What are you going to preach on next? Out of ideas? You don’t want to just throw darts at the wall and hope to hit something. And you don’t just want to randomly pick out a topic or a book of the Bible for no particular reason. Instead, why not be intentional about it? Someone recently asked me how I go about creating sermon series and below is what I wrote up. I’m glad for any of you to take these concepts and use them as you see fit.
How to design a great sermon series
1. Start with a problem
Ask yourself questions such as the following. Then spend some time in prayer and reflection, being sure to take time to listen to the Holy Spirit.
- What does this congregation need? (e.g. hope, courage, repentance, direction toward action, etc.)
- What is your congregation’s mission? What do they need to do to be obedient to Jesus? (imagine specific behaviors that would indicate their obedience.)
- What is getting in the way of them doing the mission? (lack of knowledge? busyness? lack of vision? etc.) What blockages need to be removed?
- Reflect on the conversations you’re having with people in the congregation: What aren’t people getting? Or where are they really resonating? What’s missing from those congregations that should be there? That’s data you can use.
- How can you cast vision for where they need to go?
2. Find the biblical opposite
After you’ve identified the problem, identify its biblical opposite. Sometimes looking at the needs or problems of a congregation can bring on feelings of negativity. Try turning the concept around so you can preach in a more constructive way. For instance, if your people seem to be dealing with fear, you could preach a series on courage. If greed, the opposite is generosity. If they have been hurt, maybe consider a series on healing or hope. The most powerful spiritual warfare isn’t praying against the darkness but turning on the lights.
3. Choose a biblical theme
Based on the brainstorming above, what sections of the Bible might be helpful to preach on? Think of books of the Bible, characters, and stories that might apply. For instance, if people need help dealing with their emotions, maybe go to the Psalms. If people need wisdom go to Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. If they need to understand the struggles of leadership, consider the life of Moses.
4. Research
Often, coming up with an assignment for yourself is a good start. If people need to learn to live and love like Jesus, then an assignment could be to read through one or all of the gospel accounts and write down all of the actions Jesus takes. If you want to preach on hope, you could do a search for the word “hope” in the Bible and see where you are noticing it really stand out. Or if you are doing a series on courage, come up with a list of Bible characters who display courage (Joshua, David, Esther, Daniel, etc.) and then skim through their stories. Keep asking the question, “What’s another way this shows up in the Bible?” Take note of the major themes or ideas you see coming to the surface. Don’t start with someone else’s work, do some original research yourself so you can think more freely.
5. Engage in reflection and discernment
Pray. What are you hearing from God? What is the spirit of what you want to preach? Watch out for emotions like anger or fear coming out in your sermons. Sometimes you need to speak candidly and give them hard news, but make sure you’re doing it for them, not for yourself. Ask yourself: Is it good for the people or good for you? Likewise, consider whether you are afraid of upsetting people or addressing difficult topics. Given where they are right now, what will help them take one step closer to Jesus?
6. Gather resources
Consider what resources you already have on this topic. Say you’re focusing on forgiveness. Is there a great book you read on it? A great quote that comes to mind? Have you already done some research in this area? Any movies that you’ve seen address this topic in thought-provoking ways? What powerful stories have you heard that shed light on the issue? Any historical examples of what this has looked like in the past?
7. Create a structure
When you look at the results of your research so far, see if any patterns have emerged. Have some Bible stories or passages stood out to you more than others? For instance, maybe those four biblical characters displayed courage in a slightly different way, so you could do a series based on that:
- Joshua: the courage of obedience
- David: the courage of the heart
- Esther: the courage of strategy
- Daniel: the courage of resistance
Yet beware of setting a structure in stone too soon. Maybe a fifth character will come to mind. Or maybe one of them won’t seem to work well. Or maybe there’s another aspect of you topic you really need to address. It’s fine to play around with the structure a bit and try a few different takes on it.
8. What’s missing?
Then see what’s missing. Are there additional passages coming to mind? Common objections or questions people might have? What else might you need to include for the series to feel coherent and complete?
9. Outline the big picture
Articulate the big idea for each message. If one sentence is all they can remember, what will that sentence be? Note that sometimes the big idea might shift a bit—at least in its wording—once you start drafting the individual message.
10. Personal reflection
Don’t forget the personal. What is hard about this topic for you? How have you wrestled with it in the past? What stories come to mind? How have you received help in this area in the past? What aha moments have you had? How are you still struggling?
11. Include illustrations
The stories are what people tend to remember. Include personal stories and examples (see previous step), but also stories from your earlier research (movies, historical examples, books, news stories you remember).
12. Hit the application hard
In an ideal world, what would you want people to do after hearing this sermon? How about in an even decent, but not ideal, scenario? Give several clear examples of actions people can take toward the end of the sermon, ideally at a few different levels of commitment or difficulty. Make sure they are concrete actions, and consider if you might build an action step into the service somehow (a commitment card, a prayer of repentance, or something more creative).
13. Connect the pieces
Tie the sermon into the rest of the service.Even if you don’t have a specific action step during the service based on the application (because you don’t want to do that too often), you will still want the general topic or theme to run through the whole service. We usually do this kind of coordination with song selections, but broaden that thinking to other areas: announcements, small groups, service projects, recognizing people or milestones within the congregation.
14. Repetition
Keep repeating yourself. Hit the same core themes over and over and over again. I know it’s discouraging, but most people don’t attend services every week—and when they are there they’re not really paying close attention. You’ll need to hit the same several themes in a cycle or loop. Don’t worry about a little repetition… just don’t use the same stories repeatedly. Find different ways to emphasize the same main points. If you stay with it long enough, you might see the ideas start to sink in. It very often takes more than one hearing for people to really get it, so keep looping back.
15. Remain consistent
Too often, we preach in a way that looks like we have attention deficit disorder: we do topical sermons that shift frequently and take us all over the Bible from week to week. No wonder people don’t know what’s important when it keeps changing. Keeping people on topic and/or in one book of the Bible for an extended period of time (say 8 to 10 weeks) can be more powerful than a lot of one-off sermons that are shifting their attention all over the place. Or you could do several shorter series that build on each other, taking the same concepts deeper. For example: one series on “How do people change?” and then series right after on “What values do we need to shift?” The series can sound topical (see previous sentence); it doesn’t have to be six months on Romans. But if you keep them in generally one part of the Bible for long enough (such as bunch of different stories from Acts), you can eventually start to see the impact.
Resources
For a great book on preaching, see A Way With Words by Adam Trambley*.
Think you may need a refresher on your communication skills? The Communication Effectiveness Profile will give you a picture of your overall ability to communicate effectively and point out areas for growth.
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