Meaty Monday: Lectionary vs. Sermon Series
by Jim ~ August 18th, 2008. Tags: bible, lectionary, meaty-monday, preaching, sermons.I have written here in the past about how over the first couple years of my ministry I switched from primarily being a lectionary preacher to being a sermon series preacher. I made the switch primarily because I was feeling as if there was more energy and creativity when I preached a sermon series as opposed to preaching from the lectionary.
That was true for quite some time, but now I think that perhaps I am swinging in the other direction.
I’ve been finding that with the sermon series, I don’t stick very close to the text. In fact the text becomes somewhat ancillary to the sermon. With the types of topical sermon series I’ve done as of late, the starting point for the sermon is often “What do I want to say this Sunday?” not “What does the text have to say to us this Sunday?”
Perhaps I’m just hungry for some good scripture study and honest wrestling with the text. I realize that there are lots of other ways I could do that, like a sermon series on a particular book, or preaching on a set of stories based on a particular character in the bible, but for now I think I’ll go back to the lectionary and see how that sits with me for a while.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hi Jim-
I was once in on a conversation with friends of mine, a homiletics professor and an Old Testament professor, both at the same local seminary, who were discussing the “freedom” of preaching the lectionary. No need to construct a series around some topic, no need to start a given week finding the scripture passage, no need to find scripture that matches your conclusion. The homiletics professor was my pastor a while back and I went back through the old sermons one time and in five years, one and 2/3 lectionary cycles, never the same sermon twice and only a very few repeat passages.
This in contrast to my current pastor who has certain “pet” passages. I checked my records and we get these preached on every 1.5-2.5 years or so. With encouragement from a colleague he is now preaching the lectionary much more. Now if we could get some more variation in the hymns, but that is another issue.
Steve
August 19th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Lectionary topics definitely make it easier to find children sermons online.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Maybe there is a distinction between teaching and preaching - I realise there is overlap. There is value in a series - but with the lectionary one could preach on one of the three readings or the psalm. There’s 12 years of preaching right there before you got back to a text! And you are part of a much greater community ecumenically, internationally.
Blessings
Bosco Peters
http://www.liturgy.co.nz
August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Bosco, I’d agree, that sermon series lend themselves to teaching, which is primarily why I have done them in the past and will probably continue to do them on occasion in the future.
I’ve done them to teach/preach on such things as the apostle’s creed, prayer, discipleship, the spiritual life, etc.