by Mario Vega

As a result of my blog on Cell Lessons for leaders, several people have asked some questions. Here are the answers:

Jeff Bassett asks: when do we make available the study guide to the leaders? The lessons are published in small volumes covering an entire quarter. Since the lessons are offered before the quarter begins, leaders have these lessons with several weeks in advance.

The contents have no connection with the Sunday sermon. We have six services in our church on Sunday, each one with a different sermon. It wouldn’t be possible to relate the cell lesson with these messages. The content follows a verse to verse study of the New Testament books.

Regarding, what percentage of our leaders use our guide? The answer is one hundred percent; in all of our branch churches in every country around the world.

Scott Liston asks if we have our lessons translated into English. We have the translation of our Guide into English as a project, but is not available yet. If there is an interest of having it published in English, as suggested by Randall Neighbour, we can speed up this project.

Pastor Andrew Mason wonders: how can we access a copy of this lesson? A copy in English is available in the book of Joel Comiskeys´ “Passion and Persistence”, pages 100 to 103. Joel presents there not only an example of a lesson but also explains in detail the program we develop in our cells.

Finally, in a previous blog, Elissa Montero questions: What would you do in our case where we try and fail, try and fail again? My answer is: try again then stop, think, change and try again. Doing the same thing will always bring the same results. If you change something, you will get something different next time.

Additional comments?

Mario
in Spanish:

Respondiendo preguntas

Como resultado de mi blog sobre la guía para líderes varias personas han hecho preguntas. He aquí las respuestas:
Jeff Bassette pregunta ¿cuándo entregamos la guía de estudios a los líderes? Las lecciones se publican en pequeños volúmenes que cubren un trimestre entero.

Dado que las lecciones se ofrecen antes que el trimestre comience, los líderes tienen las lecciones con varias semanas de anticipación. Los contenidos no tienen ninguna relación con el sermón dominical. En nuestra iglesia tenemos seis servicios el día domingo, cada uno con un sermón diferente. No sería posible relacionar la lección de la célula con estos mensajes. El contenido sigue un estudio versículo a versículo de los libros del Nuevo Testamento.

Con respecto a ¿qué porcentaje de nuestros líderes usan nuestra guía? La respuesta es el cien por ciento. En cualquier de nuestras filiales, en cualquier país del mundo.

Scott Liston pregunta si tenemos traducciones de nuestras lecciones al inglés. Tenemos un proyecto de traducir nuestra guía al inglés; pero, todavía no está disponible. Si hubiese interés de publicarse en inglés, como sugiere Randall Neighbour, podemos imprimir velocidad a ese proyecto.

El Pastor Andrew Mason pregunta ¿cómo se puede accesar a una copia de esta lección? Una copia se encuentra disponible en inglés en el libro de Joel Comiskey ‘Passion and Persistence’, páginas 100 a la 103. Joel presenta allí no solamente un ejemplo de lección sino también explica detalladamente el programa que desarrollamos en nuestras células.

Finalmente, en un blog anterior, Elissa Montero pregunta ¿Qué haría en nuestro caso donde tratamos y fracasamos, tratamos y fracasamos de nuevo? Mi respuesta: trate de nuevo luego deténgase, piense, cambie y trate de nuevo. Haciendo siempre lo mismo tendrá siempre los mismos resultados. Si se cambia algo, se obtendrá algo diferente.

by Steve Cordle

There are many ministries to attend to in a healthy cell-based ministry: the equipping track, coaching leaders, writing material, outreach, etc. It can be easy to get unbalanced or preoccupied with minor issues unless we keep our goal in mind: a reproducing disciple.

What do you want a disciple to look like? How would you describe the fully-devoted follower? Once you have that answer, you can coordinate your minsitry to acheive that. If we forget this or if we are fuzzy in our description of the disicple, our ministry activity will become busier but less fruitful.

The cell leader who knows what he/she wants the disciples to look like can constantly evaulate what the activities of the cell against that picture, like a chef tasting the broth and deciding if more ingredients are needed. For example, the cell leader who wants the disicples to evangelize might recognize an inward attitude and take steps to refocus it. THe pastor who wants the members to be prayer-oriented will make sure that is being modeled in the cell, taught in the equipping track, and lifted up in the sermons.

How do you know when you havec a mature disciple? What marks tell you that?

What does your cell ministry do to help produce that?

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

Recently, a man approached me right before a Sunday A.M. Celebration service at my church.  He asked if I could spend some time with him and counsel him.  I told him I would love to get to know him, but I wasn’t real good at long term counseling.  I enjoy change and I lose passion for long term counseling pretty quick.  As the days unfolded, we met.

The man was pretty low and told his story to me through many tears.  His wife of a few decades was filing for divorce.  He was out of work and fearful of losing a child as well.  I expressed my sorrow.  I was impressed with his ability to walk through his darkness with integrity, grace, and the love of God.  That would certainly not be easy given his lot.  Further, he accepted a good portion of responsibility for his life condition.

I encouraged him to be a part of a cell group.  He responded, “No thanks.”  I replied, “What do you mean?  I think you’ll find some good support through a set of relationships.”  He stated, “Don’t need no cell group.  I’ve got one already.  They have sustained me through this pain and agony.”

I asked him,”How have they sustained you?” 

He said, “They have listened to me and have loved me.”

To my knowledge, in this particular cell group– there are no professional counselors or trained clergy.  There are, however, people present who have walked through pain, hurt, disappointment, and loss…AND they are intent on helping the downtrodden.

I ended my time with this gentelmen answering a few specific questions he had about his ordeal.  I left our time together with a sorrowful disposition, but a light spirit.  Indeed, I felt deep sorrow for him.  Yet, my spirit was light because he was engaged in a cell who had listening ears and hearts of love.   

2 Corinthians 1:4 reads, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.  When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

Cell ministry is team ministry in which the pastor is not propped up as the almighty counselor, “go to guy,” and Bible answer man.  Cell ministry empowers people to be the hands and feet of Christ.  One is not alone to traverse the valleys of life.

This week, may your cell and the cells of your church be the listening ears and the hearts of love for the hurting.

Comments?

Jeff Tunnell here, filling in for Joel Comiskey who is ministering in New York. Early on in transitioning our congregation from Traditional to Cell-based structure, we confronted the issue of building a training track (equipping track for discipling new believers into future leaders). Being a small congregation, resources in both manpower and funds were equally small. Like many we ADOPTED someone else’s model and pre-printed materials. As we continued to transition, the publisher of our adopted materials began changing them radically and frequently which led to our frustration. This was due to the belief that any fruitfulness would come from following the “model” exactly and that any change would weaken its inherent strength and wisdom. Ouch!

At a Cell church conference I had a conversation with a well-known cell church leader during which I vented my frustrations. His response finished the issue and gave me direction. He said, “When you follow a model built by someone else, rather than using Cell church principles, your path will be like this; first you will ADOPT their materials, and then when the expected results do not come within your expected timeframe, you will ADAPT them to more closely fit your ministry environment and outreach dynamics. When they still fail to produce the desired results, you will ABANDON them and try to compile your own. All of this will take about 2 years to cycle through.”

Our experience proved this to be true and cost us much time and effectiveness. The simple fix? Follow principles not models! If you examine materials produced and published by someone else, look for at least these two things: adherence to the Word of God and well-known principles of cell church being implemented successfully around the world that have been birthed by the Holy Spirit.

Have you shared a similar frustration in your journey? Are you in the process of looking for help in this area of development? What other insights could you add to these?

Jeff Tunnell

by Mario Vega

What can a leader teach? Should a leader be left on it’s own to freely teach? Or should he/she be oriented on the contents to teach? These were some of the questions I made myself when starting our cell model. This work with cells came in response of an evangelism need. At least, I was clear about the evangelist purpose of our small groups in houses.

I figured that studying St. John’s Gospel would be a good resource. This is a Gospel that can be easily focused on evangelism. But how could we make sure that every leader would teach exactly what was expected of him? I thought that the best way was to provide them with an outline to be developed in the cell.

I designed a basic outline. With an introduction, a three points body and, finally an application. The biblical reading was indicated at the beginning of the lesson and the Bible truth was highlighted.

I was writing this outline each week, printing it on a sheet of paper, making copies and handing them over to each leader, explaining to them what they had to do. This is how we worked for several months. Later on, other branch churches became interested in these materials so it was necessary to send these to a print house to be published as quarterly guides.

In our case, the lessons have a strong emphasis on evangelism. We leave the discipleship of Christians for our celebration meetings. I know that other churches use their teachings to make disciples, which is fine. But, due to the circumstances in which our model was born, our contents are evangelistic.

At present, each quarter, 13000 of our guides are published and there are 76 published volumes.

Comments?

Mario

LA GUÍA PARA EL LÍDER
¿Qué puede enseñar un líder? ¿Se debe dejar que cada líder enseñe con libertad? ¿O se le debe orientar sobre los contenidos a impartir? Estas fueron algunas de las preguntas que me hice al iniciar nuestro modelo celular. Éste había nacido para responder a una necesidad de evangelización. Al menos, tenía claro que el propósito de nuestros grupos pequeños en casas era de carácter evangelizador.
Se me ocurrió que un buen recurso podría ser estudiar el evangelio de Juan. Este es un evangelio que fácilmente puede enfocarse en el evangelismo. Pero, ¿cómo lograr que cada líder impartiera con exactitud lo que se esperaba? Pensé que la mejor manera era proporcionándoles un bosquejo que pudieran desarrollar en la célula.
Diseñé un bosquejo básico. Con una introducción, un cuerpo de tres puntos y, finalmente, una aplicación. Al principio de la lección se indicaba la lectura bíblica y se resaltada la verdad central.
Escribía el bosquejo cada semana, lo imprimía en una hoja de papel, le sacaba copias y lo repartía a cada uno de los líderes explicándoles lo que debían hacer. Así trabajamos por varios meses. Posteriormente, otras iglesias de nuestra Misión se interesaron en estos materiales y fue necesario enviarlos a una imprenta para publicarlos en forma de guías trimestrales.
En nuestro caso, las enseñanzas tienen un fuerte énfasis en la evangelización. El discipulado de los cristianos lo dejamos para nuestras reuniones de celebración. Sé que otras iglesias utilizan sus enseñanzas para hacer discípulos, lo cual está bien. Pero, por las condiciones en que nació nuestro modelo, nuestros contenidos son evangelizadores.
En la actualidad, cada trimestre, se publican 13,000 de nuestras guías y se llevan ya 76 volumenes publicados.

by Steve Cordle

Recently a new member to our church responded to our open, outreach-oriented group philosophy by asking ”Didn’t Jesus have a closed group?” Our new friend had been part of a thriving church in another state that had used the closed small group approach. The thinking there is that authentic community will be hard to acheive if new people are always joining the group.

It’s a great question! My answer is that, yes, Jesus had a closed group of 12. However, we would say that Jesus’ closed group equated to the coaching group, not the open cell.

Like most cell churches, we use both open cell and coaching group (or G-12, or 5×5 meeting in other churches). The coaching group is made up of a leader who has birthed groups and is now working with those leaders. It is a training and discipling environment, rather like the one Jesus had with his 12. The open cell is the basic expression of the church, and as such it must be open. It is where the purposes of the church are lived out. To close it is to close off the church and shut down the evangelistic culture of the church.

Additionally, I recently heard Jim Egli share that his research shows that open groups actually experience a higher level of community than do closed groups. It seems counter-intuitive, but that’s what he found (watch for the info to appear in a book this Fall)

So we need not fear that by using open groups we are deviating from Jesus’ model. If we are coaching leaders in a group format we are using his model! And we need not fear that we are “watering down” the sense of community people can experience, we are actually increasing it while accomplishing the purposes of God for His people.

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

In my post last week, I wrote about a circular versus a linear equipping track for a cell church.  A few in this blog community wanted me to comment more on this idea.  So, here we go.

Last week, I wrote:  “When you provide to your (potential) leaders a circular training experience, then you are joining them in their real life journey.  You are coming alongside them in a practical, reasonable and workable manner.  You are acknowledging that they have a life that may not always mesh with the calendar of the church.”

A circular equipping track is not step by step (or linear).  For example, one key ingredient in my church family’s equipping track is the Encounter weekend.  Currently, we offer this retreat once a year (maybe twice a year).  For illustrative purposes, let’s say the next Encounter retreat is in October.  Yet, in August (two months prior to the Encounter retreat) we want to equip our potential leaders in “Developing a Heart for the Harvest.”  Back in the day, we required our potential leaders to attend Encounter and then enroll in “Developing a Heart for the Harvest.”  This was a mistake.  The pastoral team helped me see:  “While we desire to equip our people, life is happening.”  We needed to shift from a linear training mindset to a circular mindset.    In simplest terms, precise order– step 1, step 2, step 3 must be relinquished; therefore, a potential leader can attend any equipping event that is currently being offered.  It’s CIRCULAR!

I’ll be the first to confess that it’s not always tidy and may even seem illogical.  Yet, this circular equipping track is pliable, flexible and fluid.

Further, the tools that you use to equip potential leaders are important, but not the main thing in equipping.  Forging and deepening relationship through the equipping tools that you utilize is the main thing. 

Comments?

I coined the term “the cell-driven strategy” to conceptualize the need to make cell ministry the driving force of church life, rather than an extra ministry or program. I noticed so many pastors consumed with Sunday celebration services to the point that they lost their concentration on cell ministry. Take Pastor Mark, for example. As I coached him over the months, I found that he naturally spent more time trying to attract people to the Sunday celebration service. He focused on sermon preparation, visiting, and dreaming of a crowd on Sunday. Cell ministry received leftover attention. When I challenged him on this, he acknowledged that he got a high from the Sunday crowd and didn’t get that same excitement from cell ministry.

This problem is not only on a pastoral level. I recently talked to someone who confessed to me that she loved the idea of cell ministry but simply didn’t have the time for it. She volunteered for children’s ministry in her church and had to make a concerted effort to go to a worship service to receive teaching. She just didn’t have time to attend one of her church’s home groups. Most church people follow a similar paradigm–involvement in a cell group is “extra.”

I”m asking this question because here at Wellspring we’ve been talking about moving to weekly celebration services. This has alwasy been our goal but as the cells grew stronger and more people were gathered. Currently we meet weekly in cell groups and prayer meetings but all the cells celebrate together once per month on Sunday and once per month during the Saturday half-night prayer meeting. Our current schedule assures that the cells drive all we do as a church.

What would you recommend to help us prioritize cell ministry? For you who have both weekly cell and celebration, what do you do to prioritize cell life and to keep it from simply becoming one of the many options?
Joel Comiskey
 

by Mario Vega

At the beginning of our work with cells, training new leaders was fast. Our training course was only four sessions long. Every four weeks we had a new leader’s graduation.

One of the advantages of having such a short course was that it allowed the fast formation of new leaders at a time when the expansion of the work required new leaders on a permanent basis.

But there were also disadvantages; such a short course could not give much information to the new leaders who began their work without having a vision of the whole cell model philosophy. Even us that were at the forefront didn’t know all the details. This would produce difficulties, mainly the “mini- service” syndrome.

At present, our training course lasts twelve weeks. I think that it’s still brief, but enough to provide the essential foundations of the cell work.

In our model we need to fill a void having a training route that could take a person from his conversion up to becoming a cell leader. We have reviewed other training courses models (Neighbour, Comiskey, Weitzs, Lay), but we feel that we need to design something that is more coupling to the Latin American reality, and specifically Salvadorian. The components must be: simplicity, practicality and dynamism.

The training course is essential for the work with small groups because it is the way for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry.

What has been your experience in this field?

Mario 

TRANSLATION IN SPANISH: 

Curso de capacitación.
Al inicio de nuestro trabajo con células la capacitación de los nuevos líderes se realizaba de manera rápida. Nuestro curso de entrenamiento solamente constaba de cuatro sesiones. Cada cuatro semanas teníamos una nueva promoción de líderes.
Una de las ventajas de un curso tan corto era que permitía la formación de nuevos líderes de manera rápida en un momento cuando la expansión del trabajo requería de nuevos líderes de manera permanente.
Pero también había desventajas, un curso tan corto no podía dar mucha información a los nuevos líderes que iniciaban su trabajo sin tener una visión de toda la filosofía del modelo celular. Ni siquiera los que estábamos al frente conocíamos todos los detalles. Esto produciría dificultades principalmente la del síndrome del ‘mini-culto’.
En la actualidad, nuestro curso de capacitación dura doce semanas. Creo que todavía es breve pero lo suficiente como para brindar los fundamentos esenciales del trabajo celular.
En nuestro modelo tenemos un vacío que llenar y es el tener una ruta de capacitación que pueda llevar a una persona desde su conversión hasta hacer de ella un líder de célula. Hemos revisado otros modelos de cursos de entrenamiento (Neighbour, Comiskey, Weitzs, Lay) pero sentimos que debemos diseñar algo que se acople más a la realidad latinoamericana y, específicamente, salvadoreña. Los componentes deben ser: sencillez, dinamismo y practicidad.
El curso de capacitación es fundamental para el trabajo con grupos pequeños porque es el camino que perfecciona a los santos para la obra del ministerio. ¿Cuál ha sido su experiencia en este campo?

by Steve Cordle

“I can’t find anyone in my group who will become a new leader.”

It’s not an uncommon sentiment to hear: I can’t find leaders. So give up trying to find leaders. Instead, start to develop new leaders.

It might be tempting to wait for a new leader to emerge: to hope a mature believer starts coming to the group, or a volunteer suddenly steps up. But if we take that approach we might end up with the wrong person in leadership. Like Samuel choosing Saul, we might choose someone who looks good, who seems to be a leader in other contexts, but in the end, they might not lead the work of the group very well.

But as Joel says, cells can be “leader breeders”. That’s because they give us the opportunity and context to develop them.

How? First, pick the person in your group (of your gender) you think is most open to growing spirtually. Do some individual discipling with that person a set period of time. There are many ways to do 1-2 discipling. One simple way is to use Neil Cole’s Life Transformation Group approach, which features reading large portions of the scripture then answering several application/accountability qusteions each week, while praying for lost people. It is simple, requires no teaching ability, and get people into the Word.

 Then, as that person grows, start giving him/her small,specific tasks in the group ministry. Lead a prayer or ice breaker, make some calls, plan something. Just give bite-size chunks of ministry and be sure to debried them later.

As the person grows spiritually, and gets a taste of ministry, then you are in a position to formally challenge him/her to become an apprentice and do the church’s equipping track. Your percentage of “yes” responses will be much higher when asking a developed person than an undeveloped person.

Can you share some ways you develop people spiritually and practically?