.
Great thoughts. Thanks.
Our team took a new approach on teaching series this year. We ran one big idea for 18 weeks. These 18 weeks where divided into three clear focus areas of he one big idea. What we found, is that after 18 weeks, people got it! And they never complained that we kept teaching the same thing each week - because we didn’t. But each week, we did show how the topic played into the big idea 18 week idea. Each week drove hard to practical application of the big idea based on the topic of the morning.
This proved to be a huge win for our ministry.
Ron,
Wow! Very interesting. Can you tell us what was the “big idea?”
Craig, how do you choose which sermon from the weekend goes on the Internet?
Do you choose the video yourself or does someone else just choose the “best” sermon and put that up for all the world to see?
Patrick,
The decision takes about 7 seconds. I walk back after teaching to the video suite and Mark, my video guy says, “The 10:00?” (Or the 11:30?) And I say, “Yes.” Then I go home and play with my kids. :)
Sounds pretty philosophical…
That does lead me to another question, however.
How often do you watch your sermons after you’ve given them? Do you go back and see what you said, what you could have said differently, how things came across from the audience’s perspective (that can often be much different that from the speaker’s perspective)?
Patrick,
I haven’t watched one of my messages in years. I know I should, but I can’t make myself do it.
To me, once the message is preached, it is done and time to move on.