Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1-2 Peter Preaching & Theology Sermon Series Battle Plan Theological Contributions by Pastor Mark Driscoll Tactical Contributions by Pastor AJ Hamilton October 28, 2008 ―Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war‖. – Proverbs 20:18 Preface: This proposal comes in hopes of improving our effectiveness overall as a church. Over the years, we have seen that the pulpit is our most visible and most authoritative ministry. Whether it is a push for membership, giving, conversion etc., the pulpit has proven to be the most effective. This is true both in and outside of Mars Hill as we have seen with our internet audience. To utilize the pulpit as much as possible for other aspects of our mission is, we believe, good stewardship. Admittedly, we do not believe that everything should be connected to the pulpit. But, we do believe some things are more strategic and effective if they are. We believe that going forward this sermon series Battle Plan will aid all of Mars Hill in the following ways: A clear template for each series so that there is not confusion, causing branches and campuses who collaborate to have jurisdiction conflict. A clear set of deadlines and deliverables for Campus Pastors (CP) so they are able to better lead their local mission. A quality control assurance across all campuses. An assurance that we are not unnecessarily duplicating staff and projects. A clear concept for future CP to consider as they contemplate whether or not they want to be a MH CP. 1 Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1-2 Peter Table of Contents Trial Preface Part I – Guiding Principles for Preaching at Mars Hill Church Part II – 1-2 Peter Preaching Schedule Part III – Sermon Series Architecting Questions by Pastor AJ and the Preaching & Theology Branch Part IV – 1-2 Peter Book Published in House Article 1 – Article on Peter by Pastor Mark Article 2 – Article on 1-2 Peter by Pastor Mark Article 3 – For Further Study Box by Pastor Mark Article 4 – Why to Join & How to Join Community Groups by Pastor Brad Article 5 – Community Group Questions by Pastor Brad Article 6 – Why and How of Family Bible Study by Pastor Mark Article 7 – Family Bible Study Questions by Pastor Mark Article 8 – 1-2 Peter Preaching Schedule Part V – 1-2 Peter Research Part VI – Ground War Support Article #1 Part VII – Ground War Support Article #2 2 Part I – Guiding Principles for Preaching at Mars Hill Church For each new preaching series, whether preached by Pastor Mark Driscoll or by the campus pastor teams and other approved elders (e.g. Jonah), a working battle plan is needed for the entire series. This document is that battle plan. Guiding Principle #1 – Elders Lead from the Pulpit At Mars Hill the pulpit is used for preaching and teaching purposes, but it is also used for much more, including evangelizing lost people and leading the entire mission of our church. Subsequently, the most visible point of authority in all of Mars Hill is the preaching of God‘s Word at one of our church services. Because this is such a weighty task, the Scriptures indicate is an elder duty in 1 Timothy 5:17, which says, ―Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.‖ Because of the importance of this role, along with the authority it bestows on the preacher and criticism it invites from others, as a general rule only Mars Hill elders who are approved by Pastor Mark Driscoll are allowed to preach at a Mars Hill church service. Any exception, (e.g. a guest such as Dr. D.A. Carson) must receive prior approval from Pastor Mark Driscoll as he oversees the preaching and theology branch of Mars Hill Church. Guiding Principle #2 - Air War & Ground War The air war is the Sunday pulpit and the preaching series that is tied to the pulpit. At Mars Hill, we generally lead our ministry with the air war of the pulpit. The ground war works in conjunction with the air war so that such things as community groups, redemption groups, training classes, biblical counseling etc. coordinates with the preached Word so as to be as effective and unified as possible. Since most of the Community Groups are sermon-based it is imperative that the CG branch and the P&T branch collaborate on every series. This collaboration includes joint branded content online and Pastor Mark pushing CG discussion points and family devotional points each week in the sermon. Guiding Principle #3 - Attractional & Missional An attractional series functions in large part to grow the church by increasing Sunday attendance and web traffic. In this way, an attractional series opens the front door to the church both online and on Sundays. Examples of attractional series include the Song of Songs and Vintage Jesus. A missional series functions in large part to connect people to the church (e.g. membership, community groups, redemption groups, serving, etc.) to help them mature in their faith and serve the mission of Mars Hill. Ideally, a missional series follows an attractional series to connect the people who are drawn in by the attractional series. Examples of missional series include Doctrine and 1-2 Timothy. 3 Guiding Principle #4 - Strikes & Campaigns Strikes are strategic sermon series intended to hit one big idea over the course of a few months or less. Examples of a strike include Ruth and Jonah. Campaigns are lengthy sermon series that are broken down into multiple strikes lasting many months or even a year or more. The multiple strikes in a campaign are, for example, breaking down a lengthy book of the Bible into smaller mini-series dealing with focused issues as they appear in the book of the Bible. Examples of campaigns include Genesis and Nehemiah. Is this sermon series a strike or a campaign? Guiding Principle #5 – Expository & Others Preachers are commanded to ―preach the Word,‖i although the Bible does not tell us exactly how this should be done or demonstrate it with a transcript of the model sermon. Therefore, how to ―preach the Word‖ methodologically includes many faithful options that I have used and will continue to use according to what best serves the principle that I faithfully ―preach the Word.‖ These methods include expository preaching, textual preaching, and topical preaching. Expository Preaching Among those who hold the Bible in high regard as they ought, expository preaching is increasingly popular. Expository preaching is simply going through a book of the Bible verse by verse. While the Bible never commands or really even illustrates this method, some practical reasons make it popular: 1. Because all Scripture is God-breathed and for our benefit, there is not a page of Scripture that is not helpful to our faith, so we should examine it all.ii 2. From church history we know that influential preachers such as Justin Martyr preached expository sermons that went through books of the Bible line by line. 3. It allows non-Christians and new Christians to follow along more easily than if the preacher jumps around the Bible. 4. It doesn‘t allow the preacher to avoid difficult texts and issues. 5. It helps teach the congregation to study the Bible for themselves. 6. It helps show the importance of context in Scripture. 7. It helps people to read and study along with the sermons each week. 8. It makes it easier for people to refer back to what they have learned in Scripture. 9. It forces the authority to reside in the text and not the teacher. As a general rule, it is best to include preaching from all genres of biblical literature in both the Old and New Testaments over the course of a preaching ministry. Over the years, most Mars Hill preaching has been expositional and has rotated between Old and New Testament books. As a general rule, it is wise for the majority of a preacher‘s preaching to be expository while using other formats as needed. 4 Textual Preaching Textual preaching falls between expositional and topical preaching. Textual preaching is preaching on one section of Scripture from within a book of the Bible without preaching the entire book, as is done with expository preaching. Some practical reasons make this method popular: 1. It shows the consistency of Scripture by linking sections of Scripture together as a thematic series. 2. It allows the preacher with a revolving church where people move in and out a lot (e.g., college town, military town, major city) to hit central truths every year so that new people are given a basic theological framework through key sections of Scripture. 3. It allows the preacher to work in smaller chunks of four to eight weeks, providing flexibility to deal with issues as they arise. This is especially helpful if a church is adding new services and campuses and needs to remain nimble to synchronize new preaching series with changes in the church. 4. It allows the preacher to work around the Christian calendar with mini- series on the incarnation around Christmas, crucifixion in the dark winter months, and resurrection around Easter. Examples of textual preaching would include such things as a series on the Beatitudes from Matthew, fruit of the Spirit from Galatians, or a Christmas series on the first two chapters of Luke. Topical Preaching The most common type of preaching in evangelicalism is topical preaching. Topical preaching is using several texts from one or more books of the Bible or biblical authors to speak on an issue.