Month: September 2008

by Mario Vega

After the first rally in 1988, each year new massive cell meetings continued to be organized. The National Stadium was been filled as the church grew. Later on it was necessary to put chairs on the athletics track. And then, chairs were placed also on the soccer field.

By then, approximately 55,000 people met at these rallies. But the certain fact was that not even the National Stadium was enough to accommodate the whole church. In 1995 it was decided to make two major celebrations on the same day. Half of the church would come to the stadium in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.

We had as a result a filled to capacity stadium in the morning and in the afternoon. But the national press, which followed year after year the church’s rally, began to publish that it was not true that the church was sufficiently large to fill the stadium twice. They said that the same people who had come in the morning had returned in the afternoon.

There was only one way to show them that it was true that the church was sufficiently large to fill the stadium twice, and that only way was by using simultaneously two stadiums.

We’ll talk about that next time.

Comments?

Mario Vega

Translation in Spanish:

Otros eventos.

Después del primer evento en 1988, cada año continuaron organizándose nuevas reuniones masivas de células. En la medida que la iglesia creca el Estadio Nacional se iba llenando. Después fue necesario colocar sillas sobre la pista de atletismo. Y, luego, se colocaron sillas también sobre la cancha de fútbol.
Para entonces, se reunan en estos eventos un aproximado de 55,000 personas. Pero, el hecho real era que ya ni siquiera el Estadio Nacional era suficiente para acomodar a toda la iglesia. En 1995 se tomó la decisión de hacer dos grandes celebraciones el mismo da. Por la mañana ira la mitad de la iglesia al estadio y, por la tarde, la otra mitad.
El resultado fue que se tuvo un lleno completo por la mañana y por la tarde. Pero la prensa nacional, que segua año con año el evento de la iglesia, comenzó a publicar que no era verdad que la iglesia fuera lo suficientemente numerosa como para llenar dos veces el Estadio. Ellos decan que las mismas personas que haban ido por la mañana haban regresado por la tarde.
Solamente haba una manera de demostrarles que s era cierto que la iglesia era lo suficientemente numerosa como para llenar dos veces el estadio y esa única manera era usando dos estadios simultáneamente.
De eso hablaremos en la próxima.

by Steve Cordle

Let me add to Rob’s blog from yesterday about Mid-Size Communities. In addition to what Rob said, we have been talking about the idea of gathering groups of cells into MSCs at our church for the following reasons:

1) It feels more accessible than cells to some people. The intimate setting of a cell can feel intimidating to some people if they have not experienced it before. A cell member can invite a preChristian to come along to the picnic/house renovation project, and then as they work together, the member can invite the new person to group saying “many of the people you’ve worked with today will be there, too.”

2) It eases the pain of birthing. When it comes time to multiply, members can be reassured they will see each other regularly as the cells reunite as a MSC each month.

3) Greater mission potential – 3 cells can accomplish more than 1!

Your thoughts?

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

The post below was posted last week as well.  I decided to run it again because I have a hunch that more comments would benefit this blog community.   Please comment after reading.

My church family is beginning Midsize Community Groups.  Authors Bob Hopkins and Mike Breen call these groups “clusters.”  As a matter of fact, Hopkins and Breen wrote a book entitled CLUSTERS:  Creative Mid-Sized Missional Communities.

I am currently reading this book and was recently inspired to form MCGs after hearing Hopkins and Breen speak on this issue.  In a nutshell, Hopkins and Breen are seeing remarkable success with MCGs in tough to reach places such as (Eastern) Europe.  My understanding is that American churches are testing the waters with MCGs as well.  To me, MCGs might be something your cell church would want to know about.

According to Hopkins and Breen:

Clusters are mid-sized groups (larger than cells and smaller than celebrations) which grow together in their relationship to God as they explore relevant whole-life spirituality.

Clusters build Christian community as places of belonging and participation…on days, times and places that suit (they are quite distinctly different from inherited “Sunday Service”).

Clusters gain identity and purpose from a united mission vision, being called to a clear geographic or network focus and engaging with the social patterns of that culture and context.

Clusters are linked together by a network of support and accountability to a diversity of other mid-sized groups.

Clusters are led by ordinary unpaid Christians in their non-work time, both receiving and passing on Jesus’ pattern of discipleship.

A pastor friend of mine recently used this metaphor concerning the cell church as it relates to Clusters (MCGs).

The cell is like a hot tub– it can be intimate and small.  These are not negative descriptors, just reality.

Celebration is like a swim meet– few participants and many spectators.  These are not negative descriptors, just reality.

Side note:  Please know that cells and Celebration are (for the most part) attractional.  Once again, this is not a negative descriptor, just reality.

This pastor says, “What we need are `pool parties.’  A gathering of 30-50 people who are missional and incarnational.”  They have a passion for `x,y,z’ which is directly hinged to the vision of the church and they purposefully integrate their lives into their respective community.  For example, one MCG gathers twice a month.  When they come together, they enjoy dinner together and celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  They sing a few worship songs and then they go…to an elderly person’s home and work for two to three hours.  Indeed, much can be accomplished by 30-50 people in a few hours!

So, here’s what I want to know.  Is anyone out there in this blog community doing MCGs (Clusters)?  Tell us about it.  Further, do you think MCGs could invigorate the mission, passion, and vision of your church family?

Comments?

Jeff Tunnell here, filling in for Joel Comiskey, who is ministering in Uzbekistan.

When coaching with Joel Comiskey he would say “the heroes are pastors who continue to lead their own cell as long as it remains practical” (Forgive me, Joel, if this is not a verbatim recounting, but it is what stuck with me). So, after a break of not leading a cell, so that I could give myself to developing our coaching process, my wife and I will open a new cell this month.

Putting the basic pieces together again will be fun, exciting and no doubt much work: forming, storming, performing, reforming, calling, no shows, being friends of sinners, reaching out to the neighbors, leading someone to faith in Jesus, and starting the discipleship process. All of this will bring us face-to-face with the same issues our leaders experience and produce fresh empathy within us. Our coaching will improve and the weekly celebration messages will once again be complimented with illustrations and stories of cell life that connect with existing leaders (and hopefully inspire new leader multiplications!)

Just to put it out there, we are inviting two couples that we believe will become multiplication leaders within six months. We will continue to meet with them after they launch new cells and maintain the relationship as before in the cell.

In one of the comments last week on the blog on leadership we read, “People will do what you do not what you say.” I think we have dropped a few cells because I was not seen leading the charge. We are about to erase that excuse!

Do you pastors lead your own cells? Have you seen enthusiasm wane when you were not leading by example?

Jeff Tunnell

by Mario Vega

Two years after starting our work with cells, the church had significantly grown in its membership. That had forced to distribute the congregation into several schedules on Sunday, and among several weekdays.

But, after some time under these conditions, the church started to miss the meetings where the entire congregation could be together in a single celebration.

Since the physical space of the church’s building no longer allowed such kind of meeting, it was decided to make a massive rally at the National Stadium. It has capacity for 45,000 people and it was the right place to gather the entire church in a single celebration again.

The rally took place in December 1988 and had an attendance of 25,000 people approximately. This was the number of cells attendees at that time.

The rally fulfilled its purpose of gathering the entire congregation again. And it was a surprise for the church to see itself so numerically developed. In addition, the city was impacted by the fact that there was such a large church. Since then the church’s event was seen as an evangelization instrument that could impact the press and all sectors of society.

Comments?

Mario Vega

Translation into Spanish:
Eventos masivos de células

Dos años después de iniciado el trabajo con las células, la iglesia haba crecido notablemente en su membresa. Eso haba obligado a distribuir la congregación en varios horarios el da domingo y entre varios das de semana.

Pero, después de algún tiempo bajo esas condiciones, la iglesia comenzó a extrañar las reuniones donde toda la congregación poda estar junta en una sola celebración.

Dado que el espacio fsico del edificio de la iglesia ya no permita tal clase de reunión, se decidió hacer un evento masivo en el Estadio Nacional. Éste tiene capacidad para 45,000 personas y era el lugar adecuado para poder reunir de nuevo a toda la iglesia en una sola celebración.

El evento tuvo lugar en diciembre de 1988 y se tuvo una asistencia de aproximadamente 25,000 personas. Que era la cantidad de asistentes que se tena en células en ese tiempo.

El evento cumplió su propósito de reunir de nuevo a toda la congregación. Y fue una sorpresa para la misma iglesia el verse tan desarrollada numéricamente. Además, la ciudad fue impactada ante el hecho que existiese una iglesia tan numerosa. Desde entonces, el evento de la iglesia se vio como un instrumento de evangelización que poda impactar a la prensa y a todos los sectores de la sociedad.