CIRCLE MEETINGS by L. Flora Plummer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 27, 1900

CIRCLE MEETINGS.

By L. Flora Plummer

MRS. L. FLORA PLUMMER.

By the extracts from the Testimonies given in a former article it was shown that the kind of labor of which our churches now stand in need is the training of each member to do missionary work, and the overseers in each church were called upon to counsel together, and to lay plans whereby this training might be accomplished. The suggestion was also made that to the fullest extent possible the Reading Circle meetings should be used as an aid in this work.

Let us consider one kind of opportunity for doing missionary work, which comes often to each person, but is rarely improved as it might be. The following quotation from “Gospel Workers,” page 393, will properly set the subject before us:—

When thrown into the society of unbelievers, whether walking, working, riding, trading, or visiting, we should, as we have opportunity, introduce the subject of religion, and speak of the things which concern their eternal interest. We should not do this abruptly, but with tact. This was the way in which our Saviour taught concerning the kingdom of God.

A more simple, natural, easy—yes, effective—method of teaching the gospel can not be suggested; yet does not both observation and experience teach us that as a people we are more ready, willing, and able to talk of temporal than of eternal things? Lips that open without hesitation to discuss the things pertaining to this life are strangely closed in the presence of an opportunity to speak of that which is infinitely more important.

I once attended a meeting of a “Conversational Club.” The purpose of the members was to acquire skill in expressing themselves in an ordinary conversational manner. Their training was carried on in this way: At each meeting a subject was announced for discussion at the next meeting. Each member was expected to arise in his place, and talk for five minutes upon the topic, holding himself in readiness to answer any question that his talk might bring to the mind of the hearers. No notes or memoranda of any kind were allowed. The latter half of the meeting was used in a similar manner, only the topic had not been previously announced, and of necessity the speeches were wholly extemporaneous. A young friend told me that she regarded as invaluable the training thus received. Members who could not at first find words to express their thoughts, except in the most awkward and almost unintelligible manner, gradually became able to speak with clearness of thought, and even to answer unexpected questions without embarrassment.

All this is but an illustration of that fact which everybody recognizes as true—“We learn by doing.” Now what do we need to learn in order to carry out the instruction given in the foregoing quotation from “Gospel Workers”?—We each need to learn how to so turn an ordinary conversation with a neighbor that some part of the gospel may be spoken. We each need to learn how to introduce to others, in an agreeable manner, the different points of faith that we are now studying. We each need to learn how to answer questions upon points of faith intelligently, and in a way to arouse the further interest of the questioner. We each need to learn how to meet error without arousing opposition, prejudice, or anger needlessly.

The small Circle meetings certainly afford a most favorable occasion for each member to learn by doing all these things. But some will say, as if it were an unanswerable argument, Oh, I never heard of our people having any meetings like that. What of it? Are we so bound about by formality and precedent that we can never try any plans that have not been in vogue for years?