Preaching Ideas for the Next Season
For most of my years as a Senior Pastor, I took time off during the month of July to rest, think, pray, and plan. In addition to allowing me to slow down and engage in personal renewal, I also used this time to do long-range sermon planning and study.
During my renewal and study break I would seek to answer these questions:
· Where have we been as a people in the past season?
· Where are we now?
· Where do we need to be?
Having listened to the Lord about this, I then sought to discern what part of God’s Word would get us there. I brainstormed ideas and began putting together a preaching calendar for the coming year, with a specific focus on the next quarter.
While having a purposeful scope and sequence of your messages is important every year, it’s especially important this year. These unprecedented days demand that our preaching, more than ever, is timely.
While having a purposeful scope and sequence to your messages is important every year, it’s especially important this year. These unprecedented days demand that our preaching, more than ever, is timely.
One of the tools that was especially helpful to me during my time of study was my folder of ideas. All year long, I would gather sermon ideas from books I’d read, podcasts I’d listened to, blogs I’d followed, or series other pastors had done. I found that often God had been giving me signs of where He wanted us to go months before I actually needed them.
So, knowing that many pastors are in the middle of the planning process now, I thought I’d give you some ideas you may want to put in your “idea folder” for this season’s preaching calendar.
I reached out to a cross-section of my friends in ministry and asked them which direction they were going with their teaching this fall and what prompted that decision.
Here’s a sampling of what I received.
1. VBS (Very Best Stories of the Bible)
Since their children’s ministry is closed and the kids are in the service with their families, one pastor decided to include them in the planning. Their staff selected 50 great scriptural stories and then asked the kids to vote on their top ten. The pastoral team is working through those stories on Sunday mornings, using a kid-friendly video to introduce the message each week.
2. REGROUP! (A Two-Week Values Series)
Why We Gather: The focus will be on why it’s important for Christ-followers to gather for worship, whether that’s on-site in a larger gathering, or in their homes and neighborhoods with smaller groups of people.
Why We Group: The focus of this message will be on why we need to belong to and grow with a group of Jesus-followers. They’re going to use this as an opportunity to cast vision for their Life Groups and encourage people to join one for the fall.
3. Come Together (Four-Week Series on Diversity)
This pastor is hoping to address the topic of diversity by wrapping their heads and hearts around what Christ does and did for us, and how that should leak its way out of our lives and into others.
Sermons in this series include:
Rescued: As ones rescued, we must rescue.
Redeemed: As ones redeemed, we must redeem.
Restored: As ones restored, we must restore.
Reconciled: As ones reconciled, we must reconcile.
4. LIFE TOGETHER
In this time of division, we need to be clear on how we are to engage our brothers and sisters by looking at the “one anothers” of the New Testament:
Pray for One Another
Accept One Another
Serve One Another
Love One Another
Comfort One Another
Bear One Another’s Burdens
Show Hospitality to One Another
Forgive One Another
5. Back to Basics
In the context of a world in crisis and a nation greatly divided and confused, this pastor decided to focus on the basic tenets of the faith.
Sin
Salvation
Conversion
Sanctification
6. Stubborn Prayer
The book of Daniel records some powerful prayers that were offered in difficult days. This series will focus on a number of them that proved to be lifechanging.
7. Giants Must Fall
The idea for this series comes from the book “Goliath Must Fall” by Louis Giglio. It deals with handling the negative emotions people are greatly struggling with these days: anger, fear, anxiety, etc.
8. Rebuild
Based upon the book of Nehemiah, this series focuses on how we need to come together to rebuild that which is in ruins whether it’s in our homes, our city, or our lives.
9. The Road Back
This series focuses on biblical accounts of the power of God to renew, restore, and transform lives. Examples: Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul.
10. The Book of Amos: An Ancient Message for Our Modern World
A five-week series, this dive into this Minor Prophet will explore themes of justice, righteousness, and how we treat our fellow humans.
In reading through these, I found it interesting that each of these pastors recognized the unique challenges of this era as it related to their church and chose to address them.
I would encourage you prayerfully consider where your church is and plan accordingly. The upcoming months of August, September, October, and November demand purposeful preaching as never before.
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