Month: June 2007

  From my last two blogs, you might get the impression that I’m negative toward G12. I’m not. I actually love G12 principles. I even refer to myself as a cell church person fine-tuned by G12 principles. All my seminars and teaching are loaded with G12 principles. Yet, I think it’s best to stay in the cell church camp, while being refined by those principles. Why? Because the cell church movement is broader, allows for more options, and connects a pastor to an exciting worldwide family. So I’m actually excited about the possibilty of people like César Fajardo and Lucho Salas reminding and refreshing us with core G12 principles.

Here are some of the excellent adjustments that the G12 movement has contributed to the cell church:

-viewing everyone as a potential cell leader
-asking the leader of the mother cell to care for/coach the leader of the daughter cell
-developing a clear, dynamic equipping training track that prepared everyone for ministry
-emphasizing encounter-with-God retreats to ensure freedom from sinful strongholds, believing that holiness brings fruit
-prioritizing prayer and spirituality as keys to future growth

Sadly, ICM, began to promote the G12 model as the new revelation of God, asking people to follow it precisely—to adopt it and not adapt it.

My advice is to take these great G12 principles and use them to fine-tune your cell church ministry.

p.s.: I know that I said on Wednesday’s blog that I’d talk about “the temptation to follow models” today. However, I decided to wait until Monday to cover that topic.

Comments?

Joel

 By Steve Cordle

For years now, Joel Comiskey has been sounding the call to be principle-centered rather than model-centered. This is very healthy and freeing! One of the reasons we need to hear that is the strong attraction of “formula” ministry.

Many pastors go from conference to conference, book to book, looking for the procedure or formula that they can use in their churches to make them grow. But deep down we all know that a program will not cause revival to break out. A formula will not change the fundamental spiritual dynamics of our people and churches. Indeed, it can be idolatry to look to a formula, because then we are really saying that it is the program, not God, that “works”.

Some might say that God revealed the formula/program (whether G-12 or any other) to them and therefore it should be followed. But so often, what God the way God says to minister at one time won’t apply to the next time. Jesus healed people in many ways: using spit, mud, touch, etc. Each time he was led by the Father. But each time the procedure was different.

Lesson: as leaders we need to stay on our knees and listen for fresh instructions from the Father. He is glorified most when his people lean into him in trusting obedience.

At the beginning our church used the 5 x 5 coaching model. Eventaully we found it hard for leaders to connect naturally with their assigned coaches when they did not personally know them previously. So we switched to a modifed G-12;. When a group birthed, their cell leader became their coach. This made the coaching a lot stronger and more natural. But now our generational lines are too far removed from Network pastors, and the coaching is becoming uneven once again. Some coaches do well, others very poorly. So it is time for us to look once again at modifying our approach. What worked one time is not now. We are not going to look to the model, but rather to the Lord for his creative solution.

Is your ministry “working” today? Praise God! Keep listening for what may need to change. Is what you are doing not working? Don’t be a slave to the model, listen for the latest instructions from the Father!

On Monday’s blog I was talking about the G-12 model, and specifically how César Fajardo, the key architect of the G12 strategy in Bogota, Colombia has now left the church. Fajardo has started a new church called Sin Muros (without walls), and I heard it has grown rapidly. Sadly, Castellanos now forbids all G12 churches under his apostleship to have any association with Fajardo.

Fajardo has maintained a humble attitude and is now holding his own conferences. Rather than asking people to buy only his material, Fajardo encourages churches to use the material they already have. I’m looking forward to hearing in the future about Fajardo’s balanced approach to cell church ministry.

Another pastor who has left ICM is Luis (Lucho) Salas. Salas is a good friend of mine, and was the only person back in 1996 who could clealy explain the G12 model to me. Salas grew his network of cells to 600+ back in 1998, and is now planting his own church in Colombia called En Tu Presencia (In Your Presence). The church has already grown to 1500 people. Interestingly enough, he’s not using the G12 model anymore. Rather, he’s using Cho’s model (5×5) because he believes that the G12 model has too many weaknesses.

Even through I’m saddened by many of the recent occurences in the G12 model, I am happy that those like Fajardo and Salas are following cell church principles and seeking to unite the body of Christ. On Friday’s blog, I’ll talk more about the temptation to follow models.

Joel

by Rob Campbell

A good portion of cell churches around the world use some type of format or outline during the actual cell gathering.  My church family utilizes the ever so popular 4 W’s.  This cell gathering format really works for us.  I have found that cell leaders appreciate a basic framework as they lead their cell week end and week out.

As a reminder, the 4 W’s are as follows:  WELCOME (A time to connect person to person using an icebreaker question or two), WORSHIP (A time for group members to connect to God; Welcome the presence of Christ in their midst through singing, reading of a Psalm/scripture, prayer), WORD (A time to dialogue and reflect on God’s Word seeking deeper reflection, insight and application), and WORKS (A time to cast vision concerning multiplication, spiritual formation, missions; “Because of what God has done in our lives this week, here’s how we choose to spread the vision of this cell and church family.”)

Some cell churches have switched the order of the 4 W’s mentioned above and that is surely understandable.  Other cell churches follow the basic content of the 4 W’s, but use other words in formatting their outlines.  It’s all good!

This post’s purpose is quite simple.  May I offer up a fresh call for us to allow the 4 W’s to FLEX?  I believe that the underlying purpose for attending a cell gathering is to be in the presence of the resurrected Christ.  Further, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  Therefore, let’s allow the 4 W’s to be our guide, but not our master.

Specifically, a cell leader should not:  Read verbatim the cell outline, Feel like he/she must cover every question and/or idea, Lead every section of the outline by himself/herself,  Cover all the W’s every gathering.  Conversely, a cell leader who does not adhere at all to the 4 W’s can risk leading a gathering that “is all over the map” lacking focus and effectiveness.

My original experience underscoring this need for flexibility occured in 1993.  My wife and I were hosting a cell in our home, but not leading this specific cell.  During the WELCOME time, one woman began to share some rather deep things in the presence of a good number of children.  I desperately wanted the cell leader to call a “timeout” and usher the children to another room for their time of teaching.  It did not happen.  I maintained my “wallflower” posture knowing in my mind the leader was making a significant mistake.

As I was about to speak up (you know- and lend some “guidance”), the cell leader said, “Children, I want to you to gather around this woman [using her name] and pray for her.”  Again, I thought– this is not going to be good.  I mean, the lady had shared some very deep emotions, pain and hurt.  Well, needless to say– I was wrong concerning the leader’s act.  I will not soon forget the prayers offered to God by those children.  They were prayers of hope, love, comfort….even direction!  Indeed, we had experienced the resurrected Christ in our midst and the Spirit of God was freely working.  By the way, I don’t remember what happened during the WORD and WORKS time.  I hope you will forgive me! 

A final thought:  God is not confined to a 4 W box!  He’s out of the box and isn’t it great?

Comments?

 

During my recent trip to Argentina, I came face to face with questions about Groups of Twelve. As I met with the city pastors of Cordoba, Argentina, the most controversial question was about César Castellanos and Groups of Twelve. I discovered that several large churches in Argentina have adopted the G12 model and are under the control of Castellanos. The vast majority of pastors, however, chafed at the idea of adopting the G12 model and coming under Castellano’s apostleship. Many churches were divided over the issue.

It became quite clear that Castellanos expects all churches that come under his apostleship to ADOPT the G12 model 100%. These churches must only follow his vision. According to Castellanos it is wrong to ADAPT cell church principles. He expects churches to follow his G12 model in its entirty.

The sad part is that many of Castellanos original disciples from his church in Bogota have now left the International Charistmatic Mission. The three most notable who have left are: César Fajardo, Luis Salas, and Diego and Claudia Montilla.

Some of you might remember from my book, Groups of Twelve, that César Fajardo, the youth pastor at ICM, was the one who led the first pilot G12 groups among the youth back in 1990. I really respect César Fajardo and consider him a friend. I’ve eaten several meals with him and his wife Claudia (the sister of César Castellanos) and have grown to appreciate his godliness and balance in the Christian life. Fajardo was the one who invented the Encounter retreats, system of follow-up, training track and many other key features of the G12 movement. It was through Fajardo’s youth group at ICM that the explosive growth occurred. The adults in the church simply followed what the youth were doing through groups of twelve.

P.S.: I’m trying to limit each blog to 200 words. I’ll continue my blog on this topic on Wednesday.

Joel