Month: September 2010

by Mario Vega

A leader is basically a Christian who shares the gospel with a group of friends at a small meeting in a house. His or her effectiveness is determined by the ability to present the message of the gospel through lifestyle and words.

Every Christian has, because of the new birth, the potentiality to become a leader. That potentiality must be developed by the ministers of the gospel whose task is to “perfect the saints for work of the ministry”.

The training to become a leader lies in the development of skills for the work of evangelism. The reason Jesus gave ministers to His church was to prepare the laity for the work of the ministry. Yes, a Christian can perform evangelistic tasks without receiving any training, but in the cell model, the purpose is to perfect those evangelistic skills so that they become a lifestyle.

Evangelism can happen through one’s own initiative, but it is better to take advantage of the accumulated experience of others. New converts learn best through the efforts, failures and victories of their predecessors. Leadership training is a wise procedure. It is an important way to pass on the values of the gospel from one generation to the next.

Comments?

Mario

Translation into Spanish

El entrenamiento para nuevos lderes.

Un lder es básicamente un cristiano que comparte el evangelio con un grupo de amigos en una reunión pequeña en una casa. Su eficacia está determinada por su facilidad para presentar el mensaje del evangelio tanto en su conducta como en sus palabras.

Todo cristiano posee, por el nuevo nacimiento, la potencialidad para convertirse en un lder. Esa potencialidad debe ser desarrollada por los ministros del evangelio cuya tarea es la de ‘perfeccionar a los santos para la obra del ministerio’.

El entrenamiento para llegar a ser un lder reside en el desarrollo de las capacidades para la labor de evangelismo. El entrenamiento es importante porque es la razón por la que el Señor Jesús entregó a su iglesia a los ministros. Obviamente que un cristiano puede desarrollar una tarea de evangelismo sin haber recibido entrenamiento. Pero, en el modelo celular, el énfasis evangelizador ha logrado una especialización. Años de experiencia van acumulándose para convertirse en un estilo de vida. El entrenamiento tiene como fin forjar ese estilo de vida en los cristianos.

El evangelismo puede adquirirse por iniciativa propia; pero, es mejor aprovechar la experiencia acumulada para transmitirla a los nuevos conversos y facilitar a ellos el camino que solamente se abrió por el esfuerzo, los fracasos y las victorias de quienes les precedieron. El entrenamiento de lderes es un procedimiento sabio. Es la forma de transmitir los valores del evangelio de una generación a la siguiente.

Jeff Tunnell

Why is training for leaders emphasized in cell churches?  Again we follow principles found in scripture: each of us need to humble ourselves, become as children and learn the kingdom life from those who are ahead of us spiritually.  We come to the cross to surrender our previous accomplishments in order to obtain the prize of knowing Jesus.  We submit our skills and education to the new standards of the Bible.  Paul, after recounting his worldly and religious accomplishments said that he counted them all loss compared to knowing Christ.

For example, he church we assist in Texcoco, Mexico has converted to cell-based ministry after studying the principles of cell ministry and making a visit to ELIM of San Salvador.  This church is located near the University of Chapingo.  Many of the adults attending the church are highly educated professors who admit readily that their worldly equipping has some transferable qualities to the Christian life,  but these fall short of what is needed to shepherd people in the kingdom of God.  They are desirous of training from their Pastor for cell leadership, family life and personal development as Christians.

Training involves the application of Biblical wisdom that is from above, not of this world.  Many leaders in the world of business and finance are good in their line of work or field of professional training, but on becoming believers must take their personal development in Christ as seriously as they did their professional training.  They cannot do this without help and direction.  We must take this aspect of leadership development very seriously to ensure that God’s heavenly wisdom is ruling above any worldly practices.

by Joel Comiskey

A pastor approached me in 2003 saying, “Joel, What is the essence of cell ministry? If you could boil down cell ministry to one major theme, what would it be?” I looked at him and said, “Leadership development.” Or put another way, the essence of cell ministry is making disciples who make disciples.

I will start a men’s LIFE group in a couple months. Today, I talked with Joe, a one-year old believer who received Christ in our church. He’s a FAT believer (Faithful Available and Teachable). I asked him to join me to start a men’s cell. I told Joe that I wanted to go through the training track with him to prepare him to be a disciple-maker and to lead the group in my absence.

It will be great to fellowship with Joe in the cell, but I believe God has a greater purpose for Joe. God wants Joe to be a disciple-maker. I plan to disciple Joe in the new cell, but apart from the cell, I’ll also take him through our 5-book equipping track.

Disciples need training. All cell churches have a specific way to take a person from point A (salvation) to point B (becoming a disciple-make). In my book, Leadership Explosion, I talk about this process, laying out the training principles that cell churches use to convert members into leaders.

The cell vision is based on the vision laid out in Matthew 9:36-38: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

The underlying cell vision is to fulfill Christ’s plea by raising up harvest workers to reach a lost world for Jesus. The cell church strategy does this by getting people involved in cells and then training them to make more disciples by leading cell groups and preparing new leaders.

Comments?

Joel

by Michael Sove

I have experienced the truth of what Jim Egli’s research says about the importance of a coach to the overall health of a cell/small group ministry.

He says, “My research involved 3000 small groups in 200 churches.  The findings clearly demonstrated the most important factor for long-term success with small groups:  the participative coaching of small group leaders.”

I want to expand this to include all leaders from the Senior pastor to the Cell champion (if the church has one) to the coaches themselves as well as the cell leaders and those being groomed as future leaders.  In short “Everyone Needs a Coach.”

This past week I have seen coaching at every level in our church.

This week I, the Cell champion, and the Senior pastor were involved in a conference call with Joel Comiskey who functions as one of our outside coaches.

The Senior pastor met with the staff, who are all involved in cells, and we talked about guests from the weekend services and people who we are tracking for ninety days in our system.

Tonight the Senior pastor and I met with all our coaches and went over our coaching structure as well as handing out the stats for the last few weeks.

For the next few days I will be meeting with some of the cell leaders and coaches that I’m responsible for and part of what we’ll talk about is the people they are developing.

Next week all our leaders and coaches will gather for our monthly “vision, huddle and skill” time where more mutual ministry will take place and leaders will be lavished with encouragement.

Everyone needs a coach and no one can survive and thrive without one.  The beauty of coaching is that it mutually benefits both parties.  Today I received a call from one of my cell leaders who was aware of one of my needs. He wanted to see how I was doing and how he could pray for me.

When thinking of coaching, don’t focus only on your cell leaders,  “Everyone Needs a Coach.”  Think through all the levels in your system and make sure no one is overlooked when it comes to coaching relationships.

Have you found coaching to be the most important component to the long-term success of your cell system?

Michael