It seems I have become predictable.

Yesterday, I sent out the next preaching rota. I have finished writing up all my sermons in our current series in Matthew that will end in April which is usually my prompt to get cracking on the next series. That usually involves chatting it through with the other elders, offering some suggestions on what to do next, and once we’ve agreed it, getting appropriate (or additional) commentaries and then working through the whole book to figure out how the book will be split up into preachable chunks. I then write up the next preaching rota (usually covering about three months) and then match the passages with the dates.

Anyway, it was my first day back in the office after Christmas yesterday. We have already decided on the next series and I already received the commentaries I got for it. So, I set about figuring out how the book will be split up and then matched the passages to the rota. Having done that, I duly sent it out. Not too long after I sent it out, I got a phone call from one of our preaching cohort. Apparently, he was so convinced about what we were going to do next that he had already purchased some commentaries on that book. I hadn’t mentioned it or said anything about it but it seems my rota proved him right. As I say, I have become predictable.

But, to be honest, it is a predictability I am entirely glad to own. I am always very keen to have some logic behind why we are moving from this book to that one. It doesn’t have to be cast iron or absolute, just some reason why it makes any sort of sense to study this new book having just done that one.

Further to that, because we like to vary the diet at least a little, we try (though exceptions are made, particularly given there are more OT books than NT ones) to switch between New Testament and Old Testament. If we’ve done some OT narrative last time, we want to look at a different genre where possible. If we did a gospel, we want might jump into an epistle in the next instalment in the NT. We want to try and provide some variety in genre. Apart from all that, we are committed to teaching the whole counsel of God. Which means we prioritise those books that we haven’t preached before (at least, during the dispensation of my pastorate).

So, in a sense – and to some degree I always hope this is the case – my next series is likely to be a little bit predictable. You can have a guess whether we are likely to be in the Old or New Testament. You are likely to know the genre we last had when we were there and can rule those out in all likelihood. You will be painfully aware of the main themes you have been hearing repeated throughout our last series and can make an educated guess what might be a good foil or pointed support to what we have just heard. You might not land on the exact book, but you could probably narrow it down to a most likely three or four.

It is a predictability I am quite happy to own. I want people to be so aware of the main ideas in the series we have been doing that they can have a fairly good guess where we might go next. I want people to know that the diet will be reasonably varied so they know roughly where we’re going. I want people to be aware of how the different bits of scripture speak to one another and how their different authors and themes nevertheless serve the overall storyline of scripture.

So, as I say, I have become predictable – and I’m absolutely fine with it. And if you fancy a little guess, our last few series (excluding Christmas) have been, from oldest to most recent, Revelation, Deuteronomy, Hebrews, Joel and – most recently – Matthew. Have fun seeing if you can find a thread and, if you want, leave a comment with your best guess at what is coming next and why you think so. I’m interested if you can guess like my friend did.