I would love to take some of you on a journey of discovery about what goes into writing a sermon series. One of my readers asked a while back how to make a great sermon. Well, in case you didnt know already one of the great tips of sermon writing is get as much help as possible.

I am increasingly convinced that theology was always meant to be done in the context of community. We are working that out locally, but as the web is often the next best thing to a face to face community and seems in some ways to function better than many actual real life communities, lets go on a journey together.

I am interested in replies from preachers and non-preachers alike. I would love as many of you as feel you can to go read Galatians, dwell on it, mull it over and then answer the following questions in a post on your own blog, linking back to this one. Just like the blogging challenge of a few weeks back I will highlight posts that either trackback here or let me know by email that they are out there.

The questions, which in some way we should ask any bible passage as we study it are as follows-

1. What do we know about the audience and setting of this book (ie who is it written too, when was it written, why was it written, what do we know about the man who wrote it)
2. What impact would this book have had on its original readers- what key messages are they likely to have remembered?
3. How does the situation the book was written in differ, and how is it similar to the situation we face today as christians
4. What is God saying to me from this passage? What key points would I want to get accross in a sermon or series of sermons on this book?
5. What will change in my life as a result of this study? What do I want to see happen to the people who hear me as a result of this study?
6. Given all the above and the resources I have available to me, what illustrations, quotations from other writers, and slogans or soundbites will I use?
7. What is the best way to structure all this material?

If you answer all these questions you have gone some way to preparing a sermon. One thing that is very clear in my mind is that not every believer should aim to be a preacher. However, every believer can struggle with some of these questions for him or her self, and every believer can work towards the point where they might become a helpful volunteer research assistant for a busy preacher.

So is anyone game????