The Third M: MISSION How Do You Make A Circle?

People who are not mentally well are focused and fixated on themselves. It is the same with churches who are not spiritually well. Missionary disciples make different circles.

Want to graphically communicate what this week's text is all about? Want to visually see what is the #1 problem of the church today? Try this little exercise with your people.

Begin by calling about five or six people up out of the congregation to the front of the church. Ask them to join hands and form a circle. You know exactly what that circle is going to look like. The members will turn inward, facing each other and circle around. Some will be facing the congregation, some will have their backs to the people, others will be profile left or right. Wherever they stand, though, the members of this circle are largely looking at each other.

Now you get tricky. Ask your participants, "Is this the only kind of circle you can make?" After a few perplexed moments your group might well try what one classic group of church leaders did at a gathering one morning. That group of circle-formers decided that "getting closer" was the only way they could form a "different" circle. First they...