Dec/090
Hope Series Resources
Updated the series stuff page with all the stuff from HOPE. This was a three week series focused on the future and mission of our church, but you could easily adapt it for a wide variety of topics. Included in the zip file are message notes, Keynote (the Mac equivalent of PowerPoint), and the graphics. Just click the “free series stuff” link on the top of the page to get the free download (no registration required).
Oct/090
Teaching Priorities
About a year ago, I took about 10 people off to a cabin to finalize our teaching calendar for the upcoming year. Which is now the previous year. Before headed off, I had prayed and thought and researched, eventually writing out nine teaching priorities for the year. Here were those priorities and how we did.
- Finances and money management. This is something that we want to talk about regularly, but hit in a series every 18 months or so. Back in February, we did a series called Bailout. We learned that February is not the best time for a money series, but the series was great.
- Marriage and Relationships. We’re beginning a series called Storybook Sex this weekend, which walks through the Song of Solomon.
- A Bible book or section of a book. In addition to chapter-by-chapter through the Song of Solomon, “Break Free” walked through ten chapters of Exodus and “Uncomfortable” walked through the life of Abraham
- Something controversial. We like to keep people on edge so I wanted to do at least one series that some would consider controversial. We landed on “Stupid Christians”. We also answered some pretty controversial questions during the “Questions” series…things like divorce and drinking.
- A blow out three year celebration. We hit this during the “Contagious” series which covered the purpose of the church. He had streamers, a marching band, and an old-school pot-luck lunch where we baptized about 40 people.
- At least 4 big Gospel presentation days (we present the Gospel a lot, but I wanted at least four days where we tell our people to invite). We did that with Easter and Break Free, but probably could have done a better job here.
- At least one message on volunteering and serving. We always talk about volunteering, but during “God at the Movies” we did a big volunteer push.
- At least one message on inviting, challenging people to write the name of at least one person they will invite. We actually ended up doing a whole series on this called “Contagious.”
“It’s the End of the World as we Know it” and “Faith and Doubt” were two other series that we did earlier in the year, and both of those were great. It was encouraging to me to look back on my teaching priorities for the year and see how our team followed through.
Oct/090
Break Free Series Resources
We just finished a three-week series called Break Free. The content of the messages was the Exodus. We talked about what it’s like to live in bondage, how God provides supernatural deliverance, and how we can live in Freedom. We ended the series with the Lord’s Supper. During this series, we saw more than 50 people trust Christ for salvation. The graphics originally came from Elevation Church, and were modified for this series.
Aug/090
Series Planning
A few months before we start a new series, I spend a good deal of time writing a series overview. This document contains information on why we’re doing the series, a brief outline of the topics and Scriptures, any songs I think would work, and some of my ideas on graphics and set design.
I send this document to our creative people so they can run with it and make the series great. It gives them time and context, two things that creative people desperately need.
Here’s the series overview for what we’re doing in September (Break Free) and what we’re doing in October (Storybook Sex)
Mar/090
Faith & Doubt Series Resources
Here’s a zip file containing message notes, Keynote presentations (you’ll need iWork 09), and an invite card (flattened PSD) to a two part series called Faith and Doubt. Part one focuses on the relationship between faith and doubt, and part two focuses on practical steps to building faith. You can listen and watch these messages by visiting our website.
Dec/080
Supermodel Series
Supermodel was a fun series. We talked about being a model Christian, a model parent and a model church. We finished up with the model life of Jesus.
We shot a goofy video to serve as the promo and sermon intro. Here’s the message notes, and you can always watch online.
Dec/080
Fountain of Truth Resources
One of the most well-received series we’ve done was on five major world religions. We covered Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and Christianity. It took a lot of work to prepare for this series, and a ton of work went into message prep. But it was worth it.
Here’s a zip file of 4 of the messages (we had a guest speaker for Judaism), as well as the layered PSD of the graphic that we used for the series. You can watch these messages online by visiting our website and navigating your way to watch services online.
Apr/082
Free Sermon Resources
Here’s some zip files containing message notes, keynotes (mac’s version of powerpoint), psd files and other graphics for some of our recent sermon series. Use them at will.
1. Tattoo. This was a one part series (i know, technically not a series) about being marked for Christ. We did this on Easter of 08.
2. Confessions of a Pastor. Contains I don’t most christians, i’m not always a good parent, i hate prayer meetings and sometimes, i doubt God.
3. KidNation. Three weeks on parenting…covers values, what kids need and discipline. I think this one was very well received by our church.
4. Google. Did this in january to talk about some of life’s most searched for topics…fame, money, sex, and politics. Fun topics.
5. Regift. This goes back to last december, where we focused on giving to others what we have been given by God.
6. Dominate. This was four parts on the mission of our church, fueled by the story of the early church advancing and dominating a region with the Gospel.
You can listen to the audio of these via our podcast, or watch videos on our website.
Jul/070
Setup Photos
Click here to see some photos of our setup on Flickr. And here to see some of our different series logos.
Jun/070
Skittles Series Resources
Here’s a zip file with three messages and three keynote presentations from our recent Skittles series. We talked about money management, saving, spending and tithing. Download Skittles.zip
Resources
