The “Upcoming Sermons” card from our most recent Gathering Guide.
One of my favorite things we do at IDC is put an “Upcoming Sermons” card in our weekly Gathering Guide (think church bulletin).
The card is quite simple: it lists the next six sermons to come at IDC, complete with the sermon text and scheduled preacher.
A HELP FOR DILIGENT PREPARATION
Part of faithful shepherding includes discipling church members in what it means to diligently prepare for the service of gathered worship. I have been so helped on this point by Q&A #90 from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which says:
Q. 90. How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation?
A. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.
What life would come into our churches if the majority of our members were diligently preparing and praying to receive God’s word with faith and love! Not only preparing to receive God’s word, but to respond to it with humility and repentance.
An Upcoming Sermons card might just be one of the easiest means to consistently encourage such preparation in the life of your congregation.
THE VALUE OF KNOWING WHAT’S COMING
We encourage our church members to tear off the card every couple of weeks, put it in their Bible, and do three things with it.
#1: Read the upcoming week’s sermon text. By reading the upcoming sermon’s text church members arrive to the worship gathering with unique awareness of the passage that will be preached. Some will come with questions, others with an eagerness to understand the truth better, and some members’ familiarity will cause them to cry out with delight when a new wrinkle of meaning comes through the sermon. In many ways, by reading the text a few times prior to the sermon a church member is equipped to engage the preacher in that glorious “silent dialogue” of preaching. Reading the text ramps up the meter of eagerness and excitement.
#2: Pray for hearts to hear and respond in faith. Preaching is a two-sided event; the preacher must be faithful in his heralding of truth, and the member must be faithful in his hearing the truth. None of us dare presume that we can merely show up without prayerful preparation and hear well. God is often kind to empower faithful hearing in spite of one’s neglect to prepare, but we cannot assume He will do so. Like soil must be tilled for planting, so too must our souls be plowed through prayer to receive God’s word.
#3: Pray for the man who will preach. Moses needed Aaron and Hur to strengthen his hands in the midst of battle. Church members can play such a role of assisting their often weary preachers through prayer. The apostle Paul regularly asked the churches to pray for his preaching, that doors would be opened and that he would preach clearly and boldly. Behind every powerful preacher lies a praying congregation.
Now, I recognize that all three of these things can happen without the help of an “Upcoming Sermons” card. But I do think this resource has unique potential to catalyze your church body unto diligent preparation.
Why don’t you try it out this week?