Month: November 2008

by Jeff Tunnell

www.bigbearchristiancenter.org

One of the privileges in my life was meeting with Armin Gesswein.  He worked in the Norway revivals during 1937-38, founded Revival Prayer Fellowship in 1940, worked with Charles Fuller in 1945 and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from 1949-69. Armin used to say with simple clarity, “When you read the Bible remember, the main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things!”  This principle has guided me on many occasions.

In cell church we often get tripped up, confused and disoriented by “doing” too many things at once.  When distracted we lose sight of the “main things” which attracted us to cell structures: prayer as foundation, holistic church growth, evangelism, mulitiplication of ministers and ministry, to name a few.

What helps?  FOCUS!  Remember trying to walk on top of a wall, railroad track, balance beam or just a line on the ground?  When you looked right down at your feet, balance was lost and you fell.  But if you look ahead about 10-20 feet (3-6 meters) and keep your FOCUS there, your ability to remain balanced is much improved.  Staying focused on the PLAIN THINGS will help you avoid the pitfalls of the urgent, endless, details of your day-today efforts while pursuing the MAIN THINGS for which you began the journey in cells.

What are your Main things?

I’ve spent the last week in Hong Kong at the CCMN conference. CCMN stands for Cell Church Mission Network. Ben Wong, the founder of Shepherd Community   Grace Church (a cell church of 1700 members in Hong Kong), sensed God was showing him to freely share resources and seminar speakers with other pastors and churches in Hong Kong. The CCMN network grew to include 100s of churches around the world. These churches and pastors not only shared resources but also trained cell church missionaries to plant cell churches around the world.
At this CCMN conference, there were over 300 leaders from many, many nations. I talked with pastors from India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, U.S., Brazil, South America, and Russia (and I’m sure I forgot a few!).

The main goal of the conference is not to hear speaker after speaker but to connect with other like-minded pastors who love missions and cell church ministry. This year CCMN tried to be very inclusive to those planting house church networks as well as cell churches. I spoke the first day on planting reproducible churches. I talked about the need to simplify and connect cell churches and house church networks into a  united movement of “simple” churches that multiply. We need both large cell churches (e.g., Elim) and small, simple cell churches (e.g, the majority of churches).

Mario Vega was present for the entire CCMN gathering and spoke about God’s mighty move in El Salvador and around the world. Rodney, a pastor of a small cell church plant in Texas, just happened to be one of Mario’s roommates (everyone stayed in dorm style “bunk-bed” rooms). Rodney commented on how amazing it was to share a room with the lead pastor of the second largest church in the world!

It was great to see large church pastors and small church pastors share the vision of reaching a lost world for Jesus. The theme of CCMN, in fact, is: no glory, no control, and no empires!

Comments?

Joel Comiskey

 

by Mario Vega

Common sense tells us that a guest can not be “made.” People are simply there, and you either invite them or don’t invite them to a cell meeting. However, in Elim we emphasize to our leaders that guests are not just there; we have to make them.

Obviously, I am talking about a church that has worked for 22 years already and has exhausted in most cases its “oikos.” To invite a person under these conditions is a process.

The process begins by selecting a specific person. Building rapport comes next. This is what Pastor Cho calls “holy indiscretion.” This means that we need to tap into people’s lives, looking for those areas of need that might be used for the invitation.

Here are some examples; an ailing grandmother, bruises on the wife’s skin, alcoholism problems, a mother who needs a break from her many children, etc. In general, it means seeking for what appears to be a person’s most pronounced need, to solve it through the gospel.

We’ll continue later on with this subject. But what do you think of this?

Mario

__
Haciendo un invitado.
El sentido común nos indica que un invitado no se puede ‘hacer’. Simplemente las personas están all y se las invita o no a una célula. No obstante, en Elim enfatizamos a nuestros lderes que los invitados no están all, hay que hacerlos.
Obviamente, estoy hablando de una iglesia que ha trabajado ya por 22 años y que ha agotado en la mayor parte de casos su ‘oikos’. El invitar a una persona bajo estas nuevas condiciones es un proceso.
El proceso comienza por seleccionar a una persona especfica. Luego, viene el acercamiento. O lo que el Pastor Cho llama la ‘indiscreción santa’. Ésta consiste en husmear en la vida de las personas por indicios que puedan utilizarse para la invitación.
Una abuela enferma, moretones en la piel de la esposa, problemas de alcoholismo, muchos niños que cuidar, etc. Éstos son algunos ejemplos de detalles que se toman muy en serio en esta primera etapa de observación. En esencia, es buscar la que parece ser la necesidad más marcada en la persona a fin de resolverla por medio del evangelio.
Luego seguiremos sobre éste tema. Pero ¿qué piensas de ello?

by Jeff Tunnell

www.bigbearchristiancenter.org

We believe in God, that He is on His throne and that prayer changes things.  I humbly request our blog readers to pause, lend me your lifted hands, and make requests for the further strengthening of our own Joel Comiskey, ministering this week in Hong Kong, AND Pastor Mario Vega who begins his week-long Cell church conference next week.  These servants of God would benefit from your intercession and an encouraging comment from you today.  I do not think them to be discouraged or weak right now, I simply think that lending them your hands, lifted up without wrath or doubting, would bolster their excellent work for the kingdom of God.  They give so much to us; resourcing the world-wide cell church, blogging faithfully, serving tirelessly and stretching our vision for effective ministry through cells.  Let’s sow a little back today.

Visit our home page www.joelcomiskeygroup.com and follow the link to “A Day with Joel Comiskey and Mario Vega” coming in February 2009.  This opportunity to participate face-to-face in a limited attendance setting is fast approaching.  Click through the link and enroll soon!  Or if it suits you better, check out the link to “Basic Principles of Cell Ministry” with Rob Campbell & Steve Cordle, also in February 2009.

 I’ll be at both, and happy to pour your coffee, while you soak up the information and inspiration you need! 

by Rob Campbell

www.cypresscreekchurch.com

After you read Joel’s new book, Planting Churches That Reproduce, consider picking up a copy of Transitions:  Making Sense of Life’s Changes by William Bridges.  Here’s why I suggest you read this book.  It seems to me that the cell church is constantly and consistently in a state of change and transition.  A cell multiplies.  A cell dies.  Three new cells are launched.  A new Celebration service begins.  Joe the cell leader no longer desires to lead.  Mary the lawyer has a passion to begin a cell.  I trust you get the point.

Transitions is not a spiritual read; yet, it’s worth checking out because of the holistic discussion on the topic.

Here are a few tidbits:

Change is situational.  Transition, on the other hand, is psychological.

All transitions are composed of an ending, a neutral zone, and a new beginning…Every transition begins with an ending.  We have to let go of the old thing before we can pick up the new one– not just outwardly, but inwardly, where we keep our connections to people and places that act as definitions of who we are.

Think of transition as a process of leaving the status quo, living for a while in a fertile “time-out,” and then coming back with an answer.

Comments?