Let’s Do A Series On The Minor Prophets! Oh Brother.

Jonny and I decided we should end the week with a very practical blog post. So here goes…

Around the first of the year I started a series on the Minor Prophets at my church. Who’s bright idea was that?! Yeah, I think it was mine. I had a few good reasons to do this:

1. I had never preached through these books before.
   
2. They are in the Bible.

Okay, those are really the only reasons I could think of – hardly an overwhelming argument, right? When was the last time you preached through even one of the Minor Prophets? Four of them? All twelve of them?! Exactly. Me too. I hadn’t.

Have you ever selected a topic or book of the Bible to preach on and you thought, before you started it, that it was going to be kind of boring – but then once you got into it, you realized that this was actually so good it might end up being your favorite message or series? Yeah, me too! That is exactly what is happening to me in this series through the minor prophets. Go figure.

We are calling this series, “Message in a Bottle”. Because pulling out these minor relics is like finding a message in a bottle, that no one has ever read before. Now we are reading them. I’m so glad we meandered to this section of the Bible. It’s out of my comfort zone. I have nothing to fall back on. And I am finding so much great truth that connects the testaments and us to the whole Bible.

How do you select preaching topics or series? Do you tend to walk close to familiar books like, oh, any of them besides the prophets, Kings, Chronicles, and, um, Job? Oh yes, and who can forget to forget the Song of Solomon. Steer clear!

Could I just encourage you to wade into the deep end? That’s where all the water is! When you move out of your homiletical comfort zone, you do a couple of things:

1. You force yourself to study hard.
   
2. You put yourself in a position to learn a lot.
   
3. You have to rely on the Spirit of God to teach you in preparation and empower you in presentation. (I know, that’s every message, right? Yeah right. You wish.)
   
4. You grow in your knowledge of God’s Word in the best ways possible.
   
5. You find new material you then must figure out how to both communicate and apply to the context your people live in.
   
6. You become more of a Bible scholar than you were before.
   
7. You create, not recycle. Creating is like what God did in Genesis 1, remember?
   
8. You feed your people fresh food and new dishes.
   
9. You become more appreciative and thankful for the Word of God.
   
10. Your faith is increased.
    
11. You become more confident, in the right way.
    

Do you know what you’re preaching on this weekend? Why not pick an arcane, obscure, and “untouched by human hands” passage? Dive in, dig in, and find the treasures!

One final, extremely helpful, suggestion:

Finally, one very important suggestion – study with someone else as you become acquainted with the passage or book or section you are moving into. Two heads are better than one. Find someone in your church, or even another pastor who is willing to tackle the same series with you – you can meet with him or her one afternoon a week and you can study together! Hey, don’t trash it until you’ve tried it – I’m tellin’ ya, you will love this. Just find the right person.

It would be a phenomenally strategic idea to find another pastor not too far away who is likeminded with you. Meet at a quiet restaurant or diner in the afternoon, and prepare messages together. (Just buy coffee or soda/Coke/pop, but leave a big tip. You'll be heros!) It could be just what you need to jumpstart your passion for discovery and study in relation to sermon prep! Expect to try this with a couple pastors before you find the one that is a right fit for you. Don't get discouraged.

Have a wonderful weekend with your people. LOVE them to death. Well, at least right up to the edge, then back off a bit.

P.S. My mom thought it was appropriate and funny to give me a spiritual joke book for my birthday. I thought it was cheap. Anyway, a quote from that now deceased theologian George Burns fits the topic of this post:

“The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible!” Amen. 

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