new to you friday—hot topics

My original post sparked a great discussion so I planned to revisit it at some point. I chose this week, however, because of an article the Barna Group posted on Monday with the six megathemes emerging from their research in 2010. These include “The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate” and “Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life.”

Should these realities affect the way we plan services and sermons? Do we give churchgoers what they want or what they need—and what is that, anyway?

——————————————————————————————————–

I prefer to study an entire book of the Bible instead of topics.

However, judging from most church web sites, I’m in the minority. Most churches do series after series—sometimes on practical issues (finances, marriage), sometimes more theological ones (the names of God, Jesus’ parables).

I agree it can be important to study topics occasionally, especially if they address real issues going on in the life of the church or the larger culture. (A study of the biblical qualifications and expectations for elders enriched my own church’s elder-selection process last summer.)

But I wish topical studies were the exception rather than the norm. I much prefer working through a book, Old or New Testament, chunk by chunk. I want to learn about the author and historical context, the meanings of words in Hebrew or Greek, the way the original audience would have interpreted the text.

I want to get a sense of the Biblical story, not its application—in verse-size bites—to the much less interesting narratives offered by our culture.

I wonder why most preachers (at least in our churches) don’t do this. Is it easier to preach topically? Do we think audiences (um, I mean, church goers) aren’t biblically literate and mature enough to benefit from it? If the latter, how are they going to grow to maturity through a steady diet of Bible sound bites?

Pastors, what influences your preaching calendar? Educate my ignorance about your strategy.

And pew people, am I alone in this? Which type of message do you prefer?