Month: September 2010

by Mario Vega

As I shared on an earlier blog,  the leader is a Christian who shares his faith with a small group of friends in a house. The leader is not necessarily a preacher. When one thinks of the leader as a preacher, the cell falls into the trap of the mini-service syndrome. Therefore, the leader should be encouraged to stick with the theme of the cell material given to him.

From that perspective, the training to be a leader is very different than the one needed to be a preacher. A leader needs to be trained in relation to the effective way to share his faith with people who have no knowledge of the gospel.

One way to do this is to hvae a different two types of training, one for cell leaders and one for future pastor/preachers. The leader’s training should be kept simple and uncomplicated. While preachers direct their teachings to Christians, the leader directs it to non believers. While the primary objective of the preacher is the theological formation, the leader’s focus is evangelization. While the preacher exercises his ministry in the church’s building, the leader exercises it in the houses. The training must be focused and limited to those areas.

Comments?

Mario

Translation into Spanish

Entrene para evangelizar.

Como se dijo anteriormente, el lder es un cristiano que comparte su fe con un grupo pequeño de amigos en una casa. El lder no es necesariamente un predicador. Cuando se piensa del lder como un predicador, la célula se ve expuesta a incurrir en el sndrome del mini-culto. Por ello, el lder debe ser animado a solamente presentar su fe en torno al material para la célula que le ha sido entregado.

Desde esa perspectiva, el entrenamiento para ser lder es muy diferente que el que se necesita para ser un predicador. Un lder necesita ser entrenado en relación a la manera efectiva de compartir su fe con personas que no tienen conocimiento del evangelio.

Una manera de contribuir a ese propósito es establecer una diferencia entre el entrenamiento de los lderes y el entrenamiento de los predicadores. La formación del lder debe mantenerse básica, corta y sin complicaciones. Mientras que los predicadores dirigen sus enseñanzas a cristianos, el lder lo hace a no creyentes. Mientras que el objetivo fundamental del predicador es la formación teológica, el del lder es la evangelización. Mientras que el predicador ejerce su ministerio en el edificio de la iglesia, el lder lo hace en las casas. El entrenamiento debe enfocarse y limitarse a esas esferas.

Jeff Tunnell

Training should have an end in mind at the onset.  Training is task oriented. It would  be pointless to have a soccer match without a goal.  Endless running around with nothing to aim at is ridiculous!  No one wants that, even though the general Christian church has convinced believers that they should submit to never-ending learning without ever producing fruit.  This is unacceptable. Jesus stated in John 15:8 that our Father is glorified when we become His disciples and bear much fruit.

Jesus in Luke 13:6-9: “He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’  But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

Likely the reason we take so long to prepare a believer for actually doing the work of ministry is that we do not provide close supervision in monitoring their growth in character.  Coming alongside someone to disciple them is a task of love and commitment that requires time, a lot of time.  Benchmarks for growth can be discerned from scripture rather than conjecture or culture.  By walking together with a goal in mind, an end to the training combined with activation in the task, the learner can begin practicing what they have learned.

by Joel Comiskey

I love learning. God wants all of us to become life-time learners. I believe God desires that we sharpen our brains through reading and study, and in the process become more like our maker, who knows all things.

There is a difference, however, between general education and training. Neil F. McBride, Ed.D., Ph.D., makes a helpful clarification:

Education is an expanding activity; starting with where a person is at, it provides concepts and information for developing broader perspectives and the foundations for making future analysis and decisions. On the other hand, training is a narrowing activity; given whatever a person’s present abilities are, it attempts to provide specific skills and the necessary understanding to apply those skills. The focus is on accomplishing a specific task or job (How to Build a Small Group Ministry, p. 128).

Education is a life-time quest, whereas training is for a specific purpose, with a limited time frame.

Cell church ministry encourages life-time education but focuses on specific training in order to turn members into disciple-makers. The goal is to move everyone through the equipping track to fulfill the great commission. Most churches don’t catch this distinction. The goal is simply Christian education, rather than preparation to be a disciple.

Let me give you an exampel from my own 5-book equipping series. In developing this equipping track, I’ve gleaned (stolen with pride) principles from cell chruches around the world.

• Live, my first book, covers key Christian doctrines, including baptism and the Lord’s supper (action step: baptism)
• The second book, Encounter, guides the believer to receive freedom from sinful bondages (action step: confession and repentance, resulting in spiritual freedom)
• Grow, the third book, gives step-by-step instruction for having a daily quiet time, so that the believer will be able to feed him or herself through spending daily time with God (action step: have a daily quiet time)
• The fourth book, Share, instructs the believer how to communicate the gospel message in a winsome, personal way (action step: share the gospel in a personal and group setting)
• The fifth book, Lead, prepares the Christian on how to facilitate an effective cell group (action step: lead a cell or be part of the leadership team in a cell)

Those taking the training are in a cell group, so they are living cell values while learning and obeying biblical teaching. Many cell churches have upper level training for those who have completed the first level and are applying the principles.

On the other hand, the general “educational” courses offered in many churches rarely lead to the fulfillment of a goal. As mentioned, training in the cell church is tightly focused on a step-by-step disipleshp process.

What’s your understanding on the differences between general education and specific training?

Joel Comiskey

by Steve Cordle

Virtually every believer knows that after his resurrection, Jesus commissioned his followers, saying, “Go into all the world and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20).

But how did those followers know how to do this? It was not by seeing the risen Jesus but rather because Jesus equipped them for ministry during the previous three years.

As pastors and leaders we must be careful not to exhort people to do something without equipping them to do it.

Setting up a training program for your members has many benefits, which include:

• provides a clear path for people to grow in a step-by-step manner into a group leadership role. This communicates an expectation in the church: “I assume you will want to know how to do this!”
• gives you a way to pass on your church’s unique values, making it less likely someone transferring from another church will be passing on a different vision to their group.
• allows time for spiritual maturing on the part of the trainee.
• gives you the chance to see if a potential leader will follow church leadership.
• allows timid people to gain confidence.

What other benefits can you think of?

Steve

By Michael Sove

The one thing you’ll never be able to say, “I have enough leaders.”  No sooner do you think you have enough and a leader will receive a job transfer and move, another leader will quit without warning, and some will go through a season of personal struggle and have to step down to strengthen their marriage or spend time with an unruly teen or care for an aged parent.

Mark my words, “You’ll never have enough.”  As I write this blog my greatest need is for additional leaders.  As Joel said a few days ago, you can’t increase cells without increasing the number of leaders.  Jesus said it this way:  Luke 10:2 “…”The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

If you are to multiply cell groups to hold the harvest and make disciples, you’ll need a constant flow of people into your training process.  This starts with prayer asking God to open your eyes to the people around you.  See everyone as a potential leader and have a system to raise them up and train them, whether they ever take on leadership or not.  The worst thing that will happen if you see everyone as potential and train them up.  You’ll have cell members who have a clear sense of vision and they will be great core team members and add value to the outreach and discipleship of their cell.

Since “You’ll never have enough” leaders, spend time praying, selecting, training all who are willing.  In this way you may be able to enter the harvest field with enough workers and cells to ensure all can connect to a “Basic Christian Community” and experience the intimacy and life change that God intends for all His children.

Do you have enough leaders?  What are you doing to stay ahead of the need?

Michael