Turbo!

by Jeff Tunnell

Dare I suggest that Jesus practiced the TURBO! method of leadership multiplication?  Spend 2-3 years with a diverse group of hand-picked individuals, pouring your life into them by teaching and modeling the truth in power, die to self and let them live out your mission in total commitment.

Using this TURBO! method now, we simply form a cell in which everyone is in training to lead their own cell.  Live in community with one another until a measure of success is reached in adopting biblical values and then everyone launches a cell of their own at a prescribed time.  All at once – TURBO! mulitiplication from one to 10 cells in a short period of time.

Jesus gave the disciples His Holy Spirit, enabling them to live His life our through theirs and it worked to the point of reaching all the way to us.  The Holy Spirit will fill us and breath His mission into us as well, this is key.  With His power for living we can disciple a group to become leaders in our generation, just like the early disciples did as the church was being born into an exponential growth.

This is just ONE of many ways cells may be multiplied and requires strong relational ties between all members of the first cell as a foundation followed by close accountability after the multiplication period.

Methods of Cell Multiplication

joelby Joel Comiskey

In the early days of the cell movement, everyone talked about mother-daugher cell multiplication because that’s what David Cho was doing in Korea (half the group leaving to form another cell when reaching fifteen people). The problem with waiting for the number “fifteen” was twofold: 1. The number would often fluctuate from week to week. 2. Members who didn’t want to multiply would leave the group at about fifteen people.

Then the cell church world learned about new ways to multiply, such as cell planting (two or three hiving off to form a new celll). The cell didn’t need to wait for a certain number to multiply. Rather, it simply needed to have a trained leader. Thus, training and the development of leadership became the new emphasis.

More recently I’ve been emphasizing “mother leader multiplication,” because I believe it’s often the best way to jump-start a stagnant cell group. This method is actually very simple. The mother cell leader leaves behind a prepared facilitator while he or she launches out to start a new cell, either by him or herself or with one or two cell members.

Of course, there are other ways to multiply cells. Jay Firebaugh, a veteran of cell ministry, has developed a proven cell multiplication method, that is an adaptation of the mother-daughter strategy:

  • Prenatal (weeks #1, 2 and 3)
    • Have new leader, host, and a few members selected who will start the new group.
    • Talk about the upcoming birth and why it is important.
    • Divide the group for ministry time. Have the new team go to different parts of the house.
    • It is important that the new team develops social relationships during the week (phone calls, social contacts, etc.).
  • Birth (week #4)
    • Meet as separate cells but in the same house.
  • Postnatal
    • (weeks #5, 6 and 7)
      • Meet as two separate cells in two different locations.
    • (Week #8 – one month after birth)
      • Meet back together for a reunion. This should not be a formal meeting but a time of fellowship and enjoying one another.
    • (Week #9, 10, and 11)
      • Meet as two separate cells in two different locations.
    • (Week #12 – two months after birth)

What about you? Share the multiplication method that has worked well for you?

Joel

Leaders multiply

STEVEby Steve Cordle

Why is multiplication the goal of every healthy cell group? Is it just about ego or inflating the church’s numbers?

A cell leader’s goal is to lead each group member to become a fully-devoted follower of Jesus. Since a mature disciple is one who can disciple someone else (which is the goal of a group leader), then the goal of the leader is to help members become leaders. And new leaders mean new groups.

A group which never multiplies is a group that has not produced a disciple mature enough to make another disciple. Healthy groups will not only reach out in evangelism, but also lead those in the group to full maturity as disciple-makers.

Comments?

Steve

Creating More Entry Points

By Michael Sove

Every time a new cell is birthed you penetrate the community one more time and the church gains a new entry point.  Cell strategy is an exciting strategy because people can connect in either direction.  Some come to the celebration service before they connect to a cell, while others connect to a cell before they come to a celebration service.

Multiplication is very important to the overall health and growth of a cell church.  With no multiplication, cells become overgrown and stagnant.  Since reaching others for Christ is why we are here, multiplication is essential to make more room for more people.

I have found that people tend to connect with a cell easier when it is new.  So there is something to the continual multiplication of the cell that allows new people to make easier connection.  Each time one of our cells multiplies I bring the members on the platform and make a big deal over the multiplication.  I then introduce the new leader / core team and pray over them and invite those who have not connected to a cell to consider connecting at this time.  It never fails, people connect to the new cell and the process continues.

It is exciting to take a map of your region and mark all the places your cell groups meet.  Then envision what it would look like to have a cell group in every neighborhood.  More entry points for people to meet Christ, to be discipled and raised up to continue the process.  There is only one way to realize that vision and that is through the on-going multiplication of your cells.

Make sure to recognize and reward those who multiply their groups.  Each year I hold an appreciation banquet for all leaders and their core teams and give out eagle awards for those who have multiplied or planted a cell.

Multiplication is the goal that allows for penetration into the community and all the other purposes of the cell to be realized.  Multiplication of cells reflects health and leads to health and growth of the church.

Comments?

Michael

Cell Multiplication and the Great Commission

MARIO

by Mario Vega

Jesus gave the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Since then, the church of all times has sought to bring the good news of salvation to all places.

Evangelization through home cells is a strategy for fulfilling the Great Commission. Consequently, the cell work seeks to be expansive. Multiplication is the key to evangelistic penetration in the communities.

Today, almost half of the world’s population lives in large cities. And that’s a trend that continues to grow. The church has in the cell work an excellent penetration tool for large cities. But the strategy will work only when multiplication becomes the goal of every cell. If the cell is enclosed in itself for fellowship or discipleship only, it will lose its penetration and expansion power. The cell will lose vitality because it will forget the lost world while dealing with the interests of those who are already Christians.

But if the cell maintains multiplication as its goal, it will remain open to receive those in need, and it will go from house to house until it significantly succeeds in permeating the cities with the gospel. Cells, therefore, must multiply because we have a Great Commission that still remains as a pending task.

Comments?

Mario

Translation in Spanish

La multiplicación celular y la Gran Comisión.

Jesús entregó a su iglesia la Gran Comisión de ir por todo el mundo y predicar el evangelio a toda criatura. Desde entonces, la iglesia de todos los tiempos se ha esforzado por llevar la buena noticia de salvación a todo lugar.

La evangelización a través de las células en los hogares es una estrategia para el cumplimiento de la Gran Comisión. Consecuentemente, el trabajo celular procura ser expansivo. La multiplicación es la clave para la penetración evangelizadora en las comunidades.

En la actualidad, casi la mitad de la población mundial vive en grandes ciudades. Y esa es una tendencia que continúa creciendo. La iglesia cuenta con una excelente herramienta de penetración para las grandes ciudades en el trabajo celular. Pero la estrategia solamente será de penetración cuando la multiplicación sea la meta de cada célula. Si la célula se encierra en s misma para la comunión o el discipulado exclusivamente, perderá su poder de penetración y de expansión. La célula perderá vitalidad porque se olvidará del mundo perdido en tanto que se ocupa de los intereses de los que ya son cristianos.

Pero, si la célula mantiene como su meta la multiplicación, se mantendrá abierta para recibir a los necesitados y pasará de casa en casa hasta lograr permear significativamente con el evangelio a las ciudades. Las células deben multiplicarse porque tenemos una Gran Comisión que sigue siendo una tarea pendiente.