by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

My next three posts (each weekly post arriving to you on Wednesdays) will concentrate on evaluating the health of a cell church.  These thoughts were a collaborative effort of the pastoral team at CCC.  However, the lead runner concerning “Evaluating a Cell Network” was Pastor Michele Gooch (CCC’s Inter-Generational Network Pastor).   Certainly, we understand that these thoughts are not perfect.  Yet, my hope is that they will provide a framework for you to consider growth and health in your context.

A Typical Cell Church Evaluates Health by Measuring:

• Number of Cells
• Number of Multiplications
• Number of members in a Cell
• Number of baptisms per Cell
• Number of people on the “training track”
• Percentage of Celebration attendees in cells

A few questions.  Are the measurements cited above a true assessment of health?  Does your church track such data?

Comments?

I’m alway encouraging people to write their dream book. And I’m especially thrilled when it involves cell church. Richard Houle, an experienced cell church pastor and key visionary, has a vision to write a book on cell church planting via the missionary team concept. And he has the experience to back up his writings.

I was with Richard and the network of cell church plants a few months ago in Gransby, Quebec. The darknes and unbelief in that region is great, but God is greater and is moving among a small movement of cell churches. Richard would like to complete his book in a couple years, so I was glad when he sent me the first chapter for review. I asked to refresh our readers with the concept of the missionary planting team:

“From a traditional Baptist Church in Quebec, Canada to a cell church planting movement.

In 1994, we started the process of transitioning the 250 people from the mother church in Granby. Quebec, into a cell church. It took us 7 years to transition. We lost 60 members. Tough for a pastor’s heart! But from those heartbreaks, the Lord called many leaders through coaching in the G12 model. They began to make disciples, and train as elders, evangelists, etc.

Then the Lord called clearly the two oldest pastors in their fifties to form our first missionary team, myself included. We were reliving Acts 13 where the Spirit called Paul and Barnabas to plant churches. One of the younger pastor took the lead of the mother church, to free the missionary team overseeing cell church plants. We felt we needed to change our approach, not let the church plants depend on the mother church, but let it be overseen by the missionary team. This new structure has worked very well for us.

There are now 3 church planters. We are at our 4th church plant in five years, in a culture very closed to the gospel. They are yet little plants (between 20-55 people in each plant), but with growing eagerness. Already the oldest plant consider to plant an English church just along the French Church in the same city. The goal is to see 15 church plants in the next 10 years. The obstacles are very great, the battle is fierce, but the Lord is on our side.

__

Thanks, Richard!

Joel Comiskey

by Mario Vega

The evangelization work through cells becomes more effective when Christians penetrate the various areas of society. For that reason, we encourage our members to actively take part solving the problems of their communities.

Several Christians have taken our call seriously and take part in neighborhood committee. Some of these committee/boards are working on solving problems such as of the water service, projects to provide electricity, and paving of streets.

The involvement of Christians in these projects place them in a privileged position to let their light and love shine toward their neighbors. We’ve even found that often believers will end up assuming the most important positions as Presidents or Treasurers; which is the result of the good testimony and sincere work of the brethren.

Others have become involved in recycling. Some have come to establish small businesses that employ other Christians. And one of them showed such dedication to this cause that he recently won the elections as a member of his City Council.
When Christians connect in this way with their communities, the work of giving a good testimony onto the people and leading them to Christ is much more efficient.

Comments?

Mario

Translation in Spanish

Relaciones con las comunidades.

El trabajo de evangelización a través de las células cobra mayor efectividad cuando los cristianos penetran las diversas esferas de la sociedad. Por ese motivo, animamos a nuestros miembros para que tomen parte activa en solucionar las dificultades de sus comunidades.

Varios cristianos han tomado en serio nuestro llamado y forman parte de directivas en sus vecindarios. Algunas de estas directivas trabajan en resolver problemas tales como el de servicio de agua, proyectos de introducción de electricidad, pavimentación de calles, etc.

El involucramiento de los cristianos en esos proyectos les coloca en una posición privilegiada para dejar brillar su luz y su amor a sus vecinos. Normalmente, los cristianos terminan asumiendo las posiciones más importantes como la de Presidente o Tesorero. Lo cual es el resultado del buen testimonio y del trabajo sincero de los hermanos.

Otros, se han involucrado en la tarea del reciclaje. Algunos han llegado a establecer pequeñas empresas que dan trabajo a otros cristianos. Y uno de ellos mostró tanta dedicación a ésta causa que recientemente ganó las elecciones como miembro del Concejo Municipal de su ciudad.

Cuando los cristianos se conectan de esta manera con sus comunidades, el trabajo de dar testimonio a las personas y conducirlas a Cristo se vuelve mucho más eficiente.

by Jeff Tunnell

The first time I actually finished reading a large book voluntarily I was 15 years old.  My eyesight was poor and undiagnosed, so headaches would cause me to put reading aside without even knowing this was the cause.  An association of pain with reading was enough to forestall any progress.

My first pair of reading glasses came at age 16.  Shortly after that I became a Christian. My love for God’s word motivated me to become a serious reader. Although my skills were still weak and undeveloped, passion thrust me into reams of information!  Researching the ONE who gave himself for me, there were hours spent between the covers of the Bible; what a gift our Father has given to us.

The strength of “information” is when it supports ”transformation”.  Knowledge puffs up when simply accumulated as a possession.  However, when the Holy Spirit breathes on the information, bringing revelation, this can underwrite transformation and breakthrough.

Reading Cell books (more than 40 by now) has directed much change in my life and ministry.  Many changes were made for expedience or necessity to conform to Cell church principles more closely.  The best changes have been the result of information that the Holy Spirit has given the sense of, producing passion for a more fruitful ministry that glorifies Jesus in every way.

When you read, pray for the Holy Spirit’s revelation.  Another statement in response to Rob’s blog yesterday: Readers ARE leaders and Leaders ARE readers.  Thank you Jesus for the Bible and great cell church authors who seek you while writing!

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

John Maxwell is well known for the following quote:  “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”  It’s true, isn’t it?

I’m wondering– what leadership lessons are near and dear to your heart?

Further, would you be willing to share those lessons with this blog community?  You need not be wordy (as you may note this blog post is quite brief).

Let me share two of my favorite leadership lessons.

First, everyone will not be like you.

Next, everyone will not like you.

Post a comment.  Be brief.  One or two lines will be just fine.

Ralph Neighbour is sponsoring a cell symposium in Waco, Texas on June 23-25, 2009 that you won’t want to miss. Ralph heads up the cell church component for the doctor of ministry program at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary. The cell church symposium is connected to the D.Min program. Check out the website and you’ll notice that key cell church leaders from around the world will be speaking. I asked Ralph the following questions:

Ralph, what will be different about this cell symposium than other cell seminars?

Our D.Min. cadre has discussed the impact we desire to see from the Symposium. In order for this to be more than “just another meeting,” we are praying for an impartation through you to the community of 300 delegates who will be present. Participants have already registered from foreign countries including Nigeria, Switzerland, Korea, etc. but most will be from the USA or Canada.

Ralph, what will be the focus on those who are presenting in the main sessions?

We do not desire to “parade” the seven Presenters.

We are asking them to approach the Symposium as missionaries to us:

“Why is America and other parts of the world being left out of the significant harvests you are seeing in your areas of ministry?”

Jesus spoke of the soils and how it receives the seed. We are asking these worldwide cell church leaders to answer the following questions:

Is the dearth of cell group churches in parts of the world a condition of the soil, or are there other factors to be considered?

Ralph, what will be the specific themes of each of the main speakers?

Each of the Presenters have been invited because they speak to us from different soils:

Eddie Leo: how the cells rooted in the soil of Islam.

Bill Smith: how the cells and “basic Christian communities” (sometimes called ‘house churches’) rooted in the soil of Restricted Access Nations.

Robert Lay: how the cells rooted in the soil of hundreds of traditional churches in Brazil.

Dion Robert: how the cells rooted in the soil of a demon-infested society.

Harold Weitz: how the cells rooted in the soil of South Africa and elsewhere through a powerful emphasis on equipping all believers for the work of ministry with a strong focus on prayer.

Mario Vega: how the cells rooted in the soil of a nation suffering from revolutions and poverty.

Jimmy Seibert: how the cells rooted in the soil of a college community with a passion to send church planters to the nations.

Ralph, could you give us more insight into what will be shared at the conference?

Each will share the Principles, Values, and Theology that drives their communities that will speak into the USA, but also to the world. (We do not want you to slip into “How To’s”. The afternoon Breakouts with speakers are designed to focus in that area.)

The D. Min. cadre has suggested that we follow the pattern of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an invitation-only event (with a fee of thousands of dollars), where the world’s leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. Each of the Presenters will be given 12 minutes to summarize the insights they bring to the Symposium.

On the first morning, the Presenters will summarize the passionate centers of what they bring to the Symposium, using no more than 12 minutes each.

Ralph, could you share more about the schedule?

MORNING SESSIONS: The balance of the mornings will be spent by my chairing a discussion between the Presenters related to these specific topics: PRAYING, EQUIPPING, PLANNING, EDIFYING, PASTORING, EVANGELIZING. The 300 delegates will reflect on their insights to what the presenters bring to these areas.

EVENING SESSIONS: The evening sessions will be a “free-for-all” discussion with Eddie, Robert and Harold interacting with the delegates on Tuesday night; Dion and Mario on Wednesday night; and Bill and Jimmy on Thursday night.

Initial questions will be submitted in advance in writing but we will leave the evening open for discussion.

Again, please check out the website: http://www.cellsymposium.com/

Comments?

Joel Comiskey

by Mario Vega

We learned our cellular model from Pastor Cho’s books. We found there that the refreshment time was one of the characteristics of the cell meeting. Pastor Cho shared in his books about the difficulties that had taken place at the beginning of his cell work because of the competition going on among his members for offering the most delicious snack. That led him to take measures, limiting the snack to just tea and cookies.

Based on that teaching, we took the idea of offering the guests the most modest snack possible. In El Salvador’s culture, the practice of having tea and cookies is not a custom, but there are several alternatives that could be used.

The goal was to prevent those hosts with limited financial resources from thinking that they could not be hosts because of not being able to offer a meal at the end of the cell meeting. We discovered that by keeping it simple,more people would agree to becoming new hosts.

Nevertheless, when a cell multiplies, in our system this becomes an occasion to celebrate. For this reason, the brethren of the cell meeting prepare a full meal with the traditional Salvadoran dish: the “pupusas.” Sometimes there may be chicken, tamales and everything that is available to offer. The cell multiplication is a party, and thus the groups wnats to celebrate.

We alwasy remember that the power of the refreshment time is to fellowship with guests and strengthen friendship ties.

What is your experience in this field?

Mario

Translation in Spanish:

El refrigerio.
Nuestro modelo celular lo aprendimos de los libros del Pastor Cho. Allí encontramos que una de las características de la reunión de célula era el refrigerio. El Pastor Cho compartía en sus libros sobre las dificultades que se habían dado al inicio de su trabajo celular a causa de una competencia entre sus miembros por ofrecer el refrigerio más suculento. Eso le llevó a tomar la medida de limitar el refrigerio a solamente galletas con té.

Partiendo de esa enseñanza, adoptamos la idea de ofrecer a los invitados el refrigerio más sencillo que se pudiese. En la cultura de El Salvador no se acostumbra ni el té ni las galletas; pero, sí hay diversos sustitutos que se podían utilizar.

La idea era que las personas de limitados recursos económicos no pensaran que no podían ser anfitriones por el hecho de no poder ofrecer una comida al final de la reunión de célula. Manteniendo la sencillez, es mucho más fácil que las personas accedan a convertirse en nuevos anfitriones.

No obstante, cuando se produce una multiplicación de una célula, en nuestro sistema es toda una ocasión para celebrar. Por ese motivo los hermanos de la célula preparan una comida completa. Con el tradicional plato salvadoreño: las ‘pupusas’. A veces puede haber pollo, tamales y todo lo que se pueda ofrecer. La multiplicación de la célula es una fiesta y no una tristeza.

Con todo, siempre se conserva la idea que el refrigerio no es más que una excusa para retener un poco de más tiempo a los invitados para estrechar lazos de amistad con ellos.

¿Cuál es su experiencia en este campo?

Jeff Tunnell

Dr. Michael Erickson, author of “Recovery Cells, Small Groups for People in Recovery”, has been our Associate Pastor for 17 years.  Starting today (this is NOT an April Fools joke) he has been appointed as Senior Pastor for the Big Bear Foursquare Church!!  This is a very unique multiplication of leadership indeed, as we are an independent church and not affiliated with the denomination.

Some of our blog readers are aware that on March 1, 2009, I initiated a 3-year transition process for the Senior Pastorate of our church, Big Bear Christian Center.  This includes determining who the upcoming “Timothy, Joshua, Elisha” is and preparing him during the 3-year period.  It also opened the door for Pastor Mike to seek a new fruitful field for his ministry expansion.

To have Mike appointed to another “local” church in our area is fantastic!  Now there are TWO cell based churches in our community with a vision for multiplying cells to reach our population with the Good News of Jesus our Savior.

Congratulations Pastor Mike!  Thank you Big Bear Christian Center for supporting a great vision. Thank you Joel, for your confident coaching and friendship.