International Outreach Module

Because of my overwhelming impression that the younger generation was reacting against missions, I was continually surprised to see how many of our collegians at Circle Church in the 1970’s had either gone into missionary work or expressed interest in that field. Gradually I came to realize that they were not expressing disapproval of the concept of the Christian in a foreign setting, but of the traditional role which missions has assumed. Many of the youth of that day were aggressively evangelistic.

The International Outreach Module in the church became interested in traditional overseas work, as well as in the application of the gospel to our modem world. Many of the members of this group had been actively concerned with Ka Tong Gaw about the foreign students in Chicago, feeling that this is an extremely important area of missions. Every other Friday, they held a Bible study for international students after dinner in one of their homes.

Module members interrupted conversations after the Sunday services, cassette recorder in hand, looking for friends of Roger and Lan Pfiel, who left to teach in Venezuela.

“You remember them? Good! Come over here where it’s quiet and say a few words of greeting.”

This tape ministry also included recording morning services, as a part of the Mass Communication Module. A portable bulletin board with recent letters from our members overseas was kept up to date. There was a continued effort to provide a forum during the discussion hours for responsible representatives of missions to present their work and to field questions. These were always well attended.

At Circle Church we grappled with the communications gap that seemed to hound missions work, especially in light of our increasingly mobile society. Statistics say that the average family moves every three years. This flux seriously impairs true understanding.

How can I relate to someone if I don’t know him or her? How can he or she relate to me if he or she doesn’t know me?

That is the crux of the dilemma which faces church mission programs. The missionary may return on furlough and recognize very few in a “turned-over” congregation. And, for the new membership to relate to that missionary? Well, a smiling face on a prayer card does not seem sufficient. A “ghost” with a name is not enough. There must be flesh and humanity and struggles and dreams to inspire the praying soul.

Our main goal was to maintain an in-depth relationship with the missionaries our people chose to support.

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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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At Circle Church Sunday School, children without parents, or parent substitutes, were not allowed to attend Sunday school. It has often been said, “If you get the child, you’ll get the parents.” We believe the reverse is true. One of the churches where I worked had for many years bused several hundred neighborhood children to Sunday school. It was easy to discover whether the old adage was valid, because most of these children were of a single ethnic minority. But almost no adults of that same ethnicity attended either church or Sunday school. In other words, not only were the parents not reached, but the children themselves were consistently dropping out at the junior high level.

“What if you have children without parents who want to attend?” we were often asked when people learned of our policy. Our approach may sound cold-hearted. But, once the questioner realized that, for children who did express interest in attending, we assigned a parental substitute with all the implications attested by that title.

We were interested in doing a lasting work in the lives of these little ones, rather than taking a here-today-gone-tomorrow approach. Our goal renders our outlook more understandable. On the pragmatic level, we scarcely had physical facilities to care for our own families, let alone importing more. Instead, we focused on developing other aspects of neighborhood outreach.

Our church was one where the adult was of extreme importance. If adults are growing spiritually, the children will reflect that. Even so, I think youngsters were more integrally a part of our program than in any other place of my experience. During the final quarter of one year, our children utilized the Sunday school time to plan, rehearse, and make props for an original Christmas play. They presented that play during the second service in December of that same year.

We loved to use children in the first service, not hesitating at their duets or rhythm bands or their passing the offering plates. (“Gee! I got a twenty-dollar bill in mine!”) They were the world’s most aggressive greeters. One Sunday every person who entered the door already had a bulletin in his or her hand. Walking outside to check, I saw little boys racing each other madly to individuals who came. Some were three quarters of a block away!

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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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Viewing Sunday school at Circle Church as supplementary, rather than primary, necessitated a different approach. We tried first of all to provide parents with information, materials, and training with which to teach spiritual truths. Children’s books, handwork projects, even records, were provided each quarter by the church for the parents of every child attending. These were coordinated with the teaching theme that had been chosen for that three-month period. The Family Module’s Parents’ Seminar provided an in-depth continuation of this approach.

Because we believe in the importance of the parent’s role, normal stress placed on the teacher-student relationship diminished, allowing us to change teachers every quarter with ease. Most of our children had a rather adventurous outlook toward this system—“Is this the day we get a new teacher?” Much of the rotation involved the same people—off a quarter, on a quarter. Some preferred to teach for longer periods, but I don’t believe we ever had anyone remain for the traditional year-long commitment.

Since each service was purposeful and important, consistently missing one, such as the Interaction Hour, soon produced an acute awareness of dysfunction. We preferred having instructors fresh and ready to teach, rather than stale from lack of vital contact with others.

Of course, there are situations at other churches with which I am familiar, where a person teaches because the alternate adult service is unbearable. That was not one of our problems!

The Children’s Church that met during the morning service, for youngsters through grade three, had leaders on a shorter two-months basis, because that job seemed to be more demanding.

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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

I am strongly of the opinion that the most satisfactory teaching is done by the parents. If Mom and Dad are excited about what is taking place in their lives spiritually, the multitude of activities that most institutions purvey could practically be eliminated because the contagious spirit of the parent will be picked up by members of the family.

The adult who continues to attend a church simply because the youth programs are adequate, even though he himself, or she herself, is bored and dissatisfied, negates the programs’ good influence by his or her inward hostility. Our goal is to help the adult find enjoyment in his or her faith and then to accent the spiritual home training of his or her children. Sunday school is supplementary to this basic good.

It would be easy to document the validity of this presupposition, not only from statements made over the years by Christian educators, but also from my personal experiences in church youth programs.

One example was a basic test on Bible content—I referred to this in an earlier blog post—that I administered to high schoolers in a previous place of employment. Most of these young people had attended Sunday school all their lives. The incentive for achievement was enrollment in an elective class to which capable teachers had been invited to lead discussions on topics of great interest. In order to attend what was called “The Senior Seminar,” a score of 50 percent was needed. The questions were third and fourth grade level. Of the eighty or so who took the test, only a few made the required grade. The rest, in essence, flunked!

Further investigation revealed that the ones who passed were children from homes where consistent biblical training had been maintained through their formative years. Obviously, for the others, all those multiplied hours in Sunday school were not doing what they were supposed to. This experience was the beginning of my change in emphasis.

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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, c 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