Goals: How to Achieve Them

mario

by Mario Vega

One of the basic principles about goal setting is that they must be clearly defined. Each person should have complete clarity about what, how, and when the goals are pursued. One way to clarify the goal is to constantly repeat it. The more you mention the goal; the more probabilities there will be for people to actually fulfil it.

However, even if we have a very clear definition of the goal and a passionate desire to reach it, we still might miss the goal unless we also have the proper means to achieve the goal. Therefore, a a large part of achieving the goal is to have the proper means to accomplish the goal and then to faithfully progress toward the goal. If we do this, the accomplishment of the goal is assured. Remember: progress toward the goal is exactly proportional to the purity of our means.

These means are prayer, the implementation of a training course for new leaders, fidelity to the cell work principles, the transmission of the vision, and the constant care of those involved in the cell work. As we manage to care for these details in a meticulously way, we’ll be assuring the attainment of the aimed goals.

Mario Vega

Translation in Spanish

Las metas y cómo alcanzarlas.

Lo básico al hablar del tema de las metas es que éstas deben estar claramente definidas. Cada persona debe tener completa claridad de lo que se persigue y para cuándo se persigue. Una manera de aclarar la meta es su repetición. A mayor cantidad de veces la meta se menciona más probabilidades existen de que las personas se la apropien.

No obstante, la definición más clara posible de la meta y nuestro deseo de llegar a ella no nos harán alcanzarla si no conocemos y utilizamos los medios necesarios. Por eso, buena parte del esfuerzo debe ser dedicado principalmente a la conservación de los medios y a su uso progresivo. Si lo hacemos as la consecusión de la meta está asegurada. El progreso hacia la meta es exactamente proporcional a la pureza de nuestros medios.

Esos medios son la oración, la puesta en práctica de un curso de entrenamiento de nuevos lderes, la fidelidad a los principios del trabajo celular, la transmisión de la visión y el constante cuidado de quienes se encuentran involucrados en el trabajo celular. En la medida que cuidemos de éstos detalles de manera meticulosa, aseguraremos el alcance de las metas que se hayan propuesto.

Fixing My Game

coach-tunnellby Jeff Tunnell

I just finished my FIRST round of golf this year!  Shank & pull should have been my scorecard name! The last round I played was on Father’s Day in 2008! (Michael Sove probably can’t even believe this!)

So the game was going wrong (as maybe are cells). Life began to “teach” me again.  I recalled when  Armin Gesswein told me of a golf book titled “The Nine Worst Shots in Golf” with the subtitle “and the one shot that fixes them all”.  While I haven’t found the book, the conversation left me with a continuing thought that I can either (1) keep applying all my energies on trying to repair “what’s wrong” with my game, or (2) FOCUS on the ONE SHOT that will overcome the errors altogether.

I looked up some advice from Dr. Jim Suttie, golf professional: here are 3 of 7 correction (I am trying to apply them to Cells):

• Lighten up your grip. (How can I apply this to fixing my cells? Lighten up! Don’t get overly serious, relax some, quit squeezing the leaders so hard, let God have control)

• Get farther from the ball at address. (I am getting a message here; step back a bit, quit hovering and smothering the things could help you)

• Work on a little straighter back takeaway with no rolling of the right hand. (are your values steady? are you rolling away from the straight course you set?)

But, most importantly, see your PGA professional for some help. (Ahh…. Back to seeing a coach! let go of pride and get some help!)

I wonder what lessons life is teaching you.  Care to share?

Your Group’s Next Step

steveby Steve Cordle

On Monday, Joel posted an excellent blog about taking the next step as leaders. Today I’d like to build on that by inviting you to think about taking the next step as a group.

Sometimes groups get stagnant because they need to take a next step and have not yet done so. There is a big difference, though, between taking a next step down the path and taking a step off the path.

The core purposes of a group are evangelism, discipleship, and community, with the goal of multiplication as new leaders are developed. When a group is stagnant, it is important not to stray from these purposes, but to go deeper in them. Resist the temptation of introducing a new focus for the group (bike-riding, etc.) and instead grow inward and stagnant.

For example, perhaps the way a group has done evangelism has grown stale. Don’t abandon evangelism, just seek God about how He wants your group to do it on a new level. Perhaps He is calling the group to new boldness or new people. Quite often the next step requires risk, creativity and seeking of God. These all work together to create freshness in the group and effectiveness in the mission.

Maybe the group’s experience of community has settled into a predictable level. Is it time the leader takes a relational risk and shares what God is doing in him or her at a much deeper, more vulnerable level than before? Has the group’s prayer life grown stale? Maybe it’s time to take a step to a new level and have an all-night prayer meeting?

What new level is God calling your group to take along the path?

Steve Cordle

www.crossroadsumc.org

Taking the Next Step

joelby Joel Comiskey

Last June, I taught a D.Min cell church course with Ralph Neighbour for Golden Gate Seminary (right after the symposium). During the last half-hour, Ralph Neighbour’s firstborn son, Ralph, asked me to speak from my heart and give some final words to the eleven present. I shared with them what God had shown me the night before in my devotions about taking the next step. “Take the next step,” I told them. “Often the next step brings us into new territory, difficulties, and sometimes stretches us beyond our own limits. But we’ll never become all that God wants us to be unless we take the next step.”

The night before I had reflected back on my own journey. I looked back on each new step in my life and ministry. For example, it was a big step to become a missionary in Ecuador. But then it was another big step to become a cell church leader while a missionary in Ecuador. I was rocking the boat of my denomination by my writing, speaking in seminars, and transitioning the flagship church in Ecuador to cell ministry. Then there was the step of leaving Ecuador to establish my ministry in the United States. I remembered how painful it was to leave Ecuador, relearn the North American culture, and then start coaching pastors–a completely new ministry for me. Some of those pastors left in frustration because I really didn’t know what I was doing. But while taking the next step, I learned how to coach. God was perfecting a new, important ministry while I was crying out in emotional agony. As I looked back at God’s work in my own life, I was challenged to continue taking new steps in ministry. I realized that I had to continually be moving forward with God.

Dr. Robert Clinton of Fuller Seminary has studied the lives of 1000s of leaders and discovered that many leaders never reach their full potential because they fail to take the next step. They end up stagnating. Some of these leaders become hindered by structures that impede the full blossoming of their lives, ministries, and talents. They fail to reach what Clinton calls “convergence.” Other leaders, according to Clinton, keep on stepping out and enter a wonderful convergence of fruit, lasting legacy, and powerful ministry.

Taking the next step often means stepping out into the unknown. Scripture says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country” (Hebrews 11: 8-9).  Abraham became all God wanted him to be as he stepped out into the unknown.

My 18 year old daughter, Sarah,  is an example of stepping out. On August 12, she will take the step to live one year in Texas.  She will study at the Honor Academy, which is part of Teen Mania Ministry.  She felt God called her to do this last March in Sacramento at an Acquire the Fire event (Teen Mania). In the “flesh” we don’t want her to go, nor does she want to go!  Yet, she knows she must take the next step in her life to follow God wholeheartedly.And so do we, even though it will be painful to see her go.

My encouragement to you is to take the next step in your life and ministry. Enter into the unknown with God. He’ll be right by your side. For some of you, this means staying the same course you’re on right now and not jumping ship. You are in that “unknown country” at this moment. For others, it means stepping outside your comfort zone and taking the next step for God, wherever that might lead you. Let’s commit ourselves not to take the soft road, the easy way out. Let’s keep on taking the next step, wherever that might lead.

Comments?

Joel

Following Up on New Converts

mario

by Mario Vega

On several occasions it has been mentioned in this blog that the training of new leaders is a key factor to cell multiplication. And we must remember that new leaders can only emerge from those who are already members in your church (attending the cell groups, etc.). Yet, often churches stagnate in their potential leadership pool because they are not seing new people come to Christ, connecting to the cells, and participating in the training process.

One of the key problems is that new converts are not given appropriate follow-up. I believe it’s very important that a church has a plan to receive the new convert, care for him or her, and guide the new convert to become a disciple of Jesus by entering the training process. The cell plays a critical role in preparing the new beliver to serve the Lord. Each new convert should be incorporated into the training process with the goal of making him or her a future leader.

By doing this, there will always be new blood in the cell model. The new converts will be oxygenating the model and allowing new leaders to emerge.

Does such a mechanism exists in your church?

Mario Vega

Translation in Spanish

Atención a los nuevos conversos.

En varias ocasiones se ha mencionado en éste blog que la formación de nuevos lderes es clave para la multiplicación de las células. Los nuevos lderes solamente pueden surgir de nuevas personas que se incorporan al trabajo de evangelizar en las casas.

Después que una iglesia ha agotado los posibles candidatos de entre sus miembros activos, los nuevos lderes solamente podrán surgir de las personas que recientemente están conociendo a Jesús. De all, que es muy importante dar a los nuevos conversos el seguimiento apropiado. Después de la conversión de una persona es cuando el verdadero trabajo va a comenzar.

Se debe elaborar un plan que permita que cada nuevo converso sea recibido, atendido y guiado para iniciar su vida cristiana de la mejor manera. Parte de la vida cristiana es el servicio a Dios y, dentro de ello, el trabajo celular juega un papel importante. El plan de atención a nuevos conversos debe incluir el mecanismo para que cada nuevo cristiano se incorpore en el curso de entrenamiento para llegar a ser un nuevo lder.

De ésta manera, siempre existirá sangre nueva en el modelo celular. Los nuevos conversos estarán oxigenando el modelo y haciendo posible que nuevos lderes surjan.

¿Podra decir que tal mecanismo existe en su iglesia?