Lectionary or Sermon Series?

Are you a lectionary preacher, or do you preach topically using sermon series?

In the new issue of Circuit Rider, the Rev. Bill Barnes, pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Orlando, FL, has a great article on preaching called, "Lectionary vs. Sermon Series: Does it have to be one or the other?" (I would upload the pdf of the article, but Blogger is acting persnickety this evening).

Barnes writes, "I have personally never understood why we preachers have to align ourselves with one style over and against the other. My seminary exalted the discipline of the lectionary as a way to guard against lopsided preaching, and we were taught to look disapprovingly at those persons who ignored the three-year cycle of scripture. On the other hand, topical or thematic preachers regarded the lectionary crowd as slaves to an outdated method, instead of relating the scripture to 'where people are'." He goes on to say that, during his ministry, he has used both lectionary and sermon series approaches to his preaching.

I think there's a lot to be said for Barnes' balanced approach. In my own experience, lectionary-only preachers tend to be the more rigid about thinking that lectionary-based preaching is the only way to go. I confess I've never been quite sure why that is the case, except that lectionary-only preachers almost always trot out the discipline rationale: that is, the idea that if you don't hold to a lectionary discipline, you will invariably only preach on your favorite topics or passages, and you'll end up totally avoiding the hard areas of the Scripture. Frankly that sounds to me like something a seminary professor said once that has gotten repeated a thousand times. I mean, has anyone ever seen a single piece of statistical evidence that says topical preachers only cover fluffy parts of the Bible?

I have gone long stretches of time both with lectionary and with sermon series approaches to preaching. And yes, it is true that the lectionary often pushes you toward hard texts. (Today's lectionary gospel text of Matthew 16:21-28 is a prime example; it was the first time I have preached on that passage and it wasn't easy.) But what it does not do is allow you to spend sustained amounts of time teaching your congregation doctrine from the pulpit. We have only to look to the early church fathers to see how this was a preferred approach of theirs - I'm thinking here of Ambrose's patriarchal treatises or mystagogical sermons, Augustine on marriage, Chrysostom on wealth and poverty, etc. These guys put a premium on instructing their flocks with regard to Christian doctrine, and they used the internal coherence of the Bible to guide their exegesis. All in all, I think we could do worse than following their example.

Anyone want to weigh in on the pros and cons of lectionary vs. sermon series?