The Big Advantage of Shorter Series

Larry, I’m just curious. Why did it take you 33 sermons to preach through Ephesians? I preached through Ephesians in 12 sermons, maybe I didn’t do it justice but 33 also seems like stretching it to me.

On the other hand, I’m not really sure how you could preach any fewer sermons than the number of chapters in a book, at least in most books, correct? Like the book of Acts, how could you do it in fewer than 28? Possibly you could combine a chapter or two towards the end of the book.

I’ve been in a three year series—presumably at least 130 sermons—on Ephesians. On the light side, a year after three sermons were preached on Ephesians 5:22-4, and slightly less time after five sermons were preached on Ephesians 5:25-33, there were six new babies in our church of just 50 families, one of them my second daughter. I found it valuable at the time (not just because of the daughter), though I’d agree that there are times when you’ve got to wonder exactly how much one can, or ought to, say about a particular passage. Perhaps it really has a lot to do with whether the pastor links the message to other passages to get somewhere approaching an informal “Biblical theology” through his preaching?

(I’m told someone out there wrote six volumes of commentary on Ephesians as well..)

Regarding midweek prayer service, it strikes me that it would be a wonderful thing if it were truly devoted to prayer. Most of them that I’ve seen are mostly song and teaching. That has its own purpose, but it’s not…prayer service.

Is actually not taught in the Bible… so it is amazing how dogmatic we can be as we state our preferences, dare I say legalistic?

Most preachers develop their own style as they grow. I think I am much better at it than when I started, one can only hope so after 30 plus years. I personally prefer the glacial method of exposition which apparently is wrong. Glad I finally found that out! I’ve preached through numerous books, some at great length. John was five years, Romans was about seven I think. I’ve also preached through the entire Bible chronologically in about 17 months.

I think the word of God is rich enough to handle lengthy detailed exposition. The shorter series can be helpful, I am sure, it depends on what you are doing and why you are doing it. In the epistles especially, it seems just wrong to try to do without detailed exposition, although you can build a chapter length message by working through the argument of the passage. It seems to me that you need to do the detailed exposition first so that you can adequately do the more comprehensive message, however.

The way to keep variety is: 1) plan in breaks, including guest speakers, mini-series (I break for Christmas every year) etc 2) have more than one service - it seems to me that the article described a situation where the preacher is preaching one sermon a week. Just doesn’t seem natural, to me. I have three services on Sunday and a Bible study on Wednesday. Four different series going. Some are more in depth than others and I also rely heavily on other works for some of them. My third service on Sunday right now I am using D. A. Carson’s The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God as the basis (with full acknowledgement) for an occasional series on the Love of God. (outstanding book, by the way)

Anyway, everyone has to find their own style and use it. I don’t criticize other preachers styles, even the boring ones. They answer to God and God can use boring preachers. Content is more important than style.

Why did it take you 33 sermons to preach through Ephesians?

I preached it paragraph by paragraph basically with the exception of Ephesians 4 where I dealt with the “put off/put on” individually as more topical sermons. The last one (#33) was actually Rev 2:1-7 about The End of the Story.

On the other hand, I’m not really sure how you could preach any fewer sermons than the number of chapters in a book, at least in most books, correct?

It depends on how you preach it. I preached Isaiah in six messages. I preached Job in 3 messages. I am at 14 messages in 1 Samuel 1-16. I plan on having fewer messages than chapters because it is narrative and it is better to preach complete stories. You could preach Acts in a few messages by breaking it down something like The Church at Jerusalem (Acts 1-7), the Church in Samaria (Acts 8-12), and the Church to the Remotest Part of the Earth (Acts 13-28). It is harder to do but I think it is could for people to see the big picture. I have also preached some books in single messages, kind of an overview message. Again to give people a big picture. It’s what Dever called “high altitude preaching.”

I think there are a variety of good ways to preach a book, depending on the purpose for a particular series. I think it is good to mix it up. But overall, I would be cautious about devoting too much time to one book and ignoring the rest of what God has revealed. Whatever we do, I think we should break it up every 6-8 weeks by going to something else for a few weeks. It will be good both for the pastor and the people.

How could you preach Genesis in 10 weeks and do it any type of justice? Or any of the major prophets?

By preaching major sections such as Creation and Fall (1-3), the explosion of the population (4-11), the Patriarchs (12-50). Or Isaiah 1-6, 7-12, 13-36, 36,39, 40-48, 49-57, 68-66. It’s actually pretty easy to break most books down into larger sections, though IMO, it is much harder to preach this way.

But I think one must decide on the purpose of preaching a book. It will be much harder to preach a shorter series if your purpose is to say everything that could be said about a passage. Or to deal with each individual word and do word studies.

It is an interesting thought (to me at least) that a book like Isaiah was a collection of messages from apparently throughout 60 years of ministry. It wasn’t delivered over a period of consecutive weeks. I wonder how much that should influence our preaching through it.

Or how about the epistles that were designed to be read in one sitting in the church so that the people could understand and follow it from that one reading.

Don is right that there is no biblical mandate of how to preach. It is another interesting thought that virtually the whole Bible is topical in nature. And yet so many resist topical preaching as being unbiblical.

Or the psalms?

The psalms, to me, are a bit of a different animal because of their nature. There can be a lot of repetition in some of them. And because they are not a sustained argument, they lend themselves better to “one at a time” or “picking and choosing.” They typically stand alone and thus one can do just to an individual psalm without preaching any other psalm.

Again, I think a key consideration is the question how much of the Bible is the congregation getting to know? I think we need to intentionally expose them to more of Scripture.

Don is right that there is no biblical method of preaching with regards to text selection or sermon series length. These are practical matters that we should think carefully about.

You can preach them, sure, but I wonder if we would have all kinds of benefits if we simply started each service by reading, or singing, a Psalm or other poetic passage from the Scriptures. All you need is someone who can read well, you get a picture of what God’s prescription for music in Old Testament times was, you get the Word of God unfiltered (Jesus quoted the Psalms a lot if I remember right), and it’s a few minutes of the service that the pastor doesn’t need to prepare intensely for.

Somewhat off topic, so 39 lashes with a wet noodle for me, of course.

I think it all depends upon the preacher and his particular congregation. I think I can handle a long series after preaching for forty-five years, but not so much in my earlier days. Also, a congregation accustomed to benefit from a long series is different from one accustomed to a steady diet of topical preaching. In that case, I would recommend short expository series and even unconnected single expository sermons until the congregation grows in ability to appreciate and benefit from the expository style. But above all else, preach the Word, and keep on preaching the Word.

I remember doing an eight part series on the Kingdom Parables in Matthew thirteen on Sunday nights in my early years, and had people asking for more. They had never heard anything like this before.

My pastor is starting a series on the second weekend in September that will take us through Galatians in (tentatively) 16 weeks.

Too short?

Too long?

Just right?

[Larry Nelson]

My pastor is starting a series on the second weekend in September that will take us through Galatians in (tentatively) 16 weeks.

Too short?

Too long?

Just right?

It depends on what his purpose is. I’ve done the whole bookin one message, in a series with one message for each of the first four chapters, then more detail for ch 5-6, focusing on sanctification. I haven’t done a full exposition, which would take much longer.

[Larry Nelson]

My pastor is starting a series on the second weekend in September that will take us through Galatians in (tentatively) 16 weeks.

Too short?

Too long?

Just right?

Kinda depends on how the pastor presents it, and what the needs of the congregation are. No? Whether it ends just right depends on whether the pastor is a skilled exegete, and whether he’s gauged the real needs of his congregation.

Obviously I’m fully qualified to judge Larry’s pastor despite being 80 miles away and knowing, to my knowledge, precisely one member of his church. :^)