Month: October 2007

Some have mistakenly concluded that cell church ministry is only for Pentecostal or Charismatic churches. Think again. I just got back from a three-day seminar in Tabasco, Mexico, the home of the church called Jesuscristo es la Vida Eterna. This Baptist church has grown to 400 cells groups and 3,000 people. The church baptizes 100 people per month and has grown at a 50% rate since starting their cell church vision several years ago.

About 800 people were present each night at the seminar and the 80% of the pastors and leaders were Baptists. Because of this church’s influence among Baptist circles, many Baptist pastors and leaders are now open to the cell church strategy.

The church had about 120 attending before they started transitioning to the cell church in 2002. Much of their cell philosophy is patterned after the ELIM Church in El Salvador. Like Elim, all cells have a weekly planning meeting in which they talk about who they’re going to invite to the cell, who they need to visit, etc. The cells meet on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and are very evangelistically focused (they do follow the Sunday morning sermon).

Each cell group is given a one-year goal to multipy, complete with a folder that has the exact month to multiply. Each member is encouraged to invite one non-believer each month.

This cell church is opening new doors for cell ministry among the Baptists throughout Mexico.

Comments?

 

Joel

If you didn’t get a chance to read Joel’s post yesterday, please check it out.  His challenge in releasing leaders may require a CHANGE of mind for many. 

Even the strongest Christ followers can experience upheaval during periods of transition or CHANGE.  This is true because change is often accompanied by pain.  We hate to hurt.  These feelings are legitimate and don’t necessarily signify a lack of faith. 

We live in an ever evolving world of change.  For example, only 20 years ago, there were 50,000 computers in the world.  Now, that many computers are being installed on a daily basis.  Approximately 1,000 new products are introduced into America’s supermarkets every month.  The annual rate of growth for Internet traffic is 341,000%.  Yet, 69% of the American public adhere to the following belief:  “I do not like change!”  Change will not go away; it will only get faster.

Author Ed Skidmore offers the following timely truths about CHANGE:

1.  Organizations which refuse to change eventually die.

2.  No change, even positive and beneficial change, will be accepted by everyone in the organization.

3.  The benefits of change are seldom understood broadly until the change has been in effect for a while.

4.  The goal of any change is not absolute perfection but advancement and growth toward a targeted improvement.

5.  The risk of change is that the goal will not be met, but the avoidance of risk leads to stagnation and apathy within the organization.

6.  Change always costs something even if it only costs time, energy, and creativity.  Therefore, the homework of change is accurately and realistically counting the cost of change as well as the cost of the status quo.

7.  All change, no matter how long-term, is temporary.  The implementation of change will never negate the need for future changes.

Now, think of this.  A life with Christ is a life of change; the God we serve is a changeless God.

Is a change of mind (and heart) on the horizon for how you release leaders….how you “do” church…how you display church?

Comments?

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

 

 

Sometimes our training methods get in the way of spontaneous expansion. That is, we depend too much on education and ultimately don’t release people for ministry. We tend to think that a person must be 100% equipped, but often we equip the zeal and life out of them! Roland Allen critiques the education of his day:

Christ trained His leaders in two or three years; these men have been training leaders for more than two or three generations. Christ trained his leaders by taking them with Him as he went about teaching and healing, doing the work which they, as missionaries, would do; we train in institutions. He trained a very few with whom He was in the closest personal relation; we train many who simply pass through our schools with a view to an examination and an appointment (Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: and the Causes which Hinder It. London: World Dominion Press, 1956. p. 27).

Only the Spirit of God can truly guide His church. And we need to be totally committed to the Spirit of God leading and guiding us. Only He can bear the fruit necessary for sustained growth. As a missionary for eleven years in Ecuador I can testify that often foreign missionaries don’t want to leave the field because they can’t fully trust the nationals to do the work. I have to admit that Ecuador didn’t need me! I needed Ecuador. I needed Ecuador to teach me about these wonderful movements. Allen writes:

They [the missionaries] imagine fondly that they are quite ready to retire when the leaders whom they train are ready to take their place and that the moment when the native leaders are ready will be so obvious that they will all agree that it has come, and that then there be no difficulty in handing over authority. The moment is never clear. Those who are seeking to gain authority never agree to wait until those who hold it think that they are sufficiently prepared. The moment arrives only when those who are seeking to gain authority are strong enough to drive those who hold it into concession, by threats of revolt (p. 33).

Would to God that we would give over our ministry to others at the right time so that God’s spontaneous movement might continue. Let’s only hold on to prayer and the Spirit of God–not to our OWN ministries.

Comments?

 

Joel

I was in one famous cell church that back in 1996 rejoiced in the fact that they couldn’t control what was happening in their midst. The Holy Spirit was moving so mightily that I was told that even if they attempted to write it down into a manual, the Holy Spirit would change things within weeks. I remembered the words of Dr. Paul Pierson, my professor of church history, who said, “revival is always messy.” But then this same church fell into the trap of trying to control everything in a systematic model that everyone had to follow. You can guess what happened to the church . . . .

Roland Allen says about Paul’s ministry and the spontenous expansion of the church:

by spontaneous expansion I mean something which we cannot control. And if we cannot control it, we ought, as I think, to rejoice that we cannot control it. For if we cannot control it, it is because it is too great not because it is too small for us. The great things of God are beyond our control. Therein lies a vast hope. . . the moment that we think of ourselves as establishing self supporting, self governing Churches in the Biblical sense we are met by this fear, a terrible, deadly fear. Suppose they really were self-supporting, and depended no longer on our support, where should we be? (Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: and the Causes which Hinder It. London: World Dominion Press, 1956. p. 17).

Do we desire the messiness that comes from the work of the Spirit of God? Or do we prefer more of a controlled religion of rules and order. And ministry does get messy. We here at Wellspring have dealt with many problems in one particular couple. Yet the Holy Spirit is using this couple to reach more people for Jesus than all the rest of us put together. God likes to blow our minds! My prayer is that I would allow God to work in a powerful, spontaneous way.

Comments?

Joel

 

By Steve Cordle

This weekend is our church’s annual “ServeFest”. Many of our groups will be out in the community serving unchurch people in practical ways: from painting their homes, to doing repairs, to servant-evangelism projects like passing out water on a walking trail. In previous years, some of these groups band together because the scope of the project requires more than one group. This lead me to think more about the idea of “clustering”.

“Clusters” is a term coined by Mike Breen. The idea is that once a month a group of groups (a “cluster”) gathers to do something missional/service-oriented. Not only does clustering help the project get accomplished, it creates a larger, middle-sized entity which some unchurched people comfortable to attend. In the process of serving, the unchurched person can get to know some group members, and thereby become receptive to an invitation to attend a group.

Need-meeeting service is becoming increasingly popular and attractive in our culture (a good sign, indeed). Our unreached neighbors will often appreciate the chance to, say, help change the oil for single mothers, even if they aren’t ready to declare their faith in Christ. Today, serving others can be a bridge for evangelism. Clustering groups seems to be one way to create some of those opportunities.