The number of people coming to Zion Church from Circle Church was not as large as either group had hoped for. Zion people could not help but hold what they felt was our deficiency against us. What we hadn’t counted on was the tremendous pull into the past that Zion Church exerted on so many of our congregation.

The name itself, the building, the fastened church pews, the off-key organ were all symbolic of things so many of our young people had rejected and were determined not to submit to again. Some of them had only recently come to terms with their faith. Much of their struggle had been realized within the openness and sharing of Circle Church.

Many had freed themselves of the child of their past and admitted that they were not ready to participate in the major effort of pulling Zion Church to its feet. Some came to me and said, “Dave, I would give anything if I were big enough to help out. But, I just can’t. I’m not ready to go back into that type of situation again.” It was a fight against psychological reactions which had been completely unanticipated.

Although we had stressed that Circle Church people would need a certain amount of “courting,” we had also not anticipated the inability of the Zion Church regulars to provide sociability on levels to make the transfusion group feel welcome. If hospitality has not been extended during the course of a lifetime, it is not easy all of a sudden to welcome strangers, and very young ones at that, into your home.

Making conversation in a way that draws response is a practiced art and definitely requires effort. If you have not forced yourself continually to reach out from comfortable in-groups through the years of aging, it is more than difficult to begin such activity late in life.

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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, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will 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 Saturday or 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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The majority of Circle Church members were ridiculously young, with all the basic characteristics of that age group in the late 1960’s—vigor, a desire to move ahead, idealism, restless energy for world-changing, confidence in our innate abilities.

The majority of the Zion church people were senior citizens, retirees who were not filled with zestful enthusiasm, but were adapting themselves to the impositions of old age and limited incomes. Many were reactionary, holding to the good times which had once been meaningful. Many clung to the shreds of a once-familiar world which had gone awry. The most secure place being the church which had sustained them through the years. The church was the place where they had brought their children for training and baptism, the comfortable climate of the church-womb.

The first source of dissatisfaction on the part of the Zion Church people stemmed from the fact that Circle Church people didn’t return after visiting one or two times. “Where are all the people you promised us?” they demanded. I will not claim that a huge group of Circle regulars changed their support to Zion, but an adequate, if not elite, group did.

The way was led by our Board Chairman and his family. At the time, this gentleman worked as a producer and announcer at Christian radio station WMBI. Several couples, one a clinical marriage counselor, one a student at Northwestern University, another a student from India and his beautiful African-American wife, made the move.

Of course, there were Al and Lynn Nestor. The music program was eventually headed by Steve Bell, who had toured with Venture for Victory in the Orient the summer before. He and his fiancée, Valerie, a voice major at Moody Bible Institute and my wife’s sister, were studying at Moody Bible Institute.

Several singles, mostly in the student status, attended regularly. They pitched in to help with the music and with the Christian education program.

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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, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will 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 Saturday or 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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As we watched from Circle Church, it was quite fascinating to see the attendance boom at Zion Church. There were several Sundays when it actually went over 100. Some of the people at Zion had tears in their eyes because they hadn’t seen this many people out for a good while.

Then the cold hard light of reality began to dawn. We were aware, of course, that a few individuals at Zion had expressed disfavor with the arrangement. The best giver in the congregation, for example, was reported to have left during the negotiations as soon as he heard that African-Americans would be welcome to attend.

The rumors began to float, bit by bit, in all directions. We saw, in disconnected flashes, what were to become the irreconcilable differences of the groups. Some of them were the very things that had made us attractive to one another.

Circle Church people were basically optimistic, while the Zion remnant was justifiably defeated. They were nursing the wounds of a church split that had embittered many of them years before. And, they had been a part of the disheartening, dwindling of a local church.

Many of our young congregation had sought to shake off the emphasis of their upbringing that manifested itself in a preoccupation with externalism. They desired to put aside the market list of “Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” by which spirituality was wrongly determined.

Many of the Zion people, on the other hand, had no other basis for judging faith. This conflict culminated in a reaction to miniskirts. And, one family left the congregation because of the long sideburns of the new song leader.

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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, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will 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 Saturday or 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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For some years now, I have made it a point before preaching my sermon to a congregation, to preach it to Jesus. So whatever day I feel the message is finished, I find time to give it out loud to this special audience of one. When I’m finished, I attempt, to the best of my ability, to ascertain my Lord’s reaction regarding how I plan to represent Him.

Sometimes I get the impression Jesus would have me be more loving. In contrast, there are occasions when I sense He wants me to actually be more forthright—I’m not as direct as He would have me be. In all honesty, there have also been times when I feel there’s a bit too much of “me” showing. And, it’s not impossible to believe that occasionally I am representing Him well, that He is quite pleased with the overall effort I’ve put forth.

What this exercise does is to give me a sense of approval or disapproval from the one who is allowing me to speak in His place. What people listening to me feel is one thing. It’s quite another to experience peace regarding the God I serve.

I value congregational input, and sometimes listener feedback helps me get a better handle on what Jesus is thinking. But, in the long run, it’s the opinion of my Lord that’s most important to me. Am I saying what He wants said, and in a way that reflects positively on who He is?

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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, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will 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 Saturday or 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