Preaching: How long would a typical series run for you?

Graham: The Genesis series I started in January and it is going to run the entire year until December, when I'll do a Christmas series. I'm actually speeding up a bit through the Patriarchs; I've done the life of Joseph before, so when I come to that in a few weeks I'll speed up and just do a few messages on Joseph. I took some time in Abraham; I'll spend about four or five messages on Jacob, then Joseph about the same. The Ephesians series was about nine months.

Preaching: Do you have any problem sustaining interest in an extended series?

Graham: I believe people respond if it's interesting. I try to outline these longer series in subparts. For example, Genesis is a long series, but you have sub-plots. Once we finished the first eleven chapters -- creation, the fall, Noah, the Tower of Babel and all the rest -- then Abraham breaks out and is a great series on faith.

I'm calling the series on Genesis "The Legacy of Faith." This happens to be the 25th year of our church's existence, and the theme of our entire year is "The Legacy of Faith." So it works beautifully not only in church life to speak of legacy, but it also gives us the opportunity to address many of the pertinent, big issues people are addressing: who am I? where did I come from? the rage of nations and the hostility of men. All of these are in Genesis.

So the important things is not how long a series is. Expositional preaching should never be boring. It should be interesting, it should be inviting, and it should be dealing with subject matter that is appropriate for today. It's that old thing of the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. I try to approach introductions to messages with contemporary connections.

Preaching: When you do an extended series, do you break it at certain points through the year?

Graham: Yes. When I was a younger preacher I thought I had to just stay with it. As I've gotten older and a little more mature in my preaching -- just like with 9/11 last year, to be preaching on some unrelated subject at the time would have been a waste of a huge opportunity. We listen to the Holy Spirit and we look to the issues of the times and address them. The same goes for church life if there's something going on in the life of the church that needs to be addressed. For example, when we came to the literal anniversary of the church, I broke out of Genesis and did a message to the church on the call of the church in our times, the ministry of the church, and how God has used Prestonwood. So we definitely need to be flexible to change as times call for it.

Preaching: How far in advance do you begin planning a sermon series?

Graham: I start with God's work in my own heart. I believe preaching should be out of the overflow of God's work in the heart and life of the preacher. It begins in my own life, my own devotions, what is God saying to me? That may be a subject, or an issue of importance; it may be a passage that is driving me.