Author Information
The authors of “Concentric Circles of Concern” are, original print: Oscar W. Thompson, revised edition: Thompson R. Carolyn and Claude V. King. Oscar Thompson instructed seminary students in personal evangelism prior to dying of Cancer in 1980. While Oscar Thompson had begun to work on Concentric Circles of Concern it was actually his wife Carolyn who compiled the manuscript of the first edition after the death of Oscar Thompson in 1980. Claude V. King revised the original version of Concentric Circles of Concern with the permission of Carolyn Thompson. Claude V. King served on the staff of an evangelistic church prior to attending seminary in New Orleans.
Content Summary
Chapter 1 focuses on the importance of relationships in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and how when people see the genuines of your faith through a relationship it can be an effective witnessing tool. In the introduction Claude describes how he noticed that, as part of an evangelical church staff, he was able to lead people to make a public profession of Christ but encountered a certain level of difficulty when trying to lead these same people into a local body of “Christ where they could grow”, (Thompson, pg 1). Chapter 1 begins with a story of a father and son whose relationship is broken because of the son’s wish to attend seminary and go against the desires of his father for him to continue the family tradition. The story culminates with the father accepting Jesus after arriving at the door steps of his son’s seminary. Through a broken relationship that needed fixing a father was brought to the Lord. The author goes on to say that the most important word in the English Language is relationship and discusses the significance and associations of “Right Relationships” and “Broken Relationships”. Claude says that right relationships leave you prepared for life and if you think back at all the good events that have occurred in your life you can tie them into being in a proper relationship of some sort where as in contrast broken relationships do just the opposite and are associated with bad memories for the most part. Claude goes on to say that every broken; business, friendship, home is a broken relationship, (Claude, pg 10) and if these relationships could some how be restored then society’s most complex problems would be solved because right relationships set the conditions to eliminate these problems before they are problems. Claude then goes on to explain his purpose for writing the book, which was to help the reader experience the blessings of restored relationships.
Chapter 2 speaks on how the gospel moves through relationships with the example of Andrew bringing his brother Simon (Peter) to Jesus who was used mightily by God in the early church years, the example of the woman at the well and how she through a relationship with the town’s people communicated that she had found the savior and many more examples of relationships that brought others to faith through their existence are given. It is in chapter 2 that Claude lays out the concept of the gospel moving on contiguous lines of relationships and illustrates this by placing the various relationships that a person can have within the confines of circles within circles, resembling a target. The innermost and first circle is self with the next higher and outward circles representing respectively; Circle 2: Family, Circle 3: Relatives, Circle 4: Friends, Circle 5: Neighbors and Associates, Circle 6: Acquaintances, Circle 7: Person X. Claude makes the point that often we have ruptured relationships within the lower levels of Concentric Circles and as a result of this can find our ability to effectively witness to Person X, who is the individual who we more than likely come across once and will never see again, hurt.
Chapter 3 focuses on being an ambassador for Christ and lays out seven stages for making disciples. Stages 1-7 are as follows: 1. Get Right: Get right with God, self, and others, 2. Survey: Survey your relationships, 3. Pray: Work with God through prayer, 4. Build Bridges: Build relationship bridges to people, 5. Show Love: Show God’s love by meeting needs, 6. Make Disciples: Make disciples and help them grow, 7. Begin Again: Help new Christians make disciples.
Chapter 4 discloses three barriers to sharing the gospel and they are:
1: Not knowing Jesus, 2: Fear, and 3: Broken Relationships.
Claude goes on to say that not knowing Jesus will cause you to ignore relationships that need fixing prior to reaching out to person X in the outermost Concentric Circle of Concern. The basic idea here is to first Get right with God, then yourself and then you will be able to share the gospel effectively through relationships.
Chapter 5 deals with the importance of first and foremost getting right with God.
Chapter 6 deals with the 1st Concentric Circle “self”.
Chapter 7 talks about Bearing Spiritual fruit.
Chapter 8 speaks on the Hindrances to Bearing Spiritual Fruit.
Chapter 9 contains seven stages of “Making Disciples for Christ”.
Stage 2 of the Seven Steps to “Making Disciples for Christ” begins with chapter 10, (which focuses on how to conduct surveys of family and relatives), and concludes with chapter 11, (which is focused on conducting surveys of the 4 remaining Concentric Circles 4-7.
Stage 3 places an emphasis on the importance of prayer and is discussed in chapter 12.
Stage 4 includes chapter 13 and instructs the believer on how to build relationship bridges to people by meeting a need. Stage 5 takes a look at how to “Show God’s Love by Meeting Needs”
and includes Chapters 14 and 15 which are titled “Show God’s Love by Meeting Needs” and “Loving in Concentric Circles” respectively. Stage 6 includes chapters 16 and 17 and their focuses are on “Introducing People to Jesus Christ” and “Making Disciples” respectively. The final stage is stage 7 and is placed in the set of stages to refocus the believer on the ongoing mission of bringing Jesus sheep in to the fold appropriately titled: “Begin Again: Help New Christians Make Disciples”. There is also a short Epilogue on “Things that I have Learned” and a “Concentric Circles Survey Form”.
Evaluation
Claude achieved his intended purpose of communicating the need for fixing the relationships with the seven concentric circles and how if they are broken they can detract from witnessing to person x who is in the last circle and a lot of the time the initial and primary focus of evangelist when self and the escalating levels of circles within the whole concentric circle should be the priority. The main theme is a very convincing theme, that being that relationships are very important in communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought Claude did an outstanding job of demonstrating through scripture how relationships played a role in many people being led to Jesus Christ. The presuppositions that are made when approaching the subject of relationships is that good memories are generated through good relationships and bad memories are generated through bad relationships. One other presupposition that is made is that if we could somehow fix the broken relationships in the world (i.e. broken friendships, business relationships, marriages), then we would be able to solve a majority of the worlds problems. I believe Claude is accurate in communicating that if the broken relationships could be somehow restored that we could eliminate a lot of the world’s problems because everything that occurs in this world has a relation to something else which is related to something else causing a multiplicative effect. For example the child who comes from a broken home where mom had to work two jobs consequently leaving him or her unsupervised and who later ends up in all kinds of trouble as a result. If we could find a way to restore the marriage of his parents, (a relationship), there should be less of a chance of something like what was communicated above occurring. Claude presents a very logical argument that is supported with various scripture which is ultimately the barometer that Christians should use to measure what is authoritative. The woman at the well who runs into town causing many to believe is an example of how a relationship proved to be a catalyst for the spread of the gospel. Claude and Thompson go on to conclude that in order to effectively make disciples for Jesus Christ we must first restore the broken relationships within our concentric circles. What is unique, significant and interesting about this book is that it was revised and is still practical and applicable for the believer who lives during these times. I also thought the Concentric Circles and the point that was made about how we are so focused on Person X, (the individual who we have the least interaction with in our concentric circles), that we miss the opportunities to be blessings and witnesses to others was a good point. Other than the use of charts to describe and illustrate concepts and points, I find no unusual content. There is an obvious bias of the authority of the scripture, which is a good thing. Claude teaches us that there is much to be gained from being in a proper relationship with first God, second yourself and last but not least others. The book I thought was concise as possible and used scripture to support the theme of relationships being important in the spread of the gospel. There are many members of the body of Christ and we all interact to support each other. I was very impressed with the book and will recommend it to who ever is interested in becoming an effective witness for Christ. I will never forget the principle of “meeting needs” within relationships as a tool for demonstrating the love of God and have already begun within my own marriage to see how effective it can be. This book brings home the point that relationships are a key element in life and God uses them as he does everything to accomplish his purposes.
Bibliographical Entry
Thompson W. Oscar – Thompson R. Carolyn – (Revised by Claude V. King): Concentric Circles Of Concern, Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1999.