Series Details
I wanted to give you some details about the upcoming
Luke sermon series so that you will know what to expect. Most noticeably, it will take about three years or so to get through the book. On the weeks I am out of the pulpit, other
Mars Hill elders will be preaching through the next section of Luke at each service at each campus. Continuing through the book in this fashion will allow us to complete the series about a year faster than we would otherwise, allow the
Community Groups to keep going forward every week, and also maintain consistent theming and promotions.
From September 2009 to September 2010 I am scheduled to be out of the pulpit eleven times. Mars Hill elders will be preaching Luke nine of those eleven times.
John Piper(one of the world’s greatest pastor-theologians) and
Ed Stetzer (one of the world’s greatest missional researchers and thinkers) will each cover one of the remaining days, and they are free to preach on whatever they choose, as we trust them and are honored to have them.
The Air War & Ignoring the "Experts"
Admittedly, a growing church of our size with plans for additional rapid expansion is not supposed to undertake a project of this magnitude. Nearly all of the "experts" in the areas of megachurch trends and church growth agree that if we want to plant dozens of Mars Hill Campuses, plant hundreds of Acts 29 churches, and baptize thousands of new converts in the next few years, the last thing we should do is tackle the longest book in the New Testament with sermons lasting an hour or more. Instead, to accommodate people’s short attention spans and consumer desires, we should do simple, short series with pithy self-help topics compacted into brief feel-good sermons.
But we are Mars Hill Church. We’ve always been far more about following the Holy Spirit than following the trends. Furthermore, we have always been a church that has opened the Bible to learn about Jesus. So, after a few years in prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit, I proposed to the Executive Elders that they permit me to undertake the longest and most daunting preaching task of my ministry career, roughly three times as many sermons as my previous high (Genesis). After prayer and consideration, they agreed.
We do not know everything that will happen during the few years that we will be studying Luke, but one thing is certain: every week we will gather as God’s people to open the Scriptures and learn about Jesus Christ as the beginning of all that we are and do. If our mission is to flourish, it must be for that reason and none other. We are far more concerned about faithfulness and fruitfulness than about fads.
The Ground War
As we study Luke, the hundreds and hundreds of Community Groups that meet throughout the week will be studying, discussing, and applying the text of Luke as well. We like to speak of our preaching and worship services as our "air war" and our Community Groups as the heart of our "ground war." We find it most beneficial to have the ground war follow the air war, which explains why our groups follow our sermons. Therefore, throughout our study of Luke, questions for weekly Community Group and family discussion will be posted online at marshillchurch.org and on The City (our password-protected social networking website).
