I was blown away to learn that since we started almost 6 years ago, I have taught 17 books of the Bible. I feel doing that consistently has given the people who come to our church a hunger for God’s Word.
I find there’s a disconnect between the guys that want to be creative and the guys that want to teach expositionally. I have always sought to be the middle ground of teaching through the Bible creatively. We think through the theme of the book we are going to teach and title it appropriately. Our graphics and videos reflect that theme. My messages are 1 point as we drill down on an area of the text.
I think a lot of guys feel they have to choose one or the other. I think the answer is both/and. This way we can build on our theme and teach through the Scriptures. I also believe there are some issues that are best dealt with topically. Stewardship and marriage are a couple.
Our website has a bunch of examples of this. Daniel was called Crash. Ruth was called Love Story. The sermon on the mount was called A New Way to be Human. Jonah was called Cast Away. Anyway, you get the point. And the point is that you can still be creative and teach verse by verse through books of the Bible.
I usually teach topical stuff in between books. The topical series tend to be shorter, this way it creates new entry points as the beginning of a series is always a momentum builder.