Some churches always preach sermons in a series. Some churches never do.

Here are six strengths of well-planned series:

1. Greater leverage

By reinforcing and reviewing a Bible book, the series allows for the teaching to sink in and be applied more effectively than a stand-alone sermon.

We often expect too much from a single sermon but underestimate what can be achieved over time with cumulative preaching.

2. Greater coverage

When a church is preaching through a Bible book for a season, it allows other access points for people to benefit from immersion into that Bible book. For instance, people can be encouraged to read and study it at home.

Midweek groups can probe the application of the passage preached on Sunday. Maybe even youth and other age groups can be in the book to encourage family conversations at home.

Visual presentation does not require weekly creative energy (series title, series image, social media visuals, etc.)

3. Greater momentum

The preacher can look back and build on what has gone before, but the listeners can also look forward and anticipate what is coming.

With some encouragement, they might even read ahead and be more prepared for what is coming.

4. Greater balance

If a message stands alone, then its distinctive thrusts will often need to be balanced within the message. This can sometimes reduce the applicational impact of a message.

When you know (and if helpful, state) that a future sermon will present another side of this particular issue, this present message can be preached without too much energy for balancing it.

Also, when a message has been preached and weaknesses were noted, coming weeks allow for easy correction of those weaknesses.

5. Greater preparation

Knowing what is coming several weeks from now allows the preacher to prepare for more than just this coming Sunday’s message.

This means that a book can be working in the preacher before the preacher comes to work through each passage of that book.

6. Greater depth

When you are preaching through a book, you can overlap some exegetical work and go deeper in each passage as you prepare. For example, this week, I am preaching from Colossians 1:24-2:7.

If it was a stand-alone, I would also need to get to grips with the hymn of 1:15-23, thus using up study time. Since I’ve been there already, I can build on that and focus on the preaching passage for this Sunday’s message.

There is a place for stand-alone messages in the preaching schedule, they have a definite strategic purpose. And just because you have a series, that does not mean it is effective or that the strengths are maximised.

But I do recommend using carefully planned single-Bible-book series as a significant ingredient in your preaching planning.

Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. This article first appeared on his blog Biblical Preaching.