John is a missionary who has planted a thriving cell-based church in Kazakhstan. The church has grown to over 1,000 (most former Muslims) and is starting other churches in their country.
I asked John what he would say to one of his pastors whose network of cells was not growing. John replied that the first thing he would explore is the pastor’s faith for his network.
As I thought about this, I realized if that mishandled, the focus on faith could be damaging to a pastor; that is, it would be false and damaging to imply that if your network isn’t growing it must invariably mean you have a defective faith. That can lead to condemnation and shame.
On the other hand, I took John to mean that it is unlikely our ministries will grow if we don’t believe they can and that God desires it. This kind of faith is related to vision: can you inwardly “see” your cell or your network growing and multiplying? Do you have the conviction that not only does God want this, but that God wants to use YOU to lead it? How would your leaders answer this question? How can you help fan that faith?