this fall we'll be "surveying" the OT using the characters in Hebrews 11. i got the idea from another pastor in town and it dovetails nicely with our pattern of doing an OT study in the fall and a Gospel study beginning in January and leading to Easter.

Teaching Using a One-Year Bible
check out this series at http://www.maninthemirror.org/biblestudy/series/1yearbiblestudy.htm Pat Morley did this in a weekly Bible Study where he teaches for 35 minutes and then there is table discussion. He used the Tyndale One Year Bible as a guide - each week he taught from a scripture in that week's readings. He encouraged every one in the Bible Study to read through it as he taught through it. There are about 140-150 men in a typical week. You can download his messages on video and his Listener's Outlines too (all free).

I'm not sure that trying to preach through the bible in a year will be very productive. If you spend 1 sermon per book you'll only be able to hit the "high points" or cover sermon topics that your congregation has already heard. I can understand preaching through the bible in 3 or 5 years but not one. I'm not sure what that would accomplicsh

People rarely stick with going through the entire Bible, but they appreciate understanding it and the application of the text. We encouraged groups to read through the Bible for a whole year and meet together for a discussion and fellowship once a week. It was a huge success. One of the ladies' groups invited ministerial staff to visit and help answer questions within their group. It really deepened their knowledge of Scripture and genuinely made them more effective for ministry, and they've done it for 3 years now. In addition, we had members submit questions from their Bible reading, and the pastor took the spiritual themes and less understandable parts (those anticipated or asked about) as material for preaching.

I like this idea of preaching through the Bible in one year or 18 months. I don't think the goal would be comprehensive study, but I think that the people of God would have a deeper appreciation for the Bible as a whole. We are doing a Bible Reading Plan but it is a bit different, I suppose. By the end of the year we will have read 1/2 the OT and all of the NT. Next year we will read the other half of the OT and the NT again. Our preaching is through one book in the winter and another in the fall--maybe one in the summer too. Topical sermons are in between--spiritual disciplines, relationships, et al.

Since there is 66 books and 52 Sundays, you could have a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday series that would cover minor prophets or some of the pastoral epistles. I think the key might be to integrate the gospel into every message.

If you do this, you must be careful that you don't get so general, that people are unable to see the connections. Not long ago I attended a church where the pastor sought to do this, and it was woeful.

Personally, I feel a better way is to plan to "preach through the Bible" over a 4-5 year period. In this way you can develop themes, show the connections in the Biblical story, and deal with issues at a deeper, rather than superficial, level.

Further, I would dispute with you that the "real story of the Bible" begins in Genesis 12. It begins in Genesis 1, and without the content of Genesis 1-11, Genesis 12 and following makes little sense.

Finally, just having completed doctoral studies in Chronicles, I can't for the life of me imagine how anyone could preach the wonders of this great book in only one sermon!

my church is in the process of doing it. personally, i find it entirely unhelpful as all it does is gloss over a few "main points" and little else. the straw that broke my camel's back was the sunday in which we covered both 1 and 2 samuel....in 30 minutes! wahoo!

i'm afraid i just can't see how this is helpful. and i worry that it will encourage many to think that the now "know" and have "gone through" the Bible and don't need to do it independently now, since pastor did it for them. let me be clear, people thinking that is NOT the pastor's fault - i only fear that such a preaching series may help encourage that thinking.

I like this idea. It helps to have a different perspective - as you say "give people a framework." It's sort of like viewing a map on Mapquest.com and you can only see the magnified view. But when you click on the minus sign you can view the broader map and see the area around where you were just viewing. It helps to be educated on the whole forrest, even when the goal is to study one tree.

A couple of years ago I bought a tape series by RC Sproul called "Dust to Glory." This is a great overview of the entire Bible and I enjoyed it very much. I think that I would enjoy a sermon series on it as well.

In 1995 I did preach through the entire Bible. As suggested I used my monthly newsletter articles to fill in details I couldn't get to on the Sundays. These sermons became the basis for my book - God Has a Plan for You - by CSS Publishing.

Preaching through the Bible does concentrate on the Old Testament. In 1996, I preached on everything Jesus did. This also was published by CSS. Feel free to use these books as resources. Both books are available through Amazon.com

You might try doing it by one of Jeff Cavins' methods, which cover the timeline of salvation history with emphasis on the covenants:
Our Father's Plan (13 x ~1 Hour) (presented with Dr. Scott Hahn, Professor at the Franciscan University of Stubenville)
or
The Great Adventure (24 x ~2 hrs)
The method was developed when Cavins was a Protestant minister (he reverted to Catholiicism, which the materials reflect)

Hugh of St. Victor, in his Didascalicon, wrote that the best way to teach Scripture was to start with the narrative books so that the beginning student can grasp the overall story of the Bible before diving into more complicated matters. The list of books that Hugh suggests is nearly identical to the books used by Cavins's methods.

Actually, it probably is a good idea to read the scriptures to them as well. That's how the early Christian learned it (they couldn't all have copies at home). No one could possibly interpret the scriptures in all the Spiritual ways (i.e. find every bit of the Fidelity, Hope, and Love God has put into it). Most will have trouble trying to determine the literal sense (i.e. what the first readers were meant to get from it)

Several years ago I wanted to do something in my preaching to encourage Biblical literacy and a Biblical worldview, so I challenged church members to read through the New Testament in a year, and in our Sunday evening service, I preached on a selected text from the readings. I got positive feedback from people who said it caused them to read scripture and helped to hear messages on what they were reading.
Since then, I have done a Bible-reading challenge and tied it to my Sunday evening sermons each year. One year I did highlights of the Old Testament, another year I focused on the gospels. This year we are focusing on the New Testament epistles. (To see the reading plan, click on our church web page at www.fbcrincon.com.)
Two years ago, I decided to do the challenge for the entire Bible, and I preached both morning and evening from the texts they were reading. Thus I was in the Old Testament from January until around October. It forced me to deal with texts I had never preached before, yet I was able to be evangelistic by showing how it related to Christ. For example, when preaching in Leviticus, I was able to talk about how the blood of Jesus fulfills the Old Testament sacrificial system.
Although the "Through the Bible in a Year" experience was a good one, I think it has been more effective on the years that I have concentrated on a certain section of scripture, as we are doing this year.

Thanks, everyone, for a great discussion! I'll address some of your thoughts in my next post (Friday, Feb. 22).

Let me clarify my comment on "the real story of the Bible" beginning in Genesis 12. I appreciate JIM's comments on this.

First, I don't want to diminish the importance of Genesis 1-11 is unimportant. I agree with Jim that the content of Genesis 12 makes little sense without Genesis 1-11. In fact, I'd say that it makes NO sense without Genesis 1-11!

What I want to say is that the storyline of Genesis arrives at a specific focus in Genesis 12. God selects an individual through whom He will develop a nation through which He will bless the earth. Saying that the 'real story' begins in Genesis 12 is an overstatement that attempts to highlight this point.

However, as I view Genesis -- and the entire Bible, for that matter -- the real story does start in Genesis 1! The ideas of 'image of God' and 'temple' and 'the presence of God' emerge in Genesis 1-2. The final chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, picks up on the Eden imagery and presents the Holy City (the new Jerusalem) as paradise restored! Greg Beale's masterpiece, THE TEMPLE AND THE CHURCH'S MISSION, has been influential in my thinking. All that is to say, it's at least an overstatement (and at worst a mistatement) to say that the real story starts in Genesis 12.

Perhaps, it's best to say that the storyline moves to a defining moment in Genesis 12.

A wonderful & easy book that explains the Bible story from beginning to end is The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, http://www.goodseed.com. It's a great tool, as the authors use it to give seminars on explaining the Bible from start to finish. It would be a good book to use for a church sermon series. I have used this book as a Bible study with people new to the Bible, and those who read The Stranger say that the Bible finally makes sense to them after they read it. Many people who read it place their faith in Christ.