Church Leadership

by Joel Comiskey

When setting goals, it’s essential to determine the context. In many parts of the world, God is moving, people are being saved, and more are willing to lead cells. In other part of the world (like most of the Western world), people are secular, busy, and revival is not taking place. I coach pastors in both situations, and I have to keep this in mind when setting multiplication goals.

Keeping the context in mind, it is still possible to set the bar too high or too low. Yes. I have personally erred in the past on promoting goals that were too high. I was over enthusiastic on rapid multiplication dates. I noticed that while the cells did multiply, some were weak and disappeared soon after. I’ve learned from experience that it’s possible to multiply too rapidly before the natural fruit of evangelism and community have borne enough health to naturally multiply.

At the same time, some pastors are not proactive. They lack vision and are very doubtful. They don’t actively prepare new people, hoping that “already formed leaders” will suddenly appear. They don’t challenge the cell leaders to dream big, evangelize, spot the next potential leader, and move forward.

What is the balance? Only you, pastor, know the state of your flocks and the context where you find your church. Only you know the work you’ve already done to plow the cell ground and which groups are able to give birth. Although all churches should move forward, the pace of that forward movement varies widely.

Joel