Suggest BIG IDEAS, Get BIG IDEAS and Win Coffee!

We are in the process of pulling together our team to plan our BIG IDEAS for 2009-2010.  A BIG IDEA is a teaching theme for a series.  It can be topical or exegetical.  We have already had a couple of brainstorming sessions with our whole team and I also solicited the input of our Kids City Champion, Student Community Champion and Adult Ministry Champion.  I want to make sure that we have the very best BIG IDEAS for the coming year. 

That is where I need your help!  Our BIG IDEA yearly planning meeting is coming up in a little over a week and I would love to hear from you the best BIG IDEA series you have ever done or have ever come across. It can be your idea or somebody else's ideas that you really like.

I will make you a deal - if you leave me a comment suggesting a BIG IDEA series I will make sure that we e-mail you our complete list of possible BIG IDEAS.  Deal?  And to sweeten the pot, if we use a BIG IDEA that you suggest I will send you a $25 Starbucks gift certificate as a thank you. Or if you live in the Naperville area I will send you a $25 Ground Level Cafe gift certificate, which is even better than Starbucks!  So suggest BIG IDEAS and get BIG IDEAS back!

If you want to learn more about how to create your own BIG IDEA process, then you should click HERE and get a copy of our book, The BIG IDEA

Comments

[Josh Hunt]

How to life the John 10.10 abundant Christian life.

Josh
www.joshhunt.com

[Keith]

One of the biggest stumbling blocks I see with non-believers I know is their insistance on what they consider "rational" thinking. To them, Christianity is a laughable fairy tale and Jesus is an imaginary friend for people who are too weak to cope with life. I haven't seen it, but the Bill Maher "documentary" Religulous would probably support this viewpoint. Perhaps it is disturbing for them to think that any answers are beyond their grasp.

Forgive the dated references...maybe you could call this "Weird Science" or "Irrational Differences" ;-).

[Craig]

Unmasking The Secrets Of True Happiness.

Use this series and go through the beattitudes.

I seen the idea at CedarCreek Church in Perrysburg,Ohio.

[bob wilson]

Our current series...Being Human
Messages:
Learning what Matters
Learning my Purpose
Learning to Waste Time (spend time with God)
Learning Gratitude

[Frank Taylor]

A Sermon on the Mount Series, studying out the contrasts between external and internal, and calling the series "Christianity versus Churchianity". I'm kicking this one around in my head right now...

This couldn't come at a more perfect time! We're doing our meeting for Sept 09 - Sept 10 on Sunday night...

[Darin Simms]

Summer of Super Heroes series I did last summer connected Comic book heroes and movies to Bible heroes and ethics. Huge success. A couple of books to help are Up, Up, And Oy Vey!: How Jewish History, Culture, And Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero by Simcha Weinstein and Who Needs A Superhero?: Finding Virtue, Vice, And What's Holy In The Comics by H. Michael Brewer

[Kevin Jack]

Modern Day Ishmael-
How Abraham thought that Ishmael was the result of God's promise when God showed him he had something better in store for him that it would be through his own son that the promise was fulfilled. So what areas of our lives are just partially fulfilled because we don't realize how great God's promise is for us. Could be used for our personal lives, I like it in terms of the church not being what God has called it to, but you could take it in any direction.

[Richie "Rich" Merritt]

How bout a series called:
"What the ?"

Fill in the blank:

Real deal is with Jesus.

Life of a Jesus follower should be.

Heck is wrong with the World anyway?

Story line of you life can be!

etc...?

I actually thought of doing a billboard just to advert for the church; but I think it will be a series instead. A couple of other ideas I have for next year are:

Christology 101 - 4 weeks; Recovering the lost Ethos; Incarnational Living; Recovering Discipleship; What is a movement?

Food Network Series - not sure where I'm going with this yet?

Extreme Church Makeover - redifining church as we are the church and we don't just go to or do church?

Church is a Team Sport - Enter the Game; GoalSetting/Gameplan; Lean the Game; Play in the Game (call to serve); Celebration (follow that up with a service day vice church the following Sunday and on my sked that is Super Bowl Sunday).

Just some random thoughts from a new guy! :-)

IHL,

Richie

[Erik Reed]

I'm doing a series right now entitled: Everyday Jesus. The purpose of the series is to help people move from belief in God to knowing God. We are talking about what an everyday relationship with Jesus looks like instead of Christianity simply being a set of beliefs or ideologies to adopt. Don't know if you would want me to list the weeks we are doing, but if you want to use it I could send them - it is a 5 week series.

[DG]

The Real World Babylon (topical study through Daniel)

Week one- Real Commitment
Week two- Real Holiness
Week three- Real Faith
Week four- Real hope

If interested in more, would love to break down chapters for each week. Keep up the great work!

[Dan Gross]

One of the most impactful Big Idea series we did was one we called "Untamed Faith." We used Erwin McManus's book "The Barbarian Way" as our inspiration. "Reconnecting with the primal essence of what it means to be a follower of Christ" was our byline. Each week we looked at one characteristic of untamed faith--Renegade (Abraham), Radical (Peter), Rugged (John the Baptizer), Revolutionary (Paul). It was life-changing!

[M@]

THE BALANCE MYTH
leaning into what is most important

We had a big see saw on stage that helped with a visual as we stood in the middle at times

We talked about how life is about balance, it is leaning into what is most important because we can't balance it all. (seek first)
We talked about giving things over to God. We had all these boxes with life stuff on them...work, family...etc. God isn't just one of those boxes...we had a big box for God that all the others fit into. He is the support to make sense of the rest.
We talked about works...the see saw helped with this too. How Good is good enough...God doesn't weigh our works, it isn't a balance for him of our good outweighing our bad...it is about grace.

[Steven Hervey]

I am planning on doing a series this summer called "Sermons I've Never Heard" where I will preach on topics avoided/neglected by the churches I've been in and the church in general. There is no real continuity to the series, but in the summer when people are in and out I think it will work well. Here are my topics so far:

Social Injustice
Imprecatory Psalm 137:8-9

[Jonathan Markham]

How about "Being Different" it gives you all sorts of options while focusing on one of the key elements of being a follower of Jesus in today's world!

[John Franklin]

“Saying No”
Based on Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions…”

How to say “no” and experience life change over habits like:
Alcohol
Drugs
Food
Pornography
Affluenza
Etc.

[Matt Van Peursem]

Some of our weekend ideas:

No Strings Attached: Forgiveness

Hats: Biblical roles of each member of the family

Delicious: Fruits of the Spirit

Explosive Love: 1st John

[Danny]

"Bii Fit" (spiritual disciplines series) Take off of the Wii craze. You can make Jesus and the disciples Wii icons practicing prayer, meditation, fasting, etc. as part of the publicity.

[Matt Larson]

Well, seeing as how I could REALLY use that Starbucks card right about now, here are the best ideas I have ever come up with for sermon series':

1. The Story of Everything (a 5-7 week series on the theological distinctives of our church)
2. You 2.0 (In anticipation of my 20th birthday, I thought I should reevaluate what my life was going to look like for the next 20 years, it also works with the upgrade idea of what does Matt 2.0 look like)
3. Missing Jesus (we tend to capture an image of Jesus in our brains from different points in our personal history. This series takes the different components of Jesus and completes the picture for people)

Will any of those win me the gift card???

(real ideas coming on May 6th :)

[Jon]

Chosen Losers (i.e. from OT or NT)... how God's grace makes up what's lacking in our life, leadership, etc.

Seven Big Lies: evolution, global warming, abortion, homosexuality, stem-cell, islam, pluralism (from article in World Magazine, 4/12/07 Joel Belz)

[Jon]

::Surviving a Culture of Fear::
How Fear Robs Us
Wars and Rumors of Wars
Global Warming
Moral Depravity
Economic Fears
The Rise of Islam
Secularism
Death

[Desiree Guzman]

True Citizens

-A series about what it means to be a citizen of heaven and how God calls us to treat those who are not citizens of our country, but may in fact be fellow citizens of heaven. A look at immigration issues from a biblical point of view focusing on the special place God has in his heart for the strangers and aliens.

Ephesians 2:11-22
11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)— 12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Leviticus 19:33-35
33 " 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 10:18-20
18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. 20 Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

[Desiree Guzman]

If we're wanting to raise up women leaders in our church and also as church planters, how about a series about great women leaders - both Biblical leaders and modern leaders. Maybe you could even have some women teach for that series. : )

[Desiree Guzman]

And sticking with a diversity theme, how about a Black History Month series on great Black Leaders (Dr. King would obviously be great since he was also a Pastor.) Or maybe it's one series about people who were leaders even when the world said they couldn't be and you could highlight a variety of leaders who had to fight against the tide simply because they were not white or affluent or men etc.

[Rick Branek]

BIG IDEA SERIES: Because the new ‘X’ Man movie is coming out. I thought about a series “X Marks The Spot!” You could go all different directions with that IDEA!

Bless ya!

Rick

[Mark]

We did a series called

The "Benefits" of Sin

Big Idea: The "benefit" of sin is that it reminds us of our need for Christ; the only place where we can experience complete forgiveness and grace.