A sample of requests which once were shared in the Circle Church groups will help to illustrate their predominantly honest and specific qualities.

“I am still having trouble with drink. Please remember me.”

“Pray that I may learn to overcome the little things in life which seem to irritate.”

“There is going to be a change in our relationship because my husband is finishing school. Pray that we may help one another to make the necessary adjustments.”

“My fiancé is going to the mission field, and I have great difficulty with my mental image of what missionaries are like. I don’t want to conform my individuality in Christ, which I am just beginning to appreciate, to a mold which I feel is unworthy. Pray that I’ll have wisdom to work out this dilemma.”

“I’m still overweight. Pray that I will be open to God’s reminding me of my need every time I sit down to eat.”

“I feel as though I have never used my talents for God as He would want, and yet I am a little confused as to what they are. Pray that God will give me understanding as to the several small areas I have in mind now and help me to move forward in playing my part in His kingdom.”

“I have been procrastinating about writing an article that God has laid on my heart, and I just can’t seem to get around to it. I guess I need self-discipline.”

“I have established a pattern in my life where I always run from involvements once they begin to mean any kind of responsibility on my part. I need just once to stick with something I have begun.”

“I am still not satisfied with being single and have not found peace that God intends me to remain this way. Pray that I may have His partner for me.”

Such requests are rarely shared in a traditional prayer meeting. We can remember missionaries around the world and not know about the woman sitting next to us whose heart is breaking because a husband is being unfaithful. Where does she go for spiritual help, for burden-bearing, for counsel?

———————————————

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.

Share and Enjoy

In our Circle Church home prayer groups, we also attempted to keep our requests specific because it is so easy to hide human need behind generalities. It is hard for many of us to admit failure or to express shortcomings. It is equally difficult for a group to dig such feelings out of the individual before them.

This demands a certain kind of courage, an abstinence which states, “We will not let you remain faceless before us. We’re prodding and poking and pulling so that we can understand you, and share your life, both highs and lows, and ultimately love you.” Often the honesty in a group will be paced by that of the leader, be he minister or layman.

One of the pastoral interns assigned to Circle Church from a nearby seminary had been asked to lead a prayer cell and had difficulty in drawing honesty from those present. The evening seemed to be dealing with superficialities. Finally it was my turn to make a request. I shared how I had allowed my schedule to grow too full and was now suffering because I hadn’t experienced a completely satisfying time alone with God for quite awhile. I asked for prayer that I might soon straighten out my priorities. The group adjusted and the remaining requests were quite personal.

Afterwards the intern admitted to sweating out the unnaturalness of the first part. He asked what had precipitated the change. I explained that when any of us are confronted with authoritative strength, we are reluctant to expose ourselves. On the other hand all of us respond to weakness, either by being willing to share our own inefficiencies or to reach out to that one needing help. If at the first he had made his own request on the level of his personal needs, almost everyone in the group would have readily responded in like manner.

———————————————

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.

Share and Enjoy

Through the Circle Church home prayer groups, we learned many things. Possibly the basic function of prayer on a small group level relates most closely to the bearing of one another’s burdens, to concern and love freely given, and to the specific articulation of those needs to God, both that evening and in the days that follow.

Achieving an attitude which demands specific requests was what was desired. In fact, the groups were death on vagueness. Conversations which went as follows were quite familiar:

“Please pray for my unsaved neighbor.”

“What do you want us to pray?”

“Well, pray that she will become a Christian.”

Discussion usually followed as to whether it was legitimate to require God to impose Himself like a great clamp on the free will of that neighbor. Finally someone might respond, “Maybe what we ought to pray is that you will be able to relate your faith in a meaningful way to your neighbor.”

Another may add, “I think I can pray for your neighbor, but in a specific sense; that God will prepare her through circumstances to be open to whatever you feel you can say to her.”

Gently and kindly someone might then have said, “Why do you think it is that you haven’t tried to relate to your neighbor until now?” A short helpful dialogue would typically follow where ideas were expressed and reasons for reluctance were shared.

These conversations were not abnormal. We were anxious to make legitimate requests of God, and not to treat Him like a magic genie who must respond to our wish when the lamp was rubbed. We knew that God is not at our command. And, we tried to remind ourselves to pray in His interest.

———————————————

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.

Share and Enjoy

In time, the Circle Church home prayer groups began to hold their own. And, the total monthly attendees represented a satisfactory percentage of the membership.

Because the staff experienced personally the dynamic sustenance of these hours, we continued to emphasize participation on this level as being of utmost importance to spiritual development, believing it was well worth the discipline required to attend.

The groups began to function more and more smoothly. And, because of the increase in their meeting times and the limitations on the part of staff members, they often had to continue without staff direction. Although they did very well on their own, it was distinctly to our benefit, as staff members, to attend as many as possible. We recognized that it was here the heart of the congregation was most openly bared. It was here we were seeing tremendous Christian activity as victories were being won and God continued to meet needs.

When a person arrived at the meeting, he or she was given a 3” by 5” card on which to record each need. This way the praying didn’t have to cease after the .evening together because people had forgotten the requests.

Every once in a while there were so many requests that we didn’t have time for extended prayer. This was not necessarily bad, as we felt that God had been present listening to all that was said—He did not need the thoughts repeated to Him.

———————————————

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.

Share and Enjoy