Then as it gets toward the end of the year, I will pick about a dozen of those that I think, “This is where God wants the church to go in the next year,” and we prayerfully go away on a retreat. We pray and say, “What direction does God want the church to go? What needs to be done?” I'll tell you one of the ways you know what needs to be done: Name the five biggest sins in your church. If divorce is a big sin in your church, guess what you haven’t preaching on? If materialism is a big sin in your church, guess what you haven’t been preaching on? So, looking at just the sins of the people in your church and in your area, you can come up with a lot of pretty good wisdom.

I believe the audience determines God's will for what you are supposed to preach on. In other words, do I believe in the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. Do I believe in the foreknowledge of God? Absolutely. God already knows who is coming next Sunday before I do. Why would God the Sovereign give me a message totally irrelevant to the person He is planning on bringing? He wouldn't. So I start saying, “God, who is coming?” If I’m dealing with teenagers, that is one kind of message. If I’m dealing with seekers, that is another kind of message. If I am dealing with mature believers, that is another kind of message. If I am dealing with people who need to be mobilized for ministry … We look at that, we pray, then we will do a tentative outline of the series for the year.

We try to balance it in several ways. I try to give purpose balance. I will always do a series, somehow, dealing with worship, a series on evangelism, a series on discipleship, a series on ministry, and a series on fellowship. I will cover those five things every year because that is the purpose of the church in someway. Now I can do that with a book series, I can do it with a biographical series, I can do it with a topical, thematic approach. It doesn't matter the style, but I will balance the purposes. I will balance the difference between comfort and challenge — afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted — I will balance that. I like to balance Old Testament and New Testament. I like to balance a little biographical, a little didactic, a little doctrinal.

What I love to do is teach theology to non-believers without ever telling them it is theology or using theological terms. For instance, I once did an eight-week series on sanctification and never used the term. I did a four-week series on the incarnation and never used the term. I did a 12-week series on the attributes of God — the omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence — and never used the terms. I just called it “Getting to Know God.”

I finish a series and then say, “Which one, Lord, do You want to do next?” We will pick it out, do it next, then we will ask, “Which one, Lord, do You want us to do next?” So there is planning and spontaneity at the same time. It allows God to move us in the middle of the year. I know some guys for whom it doesn't matter if it’s Christmas, they are going to stay on that book! To me that’s silly. If suddenly next week America was in war, does God have a word about it? Absolutely! We would stop and talk about what the Bible says about war.

Preaching: How long is a typical series?

Warren: I think the ideal series is four to six weeks. I often have stretched it to 10 weeks. Obviously the Ten Commandments are 10 weeks. I did a 10-week series on the doctrine of grace. But really, if you go more than four or six weeks on a series, people start  wondering, “Does he know anything else?” There is a fatigue factor. One lady said, “My pastor has been in Daniel 70 weeks longer than Daniel!” So I think the best series would be a month series of four, 12 a year would be ideal. We almost never do that because you get into it and you want to go another two weeks because there is still more material.

(Adapted from a Preaching magazine interview with Rick Warren.)