Authenticity

I believe that pastors who challenge their people to tithe should be tithers themselves. Don’t expect your busy parishioners to spend much time in prayer if your schedule is so full you seldom can free time to talk to the Lord either. If you want your people to invite friends and neighbors to church, model how that’s done. These are all obvious observations.

Most of the sermons I have been posting of late have been about fasting. That’s because I have been encouraging people to participate in the 40-day period of prayer and fasting from November 21st through December 31st. This would be a presumptuous exercise on my part if I personally chose to just ignore the challenge I’m placing before others.

I hold a conviction that this call is not only from certain respected spiritual leaders, but that the Lord Himself is the one who has laid this burden to fast on the hearts of ever so many of His people. But, for me to write sample sermons or to preach on fasting necessitates me learning to fast, and for most of my life this has been a neglected spiritual discipline. I have been learning quickly, however.

Participants are not expected to fast the entire 40-day period. Instead, before the Lord they are to personally come to a decision as to the “how many and when” days of their commitment.

From the time I first heard about this call to revival in the American church, I felt the Lord wanted me to fast for 40 days—not consecutive, but accumulative—before the end of the year. I now have 15 more 24-hour periods to go.

I have learned a great deal and the discipline has been most rewarding in numerous life-changing ways. So, I am grateful, and hopefully the sermon starters I have written have the stamp of authenticity.

If you plan to challenge your people to take part in this growing national effort now or sometime in the near future, read this as a gentle reminder that if you are not yet practicing fasting, now would be a good time to begin the practice.

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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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Coming Full Circle – Part 13

As I explained in the last blog post, as we would meet as a Circle Church staff, someone would remark, “We aren’t seeing people coming to Christ the way we should.” In response, I took along a slide presentation which had been prepared by one of the photographers in our group.

Click…click…click…the slides continued. Four more girls in nurses’ training with three out of the four new Christians.

Click…click. One by one, the faces of my congregation appeared, exploded in size and amplified before me. “I’ve seen something different in Chuck since he started coming to Circle Church, and after coming myself I think a lot of the people here have that same thing. I would like it too.”

Click…two young girls, one with granny glasses. Close to suicide after experimenting with drugs and in despair, they had phoned Al Nestor. He and Lynn spent the evening with them and helped them discover Christ. “Here,” one of them said to a startled friend. “You can have this bag of grass. I don’t need it any more. I have God.”

Click…the face of Pablo, another international student (this time from Peru), a product of Ka Tong’s ministry.

Click…a young girl of the ghetto, in the tutoring program. She had just recently experienced her new beginning.

“We aren’t seeing people coming to Christ the way we should.” No! Not at all true! To the contrary, we had been seeing conversions on such a steady, continual level that they had almost been overlooked!

———————————————

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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Coming Full Circle – Part 12

Conversions at Circle Church

All the staff at Circle Church will confess to times of discouragement, and every once in a while, it will center around the lack of conversions.

“We aren’t seeing people coming to Christ the way we should,” someone will complain. This is what we consider to be the ultimate verification of our effectiveness. I can remember leaving a staff meeting in which this topic had been discussed to share what had been happening with another congregation. I took along a slide presentation which had been prepared by one of the photographers in our group.

Click…the screen was filled by the face of an international student from the Dominican Republic. He had been invited to Circle Church by the wife of the chaplain at Cook County Hospital. After hearing about an Inter-Varsity Christmas holiday retreat for international students, he expressed a desire to attend. We collected a love offering on the spot that provided for his way. As he walked out the door the following week, he grasped my hand and quietly explained, “I asked Jesus to come into my heart last weekend.”

Click…a Jewish couple, Ken and Rita, appeared. She had been led to Christ by a woman in the congregation and had begun to explain her conversion to her boyfriend. After an extended period of struggle, he came one morning and stayed for a musical concert in the second hour in which guest artist Dave Boyer sang and gave his testimony.

On Monday evening I received a phone call. “David, I think I have had a peace experience with God.” A peace experience? How better to describe the spiritual encounter which occurs when a man yields his life to belief in Christ.

The next week, they came over to our home for a meal and began relating what had happened. “We think we are having vibrations from God.” Gulp! One of those kinds! Yet as the conversation continued, I realized they were expressing how God was leading them in His own special way, and confessed that I too had received “vibrations” from God.

Click…the face of Mary, a lovely young nurse from Illinois Medical School. After she attended services for several Sundays, I received a call from her. She was under tremendous conviction and had question after question. Would I meet with her that afternoon?

I drove over to the Medical Center and spent a couple of hours in discussion in the cafeteria. Mary excused herself to find a box of Kleenexes and used them frequently. Since she didn’t feel quite ready to make a commitment, and I prefer to leave the wooing to God, I left her still considering. The next morning I received a call from Kay, another nurse at the Center. Mary had appeared at her door at twelve that night expressing an overwhelming desire to become a Christian. In curlers and pajamas, the girls prayed together.

———————————————

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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Coming Full Circle – Part 11

Of course, we viewed carefully, and with some concern, those who left the body of our fellowship due to mobility. We saw seminarians taking their first pastorates imbued with new ideas. We urged the churches who called a pastor right out of seminary to remain receptive to their ideas. Don’t squash their enthusiasm for the church.

We read the returning letters—“You don’t know how hard it is to find a place to worship. I’m finally attending a small church where I think I can be somewhat of a positive influence. Please send tapes. The pastor has expressed interest in them.” We prayed for this new church and for our former parishioner: “Don’t judge her harshly because of new ideas. She is a wonderful, sincere Christian.”

Another letter: “I think you’ll be glad to know, Dave, Glen has decided to go into the ministry. We can’t deny what we experienced at Circle Church and feel there is great validity in the pastorate.” Again, we prayed: “Father, let them find people who love them. But, don’t make it too easy.”

A couple from Circle Church started a small church in Manhattan. “Shall we call it Circle Church East?” they joked in a letter. And, another couple started a small church in Michigan. So, we prayed for both these couples: “We’re glad we encouraged you, but honor your own personality.”

Whatever would happen at Circle Church or because of Circle Church, we hoped we would always move out in faith, depending on God for His undergirding hand.

———————————————

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

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