Are You Preaching a Series In A Sermon?
Have you ever been overwhelmed with information?
This morning, while getting ready to leave the house, I had my daily litany of podcasts running in the background, my wife was listening to music and I was attempting to concentrate on NOT ironing wrinkles into my shirt. And I had a slight meltdown. I was overwhelmed with information and tasks!
Sermons are meant to educate, convict and inspire the masses. Every time that you stand before an audience of people in order to impart some sense of God’s will for their lives, you are doing so with that end in mind; to teach them the Word, show them the change that may be needed in their lives and then to give them the tools and reason to make those changes or act upon God’s Will.
Let me ask another question… Have you ever listened to a sermon where at the end it seemed as though your entire life needed to change and it needed to happen yesterday? What did you do with that knowledge and conviction? Were you able to sit down and plan out a game plan for your increased faithfulness?
I’m going to venture to say you didn’t. You didn’t know where to start and because of that, your growth was stunted.
Many times, preachers will inadvertently do that to their audiences because of one main reason… They preached a series in a sermon!
In an attempt to make sure that we fill our time or have a sermon that will have people shaking our hands after worship and saying, “Good sermon!” or even because we spend so much time in preparation that we fail to realize that we are overloading our lesson, we harm the effectiveness of our communication.
If you watch TED talks (arguably the most influential speeches that happen in our culture today) you will see one overwhelming fact. While many speakers have multiple points (I’m not speaking against points by any means) they have one major focus and one action point that is to be taken from their speech. I believe that needs to be said of our sermons as well!
Instead of the 7 things that we can learn from _______. Why not make it the one thing we can learn from this particular part of the story? And then the next week, move on to the next part of the story.
Why Preaching Series Are Helpful
- They allow you to have effective sermons that no longer overload the audience with information and needed change.
- They allow you to spend the time you need on the point you need instead of rushing through points 5–7 because it is 11:30 and the members are starting to look at their watches (think of them as the Swiss Army Knives of preaching — single tools that when bundled together are even more useful than themselves).
- They allow you to plan farther out (if you know me, you know my belief that preachers need to be planning their sermons well in advance).
- They allow you to market the series as an evangelistic endeavor instead of a single day that will likely not have the impact that it could.
- They allow the members and audience to spend more time on one aspect of their faith (remember, the key to learning is repetition…repetition…repetition).
I’m not saying that “one-of” sermons are bad. But, if you decide to preach single sermons, try your best to make them focus on only one action point. If it means that you speak for 20 minutes instead of the Biblical 25–30 minutes (I’m kidding of course) so be it! Because your hearers will benefit more.
And, if you decide to preach sermon series, I believe they will benefit all involved. You will grow in your speaking, the hearers will grow in their faithfulness and the church will grow in its ability to reach the lost!
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