Preaching Romans (Part 1 of the Preacher Geek Series)

One of the challenges for preachers is to come up with fresh ideas for teaching series. While I’m a fan of expository preaching over topical, I favor framing expository series in a topical way, rather than just saying, “We’re going to spend the next year in Romans and see where it takes us.” Over next the few weeks I’m going to post a different sermon series idea as fodder for the preachers who read this blog. Feel free to jump in with ideas of your own.

I’ll start with a way to preach Romans without getting too caught up in the details of Paul’s exposition of the gospel (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!). If I were going to preach this kind of series in a church with Wednesday night programming, I’d want to teach a textual class on Romans that would allow us to dig deeper into exactly what Paul is saying. Otherwise, I would try to prepare some study guides for the church to work through during the week so that they’re digging deep on their own. Not everyone will put in the extra work, but those who do will be rewarded.

One way to preach through Romans is to use each section of the letter to highlight one of the basic elements of the Christian faith.

Here’s the breakdown:

1.  The Gospel:  1:1-17

2.  Sin:  1:18-3:20

3.  Faith:  Romans 3:21-4:25

4.  Grace:  Romans 5

5.  Resurrection:  Romans 6

6.  Law:   Romans 7

7.  The Spirit:  Romans 8:1-17

8.  The Future:  Romans 8:18-39

9.  Covenant:  Romans 9-10

10.  Humility:  Romans 11

11.  Discipleship:  Romans 12-13

12.  Community:  Romans 14-15

13.  Relationships:  Romans 16

Does this breakdown make sense to you?

What title would you give to this series of teachings?