JCG NEWS

JCG May 2007 Newsletter:
The Fourth W (Witness)

• On June 7-10, I speak in a city-wide cell church seminar in Cordoba, Argentina. I’m excited to be meeting with the pastors of the city and speaking in one of the mega cell churches in the city. Contact person: Marcelo Abel at marceloyuta@ciudad.com.ar
• My book Share: Make Christ Real to Others would be an effective tool to give cell members or leaders to stir their evangelistic passion.
• Our next JCG board meeting will be held February 26-27, 2008. Mario Vega and Jeff Tunnell will be joining us.
• In September 2007, I will publish two new books that will make up the Advanced Training of the equipping track. Coach will help a person coach a cell leader and Discover will offer clear instructions on how cell members can discover and use their spiritual gifts.
  

• Have you checked out the new JCG blog yet? We blog daily and you can sign up to receive these blogs directly to your email inbox for free. Simply place your email in the top right box on blog site and follow the instructions.
• Check out our five-book equipping track. You can order it for $39.95 (retail-$49.95) or each individual book for $8.95 (retail-$9.95). Order now. You can also get the CD with PowerPoint and Teaching notes for $14.95 (retail-$17.95).
• Find out more about how you can contribute to CCS, a non-profit ministry.

I have to confess. Often in my own cell group on Sunday night, I fully intend to use the fourth W (Witness ) to ask each person about their relational witness to non-Christian friends and family.

Yet, often I over-extend the third W (Word) portion of the cell and basically “slide” into the 4th W, with barely enough time for it.

And I think I can generalize by saying “many” cells don’t sufficiently emphasize the 4th W (I can say that this is very true at Wellspring).

He said, “why don’t we change the order of the 4th W for the next several months. Let’s do the WITNESS time before the WORD time to make sure we have enough time for evangelism.” I thought Justin’s comment was excellent. Why not change the 4th W to the 3rd W for a while.

In this way, the cell can emphasize evangelism, without neglecting the WORD.

I posted on my blog the idea of changing the 4 th W, and received some great feedback. Pastor Kevin, for example, said:

“This is truly a matter that hits home with me, with the cell group I lead, and the cell leaders I coach. The 4th W (Witness) has suffered from time crunch and quite possibly the order in which it was placed. This was so awesome to hear that the 4th W can actually be moved…talk about being religiously legalistic…I was the head culprit…you mean you can actually move these W’s around? (Sarcastic jab at self).”

I discovered that others had already been doing this for a long time. Respected author and small group researcher, Jim Egli, responded to my blog saying, “ We teach our small groups to put the Witness time immediately after Welcome. This seems to work well. Most groups do this by having people break into pairs to pray for their “five friends that need God.” Our church’s recommended small group order is:

• Welcome - Icebreaker
• Witness - Praying for friend that need God
• Word - Bible discussion
• Worship
• Wind - Prayer and Ministry directed by the Spirit

Let me ask you, Are you emphasizing the Witness part of the cell group? And then let me ask another question, How are your cells doing at reaching out? Is relational evangelism taking place? Do you ask the cell members to develop relationships with non-Christians?

Heaven will be a wonderful place! The worship and fellowship will be incredible. But the reason why we’re here and not there is because Jesus is wanting more to be saved from eternal hell (2 Peter 3:9-12).

Jesus, stir us up to be your witnesses!

If you’d like to download our cell lesson as an example of how we changed the fourth W. click here. If you’re not sure about what the fourth W looks like, I include a lot of suggestions in, Share: Make Christ Real to Others and How to Lead a Great Cell Group.