By Steve Cordle

Cell ministry  is not just the province of adults - youth can thrive in cells!

Today’s teens face incredible pressures from our culture. they are pressured to succeed academically, socially, and in sports. And the cultural environment in which they live makes it harder than ever to stand for Christ. They need to be discipled in a strong way in order to enter youg adulthood in a balanced, spiritually healthy way.

George Barna tells us that, unfortuantely, up to 80% of American church teens fall away from living their faith after they leave high school. On the other hand, many church-planting teams are being populated by students just leaving college. It seems that students either rise to great heights or fall away after high school.

Cell ministry provides a great opportunity for students to grow stronger and deeper as disicples. This week while visiting another church I saw a high school senior encouraging and exhorting a younger teen to take the challenge of cell leadership. I heard another student leader asking her group how they plan to grow in their faith through the summer months. They have made the turn from passive listener to active disicple-maker, and they are stronger for it!

Students face a lot of challenges, but they also have huge kingdom potential. Let’s help them fan into flame the gifts within them by equipping them to disicple others. let’s not settle for adults only leading student cells. Let’s turn those students loose!

How does your church equip and release student in cell ministry?

York Alliance Church (York, Pennsylvania) started the process to become a cell church in 1998. Before 1998 York Alliance was a STAR programmed based church in the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. Yet, community was not a priority. Senior pastor David King writes of those earlier days, “Christians at the church had commonality in their core beliefs and backgrounds but did not have community. Worship services were high on participation but low on real adoration of the Lord. Although the music was great, praise was hesitant.” Pastor David knew that the increased attendance was masking deeper problems within. And he had no system at the time to deal with the superficiality.

David, the pastor since 1994, went to a TOUCH cell church confernce at Cornerstone in West Virginia (Gerald Martin) in 1998 and was bit by the cell church bug. They started their first prototype cell a the end of 1998 and have been pressing ahead ever since. I visited one of the eighteen cells on Monday night.

I was very tired before going to the cell. But when I entered Ken’s living room, the burdens lifted, and I felt like I was transported to New Testament times. One man present was a former drug addict who now loved Jesus and actively participated that Monday night. Another guy had spent four years in prison. Now a transformed believer, he was preparing to go off with a team to start the daughter cell. I noticed both married couples and singles–a true intergenerational cell.

The WELCOME time drew us close together. We shared GOD-words during the ice-breaker (members simply sharing how God has used the other cell members to minister to their lives). Then we entered into God’s presence through WORSHIP using a CD. The WORD time applied the Sunday message to our own lives. During the WITNESS time we broke up into sub-groups to pray for our unsaved oikos. I left that night filled with joy, realizing once again that cell ministry touches hearts at the deepest levels.

At York Alliance all cell members get involved in the cell process. One person will lead the worship one night; another will take the ice-breaker. They often trade off the WORD time as well. One leader oversees each cell, but his or her job is made a lot easier by the active participation of the members. The cell groups (they call them LIFE groups) rotate from house to house, which makes it a lot easier on one host. Most of the cell groups are intergenerational cell groups–even the youth mix in with the adults and children.

York Alliance is an exciting testimony of the power of cell ministry in the western cultures, such as the U.S.

Comments?

Joel

Martin Luther stated, “Christ could have taught in a profound way but wished to deliver his message with the utmost simplicity in order that the common people might understand.  Good God, there are sixteen-year-old girls, women, old men, and farmers in church, and they don’t understand lofty matters!… Accordingly, he’s the best preacher who can teach in a plain, childlike, popular and simple way.”

As one peruses the gospel accounts, you see that Jesus’ life was not an essay.  His life’s purpose was not to spearhead a systematic theology that might be passed down through the generations.  Further, the gospels do not record one long sermon in which Jesus pontificates a philosophy of life.  Instead, you discover that Jesus’ life was a story.  His story has transformed billions of lives and remains the most  penetrating and awe-inspiring story ever heard.

Elie Wiesel wrote, “God made man because he loves stories.”  And he’s given you a story to tell, hasn’t he?

Daniel Taylor encourages us by stating, “Here is the story: it starts, `In the beginning, God created,’ and it runs through time and through Biblical history and church history and now up to the present time.  And now you come, too.  You join the story, you be a character in that story.”

Let me encourage you to tell this blog community a story of how God is working in your cell.  In fifty to one hundred words (just a few paragraphs), would you take a few minutes and tell us such a story?  “His-story” through your cell members will lift our spirit and encourage us.  Click on comments below and give it a whirl.

Most of you know, I have quite a busy travel schedule. I just got back last Thursday from a whirlwind eleven day trip that took me to San Clemente, CA, Nyack, NY, and York, PA. In San Clemente, CA I spoke to the leaders of Hope Christian Fellowship about how to transition their ten your old 350 member church to the cell philosophy. In New York, I spoke to twenty-two students taking my cell church course at Alliance Theological Seminary. I love these courses because over a five-day period, I have plenty of time to answer questions, dialogue at meal time, and fully cover cell church ministry.

I then spent five days in York, PA at the York Alliance Church. This cell church has eighteen cell groups and about 350 worshippers on Sunday. I first visited York Alliance Church in October 2003, along with my entire family. York Alliance knows both the pain of transitioning from a very traditional church (they started their transition at the end of 1998) and the joy of seeing lives changed through cell church ministry. The church has developed into a God-honoring New Testament church.

People are coming to Christ through cell and celebration and then becoming disciples of Jesus Christ! I met John, for example, at the cell seminar on Saturday, and he told me how much he loved his cell group. I inquired further and discovered that John was a homosexual who received Jesus approx. two years ago. His inter-generational cell has become a family to him, sticking with him through the healing process. Brenda was also at the cell seminar. She was in a pychiatric ward before walking through the doors of York Alliance three years ago. She is now a fully devoted follower of Jesus, leader of a cell group and just started a one-year missionary journey to Macedonia to help one of the York Alliance missionary partners. I could go on to talk about Saul, converted through the witness of the cell leader next door. Now Saul is in preparation to lead his own cell group. The stories could go on and on. 

On Wednesday’s blog I’ll share about my experience in one of York Alliance’s cell groups. On Friday, I’ll talk about a needed adjustment that York Alliance has to make to take cell ministry to the next level.

Comments?  

Joel

Two extremes exist in coaching. One extreme is demanding too many meeting or what I call over-coaching. The other extreme is not offering enough coaching.

I believe a happy medium exists between these two extremes. I like to think in terms of minimum requirements. You have to spend enough time with the person you’re coaching to maintain quality. Yet, some leaders don’t need as much time as other leaders. Some leaders are well-balanced, spiritual and self-initiators. Such leaders still need coaching; they just don’t need as much “hands-on” coaching. Other leaders lose their effectiveness if they’re not held accountable on a regular basis.

I suggest to coaches to aim for a once per month one-on-one meetings between coach and leader. In addition to the one-on-one meeting, I challenge coaches to aim for another monthly interaction with the leader, whether through a phone call, a group meeting, or communication with the leader before or after a church service.

If you as a coach have more than one leader under your care, I would suggest occasional group meetings with your leaders, perhaps every other month. Now this will change in large cell churches where coaches guide 4-5 cell leaders. In this scenario, the huddle meeting can play a higher role than the one-on-one meetings because the coach simply doesn’t have enough time to do one on one each month with all the leaders under his or her care. The coach should also occasionally visit the cell group, perhaps once per quarter.

You’ll notice that I’m saying “perhaps” a lot. I’ve done that purposely. Find your own balance. Try not to err on either side of the extreme—too much time or too little.

The main question that you want to ask is whether or not the person you’re coaching feels cared for. And this comes right back to asking the leader you’re coaching. How much time does he need? Your pastor will also give you guidance in this area.

Comments?

My new book Coach will come out on September 2007.

This part of the Advanced Training series that will train cell leaders to coach new leaders.

Check it out.

Steve Cordle

One of the most helpful scriptures to me and to our other cell leaders is Jesus’ parable of the sower.

As we read how the seed fell on various kinds of soil and produced different kinds of results, we think about the people to whom we minister.  

We leaders want everyone to respond to Jesus and to the call to disciplesihp. It’s so exciting when people follow and grow in Christ. It can be disheartening and frustrating to see some not respond to the invitation, or to start and then fall away. As we discuss and pray through this, we realize that beyond planting the seed, we have limited power to influence spiritual results.

However, we also want to try to till the “soil” of people’s hearts in any way we can. Prayer and love are two ways to help break up hard heart-soil and prepare it to receive the seed of God’s word. When we repeatedly pray (privately and in the cell) for people by name, we can help clear the enemy’s interference in their lives so the person can perceive the Spirit’s call more clearly. And when we express love and serve people, they more fully open their hearts not only to us but to the Lord we represent.

So, here is Pittsburgh it’s garden planting time! It’s finally time to turn over the soil to plant some seeds. But in the kingdom it’s always the season to pray and love in order to get ready to reap the harvest!

I’ve watched some coaches over the years set themselves up as authority figures. They arrived at the place of commanding their leaders what do to. They fell into the “you must submit to me” mentality. Such aberrant behavior places leaders under bondage rather than liberating them to serve. Coaching focuses on the latter.

How do you know if you’ve been effective as a coach? The only way I know is to practice coaching and then evaluate whether or not you’re meeting the needs of the leader. My advice is to step out and coach and then get feedback from those who you are coaching. Is the leader satisfied with your coaching? If so, green light. You’re on the right path. However, if months later, the leader is not getting his or her needs met, you might need to do some radical adjustments. How will you know? By asking the leader and getting feedback. Those who you are coaching are your best resources to determine if you’re meeting needs or not. Through their feedback, you can began to shape your own coaching style.

I ask all the leaders I coach to give me an oral evaluation. In fact, I start out the coaching process by telling them that I’ll be asking them to evaluate my coaching. I find that all advice is helpful and makes me a better coach—even when they say things I didn’t necessarily want to hear. I want to know if I’m on the right path, so asking for advice is preferred to the silent, uncomfortable knowledge that something is wrong.

The difference between a good coach and a great coach is a listening, learning spirit and willingness to improve. Better coaches have learned from their experience and made mid-course corrections to better meet their target audience.
Comments?

My new book Coach will come out on September 2007.

This part of the Advanced Training series that will train cell leaders to coach new leaders.

Check it out.

“How do people get well?”

This question was posed to me by a fellow pastor.  The context of the question:  How I have observed people moving from disability to spiritual health/wholeness.

My first thought was Jesus questioning the man at the pool of Bethesda.  He asked, “Do you want to get well?”  A great question.  My hunch is that Jesus knew the man was finding his identity in his illness.  He had secured a reserved box seat at the pool for thirty-eight years.  I trust you know the story and the outcome (see John 5). 

My fellow pastor, Jim Donaldson, and I have talked about this extensively over the last 14+ years of ministry together.  While the answer to come is no “silver bullet,” I believe it has some merit and would encourage you to consider my thoughts.

Let me shift gears.  When a person is eye level to the curb or as low as the under belly of a snake, he/she may be tempted to isolate or alienate.  This is the precise plan of the enemy.  We constantly teach our people, “When in need of help/support/care/comfort, do not play into the enemy’s plan of isolation or alienation.”  Walking down the path of isolation and alienation is devastating.  It does not birth health.

With that said, let me answer the question:  “How do people get well?”

First, they stay committed to their set of relationships– their cell.  They show up for the cell gathering and the fellow cell members stay engaged with them outside of the cell gathering.  Next, they participate in corporate worship– celebration.  There is something dynamic and spiritual that happens when one joins with his fellow church members to celebrate the goodness of God.  Finally, they afford themselves the opportunity to meet one on one with a fellow cell member for discipleship and accountability.

You might ask, “What about this hurting individual making the commitment to meet with God each day?”  This would be great!  Yet, it rarely happens.  This ailing person finds it difficult to get out of bed and engage life at any level.  He/she is whipped, beat up and desperate.  While I might long for him/her to engage God on a personal level… again…. it rarely happens.  They need the body to help them along for a season.

Back to the pool of Bethesda (John 5).  Jesus says to the man:  “Stand up [this command is rooted in the power of God], take up your mat [you have no use of this box seat from here forward], and walk [he did!].”  May we collectively and corporately pursue “being well.”  No one this side of heaven will ever attain complete wholeness.  Yet, by the grace of God, may we move from one level of wholeness to the next.  Without a doubt, we need God and each other.

So, my friends– “How do people get well?”  Comments? 

Most of what I know about coaching has come through failure. In 2001, I started coaching fulltime. That is, my fulltime paid job was to coach leaders. There was one problem. I didn’t know how to coach. I thought I knew, but in reality, I equated coaching with consulting and teaching.

It became apparent as the months passed by that my form of coaching was not working. Those who I was coaching got tired of my constant advice-giving and when I ran out of answers, I was hard-pressed to justify my coaching position. My evaluations became more and more negative and some leaders left. It was truly a dark night of the soul.

The good news was that I could only move upwards. I began to devour every piece of literature on coaching. A whole new world opened up to me—one that I didn’t even think existed. The gracious leaders that stuck with me welcomed my changed perspective. I now had something to give.

As I look back over that difficult time period and where I am now, I realize that God was taking me back to the school of learning. He used my mistakes and failures to move me upwards in my development and ultimately to make me a far better coach. You’ll also make a lot of mistakes. Just remember that mistakes are helpers, not hindrances. Teddy Roosevelt, in fact, said, “He who makes no mistakes, makes no progress.” Skill comes after experience.

Coaching often involves trying, failing, trying again, etc. There are no clear rule books. It’s more like treking through the forest with machete in one hand. The way you’ll get to the destination is by learning and growing.

Comments?

Joel

To coach others effectively, you need to be coached at the intimate levels of your life. I’m talking about those who you’re closest with. It’s really hard to coach someone else if you’re intimate personal relationships are falling apart.

If your married, for example, your spouse needs to be your best friend. I pray with my wife on a regular basis. She’s my best friend and number one accountability partner. When I stumble in any area of my life, she’s the first one I confess to. Such accountability protects me and prepares me to coach others.

I’ve noticed that some husbands quickly share their failings with other men but won’t go directly to their wives. Yes, it might be easier to talk to someone of your own gender but this should never be an excuse not to go directly to your spouse. Your spouse is your first line of defense against Satan’s darts and temptations. Maintaining an intimate relationship with your spouse will enhance your coaching.

God convicted John of dabbling with pornography, and he confessed it to God and eventually to one of his friends. He felt comfortable in talking to his friend because he was the same gender. But he didn’t talk to his wife. I challenged John to go directly to his wife. It took a lot of prayer and boldness, but when he did so, he was amazed at the loving response from his wife. The confession drew them closer together, and John now has someone who will help him avoid similar temptations. John also received emotional and spiritual healing in the process.

If you’re single, I’d encourage you to find a good friend of the same gender to talk to and share with. You will grow in your spirituality and relationship with God as you share intimately with someone else and will be a far better coach as a result.

I was attending a Promise Keeper’s rally when I first heard John Maxwell talk about true success. He said, “true success is having those closest to you love and respect you the most. I didn’t catch the full weight of what he said that afternoon, but over the years I’ve had time to reflect on life, ministry, and relationships. Maxwell’s words have convicted me again and again to prioritize what really matters in life.
Comments?

Joel