Over the years I have heard many sermons that were listenable, but they weren’t necessarily memorable. In other words, the preacher held my attention for the entire time he or she was speaking, but none of the thoughts stayed with me throughout the week.

My guess is that most of those in attendance mirrored my experience. They listened politely, even laughed at the appropriate times, but once the service was over, they quickly forgot what was said.

This is not only true of sermons. The same could be said of many movies, plays, and television shows. When they’re over, they’re over. And, we don’t retain in our minds for very long what we experienced.

So what gives certain presentations staying power? What keeps bringing them back to the mind of the listener throughout the week?

One factor is the congregation being able to relate personally to what was seen or talked about. Most of us are not cops or killers. So we watch such shows but aren’t likely to think about them for very long.

In a similar fashion, we’re not kings or priests or prophets of Israel, so the preacher needs to somehow bridge that gap between the truth of the scripture passage and where we live.

Therefore, a key sermon issue with which to wrestle is, “How does what’s being talked about touch the lives of my people—and not just superficially, but in a truly meaningful way?” If that connection isn’t made, the sermon’s staying power is going to be short-lived.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about? Or, what will you preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon? David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions. We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Perhaps many of the organizational theories at Circle Church grew out of experiences which we faced during our first year in the Pastor s Class, which follows the 9:30 morning service. This Class is for anyone who wants to talk further about the sermon.

I used to initiate the discussion by asking “Would someone here tell me what you think I was trying to say in the last hour?” The response was most discouraging because seldom did anyone get the intended emphasis correct.

Two possible explanations for this existed. First, we were poor preachers. Naturally, we vehemently decried this suggestion! Second, the people had not developed a habit of listening closely. The truth probably lay somewhere between these two choices.

Whatever the reason, the solution seemed to be in establishing a basic thrust to our message. We decided that whoever preaches must capsulate the sermon into a basic purpose sentence. Without that sentence we could formulate a service. When the sentence had been finalized—by Tuesday staff day, for the following Sunday—the entire service was developed thematically to enhance that truth.

This was a difficult discipline to establish, but a most important one. Because once we started to do this, almost immediately we found that the congregation began to understand our messages!

In fact, the staff often accused me of repeating the purpose sentence too much. They may have been right, but I find it immensely satisfying when a member of the congregation repeats in total the thrust of a message which was preached months or years before. And this happens frequently! If we could establish one basic truth per week, I felt we were accomplishing a tremendous amount.

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You can learn how to develop highly relevant Sunday sermons that grab the attention of your congregation and help your listeners respond effectively to the deep truths of God’s Word. David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions. We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Actually, at Circle Church, the planning for any service began almost six months before it occurred, when we designate specific preaching assignments in advance. Broad general themes are chosen after regular evaluations by the staff as to the direction in which the church is headed. These emphases are checked against yearly criteria which require that the pulpit ministry relate continually to the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Epistles.

If our study of the church calendar indicated that one of these areas had been neglected, we were careful to emphasize it in the proper course of time. Specific preaching themes arose from staff discussion which investigated current church needs. We tried to build around a given theme for a number of months until we felt that the congregation had been saturated with it. Then we moved on.

We found that it was good to maintain one sustaining voice that interwove itself through the fabric of the year. Consequently, I normally preached three Sundays out of five with the other staff sharing the rest.

Not only would the congregation have been overexposed to me if I preached every Sunday, but I insisted, and continue to insist, that the traditional role of the pastor which demands that he speak three times a week is ridiculous. If we were forced to watch the same TV program three times a week, week after week, year after year, its content consisting of nothing but lecture, our interest would soon pale.

The same principle applies to the pulpit. In addition, I am skeptical as to whether any man has enough time in one week to prepare adequately three sermons, each of which is pertinent or inspirational. We have one preaching service a week, and it is not unusual for a Circle Church minister to spend twenty hours of the preceding week in sermon preparation.

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Pastor, when “sermon prep day” rolls around each week, do you face the task of preparing another sermon with a frown on your face? If so, you’re not alone. Many pastors literally dread preparing their Sunday sermon. There just doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. The good news: David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions. We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Continuing to analyze the morning’s service during your first Sunday attending Circle Church, you would have noticed the attempt at honesty which was displayed in various interactions. It might have been the staff members in a programmed time for spontaneous dialogue regarding the content of the sermon, or the candor of a pastor in fielding questions from the congregation, or the members in reaction to one another during a discussion group in the hour following the service. In whatever form, its presence could have not been denied.

As you attended more often, you would have discovered that each Sunday was a weekly implementation of the philosophy of Circle Church which has been discussed in the preceding blog posts.

Planning The Service

The purpose behind the services, down to each individual part, is not left to chance. Exactly the opposite is true.

At the conclusion of the service one morning, a woman visiting from another congregation said to me, “My dear David, how God Himself must have been here today! The way the Holy Spirit in His own manner put all the ingredients together was just phenomenal!” I appreciated her comment, because the Holy Spirit had put the services together, but not quite in the way she intimated—that of a great gluing force acting mystically and existentially.

The Holy Spirit had motivated our thoughts as we agonized the week, and sometimes weeks, before to form our purpose sentence. He had wooed and we had yielded to His prodding at the personal needs in our lives during sermon preparation. He had creatively inspired as we thumbed through hymnals for appropriate music. He had been in the service. But no, He was not haphazard.

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No matter what type of Sunday sermon you need to create, David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions. We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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