Some have mistakenly concluded that cell church ministry is only for Pentecostal or Charismatic churches. Think again. I just got back from a three-day seminar in Tabasco, Mexico, the home of the church called Jesuscristo es la Vida Eterna. This Baptist church has grown to 400 cells groups and 3,000 people. The church baptizes 100 people per month and has grown at a 50% rate since starting their cell church vision several years ago.

About 800 people were present each night at the seminar and the 80% of the pastors and leaders were Baptists. Because of this church’s influence among Baptist circles, many Baptist pastors and leaders are now open to the cell church strategy.

The church had about 120 attending before they started transitioning to the cell church in 2002. Much of their cell philosophy is patterned after the ELIM Church in El Salvador. Like Elim, all cells have a weekly planning meeting in which they talk about who they’re going to invite to the cell, who they need to visit, etc. The cells meet on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and are very evangelistically focused (they do follow the Sunday morning sermon).

Each cell group is given a one-year goal to multipy, complete with a folder that has the exact month to multiply. Each member is encouraged to invite one non-believer each month.

This cell church is opening new doors for cell ministry among the Baptists throughout Mexico.

Comments?

Joel

If you didn’t get a chance to read Joel’s post yesterday, please check it out.  His challenge in releasing leaders may require a CHANGE of mind for many. 

Even the strongest Christ followers can experience upheaval during periods of transition or CHANGE.  This is true because change is often accompanied by pain.  We hate to hurt.  These feelings are legitimate and don’t necessarily signify a lack of faith. 

We live in an ever evolving world of change.  For example, only 20 years ago, there were 50,000 computers in the world.  Now, that many computers are being installed on a daily basis.  Approximately 1,000 new products are introduced into America’s supermarkets every month.  The annual rate of growth for Internet traffic is 341,000%.  Yet, 69% of the American public adhere to the following belief:  “I do not like change!”  Change will not go away; it will only get faster.

Author Ed Skidmore offers the following timely truths about CHANGE:

1.  Organizations which refuse to change eventually die.

2.  No change, even positive and beneficial change, will be accepted by everyone in the organization.

3.  The benefits of change are seldom understood broadly until the change has been in effect for a while.

4.  The goal of any change is not absolute perfection but advancement and growth toward a targeted improvement.

5.  The risk of change is that the goal will not be met, but the avoidance of risk leads to stagnation and apathy within the organization.

6.  Change always costs something even if it only costs time, energy, and creativity.  Therefore, the homework of change is accurately and realistically counting the cost of change as well as the cost of the status quo.

7.  All change, no matter how long-term, is temporary.  The implementation of change will never negate the need for future changes.

Now, think of this.  A life with Christ is a life of change; the God we serve is a changeless God.

Is a change of mind (and heart) on the horizon for how you release leaders….how you “do” church…how you display church?

Comments?

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

Sometimes our training methods get in the way of spontaneous expansion. That is, we depend too much on education and ultimately don’t release people for ministry. We tend to think that a person must be 100% equipped, but often we equip the zeal and life out of them! Roland Allen critiques the education of his day:

Christ trained His leaders in two or three years; these men have been training leaders for more than two or three generations. Christ trained his leaders by taking them with Him as he went about teaching and healing, doing the work which they, as missionaries, would do; we train in institutions. He trained a very few with whom He was in the closest personal relation; we train many who simply pass through our schools with a view to an examination and an appointment (Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: and the Causes which Hinder It. London: World Dominion Press, 1956. p. 27).

Only the Spirit of God can truly guide His church. And we need to be totally committed to the Spirit of God leading and guiding us. Only He can bear the fruit necessary for sustained growth. As a missionary for eleven years in Ecuador I can testify that often foreign missionaries don’t want to leave the field because they can’t fully trust the nationals to do the work. I have to admit that Ecuador didn’t need me! I needed Ecuador. I needed Ecuador to teach me about these wonderful movements. Allen writes:

They [the missionaries] imagine fondly that they are quite ready to retire when the leaders whom they train are ready to take their place and that the moment when the native leaders are ready will be so obvious that they will all agree that it has come, and that then there be no difficulty in handing over authority. The moment is never clear. Those who are seeking to gain authority never agree to wait until those who hold it think that they are sufficiently prepared. The moment arrives only when those who are seeking to gain authority are strong enough to drive those who hold it into concession, by threats of revolt (p. 33).

Would to God that we would give over our ministry to others at the right time so that God’s spontaneous movement might continue. Let’s only hold on to prayer and the Spirit of God–not to our OWN ministries.

Comments?

Joel

I was in one famous cell church that back in 1996 rejoiced in the fact that they couldn’t control what was happening in their midst. The Holy Spirit was moving so mightily that I was told that even if they attempted to write it down into a manual, the Holy Spirit would change things within weeks. I remembered the words of Dr. Paul Pierson, my professor of church history, who said, “revival is always messy.” But then this same church fell into the trap of trying to control everything in a systematic model that everyone had to follow. You can guess what happened to the church . . . .

Roland Allen says about Paul’s ministry and the spontenous expansion of the church:

by spontaneous expansion I mean something which we cannot control. And if we cannot control it, we ought, as I think, to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great not because it is too small for us. The great things of God are beyond our control. Therein lies a vast hope. . . the moment that we think of ourselves as establishing self supporting, self governing Churches in the Biblical sense we are met by this fear, a terrible, deadly fear. Suppose they really were self-supporting, and depended no longer on our support, where should we be? (Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: and the Causes which Hinder It. London: World Dominion Press, 1956. p. 17).

Do we desire the messiness that comes from the work of the Spirit of God? Or do we prefer more of a controlled religion of rules and order. And ministry does get messy. We here at Wellspring have dealt with many problems in one particular couple. Yet the Holy Spirit is using this couple to reach more people for Jesus than all the rest of us put together. God likes to blow our minds! My prayer is that I would allow God to work in a powerful, spontaneous way.

Comments?

Joel

By Steve Cordle

This weekend is our church’s annual “ServeFest”. Many of our groups will be out in the community serving unchurch people in practical ways: from painting their homes, to doing repairs, to servant-evangelism projects like passing out water on a walking trail. In previous years, some of these groups band together because the scope of the project requires more than one group. This lead me to think more about the idea of ”clustering”.

“Clusters” is a term coined by Mike Breen. The idea is that once a month a group of groups (a “cluster”) gathers to do something missional/service-oriented. Not only does clustering help the project get accomplished, it creates a larger, middle-sized entity which some unchurched people comfortable to attend. In the process of serving, the unchurched person can get to know some group members, and thereby become receptive to an invitation to attend a group.

Need-meeeting service is becoming increasingly popular and attractive in our culture (a good sign, indeed). Our unreached neighbors will often appreciate the chance to, say, help change the oil for single mothers, even if they aren’t ready to declare their faith in Christ. Today, serving others can be a bridge for evangelism. Clustering groups seems to be one way to create some of those opportunities.

One of the key failures, according to Allen, is that we try to educate people to think like ourselves. Roland Allen says:

We educate our converts to think, as we, accustomed to a long-established and highly-organized church, naturally think, that none but duly appointed ministers may preach.We dread the possible mistakes of individual zeal. The result is that our converts hesitate to speak of religion to others. They throw the responsibility upon the licensed evangelist and ‘the mission’. They do not feel any responsibility themselves to evangelize the world. Their mouths are closed. Here and there, of course, we find a man so full of the Spirit of the Lord that he cannot hold his peace, but he is a comparatively rare exception (Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Grand Rapid, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962, p. 94).

Various China watchers have said that the best thing that happened in China was Mao. The missionaries had to leave and could no longer control who would preach and who would not preach. They no longer had control over how to organize Christ’s church. The Holy Spirit took over and began to use all and every fiery soul that wanted to speak in His Name. If you haven’t read the book The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun (with Paul Hattaway) you really need to read it. God’s work is incredible. We just must make sure that we don’t get in the way of His work. And I know from experience that “getting in the way” is really easy to do.

Comments?

Joel

I went fishing with a cell leader in my church family yesterday.  He and his wife have been leading a cell for five years or so.  In the last six years, he has started a family (they now have three children) and a business.  Needless to say, life has been full.  Their cell members include about thirty people including children (if everybody turns out for the gathering).  They are working with their network pastor concerning multiplication.  The cell is made up of couples in their twenties and thirties– so it’s a young couples’ cell for the most part.

In the context of cell life, the couple leading this cell have been through a whole array of emotions throughout the years.  Excitement… confusion…feeling alone…joy…feeling bonded with others…and more.  I guess that’s part of cell leadership, eh?  Concerning his cell, my fishing buddy made it clear to me:  “Rob, we are a family.  We are together because we want to do life together.  We don’t choose to journey alone.”  Now hearing that warms any cell pastor’s heart, correct?

As we were driving back from the Guadalupe River, he asked me, “Do you know what our cell is doing now?”  I said, “Tell me.”  He responded, “We do something different at each gathering over a five week period.  The first week, we discuss the message on Sunday and go through the outline.  The second week of the month we pray…for the whole gathering.  The third week we discuss the message on Sunday and go through the outline.  The fourth week, we have game night.  The fifth week, we have short movie night (Example:  Rob Bell DVD) and discussion.”

Maybe this idea is for you…maybe not.  Possibly, a variation of such an idea would be ideal for your cell.  Personally, I like the freedom that the network pastor has given to this cell and others.  Don’t you think it’s time for the cell movement in North America to…try some new things?…to bless creative means of coming together?… and more.

A final question:   Is it necessary for a cell to do the same thing week in and week out in the actual cell meeting? 

This cell seems to be fishing with quite a nice net!  By the way, this cell leader guy caught the biggest fish and the most fish yesterday at the river.  But, I didn’t get skunked. 

Would love to receive your comments!

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

I’ve been trying to share nuggets of truth from the writings of Roland Allen. I hope you’re still with me! Sometimes we get in the way of Christ’s work. I often use the illustration in my seminars of a cell leader “getting sick on purpose” in order to allow another member of the group to lead the cell. The idea is to get out of the way and allow others to sprout and grow.

In studying the life of Paul the apostle, Roland Allen reminds us that Paul made himself dispensable. That is, he made sure that the congregations were not depending on him–rather that they were depending on the Holy Spirit. Allen says:

We are not indispensible. The church is Christ’s church. Paradoxical as it may seem, I think that it is quite possible that the shortness of his stay [in the churches he planted] may have conduced in no small measure to St Paul’s success. And this is a truism. There’s a grave danger in thinking that we have to plant the church, when in fact, God must plant it. He’s the one that makes it work. There is something in the presence of a great teacher that sometimes tends to prevent smaller men from realizing themselves. They more readily feel their responsibility, they more easily and successfully exert their powers, when they see that, unless they come forward, nothing will be done. By leaving them quickly St Paul gave the local leaders opportunity to take their proper place, and forced the church to realize that it could not depend upon him, but must depend upon its own resources (Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Grand Rapid, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962, p. 93).

I’m not sure how this will look in your situation and ministry. On a cell member level, it means being willing to participate under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (don’t expect the cell leadership team to do everything). On the cell leader level, it means raising up other leaders to replace you. On a pastoral level it means planting new churches. I’ve seen various examples of pastors who clung to power, trying to control those under them (often in the name of trying to grow a mega-church). Their leaders ended up departing in discouragement. God wants to give us a larger picture of His desire to extend His church throughout the world.

Comments?
Joel

I believe that God is calling His church back to simplicity. We have a tendency to over complicate cell church ministry. Cell church ministry is simple. Paul practiced such simplicity when he planted churches in the first century.  

We’ve been talking a lot lately about Roland Allen’s analysis of St. Paul’s missionary methods versus our own. Allen concludes that Paul didn’t leave his newly formed congregations with a whole lot. They had baptism, the Lord’s supper, and mutual edification. Allen says, “And yet is is possible that it was precisely the simplicity and brevity of the teaching which constituted its strength. There is a very grave danger in importing complete systems of worship and theology” Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapid, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962), p. 90.

Have we become too formalized and complicated in the cell church movement? Allen says, “A man does not need to know much to lay hold on Christ. St Paul began with simplicity and brevity. Yet in doing this he ran grave risks. It is characteristic of St. Paul that he had such faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit indwelling in the church that he did not shrink from risks. Even when the Galatians fell prey to the Judaizers legalism, we don’t sense that Paul tried to change his method of church planting” (p. 91)

Can we easily err in the cell church with our complicated systems and structures? I believe that we can. I sense that God is calling us to go back to simplicity and keep the structure workable. Here are the essentials:

• Cell
• Celebration (for children as well!)
• Training
• Coaching

We can learn loads from St. Paul about organic church planting and keeping it simple.

Comments?

Joel

By Steve Cordle

Recently my wife and I were blessed to be able to attend a marriage seminar sponsored by a national ministry. (If you haven’t gone to one, do yourself a favor and go; you deserve it!)

For two and a half days we took in high-quality teaching about the principles of a Christ-centered marriage. Truthfully, very little of the material was new to me. As a pastor, I had taught most of the principles myself. In fact, I could fill in most of the outline blanks before the speaker started! When I looked ahead at the discussion questions, they appeared fine, but particularly novel.

While the sessions were good, do you know when the sessions got most interesting? When my wife and I sat down to work through the application material. Those questions which looked fairly ordinary on paper became the launching point for significant and vital conversations. And over the last couple of weeks, those conversations have prompted me to be even more intentional about showing love to Linda. In other words, they produced life change.

In our churches, people can hear a good biblical message and look over some questions about it. In fact, sometimes they can say, “I’ve heard that already, how about something deeper?” But it is in the application — the doing — that the lives truly change.

How do your groups help people apply the Bible? Share your experience with us!