Faced with mounting criticism from the core group at Circle Church, I made a personal attempt to stop reacting and refrain from taking defensive postures. I tried to determine if my motives had been of good intent, and finally advanced to the hardest type of self-examination: discovering areas where I may have unintentionally wronged people for whom I cared.

It was definitely a year of attrition. I went around humming certain bars from “Camelot,” the stage play that was later put on film.

Don’t let it be forgot that once there was a spot For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.

Not intimidated, the staff decided to make a conceptual change and concentrate on the members rather than on the general attenders. It was at this point that we were soon to re-find our floundering identity.

In the midst of our difficulties, there was a change in leadership of the officers of the church Board. The position of chairman—decided almost by default as there didn’t seem to be anyone else left with the energy to solve our unanswerable conundrums—fell to a young architect, John Hiltscher, who was making a name for himself in his field, and who, along with his wife, had been helped by me in personal ministry. Through the year we had become quite close.

After we made the Board change, Laura and John invited my wife, Karen, and me to their north side apartment for dessert and a discussion regarding the direction of Circle Church. With John’s impressionistic paintings staring down from all walls, with the jungle of plants lurking in the comers, we settled comfortably in the contemporary furniture, and began to poke and probe intellectually.

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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 the year wore on, disgruntled feelings began to rise more and more to the surface. Key members, sometimes not even able to articulate why, became dissatisfied. A Board member resigned and left the church. And, the staff—whose intentions were honorable as far as we knew—began to endure accusations which stated that we thought only in terms of the grandiose.

I particularly came on the firing line, with a certain number demanding how I could expect them to be involved in playing a role of destiny in terms of the twentieth-century church when they were mired in the minutiae of inscrutable personal problems. A member of several years stated, “I’m tired of students. I just want a church where I can come with my kids and have them taught about Christ.” We began to joke and say, “Whereas the charge to view fireworks at staff meetings is $10.00, the fee to attend our tension-laden Board and business meetings should be $50.00!”

Openness was not lacking, indicated by comments such as, “David, I really am beginning to distrust you. I think you want to be another Billy Graham. If you don’t stop this trend, it will be the death of the church.” We were brutally honest, and discovered with amazement that honesty was not the cure-all for every difficulty.

I began to react to criticism which had no positive application. And, my irritation did nothing to allay matters. A goodly number did not like the growth pattern. The alternative of splitting off was even less liked. We couldn’t stop the increase because it represented lives with needs. The cries—which essentially mounted to “Do something, we don’t like the way things are going!”—only magnified the dilemma.

On top of all of this, here were all those newcomers, thrilled with Circle Church and its philosophy, overwhelmed by the consistency of worshipful services, intrigued by the new experiences of interaction, delighted by the team staff approach, and enthusiastic to say the least. Many of those same people were later to express, “Why, we never dreamed the church was undergoing difficulties. If we had known, we would have prayed or tried to help somehow.”

Yet I am glad they were unaware. Their fresh inspiration deserved its full chance to flower.

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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

Traditional sermon outlines are meant to help people follow what the preacher is saying. Sometimes, however, they actually inhibit the communication process.

Recently I had lunch with a minister at his invitation. He wanted to talk about a recent sermon I had heard him give. He was not satisfied with his presentation.

“What was the subject you were talking about?” I asked. He responded briefly and with clarity.

“And, what was the response you wanted from your hearers?” was my next inquiry. He told me exactly what he wanted.

“You didn’t say any of that in your sermon,” I told him. “At least, I didn’t catch it as clearly as you just said it now.”

“Well, I didn’t feel I had the time I needed to do so,” he answered. “I had another point I needed to make.”

My next question was, “If someone wanted to respond as you just said, but didn’t know how to start living this new way, could you verbally walk him or her through the process?”

He took several minutes to do that for me, and I was impressed by how well he had thought things through.

Next, I asked the obvious question, “Why didn’t you just say these things in your sermon?”

“I was never taught to do that,” was his answer.

“Look,” I said, “start by talking about your subject and how it relates to your text. Move on to the response you’re calling for and then explain how people can live that out. It’s not that hard.”

“But that’s not how I was taught to preach,” he protested laughingly. “I’ve always had three points.”

“Which is why this particular sermon failed,” I told him.

Do I think three-point sermons are wrong? Of course not. But, do I think all sermons have to have three points? Again, of course not!

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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 preaching of this period centered on being willing to let others see, understand, and share our world. In fact, maybe God wanted us to open our windows even wider to let many see what He was doing among us. One of my series dealt with “The Christian, the Church, and Society.” Specifically, the purpose sentences were:

As Christians, we inherit the role of significance in shaping a society.

The initial sign of renaissance in a society is the commitment of Christ’s followers to the life style He taught.

Our society acutely lacks a Christian vanguard crying out to God for help from a position of need.

Society can only benefit when a united spirit of advancing God’s Kingdom sweeps through the church.

During the last quarter of 1970 the attendance, crossed the five hundred mark!

However, we finally admitted that, in the midst of real turmoil, size was not as immaterial as we had hoped to make it. A very strong resistance had built up among the membership. They were tired of constantly meeting new people. It was the core group that bore responsibility for what had become the burden of hospitality.

When each week you entertained six people in your home in an attempt to develop meaningful friendships, and each Sunday you faced between twenty to forty new first-time visitors—and the pattern was repeated for weeks without let-up—the result could only become pure frustration. The growth was so rapid there wasn’t opportunity for the active nucleus to absorb it. The core appreciated “low” Sundays because at least they afforded a chance to talk with each other, and maybe get in one or two newcomers as well.

———————————————

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