Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Trying to preach through the Bible

 I've been at ND since 2012, and wanted to keep a record of how much of the Bible I've preached through (or had preached through by others). I've included proposed preaching for next year, but haven't included one-off guest spots or topical/doctrine talks.

I tend to follow the pattern of Term 1: Gospel, Term 2: OT, Term 3: Doctrine, Term 4: Epistle. I try to rotate through the major divisions of the OT (Law, Prophets, Writings), and alternate between Paul and non-Paul for the Epistles. 

Old Testament

Law
* Genesis - 2012 (5)
* Exodus - 2022 (22)
* Leviticus - 2018 (10)
* Numbers - 2012 (3)
* Deuteronomy - 2025 (9)
Prophets
Former Prophets
* Joshua - 2015 (13)
* Judges - 2020 (10)
* 1-2 Samuel
* 1-2 Kings
Latter Prophets
* Isaiah - 2024 (14)
* Jeremiah
* Ezekiel - 2017 (10)
The Twelve
* Hosea - 2021 (10)
* Joel - 2012 (3)
* Amos - 2014 (7)
* Obadiah
* Jonah
* Micah
* Nahum
* Habakkuk - 2021 (4)
* Zephaniah
* Haggai - 2023 (2)
* Zechariah
* Malachi - 2023 (3)
The Writings
Poetry
* Psalms - 2012 (4), 2019 (14) (120-135)
* Proverbs - 2023 (5), 2024 (5)
* Job
Scrolls
* Song of Songs - 2021 (4)
* Ruth
* Lamentations - 2019 (5)
* Ecclesiastes - 2016 (7)
* Esther
Others
* Daniel - 2013 (12)
* Ezra and Nehemiah  - 2023 (5)
* Chronicles

New Testament

Gospels & Acts
* Matthew - 2014 (15), 2015 (12), 2016 (13) (= 40)
* Mark - 2012 (4) (ch's 4-5), 2021 (10)
* Luke - 2013 (12) (9:51-18:30), 2023 (13) (1:1-5:11), 2024 (12) (5:12-8:25), 2025 (15) (8:26-11:32) (= 52); also most Christmases 
* John - 2017-18 (28)
* Acts - 2019 (28) (ch's 1-17)
Epistles
Pauline
* Romans - 2025 (17)
* 1 Corinthians - 2016 (5) (ch's 6-7), 2022 (22)
* 2 Corinthians - 2014 (12)
* Galatians - 2016-17 (11)
* Ephesians - 2023 (6)
* Philippians - twice through; one church camp and one preaching group (8)
* Colossians - 2012 (9)
* 1 Thessalonians - 2018 (8)
* 2 Thessalonians - 2018 (5)
* 1 Timothy - 2024 (11)
* 2 Timothy
* Titus - 2020 (5)
* Philemon - 2021 (2)
Catholic
* Hebrews - 2013 (13)
* James - 2017 (10)
* 1 Peter - 2015 (9)
* 2 Peter - 2023 (3)
* 1 John - 2021 (8)
* 2 John - 2019 (1)
* 3 John - 2024 (1)
* Jude - 2023 (3)
* Revelation - 2020 (19)

There are obviously some big gaps there; I really have to do another decent series from the Pentateuch (the two short ones were from before I had control of the preaching program), and there is a lot to fill in the writing prophets. I haven't touched the monarchy at all (1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kg, 1-2 Chron). It's a problem of the OT being 80% of the Bible and only having a term per year (although the Persia series allowed me to hit 4 books). I need to do a big Romans series, maybe for six months - breaking my system (again). That being said, I've hit every division of the Bible at least once and most a couple of times. 

Over all I think I'm pretty happy with the diet I've fed to people in terms of the breadth and depth, but it goes to show how even with an systematic, expository preaching approach, it still takes a long time to work through the Bible, and it could easily take me another nine years and I still wouldn't have got through it.

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