by Steve Cordle

One sure-fire way to drain the life out of your cell group ministry is to make it one of dozens of ministry options. To be central, cells cannot have lots of competition. That said, at our church we still need other ministries to function: children’s ministry during worship, worship teams, missions activity, etc. We have sought to keep groups at the center in a few ways:

a) The slogan “if ever in doubt, group always wins” That is, we tell people that if they have conflicting time demands from the church, always choose group.

b) Avoid competition: we do our equipping on Sunday mornings so we don’t take people away from groups. We don’t schedule much in the mid-week so as to avoid distractions from the group.

c) Make other events feeders to group: our new members class is designed to bridge people to groups, as are many other events.

d) Other ministry leaders encourage group participation. For example, the worship pastor asks those auditioning which group they are part of, and helps them to connect if they are not. The same holds true for children’s ministry and others. While there’s no rule, the expectations are clear.

If cells are the foundation of the church, those in leadership must be part of the foundation to be effective.

Comments?

Steve

by Michael Sove

A few days ago Jeff Tunnell wrote an excellent article called Understanding Integration.  In it he talked about the four types of integration.  (non integration; faulty integration; minimum integration and maximum integration)  Here is how it works for us, a church in transition.

We are a hybrid of minimum integration.  As Jeff laid out the main points of

minimum integration are:

• Cell Church

• Clear definition of a cell group

• Cell attendance is just as important as celebration attendance

• Only those already attending a cell group can be involved in official church ministries.

We hold to the first three points but let me explain the last one, especially what we would consider official church ministries.  In this phase in our transition people can serve without being in a cell but to lead or function as a point person for any ministry we do ask them to participate in a cell group.  All our deacons are at least members of a cell, most are leaders.  Leadership is influence and if they are not part of the cell system they cannot influence others to participate in the life of the cells, a very important part of our strategy.

For example we were approached by some men who wanted to start a men’s ministry.  Both these men were already in a cell group so we were open to the idea.  We asked them to call it Men’s Network and to make sure it contained balanced elements of our Connect, Grow and Serve strategy.  In other words it would not just focus on fellowship and fun events, it would not just focus on spiritual growth or serving in the community but would balance all three of these dimensions.  Men’s network serves both cells and celebration and does not have a life of it’s own.  It is an integral part of the overall cell system.

Since we only have 40 percent of our worshipping adults in cells we want to be able to harness the energy of the other 60 percent and get them behind the vision of our church and involved in service while we try to invite them into cells which is more of the strategy of how we live out the vision.  Later on when the majority are in cells we can depend more and more on the cells to carry out the basic ministry functions.

It is so important to address integration as you plant a cell church or transition away from a program based system to a cell based system.

Comments?  What are you doing to integrate?

Michael

by Mario Vega

When talking about integration, it is usually done from the perspective of a church that is making its transition to become a cell church. This is not the case at Elim. Next year we will celebrate 25 years since making the transition to cell church ministry. For our members, the perspective is now very different. Most people that now attend Elim had their first exposure to the gospel in a cell. They accepted the invitation to attend a cell, were converted, and then eventually started attending the celebration services.

Most people at Elim first relate to the cell environment, to the leader, to the host, to the supervisor and then eventually learn about the other functions of the church via the celebration services (i.e., musicians, deacon and deaconess, children’s church, women’s fasting services, youth activities, etc.)

Their involvement begins in the cell and that leads them to other privileges in the celebration service. This means that they come to integration in a natural way. In fact, they don’t even need to think about the concept of integration. For them the integrated church is the church. This is all they ever knew.

Comments?

Mario

Translation into Spanish:

Después de la integración

Cuando se habla del tema de la integración normalmente se hace desde la perspectiva de una iglesia que se encuentra haciendo su transición para convertirse en una iglesia celular.

El próximo año cumpliremos en Elim 25 años de haber hecho nuestra transición. Para nuestros miembros la perspectiva es ahora muy diferente. La mayor parte de personas que hoy asisten a Elim tuvieron su primer acercamiento al evangelio en una célula. Fueron invitados y asistieron. Luego vino la conversión y comenzaron a ir a las celebraciones. La célula fue antes que la celebración.

Las personas se relacionan primero con el ambiente de la célula, con el líder, con el anfitrión, con el supervisor. Después, en la celebración, se van enterando que existen otras funciones. Como la de músico, diácono y diaconisa, iglesia infantil, ayuno de mujeres, actividades de jóvenes, etc.

Su involucramiento comienza en la célula y, eso, les conduce a otros privilegios en la celebración. Es decir que ellos llegan a una integración de manera natural. En realidad, ellos ni siquiera manejan el concepto de integración. Para ellos la iglesia integrada es la iglesia. La única que han conocido.

¿Comentarios?

by Jeff Tunnell

The following article was written by Joel Comiskey and very helpful to me during the time I was trying to understand INTEGRATION.  I am posting an excerpt only.  If you would like the entire aritcle, let me know by COMMENT request.

The main point is NOT whether it’s permissible to have ministries in the cell church. The main point is not to allow those ministries to become programs that compete with the cells for time and resources. In my opinion, the word INTEGRATION best sums up how a cell church links ministries with cells. I believe that Integration is one of the hottest issues in the cell church today. We must be urgently concerned that ministries do not develop a life of their own and compete with the cell-base, but to avoid certain ministries could actually weaken cell and celebration (e.g., worship, etc.).

I see four types of integration: the first two are used in a church with cells. The second two are used in the cell church.

Non-integration is used in the programmed based church. If there are cells, they are simply one option among a variety of programs. There is no attempt to integrate ministries and small groups.

Faulty integration is practiced in churches that try to equate all small groups as cell groups (e.g., Meta Model). The motivation is noble (desire to integrate), but the problem stems from a faulty definition of a cell. In this approach, A Sunday School class, a board meeting, a choir group, a parking lot attendant meeting, a life-giving cell group, etc. are all classified as “cells.” This might bring instant integration (all ministries are small group), but many people will think they’ve experienced cell life, when in reality they’ve experienced a programmatic small group.

Minimum Integration is practiced in many cell churches. Cell churches who use Minimum integration say, “Everyone must actively participate in a cell, but not necessarily lead a cell group.” With Minimum integration, cell attendance is the key requirement before involvement in another ministry in the church.

Maximum Integration is practiced by a growing number of cell churches. According to this option, a person must be leading a cell group or in the process of preparing to lead a cell group to be involved in additional church ministries.

by Joel Comiskey

Do cell churches have additional ministries, such as ushering, missions, worship, etc.? The Elim Church, for example, has a powerful radio and TV ministry that blankets the country. The same could be said of other cell churches around the world.

The difference between ministries in cell churches and conventional churches can be summed up by the word “integration.”

Integration means that the starting point for church involvement is participation in a cell group. And isn’t this the starting place of the New Testament, since all of the gift passages are written to house churches? In a cell church, a person is first encourged to discover his or her spiritual gift in the intimate atmosphere of the cell. The person who is exercising a gift of teaching in the cell, for example, might be encouraged to teach in the training track. A person who has a clear gift of helps or service might be encouraged to minister as an usher.

In other words, cell churches fill ministry spots with those who are already involved in cell groups. The Elim Church is even more radical in this regard. They ask that a person is first leading a cell group (or supervising cell groups) before involvement in a church ministry. Elim looks at ministry participation as a privilege and wants to make sure the person is first fully integrated in the cell vision.

In the conventional church, on the other hand, small groups are just one ministry among many. A person might be involved as an usher, another in the worship group. Some, on the other hand, might choose the small group ministry. In the conventional church, cells are always competing for attention among the various ministry options.

A cell church that is fully integrated doesn’t have to worry about competition among minsitries since active cell participation is a foundational prerequisite for all other ministry involvement. Again, the key word is integration.

What are your thoughts on integration? What has been your experience?

Joel

by Steve Cordle

At a recent lunch gathering a pastor friend of mine asked how he could coordinate all the various ministry groups in his church without endless meetings and many staff. As we spoke he realized that we didn’t have committees for segmented ministries like evangelism, pastoral care, or fellowship because we incorporated all of those into the small group structure. With a wistful envy he said, ”You are training all of your people in all these areas.”

Recently a lay leader of a good evangelical church invited me to breakfast to discuss how to stimulate evangelism in their congregation. He spoke of his passion and experience in relational evangelism, but now in his new position he was looking for ideas on how to stimulate evangelism in the whole church.

I told him that if the church had dozens more like him who were sharing Christ and winning people to Jesus, that would be his answer. As he shared that on a quarterly basis, he called together 16 people who shared his passion so that he could encourage and equip them. As he spoke it became clear that the simplest answer was to meet weekly instead of quarterly with those folks. That way he could help them with their spiritual fire, motivation, encouragement and more. Discipleship is not segmented, it’s all part of the whole, and a holistic cell group is the best way to develop disciples.

With an effective cell ministry, the church is naturally structured for discipleship, evangelism, leadership development and simplicity.

Comments?

Steve

by Michael Sove

I’ve done it both ways!  I planted a church with cells (called “Little Platoons”) and I’m currently Cell Pastor in a church of cells.  I prefer the church of cells.  Here are some of the benefits I’ve found in our cell-based system.

#1  Celebration and cell are considered equally important and feed each other.  People get a sense of the transcendence and immanence of God through large group and cell group participation.

#2  Everyone ministers to someone and no one ministers to more than ten.  Appropriate spans of care allow all to be ministered to well.

#3  All our cells throw monthly outreach events and practice body life evangelism.  You have as many evangelism nets as you have cells.

#4  All our cells apply the same passage or message topic each week and this allows continuity and brings great unity.  We’re on a common path together.

#5  Many more mentor’s available as discipleship is carried out through cell relationships.

#6  It allows for more people to use their gifts in both celebration and cell.  Many times we mobilize cells to serve at all church events.

#7   The cells expand the mission base of the church.  All our cells have adopted an International pastor as well as have a local mission focus.

After twenty one years in pastoral ministry I believe the cell-based system is the best delivery system for living out my job description found in Eph. 4:11-12 (NCV) “And Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people.  Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger.”

Questions?  Comments?

Michael

by Mario Vega

The main reason to make cells the base of the church is because the model of large and small meetings is the one that appears in the New Testament as a basic characteristic of the church. We have developed this subject before, and for now it is not necessary to go through it again.

In addition, there are other practical reasons that show the advantages of a cell-based church. From our own perspective, if we weren’t a church based on cells, the Elim church WOULD NOT  be:

1. Elim wouldn’t be a mega church. It would be a church whose membership might reach 3,000 people or so. In fact, we hit the ceiling of 3,000 for several years, and we couldn’t break it until we became a cell church.

2. Elim would not have so many branch churches overseas. Almost all of our branch churches were not born as a result of a missionary plan but as a product of the migration of thousands of Christians trained as cell leaders. If these migrants had not been trained for the work of the ministry, once abroad they would have joined a church as a member.  But their experience as leaders allowed them to become laborers of the churches that they themselves planted.

3. Elim would not  have been able to properly care for its members. The church was already large before becoming a cell church (about three thousand people), but it continued with the model of only one pastor looking after that crowd. And, of course, they were not really cared for. The cell model allowed thousands to exercise the “priesthood of all believers” and enabled them to encourage, pray and exhort one another. In this way, a whole cell care structure was created which has continued to this day.

4. Elim would not had been able to accomplish its big projects, like the purchase of six radio stations and a television channel with national coverage, a piece of land of 22 acres where its future 13.000 seat auditorium will be built, etc. Those great endeavors were made possible thanks to thousands of Christians organized around cells.

5. Elim would not  have the ability to evangelize and significantly penetrate the major cities of the country and abroad. The cell model has allowed 9% of the total population of the capital of San Salvador to be part of the church. It is very difficult to find anyone  in the country who has not heard of the Elim church.

6. if Elim was not a cell church it would not have a quarterly average of 9,000 conversions, about 300 baptisms per month,  and about 400 new leaders per year.

There would probably be other differences, but it is hard to imagine the difference between what Elim is today as a cell-based church and what Elim might have looked like as a traditional, program based church.

My prayer is that what is listed here might bless you to envision the benefits of the cell based church.

Comments?

Mario

Translation into Spanish:

¿Por qué es importante que la iglesia esté basada en células?

La razón principal es porque el modelo de reuniones grandes y pequeñas es el que aparece en el Nuevo Testamento como característica básica de la iglesia. Este tema lo hemos desarrollado antes y, por ahora, no es necesario volver a él.

Además, existen otras razones prácticas que muestran las ventajas de una iglesia basada en células. Desde la perspectiva de lo que es nuestra experiencia, si no fuéramos una iglesia basada en células ¿cómo sería la iglesia Elim?

En primer lugar, Elim no fuera una mega iglesia. Sería una iglesia cuya membresía oscilaría solamente alrededor de las tres mil personas. Ese techo que se mantuvo por varios años solamente pudo ser roto cuando la iglesia hizo su transición al modelo celular.

Segundo, Elim no tuviera tantas iglesias filiales en el extranjero. Casi todas nuestras filiales no nacieron como resultado de un plan misionero sino como producto de la migración de miles de cristianos capacitados como líderes de células. Si tales migrantes no hubiesen sido capacitados para la obra del ministerio, al llegar al extranjero solamente se habrían sumado a alguna nueva iglesia. Pero su experiencia como líderes les permitió convertirse en obreros de iglesias que ellos mismos plantaron.

Tercero, Elim no hubiese podido cuidar adecuadamente de sus miembros. La iglesia era ya numerosa antes de ser celular (unas tres mil personas), pero se continuaba con el modelo de un solo pastor atendiendo a esa multitud. Y, lógicamente, se atendía mal. El modelo celular permitió que miles ejercieran su sacerdocio de creyentes para comenzar a animarse, orar y exhortarse los unos a los otros. De esa manera, se creo toda una estructura de cuidado celular que ha demostrado ser útil hasta el día de hoy.

Cuarto, Elim no hubiese podido realizar sus grandes proyectos como la adquisición de seis emisoras de radio y un canal de televisión de cobertura nacional, un terreno de 22 acres donde se construirá su futuro auditorio para 13,000 asientos, etc. Esos grandes esfuerzos fueron posibles gracias a millares de cristianos organizados en torno a las células.

Quinto, Elim no tendría la capacidad de evangelizar y penetrar significativamente en las principales ciudades del país y del extranjero. El modelo celular ha hecho posible que un 9% del total de la población de la capital San Salvador sea parte de la iglesia. Es muy difícil encontrar en el país a alguien que no ha escuchado, al menos, de iglesia Elim.

Sexto, si Elim no fuese una iglesia celular no tendría un promedio de 9,000 conversiones trimestrales, unos 300 bautismos por mes, unos 400 nuevos líderes por año.

Posiblemente existirían otras diferencias, pero es difícil imaginar las diferencias entre lo que es y lo que nunca fue. Pero, sirvan los elementos mencionados para ilustrar la bendición que significa una iglesia basada en células.

by Jeff Tunnell

A small circle of Christian leaders, of which I am a part, once posed the question to itself, “If we all arrived simultaneously in this community with the biblical mandate to make disciples of Jesus and then discovered that we were the only believers here, how would we approach the task of evangelism and establishing the new believers after leading them to Christ?”  Build buildings? Hold meetings? What?

The conversation that followed ran the course of examining each pre-determined and well-practiced method of which we were aware.  Finding most to be ineffective in our condition, we moved toward cooperation and relational approaches.  Then we adopted Augustine’s comments: in the essentials-unity, in the non-essentials-liberty, in all things-charity.  Eventually we decided to band together, rather than keep to ourselves and our denominations or affiliations, while moving into the community with relational evangelism.  Once new converts were made, we would meet in simple, life-giving groups to continue the spiritual formation processes.  This was becoming promising and exciting.

Then the impasse arrived and stood directly in front of us.  We left the meeting disappointed because each one knew they could not ignore the dictates of their denomination to stay aloof from others.  We had been confronted with the Bible, its history and the report of a vibrant growing body of believers and then left to compare our structures to what we really wanted to do.

But I left the meeting with hope!  I saw that the cell system would accomplish what we had concluded upon.  Buildings can arrive much later (if needed) because homes exist everywhere we need to gather.  Spiritual formation could be achieved in small relational structures (cells). Accountability and support were easily provided to each small group.  The church would be built from cell-to-cell, as the basic unit of the Body of Christ was formed over and over again.  Simple……profound!

Let’s decide today: this is no “add-on” ministry, rather it is the very foundation and life of the church that will expand HIS kingdom in all the earth.

Comments?

Jeff

by Joel Comiskey

During a cell seminar, a pastor from Victory Outreach announced to the seminar participants: “I’ve tried to start cells in my church three times and failed on each attempt. I now realize what I did wrong. I wasn’t concentrating on my cell group system.”

The phrase I heard over and over in the successful cell churches I studied was this: “cell ministry is the backbone of our church.” The vision passed down from leaders to members is that one must belong to a cell group to receive pastoral care, because cells are the very life of the church.

If cell ministry is one more program amid endless church activity, it’s bound to fail. The church won’t be able to concentrate on “this one thing.” Too many interests will overload the cell system.

The fact is this: No one can do everything well. A job well done requires deliberate concentration. This is true of churches, too. Successful churches cannot be all things to all people.

A cell church organizes itself around cell ministry. In a church with cells, the cells are one ministry among many. All other ministries function as separate programs but are supposed to exist harmoniously with the small groups. One person typically heads the cell ministry, while other pastors attend to their ministries. A church with cells might emphasize the importance of cell ministry, but it is not the main ministry.

Cell churches have two important ministries: cell and celebration. Cell ministry provides pastoral care, evangelism, counseling, follow-up and all other important activities. The core organizational structure is based on cell ministry.

It’s my growing conviction that if you want your cell groups to succeed you must learn to concentrate on the cell system behind those cell groups. The key word is concentration.

Comments?

Joel