The Future of Circle Church

What was to be the future of Circle Church? We recognized that only God knew. We had a certain amount of security because we could project that we probably wouldn’t die tomorrow. But, we had also discovered that the principle of insecurity works to the Christian’s advantage—he realizes he needs God. We were aware of a total dependence upon the mercies of our Heavenly Father for everything, including the loose change in the petty cash envelope. There was no temptation to rest on the laurels of an efficient superstructure.

We need God! Whatever we would do in the coming days we hoped would be steps that push us always beyond our own limitations, for we would be in danger if we ever came to a place of too much security.

Would we ever have a building? Although we had seen the obvious advantages of impermanency, of non-ownership, we were not completely closed on this issue. We did realize that the city would never be touched through a continuation of the property-building-mortgage mind set—only by vital Christianity. If we had a structure of our own, it would have to be multi-purpose, with an auditorium that would function more than a few hours a week, certainly without pews. It would have to be community-oriented, perhaps house a performing arts center. Certainly it would not be “a holy place.”

Size was a big question mark. We had tapered off from our five hundred and settled into a more comfortable three hundred fifty to four hundred groove. It was interesting to note that some of the post-Zion members were asking, “Have you ever thought of starting a branch work?”

“Once before, we talked about it a great deal,” I would reply. At that moment the emphasis seemed to be on sharing with other churches what had happened in our corporate life, to be honest in our appraisal, to be encouraging in our lessons and successes. The book from which these blog posts have been taken was a first step, to be followed, we hoped, by seminars and a tape ministry. We had seen other works view our example—some in the hesitant copying of ideas (mostly emphasizing methodology), and others starting from scratch with a definition of philosophy.

One example of the latter was the Clearwater Community Church in Florida where people caught the vision from Sherm and Marti Williams, a part of our initial core group who moved out. Beginning at almost the same time as our Zion experiment, it was a successful balancing factor to our problem with Zion. Meeting in a junior college auditorium, using classrooms for discussion groups, pulling a mobile home into a parking lot to function as nursery facilities, they had been a Southern parallel to our Northern experience.

We watched with special interest as their growth matched ours, because their age group was ten to twenty years older than our own, with a larger number of “establishment” type people who were successful in their professions and many who were moneyed. Starting with Circle Church’s pattern, they developed their own distinct personality and—a major step in the deep South—they made plans to take on a African-American pastor in an attempt to establish an interracial congregation.

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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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In the sports world the term momentum is talked about a lot. I haven’t heard it used all that much in church circles.

So, when Terry and Barbi Franklin reported that they have already sent out thousands of DVDs of their interview with Egyptian pastor Sameh Maurice about the 40-day fast his people took part in at the end of 2010, I was thrilled. Their e-mail said, “Would you believe full-swing promotion about the fast for this year in America hasn’t even begun.” To me, anyway, that sounds like momentum.

Some churches are calling for a fast the last 40 days of 2011. Others are waiting until the first 40 days of next year, or the season of Lent.

Have you gone to their AwakenUS website? Please do so. I believe this is something the Spirit of God is directing.

As someone who has spent a lifetime studying revivals, I am attempting to quickly share as much information as I can.

Some years ago I wrote the book The Unseen Guest, about revival in a local church. It sold over 100,000 copies. That’s large when you consider that the number of people keenly interested in the topic of revival is quite limited.

Recently, on my Sermon-Coach website, I started reprinting the nine chapters, beginning with the Introduction. Though these are not sermons, that’s how they started prior to being put into book form. I trust the material will prove both a help and a challenge to you.

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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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Circle Church started in one of the hardest of places—the unyielding granite of an urban center. Yet, I was constantly amazed by my brother ministers who tell me, “You had it easy! You began fresh without having to overcome tradition.”

Maybe it was a wise thing to do. But, it was not easy. The difficulty was evidenced by the small number of new church works which were being formed within the city proper.

I am convinced that a conventional approach with even the strongest of leaders would not have made it in our setting. That we came as far as we did is almost a miracle. God’s design as to how the church should function is masterful. We feel the principles we followed were the key to what has taken place.

Scripture does not concern itself with methods, where most of our reaction centers. Methods will change as needs arise, as society evolves, or as history turns. It does concern itself with principle, nor with purpose.

I have a close friend who argues that the church should meet in homes because that was the pattern of the New Testament. I think this is dangerously close to dealing in superficialities. It is not important where the church meets. What is important is that it knows why it is meeting and how those answers are rooted in biblical mandates.

If we, as Christ’s body, can reestablish our direction, if we can submit to an open study of God’s truths and then adapt our approach, we will grow! There will be renewal! We will rise from our own ashes, endowed with power like a twentieth-century phoenix.

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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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Self-analysis

The process of self-evaluation seemed to be eternal. We continually made adjustments, and flexibility was a cornerstone of our foundation. In fact, there were times when we wished we could turn the analysis off! It was an exhausting and demanding process, but one of the essential ingredients to our growth.

The Pastor’s Class, the philosophy which stressed the interdependence of every member of Christ’s body, the whole general tone of honestly representing ourselves before fellow believers, the emphasis on personal prayer—all of these helped to reduce the clergy-laity gap. The staff was called by first names: Clarence, Larry, Dave, etc. Counseling, visitation, and other tasks were being performed by lay men and women as well as by the professionals.

Ka Tong had been preaching on spirituality, maintaining that it is determined by the way Christians respond affirmatively to all of the scriptural mandates. A checklist of some thirty items was provided to give examples in which improvement could be made.

After the final sermon in the series, he asked three people to tell how they had used the list to help their spiritual growth. One woman said to me later, “You know, when that couple—a husband and wife—shared, I really empathized with them. In fact, I remember thinking, ‘I’m so glad I came this morning!’ We like the staff at Circle Church, but professionals can’t help being professional. I’m thankful for the amount of lay involvement in the services.” We seemed to have a maximum degree of participation on every level as we all struggled for personal expansion.

Then there was the sharing. This intimate and loving fellowship of believers—which we could never have undertaken without first defining our purposes and experimenting with methodology—was by far the most fresh and vital concept to take root in many of our lives. We were finding meaning in the church. We were discovering fulfillment.

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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