Month: December 2007

Steve brought up a good, tough point about who can lead a cell and to what extent a person’s influence will reach (1, 3, 10, etc.). I think we’ll all agree that we often miss the leaders right around us. In my book Leadership Explosion I write the following from Chapter 2-Use Everyone in Your Church:

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A study of three hundred highly successful people such as Franklin Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert Schweitzer, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein, revealed that one-fourth had handicaps, such as blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs. Three-fourths had either been born in poverty, come from broken homes, or from exceedingly tense or disturbed situations.

Sometimes we fail to see emerging leadership because we are looking for the wrong things. We often look for those who mesh with our personality but pass over those who follow a different drummer.

| Samuel misjudged the Lord’s choice for the second king of Israel because he focused on height and stature: “Samuel saw Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.’ But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:6-7).

Jesse was just as surprised that his older children were not elected. He had not even considered inviting shepherd boy David to the ceremony. But even though David was a “ruddy” young boy, “. . . the LORD said, ‘Rise and anoint him; he is the one!’” (1 Samuel 16:11-12)

God tends to use the “ruddy, young boys” that are fully committed to him. Our tendency is to hang educational nooses around budding leaders. Yet, the harvest is so plentiful and the laborers are so few that God would have us look at all leadership possibilities around us.
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Let’s make sure we are looking at the RIGHT qualities when raising up leaders. Those “right” qualities have little to do with the externals. God looks at the internal, unseen qualities. So should we.

Comments?

Joel

 

by Steve Cordle

Many cell churches work with the assumption that every believer can become a leader.

Now, that doesn’t mean that everyone is ready to be a leader today. They are not. Many are just beginning to walk with Christ, and others have not allowed the Lord to mature them enough to entrust them with leading a group. But, with discipleship and training, they can (indeed, should) become leaders of a group.

For years I have taught this, saying eveyone can grow to the point they can help someone else grow.

 But when I looked at the results, I have seen that some fully-devoted devoted followers of Jesus have not seemed to be able to lead a cell effectively, but they can do 1 on 1 discipleship very well. Why?

Pastor Jimmy Seibert of Antioch Church helped me see that while everyone may be able to become a leader, not all will lead in the same context. Jimmy told me that some will grow to be leaders of 1, others leaders of 3, other 10, others even more.

While I resisted this idea for a while, I have found it better to tell the person who has not been effective at group leading to become a group member and disciple one other person than to lose them from the work entirely. No matter the number, it’s all about evangelism and disciple-making.

How has it worked in your setting?  

 

In my book Leadership Explosion, I mentioned that small group ministry doesn’t provide the cure all for all the problems in the local church. It does, however, satisfy several key needs. In the following three paragraphs (taken direction from Leadership Explosion) I talk about three key problem solvers:

First, it [small group ministry] provides a significant role for lay people. As Carl George says, “I´m convinced that lay people take ministry to a limited size group so seriously that they prefer a role in cell leadership to most any other office or honorific title in a church” Small group ministry prepares a person to pastor, evangelize, administrate, care for others, and use his or her gifts and talents. Lay people feel like they’re doing something significant.

Second, small group ministry is the perfect training ground for future leaders in the church. Small groups have correctly been called leader breeders. People learn to labor. They are equipped for ministry. They are encouraged to exercise their gifts. They develop vision. Ultimately, they become leaders. I started my ministry in a small group. I learned to lead, teach, exhort, administer and above all, pastor a small group of people. Doubtful potential leaders learn to spread their wings and fly in a small group atmosphere by taking baby steps in leading a group dynamic, worship, prayer, and eventually the small group lesson. Would-be leaders learn through an incremental process of doing and learning.

Third, small group ministry makes the pastor’s job easier. Because small group leaders assume a pastoral role, they do the work of the ministry and truly minister to the needs of the congregation as well as reach out to non-Christians. We find parallels here with the apostles and the needs of the early church. When the Grecian Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, the early church gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:1-4).

Comments?

 

Joel

We’ve been talking in the last few blogs about Leaderhsip Explosion. Let’s look at how this is played out in real life here in North America. Michael Sove, cell champion at Allen Memorial Baptist in Maryland writes about a guy named Mike Miles, who started talking with a cook named Aron at Lacey’s Restaurant. Over time he invited him to a Sunday service.

In April 2007, Aron attended his first Celebration service at Allen Memorial Baptist Church and gave his life to Christ. Aron was immediately invited to the Neighborhood Life cell group that met at Mike Miles house on Tuesday. Aron went and loved the experience. Over the next couple of weeks Aron invited his wife and two children to attend the cell and celebration service with him. They both accepted Christ. Aron began the process of training by taking the five book equipping track that Allen Memorial Baptist uses to train leaders. Aron began to meet every Thursday afternoon at 4:30 for training and  mentoring. Aron soon became associate leader in the cell, and Matt began asking Aron to lead parts of the life group meeting.

Here’s the update: Last week Aron launched his own cell group with nine in attendance! Aron has been reaching his neighbors for Christ and is continuing the process of outreach through his own cell group.

And the rest of the story has just begun. 

Comments?

 

Joel