Month: August 2009

Jeff Tunnell

I just finished compiling the statistical data for one week of Tent Revival Meetings in our community.  Six local congregations joined together and hosted a traveling evangelist to preach each night Sunday – Saturday.  The events were held outdoors under two open tents which were set up at the base of a snow play sliding area (no snow this time of year!)  The relationship between “efforts made” and “results desired” are not encouraging to me.

We rejoice in the new salvations and rededications in Jesus, and we even held an outdoor water baptism on Saturday afternoon before the final evening.  Having churches move together in unity of vision was probably the greatest result for me, which is the main reason our cell church participated.

However, setting up tents & tearing them down, making childcare arrangements work in an open field, training altar workers from 6 different churches (including a Spanish speaking congregation that hosted one evening), constructing portable lights and sound systems, permits from government agencies, working every evening at the tents until late at night, and calculating the human and financial resources needed for such a large effort, have all led me to reread Chapter 8 of Dr.Cho’s book, “Successful Home Cell Groups”!!  Let me transmit two short paragraphs here:

“When people heard I had set a goal of 500,000 for 1984, many asked me, “Are you going to have a big campaign? Are you going to have a city-wide soul-winning program?”

I don’t need any of those things, because I have a completely different philosophy of evangelism.  Before I knew the biblical way of evangelizing, I thought the only thing to do was have a big revival meeting with all sorts of special speakers and programs.  But with the cell system, we don’t need any special programs at all.  We are having revival every day, and it hardly takes any effort.”

Oh my, how this rings true in my heart: to have healthy cells that ‘naturally’ evangelize and multiply is so very effective and nobody has to be worn out for the 4 weeks following!

I am still trying to figure out whose electrical cords are in my car, leftovers from the teardown.

by Rob Campbell

In light of Joel’s post yesterday and the comforting comments that this blog community wrote to Joel concerning his father’s salvation and passing, let me pose the following question:

WHY PRAY?  Consider some of my thoughts.

First, to neglect prayer is a sin against God.

“…Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.”  I Sam. 12:23

Next, to share God’s perspective on his purposes.

“When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Psalm 73:16-17

Third, to acknowledge dependence on Him, His leading and provision.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

Fourth, to see God working in your life.

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and tell you great and mighty things which you do not know.”  Jer. 33:3

Finally, to express your love to the Lord.

“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.  Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1-2

NOW, A QUESTION.

Share with this blog community one creative way in which you pray for/with each other.

A few sentences or a short paragraph would be great!

Rob

by Joel Comiskey

When I shared one week ago that my dad received Jesus, Timothy Wright commented:

“So pleased to hear your great news. I wished it ended all this way. I have prayed for my family almost every day for my entire family since I became a Christian 29 years ago. Not one has become a Christian and my Father is in Hell and denied Jesus up till his last breath. Jesus was so good to continue to give my dad the opportunity to come to him.”

I responded to Timothy’s comment, saying, “Timothy, thanks for your honest sharing. The fact is that many do go to hell. In reality, I was ready for my dad to resist right up to the grave because he had so consistently resisted our past witnessing to him. I even subconsciously thought about how I would prepare my kids for my dad’s death without Christ. My kids had just returned from a Panama mission trip in which they prayed for a deaf team member who they “thought” God ha “promised” to heal (a word picture). My daughter’s faith was tested when God didn’t heal him. With regard to my dad, by God’s sovereign grace–which our minds can’t truly grasp–God broke through in a miraculous way, as you can tell by my diary entry and his testimony to others [this was a synthesis of what I shared with Timothy].

I was excited when Iain, reading about my dad’s salvation, wrote, “Thanks for the encouragement. I will not give up on my parents….” And this is my hope for those hearing about my dad’s salvation.

I also want to thank those who persistently prayed for my dad. Angela Munizzi writes: “Joel, David and I rejoice to hear this great, great news! We had placed your Dad’s name in our prayer journal and it is so encouraging to hear this great testimony!”

Comments?

Joel

by Mario Vega

The key to multiplying cells is multiplying leaders. To generate new leaders we must count on the important work of the current ones. While the fundamental job of cell members is the evangelization of other people, the key job of cell leaders is to identify potential new leaders.

The cell member sees the cell as an ideal place to evangelize the guests; the leader sees the cell as the ideal place to find a new cell leader candidate. All this will not happen by chance. For a leader to find other potential leaders he must make the decision to become the trainer of a new leader.

Potential leaders will not appear by themselves. They must be discovered, encouraged, directed and trained to become new leaders. I mean, it takes work to train new leaders. That work will be completed only when the leader makes the decision to become a generator of leaders. The first barrier to overcome is the inner one. I’m referring to the natural resistance of doing nothing and hoping that things will happen by themselves.

What do you do to encourage your current leaders to become generators of new leaders?

Mario

Translation in Spanish

Lderes que generan nuevos lderes.

La clave para multiplicar células es multiplicar lderes. Para generar nuevos lderes se debe contar con el importante trabajo de los lderes actuales. Mientras que el trabajo fundamental de los miembros de una célula es la evangelización de otras personas, el trabajo del lder es identificar a potenciales nuevos lderes.

El miembro ve la célula como el lugar ideal para evangelizar a los invitados, el lder ve la célula como el lugar ideal para encontrar un nuevo candidato para lder. Todo esto no ocurrirá por casualidad. Para que un lder pueda encontrar a otros lderes potenciales debe tomar la decisión de convertirse en un formador de nuevos lderes.

Los candidatos a lderes no aparecerán por s solos. Deben ser descubiertos, motivados, dirigidos y capacitados para que se conviertan en nuevos lderes. Es decir, se necesita trabajar para formar nuevos lderes. Ese trabajo solamente se completará cuando el lder tome la decisión de ser un generador de lderes. La primera barrera que hay vencer es la interna. La de la resistencia natural a no hacer nada y esperar que las cosas ocurran por s mismas.

¿Qué hace usted para animar a sus actuales lderes para que se conviertan en generadores de nuevos lderes?

Mario

by Jeff Tunnell

On the topic of prayer I would offer a dominant perspective in my life at this time.  Hosea seems to be a ‘contemporary’ rather than a prophet of history (750 b.c.).  In chapter 6 the conversation revolves around repentance and the healing of a nation.  Here’s a paragraph from one introduction to the book written by Sam Middlebrook:

 â€œThough all the gauges of outward success seemed positive for Israel, underneath disaster was lurking. The people of this period enjoyed peace, plenty, and prosperity; but anarchy was brewing, and it would bring the political collapse of the nation in a few short years. Hosea describes the characteristic social conditions of his day: corrupt leaders, unstable family life, widespread immorality, class hatred, and poverty. Though people continued a form of worship, idolatry was more and more accepted and the priests were failing to guide the people into ways of righteousness. In spite of the darkness of these days, Hosea holds out hope to inspire his people to turn back to God.”

 Intercession is a key component of prayer where we ‘stand in the gap’ for the benefit of those who are deficient in their relationship with God (Ezekiel 22:30).  The church must lead in repentance and returning to God in these times that parallel Hosea’s day.

 A key value of successful cell churches around the world is PRAYER, both individual and corporate. I recommend the DVD by Joel Comiskey on this website as a resource that reinforces this teaching while providing some excellent background study on successful cell churches and their approach to corporate prayer.

 This Friday night our cells will gather for a night of prayer, we call it PRAYER FIRST because we do this on the FIRST FRIDAY of each month and remind ourselves that prayer is the FIRST WORK (sorry for the redundancies). If ever in our generation there was a time to pray for a revived church with fervency and sincerity, IT IS NOW!

 What is your cell church’s practice in the arena of consistent prayer?  Do you have a regular time for corporate prayer?  Or is this accomplished at the cell level?  Both?