A Time to Catch Up
Perhaps one of the basic faults of the traditional church has been its in-growness due in large part to the overwhelming number of meetings a “spiritual” member is supposed to support. One of the major complaints of that small group which originally met in analysis of “The Church” was this very “meeting-fixation.”
We didn’t see how a Christian could spend practically every evening within the physical confines of the church building and still be able to develop a nourishing family life, establish relationships with friends outside the pale, or even have adequate opportunity to grow in a personal knowledge of God.
This is essentially what our Sunday night planning now seeks to allay—the purloining of unnecessary evenings from the bountiful living of our congregation. The attitude isn’t “Let’s be careful not to bother the Christians with too many demands to live for Christ.” But rather, “Let’s cut the Christians loose to be the church in the world.”
When Circle Church started, our philosophy was that the Sunday morning service would center on the vertical man-God relation ship, while Sunday evening would deal with the horizontal of man’s relationship to man. We rapidly discovered, however, that the two are impossible to segregate. In Matthew 22:40, Christ told us:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ This is the great first commandment. The second in importance is similar. ‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself’”
So often the way we relate to God is distinguished by the way we relate to mankind, and the reverse is also true.
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You can learn how to develop highly relevant Sunday sermons that grab the attention of your congregation and help your listeners respond effectively to the deep truths of God’s Word. 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 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.
