So, we at Circle Church reached an impasse of sorts with Zion Church. Our people who attended several times with a subdued willingness to participate at Zion Church found the hesitant efforts of welcome in startling contrast to the warm, gregarious atmosphere we had worked so hard to establish at Circle Church.
On the other hand, Zion people, who were basically an older, more reserved group, and had known one another for years and years, were unable to assimilate these newcomers with the short, short skirts and lists of degrees.
The methods employed on Sunday morning during the services also made for difficulties. Zion people had never heard several people pray at the same time, nor Scripture being read from different points in the congregation rather than being intoned from the platform. The choir was moved from the front of the auditorium—where the congregation could see every nose blown, every purse searched, every head that bobbed in sleep—to the balcony in the back.
Using recordings in place of special music was a dangerous innovation to many. These conceptual dilemmas were symbolic of the whole confrontation—the difficulty of mixing the new with the old, current styles with familiar and much-loved traditions, reaching out with pulling in.
From our Circle Church vantage point, there was a continual temptation to criticize what we interpreted as narrowness and small-mindedness without struggling for the grace to try to understand the background of experience that limited so many of those people.
Later, after we had gone through the Zion year, we realized that if we could not look at our role and ask, “What did we do wrong? What areas did we push that weren’t important? How could we have approached it differently?” and then uproot satisfying answers to these questions—if we could not force ourselves to do this as opposed to blame-finding, and finger-pointing, and judgmental attitudes, then the whole effort had been useless. We would have learned nothing about ourselves and our limitations. The experiment would then have been a failure in the ultimate sense.
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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.
