MT VERNON, MO—Wrapping up the series that began during the Vietnam War, Reformed minister Michael L. Foster preached the final sermon in his brief, 47-year-long study on the book of Romans Sunday morning.
The last message was a short, breezy, 1-hour exposition of Romans 16:27d, which reads, “Amen.”
Foster’s sermon series had many highlights. Several elderly church members recalled being particularly fond of the three years he spent on Romans 3 during the Reagan administration. Others cited his decade-long exposition of Romans 9 in the 1990s as their favorite part of the “broad overview” of Paul’s epistle.
“There’s a lot to unpack there in Romans,” the pastor told reporters. “But you can’t take too long, or you start to lose people’s interest. Most churchgoers can only hang in there for four or five decades before they start to check out.”
He further stated that he’d considered condensing the series even further to an even 30 years, but decided against it when he realized he’d have to cut out his brief, five-year historical background section from the study to make it work. “Thirty-year-long sermon series are for Arminian churches and heretics,” he said, “But I repeat myself.”
At publishing time, the reverend had kicked off a “filler” sermon series on the book of Ephesians, expected to last well over a decade.
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