A long-term goal for every church pastor should be to take church members into territory that they might not otherwise explore. In Hong Kong, this would mean not just sticking with the New Testament but also preaching from the Old as well. Derek Prime says, “To bring our people into fresh pastures, we must continually break new ground.” (Pastors and Teachers, p. 127)
5. Are there seasons in the life of the church that require a particular emphasis?
This might be a particular time of year (e.g. Christmas or Easter), or it may be a national event (e.g. the Olympics). It could also be something happening in the life of the church (e.g. a week of outreach coming up) that requires special preparation or training. It might be a local event. In a previous church where I worked, the local museum across the road was celebrating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, and we were able to tie in a preaching series accordingly.
6. How long should the series last?
This one is debatable! The received wisdom seems to be that the more transient the church, the shorter the preaching series ought to be in order to give people exposure to a wider range of Biblical genre. This will especially be the case when the congregation is comprised of a large number of young Christians who are less familiar with the Bible. In Hong Kong, which is very transient, I preach through books of the Bible, but do so in blocks of 4-5 sermons at a time and in this way hope to give people a balanced diet over a period of 2-3 years.
7. What do others think?
I find that conversing with others is invaluable. I try to speak to a range of people about what I am thinking to get their initial thoughts on it. They range from the elder who I share some of the preaching with, to people who I meet up with one-to-one, other pastors, or even those who aren’t yet believers. In theory, this would also be something for us to discuss as an eldership, but so far, I have not been as good at this as I would like.
Throughout this decision-making process, I will start collecting commentaries and articles on the book that I am thinking of preaching on. This is especially true in Hong Kong where it takes longer for good resources to arrive! I will also work through it during my quiet times (often using the excellent “Daily Reading Bible” series by the Good Book Company). I will continue to pray and try to apply it to my own life and start to think about any difficult issues that the book raises (obvious examples for Joshua would be Rahab’s lie, the apologetic issue of the Canaanite genocide, or the sun standing still in chapter 10). I find that reflection ahead of time on potentially tricky issues relieves the pressure on the week before the sermon is due.
These questions are in no way exhaustive; they do, however, help me in what can sometimes be a difficult decision to make.
After all this, I can relax, put my feet up, and get on with the job of actually working on the text…
John blogs at unashamedworkman.org
