Literature Module

Although this module only had six members, which was not enough to give it voting representation on the Circle Church Council, it did not allow its aggressiveness to be hindered. The members petitioned the new Council at its first meeting for $200.00 to start a book table. Unsure as to what to do, the Council asked them to come back the next month with a more detailed request of what was needed. The impatient members decided to fund the project out of their own pockets.

Immensely successful, the book table was made available to the congregation after the second service and performed vital functions. It greatly facilitated the pastoral suggestions for life response by making recommended literature readily available.

While preaching a series on the millennial reign of Christ, I found George Ladd’s book, The Blessed Hope, a great help. Contacting the Literature Module ahead of time enabled them to have copies available on the morning I mentioned the book from the pulpit—all of which were sold. The book table exposed our congregation to trends in Christian literature. It also made books accessible to attenders who rarely enter Christian bookstores.

This module eventually branched out in its concerns to include interest in the interaction groups. Kent Washburn, pastoral intern from Trinity Seminary and a module member, prepared evaluation questionnaires for the congregation to answer which helped ascertain desired direction, as well as providing information for the training of discussion leaders for the months ahead.

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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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Once we at Circle Church instituted the policy of personal and individual mission support—in contrast to church-wide, corporate body support of missionaries and their work—we asked our missionaries to inform us when one of our members became unable to continue his or her support. We then provided the missing the amount through the interest earned on a special fund. This would continue for a short time until a new donor could be found to replace the old.

In such an arrangement, we considered the possibility that the scope of the church’s overall mission vision might suffer. The International Outreach Module attempted to prevent this before it occurred by examining short-range mission projects we could support as a congregation. Such projects we undertook included providing money for a new dormitory or school, for instance, or supporting a technician from our congregation to fulfill vital functions on a given field.

Despite the difficulties this system of giving may seemed to present, it did eliminate both complicated bookkeeping and also the false sense of pride that sometimes develops when we measure our accomplishments by the way the efforts of one year have topped those of the years before. It also prevents the easy involvement which requires only vicarious involvement through giving.

These ideas may not suit other congregations, but our basically young, student-oriented, extremely mobile, urban-centered group had demanded a solution of this kind. They insisted we activate and respond to a desire on the part of the total church to “Help Stamp Out the International Outreach Communications Gap!”

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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 traditional overseas missions budget at most churches has also tended to encourage depersonalization. Everyone gives to “foreign missions,” with so much going to support a family in Peru, a nurse in India, a radio operator on “What field was it?”, etc.

Prayer letters come to the church office, are posted on the board or included, in part, in the bulletin. Perhaps the secretary who duplicates them is really informed as to their contents. But, it is too easy for the general public to overlook their prayer pleas. And, as a whole, the relationship between home and field is foggy and indefinite.

At Circle Church, we felt more and more that the solution to this situation came from encouraging individuals to give directly to the missionary, rather than to a church fund. Candidates screened by the International Outreach Module would, from time-to-time, present needs to the Circle Church body. But, those who responded financially made their pledges directly to that individual in care of his or her mission organization.

In order to maintain our own awareness of missions giving, the church office was informed of the pledge. If the givers move, they can still support the missionary. Over the years, a steady relationship grew between the missionary and the individual supporter. The interest was maintained firsthand through letters.

A further benefit of this system was that members could concentrate on understanding one or two areas, instead of being overwhelmed with the incomprehensible needs of the whole world of missions, to say nothing of varying cultures, governments, climates, histories, and approaches to ministry. This meant we might not have had as broad a base as before—dozens of lights on our missionary map, though we didn’t even have a missionary map!—but, we feel that we may have had a more valuable and certainly less frustrating relationship with our missionaries.

One person just can’t sustain a deep interest in every mission field. He or she is forced to be selective in one way or another by his or her own limitations. At the same time, there was nothing to prevent a person from carrying partial support for several people or projects, if he or she is financially able to do so.

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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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Two weeks ago, I began posting two sermon starters instead of one at my website, Sermon-Coach.com. In addition to the normal sermon starter, where I’m covering some of the lessons from the Book of Amos, I included a sermon starter that deals with the subject of fasting.

These special sermons on fasting cover a period of time from late October through New Year’s Day. They will include four sermons calling American Christians to consider participating in a 40-Day Fast from November 21st to December 30th. People are not expected to fast for all 40 days, but to prayerfully decide what their involvement will be.

I encourage you to go to the AwakenUS.com website to become informed about the details of this venture. Watch the video on the homepage and see if it doesn’t capture your heart. It certainly did mine! As soon as I was aware of the challenge, I immediately knew that I wanted to be involved.

A number of major ministries are now backing this effort.

Since I feel it would take several weeks to prepare a congregation for such an effort, I decided to write sermon starters for messages that would be preached beginning on Sunday, October 30th. Next, I posted the sermon-starter for November 6th. And, this week, I posted the sermon starter for November 13th. As I said, I will continue this practice until pastors have sermons on this subject available all through December, including the Sunday of New Year’s Day.

Next Wednesday on this blog, I will share more on my personal experience of fasting.

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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