“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete,equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV).
Have you ever wondered what informs our sermon planning? For instance, we’re beginning an eight-week sermon series through the book of 1 Timothy this Sunday. This is a verse-by-verse exposition of one book of the Bible. You might ask how we decide to follow a somewhat topical series, like our recent “Shaped for Significance” series, with a purely expositional one. Well, there is a certain logic to our approach. We’re trying to fulfill what Paul told Timothy about usage of the Word for “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness” in our preaching.
With this in mind, we have developed a philosophy of sermon planning that we follow as we lead our teaching team at WCC. Here are some highlights of that philosophy of sermon planning:
SERMON PLANNING THESIS: According to George Barna’s research, there is on average, a 2-year turnover in most churches. With this in mind, a 2-year teaching curriculum might be the best way to address the mobility of our members while at the same time taking seriously the call to disciple them in the Christian faith. Therefore, we will plan to offer certain topics on a 2-year rotation. These will include teaching on “core competencies” for a mature disciple, expository preaching through books of the Bible, casting vision for the three WCC “iCommitments,” teaching the five purposes of the church, addressing contemporary topics and needs when deemed appropriate (especially money, marriage, and parenting), and attention to holidays and special events.
I. Teach the Core Competencies of a Mature Disciple
There are at least four categories of “core competencies” (borrowed phrase from Randy Frazee, The Connecting Church) that we want to see in our discipling process at WCC. These may be described as the Four “B”s, which are: Believe, Behave, Belong, Become. These four competency categories should be preached in a series and/or offered in a class every two years:
- Believe (Creed) – Teach the 10 Essentials or doctrines.
- Behave (Conduct) – Teach the 7 habits of growing Christians.
- Belong (Connect) – Teach the 4 devotions of connecting to God’s people in a CG.
- Become (Character) – Teach the 9 elements of the “fruit of the Spirit.”
II. Expository Preaching Through Books of the Bible
Each calendar year should contain at least one or two sermon series that are aimed at preaching through a book of the Bible verse by verse. We will keep a record of all books that we have preached through, with a desire to preach through them all over time. Certain books that help form the Christian worldview will be shown preference, such as: Genesis, John, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, James, and 1 John.
III. Vision Casting for WCC’s Three “iCommitments”
Teaching WCC members about the three commitments and challenging them to make them should be part of every year’s preaching/teaching schedule. These three commitments are:
- I commit to Celebrate God’s Son
- I commit to Connect to God’s People
- I commit to Contribute to God’s Kingdom
IV. Teaching the Five Purposes of the Church
Topical sermon series will be offered to teach the five purposes of the church as discovered in a careful study of the Bible, especially the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). These five purposes are:
- Fellowship (Membership-Connect)
- Discipleship (Maturity-Grow)
- Service (Ministry-Serve)
- Evangelism (Mission-Go)
- Worship (Magnification-Praise)
V. Addressing Contemporary Topics and Remedial Needs
Topical sermon series will be offered to address felt needs as well as contemporary issues. The contemporary issues that most often run contrary to God’s Word today and therefore may need our attention include:
- Human sexuality
- Gender issues
- Abortion
- Racism issues
- Science vs. Faith issues
- Fatherless and orphan issues (both at home and international)
- Poverty- hunger/homelessness issues (both at home and international)
We recognize that there are at least three ongoing remedial needs in our culture. These remedial needs are:
- Parenting issues
- Marriage and family issues
- Money issues
VI. Holidays and Special Events
When planning our annual preaching calendar, we will give attention to at least the following holidays:
- New Years Day
- Valentines Day
- Ash Wednesday
- Palm Sunday
- Easter Sunday
- Mother’s Day
- Memorial Day
- Father’s Day
- Independence Day
- Veteran’s Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas
We may also include certain special events days (i.e. “Orphan Sunday, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday,” etc.) as needed.
We hope this helps in answering the question of what informs our sermon planning. The WCC teaching team takes the responsibility of preaching very seriously and enters into it with much prayer and planning.