For reasons unknown to logic I have decided to preach my way through Romans. I was wondering if folks had any advice for me? I do not wish to use my sermons on Romans as lessons in theology lessons or introduction to doctrine classes. It is my conviction that Romans is as pastoral a letter as Philemon or Philippians and should be taught as such.
I am interested in the narrative of Romans and practical theology of the letter. I am wondering how people might have preached it to their congregations. If you’re not a pastor what would you like to hear in a series about Romans? What has always puzzled you about this Pailine letter?
Peace be with you…
the archives near Emmaus 
Here’s an analogy I used this past Sunday in relation to Romans, which may or may not prove useful for sermon preparation…
I’ve already answered this question in the email you ignored. 🙂
Excellent, thanks James!
I did not ignore your email…I want something, better! 😉 Actually, you didn’t tell me how you would preach Romans!
I hear it took everyone’s favorite preacher, John MacArthur, 12 years to preach through Romans…
I would begin with a cute joke….isn’t that what you pastors do?
I would start by preaching the entire book of Psalms first. By the conclusion, you may have forgotten about Romans. 🙂
following up to say, I say preach it! Romans is a good book and needs to be preached.
OK, to be honest, I would begin by discussing the Jewish-Gentile divide. It is imperative to see this book as working toward the unity of the church in Rome.
Historically this means everything for us Gentiles. If the Gentile mission fails we never hear the gospel. Likewise, it gives you an opportunity to talk a bit about Israel, her mission, and why she was important as concerns preserving the “oracles of God” and bringing forth Messiah “according to the flesh”.
It can serve as an analogy for racial, gender-based, and socio-economic divisions in the church as well.
I would get Gorman’s book on Paul and Katerine Greib’s book on Roman’s. Both would help you step into the world of Romans and leave you in a good place to start preaching. If you have tons of prep times NT Wright Commentary in the NIB and Douglas Campbell’s Deliverance of God would be excellent places to start. And as always you could read Barth…
As you can tell I use commentaries (and theology) to start and then build a sermon that I think speaks to the congregation others may not find this fruitful.
I have not read the whole thing but Fleming Ruteledge’s sermon’s on Romans is a great place to see how someone has preached on Romans.
this is a little late and not that helpful…..but my main piece of advice is pick the passages you want to do carefully.
I found comparing Romans with Galatians, Corinthians, Thessalonians etc. helpful. I think Romans (and probably Ephesians) don’t feel as much like occasional letters (or ‘words on target’ 🙂 ) because of the relationship between author and audience. Especially in Romans, Paul is writing on ‘borrowed honour.’ He very very carefully works around to the end he wants (at times, ch 2 for example, he looks very forceful with the audience but he isn’t really).
The downside to this is that the rhetorical point, the impact (all that good stuff) is harder to discern. The plus side is, if you get it, you’ve got an magnificent guide to helping a congregation grow in Christian life by subtly yet powerfully re-shaping their worldview; or rather facilitating/supporting the ‘renewing of the mind.’
In Galatians Paul is about a subtle as a sledgehammer. For Romans he is the well considered ambassador.
Anywho…all of this is probably super obvious but when I realised it it helped me a little and I hope it is of some hope to you.
James, you’re good. That is probably the best advice I have received thus far. 🙂