Moving Our “Sermon Series Pipeline” Above Ground

Friday, April 11, 2008

A Pharmaceutical company, long-term, is only as good as their “pipeline.” Simply put, the “pipeline” is the place where hundreds of people work behind the scenes testing, researching, and refining their product before it goes to market. This process can go on for as long as 5-10 years before a drug is ultimately rejected or sold in drug stores.

I’d like to try that here. I’d like, on occasion, to take our teaching team’s “sermon series pipeline” and make it public. I want to begin sharing my ideas through this blog for possible upcoming sermon series at CCV. I’ll try it for a while, and if gains traction I’ll keep doing it. If not I’ll nix it.

I’m calling these posts, not coincidently, “Sermons Series Pipeline.” My hope is that as I do this a mixture of pastor friends across the country, friends here at CCV, our staff, and perfect strangers will weigh in on what is being processed. Anyone can weigh in, add ideas, share why something is stupid, what they would do if they were me, etc.

I’ll present these ideas knowing full well most of them won’t “make it” to an actual series, but some will. And they’ll be better because of the interaction. And along the way if this spurs creativity on the part of other pastors and helps them in their service to the churches they serve, so much the better.

Here’s what our teaching team attempts to do with each series:
* 3-4 week series of sermons connected to one unified theme
* Addresses a genuine need/interest people have
* Matched with a biblical passage that addresses that need or question
* Has a pop-cultural connection in the way it is packaged
* Supplemented by created sermon titles, images, songs (both Christian and secular), video clips, art, stories, etc.
* All crafted in such a way to create buzz in our church and community

My goal is never to present the finished product, but simply to present an idea and have those who are interested comment, “I have a better idea. Why not…”