Training for Cell Ministry
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?
Mike Donaldson said,
April 24, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
Mario:
I’m just beginning training and was looking at a 6mo period. I would like to get info on your training modules for the 3 month period just to review. Is that possible?
Blessings,
MIke
Joel Comiskey said,
April 25, 2008 @ 5:44 am
Ted and Linda Senapatiratne write:
Hello Pastor Mario, Joel , Rob and Steve,
I see how God is bringing some things together in my mind. As I have mentioned to Joel recently God is bringing some real insights into my life about the changing face of Missions. I believe that it goes right alongside with your thoughts today, Pastor Mario.
We leave in a few hours for Sri Lanka to hold three seminars and a workshop for a church model on Bible Orality. I believe this is a key to the multiplication of Cell Leaders! Linda and I just had a total revolution in our lives when we attended a Conference on Bible Orality. God is putting some ideas into our minds about sharing this in Cell group ministry. We are excited to see what God has in mind for us.
We will look forward to sharing with you all what God has laid on our hearts, when we come back from Sri Lanka.
Blessings on you all. We love you and the great work you are all doing!
Ted and Linda Senapatiratne
David Kueker said,
April 25, 2008 @ 7:36 am
Dear Brother Mario:
I know of a training route from convert to cell leader which may be interesting to you. Neil Cole is a church planter and an advocate of church planting movements from Los Angeles. You can find links to his material at www.greenhouseSTL.org.
He wrote of his equipping track to rapidly equip new converts to become pastors of small churches in the resource entitled “Raising Leaders for the Harvest” written with Bob Logan (www.CMAresources.org). While they use Cole’s equipping track, most of their examples are from third world church multiplication movements and one of them might be useful to you. These networks of small churches are not cells, but the support of the mother cell church should make these methods more effective rather than less effective. We can think of them as “cell planting” as well as “church planting.”
This different perspective may inspire new ideas for you. There is a great freedom in Cole’s methods that would allow you to “make them Salvadoran.”
(My adaptation of them for churches in my denomination is available at www.disciplewalk.com.)
Here’s an example of their different ways of thinking about this: One of their principles is that lost people are already networked into small groups or an “oikos” (a greek word from the Bible). They use the example of a man drowning … when you grasp his hand to pull him from the water, whatever part of the body you grasp is connected to a whole body. What they mean is that each new convert is already linked to an oikos which is like a ready made cell of lost people waiting to be converted. And within that body of Christ, God has provided the cell leader who will rapidly mature … they are just not yet converted. Finding that person, converting and equipping them - rather than convincing an existing cell to to multiply - rapidly leads to the conversion of the whole oikos. So whenever one individual is converted, they care for that person in a cell but immediately look beyond that individual to the people he or she is connected to, knowing that God has placed the next cell leader within that personal oikos network.
I hope this is interesting and useful to you. Thank you for the blessing you are to all of us.
David Kueker
Elissa Montero said,
April 25, 2008 @ 10:33 am
Me parece interesante toda la información que se está presentando sobre Elim. Nosotros tenemos una iglesia celular que apenas comienza. nuestro ejemplo es muy similar al que el hermano Vega ha presentado, pero, no hemos tenido los resultados adecuados. fracasamos, avanzamos y fracasamos. Pastor, que haria en nuestro caso?
Estuve leyendo una información celular que creo que es de la iglesia de ustedes, pero, por mas que estudiamos no logramos levantarnos. Nosotros tenemos fe que Dios puede hacer algo. No sé si me pueden decir algo