As we have moved off of our month of unity in October, the Lord has led me to begin a new series on the next Lord's Day that deals with how and why the church was created, which is a series born out of the place in scripture where the church was formulated and put into motion, Acts 2, which I have entitled the entire series Created For A Community. The purpose of this series is that as we are getting ourselves ready to make our transition from Newark to Montclair, there are some things that we as a ministry need to absorb to cultivate a proper atmosphere of worship and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. Too often we as preachers take for granted that when we are called to a church that our predecessor had already laid a good foundation that we can just build on. And until we spend some time with the church, we will never know what they have been taught and what they need to be taught.
Now please understand that I am not hating or being overly critical of my predecessor, I don't know him at all, but what I do know is that I need to reinforce the basic principle of how and why the church was created in the first place. I actually preached this series during my first assignment at Friendship Baptist Church, Asbury Park, NJ about 5 years ago and I am really interested how I have grown as a preacher in the last 5 years as I will need to change a whole lot of the sermon content and maybe even structure of those messages. Please keep our church, this series and me in your prayers during this time of our development.
Before I close this post, please let me explain my feelings about preaching sermon series in the first place. Here in Jersey, not many of us will put forth the time and effort to preach expositional sermons in a series form. What I have discovered is that many of my peers will start a series, but give up after 2-3 sermons with the excuse of becoming bored or their congregation was no longer interested. And I will be the first to admit that preaching in series form takes a whole lot of work and focus, and sometimes it tends to get a little tedious. But the reality is that, I truly believe that preaching in a series will do a couple of things: first of all it will keep the congregation focused on a particular theme, or particular book, or particular chapter all at the same time. It will give the congregation one set diet of spiritual food to make it through the tough times of life. Secondly, it will make the preacher more focused on the task at hand of teaching and encouraging the people that we are placed in charge of. I think the worst thing for a preacher is to have to hunt for something to preach on Friday or Saturday night, only to get to the pulpit on Sunday depending on our GIFTS to get us through, yet the people have not been helped at all. I have to be in a series all the time, because I am a procrastinator who will wait until the last minute to do everything, so if I am in a series, it forces me to get to work on Sunday evening on the message for next week. Just a little glimpse into my thoughts about preaching in a series instead of jumping around the bible.
5 comments:
Pastor Mann, Great post, and great title for your new series. I am looking forward to seeing the outlines.
I preached a series from 1 Thes I titled "A Healthy Well Balanced Church" this year. I spent six months on the series and it helped me and the congregation tremendously.
I believe The Lord will be gracious to you and your congregation as you preach this series.
DeAntwan
Dr. Mann, thank you for sharing a piece of your heart with us fellow bloggers. In your post you say that, "Too often we as preachers take for granted that when we are called to a church that our predecessor had already laid a good foundation that we can just build on. And until we spend some time with the church, we will never know what they have been taught and what they need to be taught." This brings me back to the question that I asked you earlier.
I think it can be difficult for a new pastor to come into a church and digress from the mindset and principles of the church's predecessor. Which is often why preachers opt to organize. It can be very time consuming, and to be frank quite burdensome I think to try and mold a congregation a different mindset than what they are use to.
Is it doable? Certainly, but one has to be committed to putting in the time, the blood, the sweat, and the tears, to make it happen.
On a personal note, thank you for responding to my need so quickly. And know that your words did not fall on deaf ears, but have been taken to heart. Be blessed my brother, and I'm praying for the church's successful transition.
Great Post Revun!!
I constantly pray for your success and the success of FMZBC!!
I will continue to pray for you and all that concerns you and your congregation. May God be glorified in your faithful declaration of Him.
NLT Colossians 1:28 So everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.
Keep on Preaching & Teaching
Ron
Thank you for this post sir! When I got to FGMBC, I made no assumptions when it came to preaching/teaching that the members were and/or were not fed properly each week. But the more I stood to preach on Sundays and teach on Wednesdays, I started to notice that many people who were in my congregation were babes (truly).
I found over 100 tapes of past sermons from those who came before me. I sat in my office one Saturday afternoon and listened to each tape. It was a sad state of affairs as to what FGMBC had been exposed to for so many years. After listening and I bowed my head and prayed for direction.
Now, I don't assume they know anything. I preach as if it's their first time listening to the text. I'm seeing a difference in their response to the preaching moment and their eagerness to learn. It happened not because I'm a better preacher. I don't assume and I take what I do each week very seriously.
When we stand each week to declare the word of God, it's a life a death situation. What we say can bring life eternal or lead to death eternal
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