By Mario Vega

When we started our work with small groups in houses, we began to wonder about the offerings subject. Was it appropriate to collect offerings in the cells? There were two positions: one from brothers who thought offerings should be collected and the other from those who thought it was not a good idea if the main purpose was the evangelization.

Those who thought offerings should be collected supported their position stating that this subject is part of the gospel and, consequently, the gospel had to be presented as it was. Those who thought was not appropriate claimed that guests could get the impression that we were only interested in money. Others thought it could generate the idea that the snack was being charged.

Finally, others thought that it was not right to let leaders and supervisors handle the churches´ money.

Both positions had their valid reasons. At that time, we did not have a clear idea about the whole meaning of the cell work. Our only reference was Pastor Cho´s model.

In his books, Pastor Cho made repeated references on the fact of collecting offerings in his meetings. Therefore, we decided to follow the Korean model and set the offering as part of the home meeting program.

In the subsequent years, experience has taught us that collecting offerings was a good decision. Now we are sure that cells are a very effective way for not only achieving evangelization and growth goals but also economic ones. About that, I will write later on.
Comments?

Mario Vega

Translation in Spanish:

¿Qué sobre las ofrendas?

Cuando iniciamos nuestro trabajo con grupos pequeños en casas comenzamos a preguntarnos sobre el tema de las ofrendas. ¿Era conveniente recoger ofrendas en las células? Existían dos posiciones: la de los hermanos que pensaban que se debía recoger ofrendas y la de los que pensaban que no era una buena idea si el propósito principal era la evangelización.
Quienes pensaban que se debía recoger ofrendas sustentaban su posición expresando que el tema de las ofrendas es parte del evangelio y, consecuentemente, se debía presentar el evangelio tal como era. Los que pensaban que no era conveniente, argumentaban que los invitados podían llevarse la idea que lo único que nos interesaba era el tema económico. Otros pensaban que se podía generar la idea que se estaba cobrando por el refrigerio. Finalmente, otros pensaban que no era sano dejar que los líderes y supervisores manejaran dinero de la iglesia.
Ambas posiciones tenían sus razones valederas. En ese tiempo, no teníamos una idea clara sobre todo lo que significaba el trabajo con células. Nuestro único referente era el modelo del Pastor Cho.
En sus libros, el Pastor Cho hacía repetidas referencias al hecho que en sus reuniones se recogían ofrendas. Decidimos entonces seguir el modelo coreano y establecimos la ofrenda como parte del programa de la reunión en casa.
En los años posteriores la experiencia nos enseñó que el recoger ofrendas fue una buena decisión. Ahora estamos seguros que las células son un medio muy eficaz no solamente para alcanzar metas de evangelización y crecimiento sino también económicas. Pero, de ello, escribiré más adelante.

by Steve Cordle

What makes for a good equipping track?

One of the characteristics of an effective equipping track is that it will combine disicpleship training with leadersihp training. Specifically, there will be little difference between growing as a follower of Jesus and growing in group leadership.

When discipleship training and leadership training are part of the same process, people understand that it is normal to become a disciplemaker; that growing in maturity involves becoming able to disciple someone else.

This in not to say we must communicate that everyone should become a group leader (though some churches feel led to make that a goal). But when we combine discipleship training and leader training into one track, we will grow more leaders, and more effective disciples who know how to make disciples — whether as a group leader or not.

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

Joel’s post yesterday was a call for willing pastors to have a cell coach.  He wrote, “People need more to be truly effective.  They need constant practice…Successful implementation happens when leaders are held accountable to put into practice the principles learned.”  He quoted Thomas Henry Huxley:  “The great end of life is not knowledge but action.”  I like that quote. It seems on target.

Let’s build on this challenge by answering the following three questions (Click on ‘Comments’ tab below):

1.  Is having a cell coach necessary or is it overrated?

2.  If you have a coach, how did you find him/her?

3.  What other thoughts/ ideas do you have about coaching?

“All the students I brought last year to your cell church course have failed to put the teaching into practice,” the bishop’s assistant said during the last day of the church planter’s course in Nyack, New York. Robert works for the conservative Episcopalian diocese in Albany, New York. For the second year, Robert has brought priests to my May seminary course at Alliance Theological Seminary. He loves cell ministry and wants the priests in his diosee to catch the same vision.

Why didn’t they practice the vision they learned in last year’s course? Was it my teaching? Was it the material? Perhaps. Yet, I’ve learned over the years that knowledge gained in seminars often goes unused unless there is accountability and follow-up. Information is cheap stuff if it’s not mixed with experience. Reading a book, attending a seminar, etc. doesn’t make things happen. People need more to be truly effective. They need constant practice. Thomas Henry Huxley once said, “The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” Successful implementation happens when leaders are held accountable to put into practice the principles learned.

So when Robert asked the question, my answer was, “Robert, without coaching, it’s easy NOT to practice cell information. The best way to practice the cell principles learned in a seminar is to have a coach.”

Coaching comes in a variety of forms. Some pastors find coaching through informal relationships with other cell pastors. Others belong to a network of cell churches. Still others will opt for more formalized coaching, like the kind we offer here at JCG.

Have you found that cell coaching was necessary in your own journey? Why or why not? Share your experience on this topic. . .

Joel Comiskey

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.