Advent Sermon Series

The Advent season is upon us. I thought it would be a good time to share some past Advent sermon series with each other. No doubt, we should already have this year planned. But, if you're like me, this is a time of year when the number of devotionals, talks, articles one needs to come up with skyrockets. So maybe our sharing with one another will spur some creativity on that front. No doubt it can sow some seeds for future Advent seasons.

I'm going to list all the series I've done here at Southland. I am not strictly a lectionary preacher as you'll see. But some of these have followed the lectionary readings. Please leave a series or two that you've done in the comments. I know I will benefit, and I'm confident others will, as well.

2011 - Finding God in Unexpected Places (a title I borrowed from an old Philip Yancey book)

Advent I - Matthew 1:1-17 - Finding God Among the Screw-ups
Advent II - Matthew 1:18-21 - Finding God in our Disappointments
Advent III - Matthew 2:1-12 - Finding God Above our Heads
Advent IV - Matthew 2:13-23 - Finding God Through the Tears
Christmas I - Matthew 2:22-25 - Finding God in Josh Davidson

2010 - A Light has Dawned

Advent I - Luke 1:11-17 – Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it
Advent II - Luke 1:26-28 – It’s not what you know, but who you know (or maybe even better yet, who knows you!)
Advent III - Luke 1:46-56 – Pride comes before a fall
Advent IV - Luke 2:1-7 – Behind every great man . . .
Christmas I - Luke 2:8-20 – Good things really do come in small packages

2009 - Simply Christmas: How to Maximize the Season by Minimizing the Distractions

Advent I - Luke 21:34-36 - Live Lightly
Advent II - Philippians 1:3-13 - Live Gratefully
Advent III - Luke 3:7-18 - Live Contentedly
Advent IV - Micah 5:2-5a - Live Humbly
Christmas I - Colossians 3:16-17 - Put your new clothes on

2008 - Songs of the Season

Advent I - I was out this year
Advent II - Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13 - Turning Towards Joy
Advent III - Psalm 126 - Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy
Advent IV - Psalm 98 - Sing a New Song . . . A Christmas Song

2007 - Follow the Star - Finding true wisdom this Christmas season.

Advent I - Romans 13:11-14 - Wake Up! Get Dressed! Learning to pay attention to Christ's work in our world.
Advent II - Matthew 3:1-12 - Make Way! Make Room! Learning to make space for Christ's activity in our homes.
Advent III - James 5:7-10 - Wait! Have Patience! Learning to wait on Christ's provision for our needs.
Advent IV - Matthew 1:18-25 - Enjoy! Rejoice! Learning to celebrate Christ's work in our lives.

2006 - Hope, Peace, Joy, Love

Advent I - Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-26 - The Seedling of Hope
Advent II - Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79 - Pathway of Peace
Advent III - Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7 - The Song of Joy
Advent IV - Micah 5:2-5; Psalm 80:1-7; Luke 1:46-55 - The Face of Love
Christmas I - Isaiah 9:2-7 - The Light of Life

Question of the week: What are some tricks you have to find some extra time?

As is evidenced by the lack of posts last week, life caught up with me. School work combined with some extra tasks at work meant little time for the blog. That's alright, I doubt the world suffered very much for that. One thing that can suffer when extra work piles on is sermon preparation. Time spent in the study is time almost no one sees and it is tempting at times for the preacher to cut corners there by not doing enough exegetical work or not sitting with the text long enough to find a fresh word from God. What we usually end up with on those weeks is something that isn't very thought out or something rehashed that we've done before. In other words, not our best.

While we can't always predict when extra work will pile on - like when a funeral occurs. However, we do sometimes know when busy weeks are headed our way. Family vacations, conferences, etc. - these things show up on our calendar months ahead of time, usually. We can, plan our sermons in such a way as to take such heavy weeks into consideration.

One thing I will often do, if I know I have a week coming up that will prevent a lot of study time is plan to preach from a text for two or more weeks in row. I'm a one idea per sermon kind of preacher, but most texts, especially in the epistles have more than one idea in them. As a result, if I'm willing to do some very heavy lifting exegetically that first week on the whole passage, then I will be able to greatly reduce the amount of exegetical work I'll need to do over the next couple of weeks. I spend about 2/5 of my sermon preparation on exegetical work (2/5 on writing, 1/5 on delivery), so getting this part of my preparation finished ahead of time reduces the amount of time I'm spending on a sermon by 40%. That can be very helpful on a week that I know is going to be busy.

An example might be a sermon series that I did out of Hebrews 13. By exegeting the whole chapter in the first week of sermon preparation, I was able to minimize that portion of sermon work for the following three weeks - one of which I was at a conference limiting my ability to prepare.

Hebrews 13:1-2 Keep on Loving . . . the StrangerHebrews 13:1, 3 Keep on Loving . . . the PersecutedHebrews 13:1, 4 Keep on Loving . . . your SpouseHebrews 13:1, 7-8 Keep on Loving . . . Those who Taught you the Faith

To do this requires some advanced planning, but it can really help with the work load on weeks we know will be busy ones.

What are some things you do to help balance the responsibility of faithful preparation with all the other duties that a pastor faces?

Question of the week: Summer Sermon Series?

Hey friends.  I hope you had a blessed Easter season and have had some time to rest.  I've taken the first part of this week off to get some doctoral work done.  I'm not doing much on the blog either, but I'll pick it up again later in the week.  Until then, a question that needs your input.  Do you preach sermon series?  Do you have one planned for the summer or early next fall?  Can you share what you are doing or perhaps what you've done in the past?  The more of you who share, the more help this post will be for others.  Below is a series I've done before that worked well for me.

The Practice of Worship: Why we need to work at the worship of God - Psalm 100

Enjoying God: The Practice of Praise - 1 Timothy 1:12-19

Telling the Truth: The Practice of Confession - Psalm 73

Dying to Live: The Practice of Baptism - Romans 6:1-7

Life Together: The Practice of the Lord's Supper - 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Turning the World Upside Down: The Practice of Giving - Mark 12:41-44

A Saving Word: The Practice of Proclamation - 1 Timothy 4:9-16