I Agree With John – Preach With You 2023

Do you agree with John? 

John who?

What am I agreeing to?

After a very successful and helpful Rooted: Preach With You 2022, the writings of the apostle John will be the focus of Preach With You 2023. 

THE ZOOM MEETING! November 15th 2pm – Overall I Agree With John theme meeting 

• We’ll talk through the whole theme for the year, figure out graphics and assign some leadership roles within the group. If this plan fires you up, then please come to this meeting!
• THIS IS A NEW FORMAT – WE’RE WORKING TOGETHER – COME TO THIS MEETING!
• If you come to this meeting I will send you “Expositional Preaching” by David Helm FOR FREE

(Pumped about these resources for next year! How can you add to this great theme!)

THE PLAN: 

We’ll spend the whole year working through the 5 books attributed to the apostle John in the New Testament. Within the overall theme there will be smaller themes that will allow you to jump in and out as needed.

The spreadsheet linked below has the whole preaching plan. There are off weeks built in that can be moved around as needed for guest speakers or one off messages. You do not need to preach these messages on these exact dates. I Agree With John Preaching Plan 2023 Spreadsheet <— Seriously Check This Out

The Breakdown:

Winter-Spring: The first half of the year will march through the Gospel of John breaking it into 4 series: 1) Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time, 2) The Jesus Diet (Lent – Booklet?), 3) Love Without Limit, 4) It Is Finished. All of these are working titles and as we collaborate (see below) they can change.

Summer: (July/August) will be the letters of 1, 2, 3 John. I’d like to put out another booklet like we did this summer with Treasuring God. It really helped our church stay unified through the vacation season and hit the ground running in the fall.

Fall-Winter: And then to end out the year we’ll go through Revelation. This can be intimidating to preach but it’s my favorite book and I think I have good stuff for a foundation. We’ll also bring in some experts. People are drawn to this book and preaching it can be very fruitful. It’s broken into 3 smaller themes so you can jump in for part of Revelation if you want. 

Light Liturgy

In addition to expository preaching, in Lansing we’ll also dabble in liturgy for our church services as a whole. The other columns on the spreadsheet are optional but this is how I plan to work them into our Sundays:
Communion: Whoever is leading communion will use the verses listed to show Jesus in the Old Testament and New. This will still be 5-7 minutes and will allow me to train members in bible study and presentation.*
Prayer: We want to add more prayer to our services. There will be 2-3 prayers (done during worship, during communion, etc…). They will come from one verse from each listed Psalm as chosen by the person praying.*
*If this seems like a lot, there will be a spreadsheet to help you stay on top of each role and assign the parts well in advance. (There’s always a spreadsheet!)

The Outcome: 

Next year on Sunday mornings we will study all of the writings of John in depth, we will see Jesus in nearly 50 Old Testament passages and connect them to the New Testament. And we will pray from every Psalm in the bible.

Um, this is very exciting!

Bonus:

But wait there’s more! 

• T-shirts and Stickers – In addition to the preaching, we’re going to make T-shirts, stickers and invites. “I Agree With John” is a provocative statement. Who is John? What do you agree with? There’s a sample of the T-shirts/stickers below – they are a first draft. You are welcome to take a crack at a cool design and send it my way. We’re going to have our campus ministry do a design contest this fall.
• PODCAST! – Damon and Ivy Brog (church leaders in Fox Valley WI) have started a bible study podcast that is so wonderful. Their first subject is the book of John. So you can share the podcast with your congregation as we preach through John. Check out their podcast here.
• SCRIPTURE JOURNALS – I also plan to make bible scripture journals available to our church. [Check this out] This will allow people to take sermon notes right in their journals next to the text itself.  Each journal is only $2.99 per member – totally worth it! Put a sticker on it! Get the church to take notes again! (1-3 John and Revelation too!)
• MORE – I’m sure you guys will come up with even more ways to make this theme memorable and life changing.
• I’ve also got www.IAgreeWithJohn.com – who knows what that could be 🙂

Format:

Collaboration

Using zoom, we’ll meet a month before each smaller series and brainstorm together. I’ll work to bring in great expository preachers for each session to help guide the brainstorming. We’ll craft sermon starters and assign out graphics and other responsibilities that will become robust folders that we can all use to preach great expository messages. This will evolve as the year goes on. I know we’ll preach better if we prepare together! 

***If you have suggestions for skilled expository preachers, especially ones who’ve preached through these books, please let me know.*** 

Here’s the Collaboration Schedule (subject to change): 

*Click here to sign up and receive the Zoom link*

All meetings Eastern Time

November 15th 2pm – Overall I Agree With John theme meeting

• We’ll talk through the whole theme for the year, figure out graphics and assign some leadership roles within the group. If this plan fires you up, then please come to this meeting!

December 8th 2pm  – Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time (Jan-Feb) ***Date Change***

• We’ll talk through kicking off 2023 with the best focus ever: Jesus. 
• We’ll look at each chapter and parse out sermon titles and points
• We’ll get the graphics for PPT/Keynote, social media, newsletters and invites started
• *** You’ll have the first two months of preaching planned out before Christmas!***

January 24th 2pm  – The Jesus Diet (Feb-Mar)

• “Eat my flesh” – Jesus
• We’ll craft messages for the Lenten season (Easter lead up) that call people to fully commit to Jesus 
• I’d like to put together a devotional booklet or an online plan that challenges people to do the Jesus Diet (not food – but lifestyle changes) coinciding with Lent. The Christian world is already primed for this during Lent.

March 7th 2pm – Love Without Limit (Apr-May)

• We kick things off with an Easter message focused on Lazarus and resurrection
• Our post Easter messages take us through the Upper Room Discourse and the last teachings of Jesus

May 2nd 2pm – It Is Finished (June)

• We wrap up John by talking about how the completed sacrifice of Jesus Christ means that we can overcome anything.

June 5th 2pm – Summer of (God’s) Love (Jul-Aug)

• A super engaging series (booklet?) that helps keep the church unified and focused even when many are away for vacation
• 5 weeks of 1 John and 1 week each for 2-3 John

August 8th 2pm – Living Revelation: God Wins (Sep-Oct)

• We kick off Revelation
  • The lens for each sermon is “Encouragement.” This is not a technical series. It’s all about discovering things in Revelation that we can apply to our lives – literally Living Revelation. 
  • My hermeneutical approach is that God would not put a confusing question mark at the end of the bible. So if we’re reading it with confusion or fear, we’re reading it wrong. 
  • Instead, if we see the apocryphal language in appropriate context, then Revelation is an exclamation point of encouragement for Christians who were struggling through various hardships at the end of the first century. Thus, the goal is to take one of the most confusing books in the bible and make it one of the most encouraging and practical for our members. 
• I look forward to working on this with all who participate!

September 12th 2pm – Living Revelation: Victorious Living (Oct-Nov)

• We’ll navigate some of the toughest chapters in the whole bible with encouraging and practical lessons.

October 24th 2pm – Living Revelation: The Never Ending Story (Nov-Dec)

• Christmas and Revelation? — Absolutely!