GCGG (교회성장론,셀)

1.22.
08 1/98
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977.
Copyright 1996 BEE International Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ vii Course Introduction ..................................................................................................... ix 1. The Biblical Basis for Studying Growing Churches ............................................ 11
Growing Churches in Todays World................................................................................. 12 Defining Growing Churches ........................................................................................... 12 Growing Churches in the Gospels ...................................................................................... 15 Growing Churches in the Book of Acts.............................................................................. 17 Four Types of Growing Churches ...................................................................................... 18 Action Steps........................................................................................................................ 20
2. Applying Church Growth Principles in Todays Church ................................... 25

The Importance of Church Growth Eyes ........................................................................ 26 Defining Church Growth Eyes ........................................................................................ 26 The Attitudes of a Growing Churches Person................................................................. 28 Three Kinds of Growth ....................................................................................................... 29 The Validity of Counting People ........................................................................................ 30 Applying These Principles to Your Church........................................................................ 32 Action Steps........................................................................................................................ 33
3. Developing a God-given Vision Statement for Your Church .......................... 35

Illustrating the Problem ...................................................................................................... 36 Defining Vision ............................................................................................................... 36 Looking At Your Own Church ........................................................................................... 37 Hindrances to Vision .......................................................................................................... 38 The Role of Prayer .............................................................................................................. 41 Strategic Planning in Realizing the Vision Goals .............................................................. 43 Action Steps........................................................................................................................ 47
4. The Church and Cultural Relevancy ..................................................................... 51

Defining Culture ................................................................................................................. 52 iii
iv Growing Churches for Gods Glory
The Reason for Relevance ..................................................................................................55 Jesus and Cultural Relevancy..............................................................................................57 The Apostles and Cultural Relevancy .................................................................................58 Helping the Church to Become Culturally Relevant ...........................................................58 Action Steps ........................................................................................................................60
5. The Role of Reproducing Cell Groups in the Church.......................................... 63

Two Critical Issues for the Church Today ..........................................................................64 Defining Cell Group ........................................................................................................64 The Biblical Basis for Cell Groups .....................................................................................65 Current Cell Group Models.................................................................................................66 Centralized Versus Decentralized Ministry ........................................................................75 Developing and Multiplying Cell Group Leaders ...............................................................76 How to Begin ......................................................................................................................78 What to Do in a Cell Group ................................................................................................80 Evangelism and Cell Groups ...............................................................................................81 Action Steps ........................................................................................................................82
6. The Life Cycle of Church Planting, Part I, Conception .................................. 87

The Life Cycle of a Church Plant ........................................................................................88 The Conception Phase .....................................................................................................88 Development of a Strategic Vision .....................................................................................88 Personal Preparation of the Church Planter ........................................................................90 Development of a Leadership Team ...................................................................................93 Action Steps ........................................................................................................................99 Conception Checklist ........................................................................................................101
7. The Life Cycle of Church Planting, Part II, Prenatal .................................... 103
The Prenatal Phase.........................................................................................................104 Initial Outreach and Evangelism .......................................................................................104 Developing an Expanding Network of Cell Groups .........................................................106 Agreeing on a Culturally Relevant Philosophy of Ministry ..............................................112 Strategic Planning Before Birth ........................................................................................115 Action Steps Summary......................................................................................................116 Prenatal Checklist .............................................................................................................118
8. The Life Cycle of Church Planting, Part III, Birth ........................................ 121
The Birth Phase .............................................................................................................121 Celebrative and Reflective Worship .................................................................................122 Childrens Ministry ...........................................................................................................127
Table of Contents v
Prepare Ministry Systems to Facilitate Growth ................................................................ 128 Action Steps Summary ..................................................................................................... 130 Birth Checklist .................................................................................................................. 132
9. The Life Cycle of Church Planting, Part IV, Growth and Reproduction 133
The Growth Phase ......................................................................................................... 134 Holistic Disciple-Making ................................................................................................. 134 Mobilizing Believers According to Spiritual Gifts........................................................... 140 Developing and Resourcing Leaders ................................................................................ 142 Appropriate and Productive Programming ....................................................................... 147 Networking with Other Churches ..................................................................................... 150 Action Steps Summary ..................................................................................................... 152 Growth Checklist .............................................................................................................. 154 The Reproduction Phase ............................................................................................... 156 Reproduction Checklist .................................................................................................... 159
Acknowledgment
would like to acknowledge my friend and colleague, Bob Logan, vice-president for New Church Development with Church Resource Ministries in Fullerton, California. As footnoted in the course, material for Lessons 6 through 9 on The Life Cycle of Church Planting was adapted from his International Church Planting Guide with permission. Copies of the guide and permission to translate it are available from: Dr. Robert E. Logan Church Resource Ministries P.O. Box 1354 Alta Loma, CA 91701 U.S.A.
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Course Introduction
rowing Churches For Gods Glory is designed to be a useful and practical course for all those interested in assisting the church reach its highest potential. It has a two-fold emphasis: first, it will explore how and why churches grow; second, it will instruct how to plant churches, and give the reasons why. Whether you are a pastor, church leader, church planter, layman, or new believer, this course will encourage you to trust God for newer and greater things. Since this is more a practical tool than a theoretical course, there are no exams. Instead, there are practical assignments to complete in the form of questions, exercises, action steps, and checklists. Depending upon your current involvement and interest in the church, these assignments may or may not be applicable to you. For instance, if you are not currently planning to plant a new church, the assignments for those lessons will not apply right now. In that case, you should work through the assignments as if you were planting a church or in the context of your existing church. Adjust them as you need in order to get the most out of them. May God bless you as you embark on the adventure of Growing Churches For Gods Glory!
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1
The Biblical Basis for Studying Growing Churches
elcome to the exciting world of growing churches! In this first lesson, we will focus on defining the concept growing churches by exploring what the Bible has to say about it. We will learn about our responsibility in reaching the lost and helping them become witnesses themselves. We will also see how effective evangelism results in church growth. This course will seek to ask a lot of questions. And, it is hoped, that through your prayerful study and discussion with others, you will discover many helpful answers. Expect to have your thinking stimulated and even challenged. This course should stretch you, but in a healthy way, leading to growth. Approach this course with an open mind and ask God to help you take these principles and apply them to your situation and church.
LESSON OUTLINE
Growing Churches in Todays World Defining Growing Churches Growing Churches in the Gospels Growing Churches in the Book of Acts Four Types of Growing Churches Action Steps
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Define growing churches. 2. Defend the legitimacy of growing churches from the gospels. 3. Trace the growth of the church through the Book of Acts. 4. Articulate the various types of growing churches. 5. Assess your own churchs previous growth patterns.
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12 Growing Churches for Gods Glory
Growing Churches in Todays World

The Church of Jesus Christ is experiencing tremendous growth worldwide. The advancement of Christianity is taking place at an unprecedented rate that surpasses anything previously experienced in the past two thousand years. A study has indicated that every single day some 78,000 people become Christians worldwide and each week some 1,000 new churches are established in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 1 In China, alone, it is estimated that there are around 20,000 new converts per day. 2 Yet, sad to say, not all churches are experiencing growth. In America, for instance, many of the so-called mainline denominations have experienced decades of decline. The same is certainly true for churches across Western Europe. We need to ask ourselves, Why do some churches grow while others do not? An even better and more important question for you to ask might be, Is the local church growing? and, if not, why not? Perhaps, when you read statistics like the above, you immediately think of the many problems that must accompany that kind of growth. What does the church do with new converts? Does the church become diluted when it grows? How do you disciple many new people? The pastor and leaders are already too busy so how can they handle even more people? The church building is already filled to capacity, so what can we do? These are legitimate questions, and we will deal with each of them. There is one premise from which we are working, however, and that is this: God desires churches to grow! Do you really believe that? If you dont, it is likely that your church is not one that is growing. If you do, then this course will give you some tools to use in order to be more effective. But first, we really need to understand what we mean by the concept growing churches.
Defining Growing Churches

To begin with, we need to define just what we are referring to when we talk about churches. In this course, our aim is to address the needs and issues regarding growth in local churches. Except where the context would clearly indicate otherwise, the term church will refer to a local church, assembly, congregation or fellowship. There is something very exciting about a church that is growing. There is a spirit of enthusiasm that is contagious throughout the church that, in itself, can lead to more growth. If
Donald A. McGavran, Understanding Church Growth; 3d. ed., revised and edited by C. Peter Wagner (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1990), 3.
2
Ibid., 3.
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something is alive and well it is growing. Conversely, dead things do not grow, but stagnate and decay. Second, what kind of growth are we talking about? One form of growth could be called spiritual growth because it happens as members of the church grow in Christian maturity and service to our Lord. This could also be called qualitative growth as it has to do with the quality, in spiritual terms, of a churchs life. Another form of growth is what could be called quantitative growthwhen the church increases numerically in size due to the inclusion of new people. It is easily visible when a church that had fifty people now has sixty, and so on. As we will see later, this growth can result from a number of different dynamicsyoung families in the church having children, members of another church moving to a new city, and unbelievers repenting and joining the church. Actually, church growth involves four aspects. 3 All four of these can be seen in Acts 2:4147. The first aspect of growth that we see is what can be called Growing Up. In verse 42 we read, And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. This indicates that there was a constant growth in their relationship to God and in their maturity as Christians. In other words, the church was growing up in the spiritual sense. Secondly, we see that they were also Growing Together. Note verses 44-46: And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. And day by day continually with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart Not only did their love and commitment to God grow, but their love and commitment to each other grew, as well. This was evidenced by two things: one was that they shared their material goods and the second is that they began using their spiritual gifts. In this way, they were growing together. The third aspect of growth we see in this passage is that they were Growing Out. This is seen particularly in the first part of verse 47: praising God, and having favor with all the people.
These four points were taken from the course outline and syllabus by C. Peter Wagner, Foundations of Church Growth, (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1985), 6.
This is very important, because there is sometimes a tendency for Christians to become ingrown; that is, when the members of the church become content with the status quo. But, the early church desired to be on the cutting edge of society. They did not just curry favor with believers, but with all the peoplethey were thus growing out. The fourth aspect of growth that we can see in this passage is that the early church was Growing More. The second half of verse 47 says, And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. The church, therefore, not only grew internally, it grew externally. Each day there were more and more people being added to the churchthey were growing more. Which form of growth do you think is the most important? With which form do you think the Bible is most concerned? The best answer isall of them! The fact is, the Bible is equally explicit about the importance and need for both qualitative and quantitative growth in the church. It is a major mistake to think that a church must sacrifice one in favor of the other. The focus of this course will be to deal primarily with the aspects of church growth that result in increased numbers of people in the church. Other courses and materials are available to help the church in the area of qualitative growth, but here we will focus on the principles involved in quantitative growth. 4
Exercise 1
At this point, stop and think awhile about growing churches and what it means to you. Then write your own definition of growing churches. Now that you have arrived at a definition of growing churches lets look at one of the most concise and accepted operational definitions of church growth: All that is involved in bringing men and women who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ into fellowship with Him and into responsible church membership. 5
In fact, quantitative growth cannot ultimately be separated from qualitative growth, and vice versa. A church will not grow in numbers for long if the members are not also growing in spiritual maturity. Conversely, if a church is spiritually mature, it will be heavily involved in disciple-making which will result in numerical growth.
5
C. Peter Wagner, Your Church Can Grow (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1984), 14.
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Growing Churches in the Gospels

While considering the above definition of church growth, lets look at some Biblical principles that will help sharpen and develop our understanding. To begin with, evangelism is a key ingredient in growing churches. It is because we believe that God desires to save lost people that we also believe God desires churches to grow. The mandate for the church is found in Matthew 28:18-20: All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Lets study these verses in order to ascertain what Jesus wants us to do, and then answer following questions:
Question 1
What does it mean to make disciples?
Question 2
What are the purposes of baptizing them?
Question 3
What is involved in teaching them?
Question 4
What implications are there from the word Go?
Question 5
On what basis are we to carry this out?
Question 6
For whom did Jesus intended this command? Now lets try to summarize this passage. In the original, the primary verb in the whole passage is the one translated make disciples. That is where Jesus placed the emphasis. A disciple is simply a follower of Christ, so the foremost emphasis of Jesus command is to make people followers of Him.
There are three other words that modify that main verb. The first is Go (literally going), the second is baptizing and the third is teaching. Making disciples requires going to where the unbelievers are instead of waiting for them to come to you. Making disciples requires baptizing them in order to incorporate them into the fellowship of the church. Lastly, making disciples requires teaching them so that they are able to go out and make disciples themselves. This is the beauty of Christs command. If we obey, there will always be an increasing pool of believers who are able to evangelize and disciple new people. But is it really our responsibility to carry on this task with Gods help? Does He actually expect results?
Question 7
Look up the following passages and (a) summarize what the passage says, then (b) explain what the passage tells us about Gods expectations; what is acceptable to Him and what isnt. 1. Luke 5:1-11 2. Luke 14:16-24 3. Matthew 13:2-9 4. Luke 13:6-9 5. Matthew 18:12-14 6. Luke 15:8-10 7. Matthew 9:36-38 8. Matthew 10:11-15 As you can see, these passages speak about the responsibility we have to be faithful to Gods call. However, many today would say that faithfulness has nothing to do with results. These passages, however, do not endorse that viewpoint! God is not satisfied when there is fishing without catching, sowing without reaping, or proclamation without response. As Donald A. McGavran has so aptly stated, the Scriptures speak not just of searching for, but finding the lost. McGavran writes, Anyone who would comprehend the growth of Christian churches must see it primarily as faithfulness to God. God desires it church growth is faithfulness church growth follows where Christians show faithfulness in finding the lost. 6 The purpose of the Great Commission is to populate heaven. As believers who have been born again through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are going to heaven and our desire should
McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 6.
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be to take as many people with us as possible. God wants lost people found! When they are, He and the hosts in heaven rejoice. We need to view growth for our churches in this way. First, we go out to preach the gospel, see people repent and come to faith in Jesus Christ. Then, we incorporate them into the life and fellowship of the church through baptism. Next, we teach them and train them in the Christian life and how to serve God. Finally, they go out and do the same thing with others, to start the cycle againthis is the essence of church growth.
Growing Churches in the Book of Acts

The best evidence of dynamic church growth is seen in Acts 2, at the birth and ensuing development of the early church. Lets go through the Book of Acts and observe what happened as the gospel spread.
Question 8
Look up each passage listed below. (a) Summarize the context of the passage and (b) note especially the results that can be seen. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Acts 2:41-47 Acts 5:12-14 Acts 6:1-7 Acts 8:9-13 Acts 9:31 Acts 9:32-43 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Acts 11:19-21 Acts 13:42-43 Acts 13:44-49 Acts 16:1-5 Acts 16:13-15 Acts 16:25-34 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Acts 17:1-4 Acts 17:10-12 Acts 17:22-34 Acts 18:5-8 Acts 19: 8-20
As you can see from your study, the preaching of the gospel resulted in people believing and being added to the church. Again, this is the essence of growing churches. As Donald McGavran writes, Church Growth is basically a theological stance. God requires it. It looks to the Bible for direction as to what God wants done. 7 Or, as C. Peter Wagner states, if we concentrate on church growth we get to the heart of the Great Commission. 8
7 8
Ibid., 8.
C. Peter Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth (Eastbourne, England: Kingsway Publications, 1988), 35.
Four Types of Growing Churches

There is another way to describe the various types of church growth. This incorporates some of the aspects previously identified, and expands on others: 1. Internal Growth We have expounded on this type of growth already. The significant feature is that it only involves those who are already inside the church. In terms of evangelism, the basic target group would be those who are in the church, but who are not yet true believers. This would include, among others, children of members who need to make a personal decision for Christ. Since the target group for evangelism are those already in the church, we could say that there are no barriers to evangelism taking place. If we use the letter E for Evangelism and the number 0 for the number of barriers in evangelism, we can illustrate this type of growth in terms of evangelism: E-0, because there are no barriers to evangelism in internal growth. 2. Expansion Growth Expansion growth takes place when members of the church go outside the church and evangelize. As a result, the church expands numerically. It could be through a special program at the church or simply by members witnessing to those they know at work, school or home. This strategy is sometimes called near-neighbor evangelism. We would say that expansion growth involves E-1 evangelism because there is one major barrier to reaching these people with the gospelthey are outside the church. Other than that, they are basically similar to the kind of people that belong to the church. This makes them very accessible for a church that decides to grow by adding people from those outside its walls. 3. Extension Growth This type of growth also involves evangelism, but not with quite the same purpose. Extension growth takes place when members of one church go out and do evangelism, but then begin a new church with the converts. For example, say a church decides to put on an evangelistic campaign in an area on the other side of the city. Instead of expecting all the new converts to travel across the city to attend church services, they decided to start a new church in that area, which would be expansion growth. This is also called church planting and we will devote several lessons to the subject later in the course. Extension growth also involves E-1 evangelism. Although the evangelism takes place in an area away from the church, it is still directed at near-neighbors in terms of ethnic, social and basic economic factors. The difference is that numerical growth is seen through the new churches that are started instead of the home church.
Lesson 1 19
4. Bridging Growth There is a major dividing line between the first three types of growth and bridging growth. This type takes place when members of a church go out, evangelize, and plant new churches cross-culturally. By this we mean that, among other things, the target group speaks a different language. These new churches that are started are not like the old church because of the cultural differences. We will deal with issues of cultural relevance in a later lesson. There are two types of evangelism that are possible in bridging growth. One is E-2 evangelism. There is at least one more barrier to evangelism with E-2 than with E-1 evangelisma different language. With E-2 evangelism, you are trying to reach people whose culture, while different, is somewhat similar to yours. An example of this might be a Polish person who goes to the Ukraine to plant a Ukrainian church or a Hungarian church that helps plant a new church for Gypsies. The other type of bridging growth involves E-3 evangelism. This is where you evangelize and start a church in a culture that is vastly different from yours. An example of this might be for a Czech to go to Japan to start a church. Keep in mind that geographical distance is not the main determinant in assessing evangelism. Again, we will expound on this further in a later lesson. Which type of growth should be a priority for a church? Minimally, a church should be involved in both internal and expansion growth that involves E-0 and E-1 evangelism. When a church fails to work towards these types of growth it indicates a total lack of understanding of or commitment to the Great Commission. When a church has been successful with these types it should next give serious consideration to extension growth. As the vision, experience, and resources of a church increase they can ultimately be involved in bridging growth.
Action Steps
As you have seen, the root of church growth is the conviction that God has commanded His people to preach the gospel in a way that will make disciples. When a church is faithful in keeping this command of Christ, growth will occur. Now it is time to do an assessment of your own church. Thoughtfully work through the questions below as they pertain to your church. Feel free to talk to others in your church to obtain the needed input. 1. Research as best you can to determine how much your church has grown in the past year; three years; five years; ten years. Record your findings and explain how you came up with these figures. 2. Using the material you have learned in this lesson, write down your revised definition of growing churches in your own words. 3. Describe Jesus attitude toward growing churches, citing your reasons, from Scripture, for what you write. 4. Summarize what the Book of Acts teaches us about growing churches. 5. Describe the various aspects and types of growth a church might experience. Include as much detail as possible.
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Answers to Questions
Question 1
To make disciples implies a number of things. First, it means that Jesus disciples were to repeat what He did to them in the lives of others. This involved finding them, winning them, choosing them, training them, and commissioning them to go out and do likewise. Everything that is required in this process is disciple-making, which is at the heart of the Great Commission.
Question 2
The primary purpose of Christian baptism is identification with Christ and His Church. It is a public display of this identification so that the members of the community, as well as the church, would know of the persons new faith in Christ. Symbolically, water baptism demonstrates Christs death and resurrection, as well as our spiritual death and new life in Christ. It was patterned after the ceremonial washings from the Old Testament law as was Johns baptism (see John 1:19-28), but distinctive because it was to be in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Someone who makes a disciple of Christ must, therefore, see that they are properly incorporated into the fellowship of the church.
Question 3
The emphasis Jesus gave on teaching is that it was supposed to affect behavior. In other words, the importance of teaching is not primarily head knowledge but learning to live out the commands of Jesus in a practical way. This includes training in the basics of Christian living and witnessing. One doesnt have to learn everything before becoming a true disciple, but one must understand the basics and be in process. A good criterion is that disciples become responsible members of Christs Church who use their spiritual gifts for ministry. Someone who makes disciples of Christ must, therefore, train them to the point where they can responsibly live out the Christian life and make disciples themselves.
Question 4
The word Go (literally Going) implies that making disciples is an active rather than passive endeavor. Just as Jesus went out and gathered His group of disciples, we must do the same. Nowhere in the New Testament is the pattern for evangelism merely to wait for the lost to find their way into our church buildings. The pattern is for the church to go out and find the lost.
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Question 5
The basis of disciple-making is in the power and strength of Gods Spirit who is always with us. In addition, Jesus Christ, who has been given all authority in heaven and earth, is the One who has given this commission. Someone who makes disciples of Christ must, therefore, rely upon God for His strength and power.
Question 6
Although this command was specifically given to the eleven disciples, it is clear that it also applies to all future disciples of Christ. Therefore, anyone who follows Christ is subject to this commandit is for all disciples throughout all time.
Question 7
1(a) After fishing all night and failing to catch anything, Jesus instructs Peter to take the boats out again and to put out the nets. Reluctantly they do so and receive a catch so large that it almost breaks the nets. (b) It is not good enough to fish diligently and not catch anything, as the main purpose of fishing is to catch fish. 2(a) This parable is about a man who gave a banquet but had trouble getting people to attend. He sent his servant out several times until every seat at the banquet was filled. Many who were not originally invited came, and those who had initially refused were not permitted to come later. (b) God is giving a banquet and He expects those seats to be occupied! 3(a) This is the parable of the sower whose seeds fall on four different types of soil. Only one of the soils produced a crop that exceeded what was sown. (b) The objective of the sower is to reap a plentiful crop, not merely to sow seeds. Sowing without reaping is not acceptable. 4(a) This parable is about a fig tree that has not produced any fruit for three years. The owner wants to cut it down, but the man who cared for it wanted to give it one more year to bear fruit before cutting it down. (b) The purpose of a fruit tree is to bear fruit. If it does not bear fruit it should ultimately be cut down because a fruitless fruit tree is not acceptable. 5(a) This parable tells about a man who had one hundred sheep, but one was missing. He left the ninety-nine and searched until he found the lost sheep. (b) Even though the flock was 99% complete, it was not acceptable to lack even one. 6(a) This parable is about a woman who had ten silver coins, but lost one. She was not satisfied until she had found the one lost coin.
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(b) Even though she still had nine coins, she did not rest until the one last coin was found. It was not acceptable to have even one missing. 7(a) While ministering to the multitudes, Jesus states that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. He then gives instruction to pray for God to send workers. (b) Having a plentiful harvest without enough workers to bring in the harvest is not acceptable. 8(a) Jesus sends out the twelve on a preaching mission. He gives the instruction that if people do not listen to them they are to shake the dust off their feet as a judgment against that town. (b) It is not enough just to preach. The object of preaching is that people would listen and believe. Preaching without a listening audience is not acceptable.
Question 8
1(a) This was the birth of the Church. In essence, they began to function naturally and incorporated at least seven elements into church life: teaching, fellowship, worship, prayer, power, ministry, and evangelism. (b) The church grew dramatically in numbers. 2(a) Gods power was evident in their lives through miraculous signs and they all met together in public. The church was held in high esteem. (b) More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 3(a) The church developed an organizational problem and selected some men to deal with it. Stephen, who later became the first martyr, was one of these men. (b) The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. 4(a) Philip preached in Samaria. (b) Many believed and were immediately incorporated into the church through water baptism. 5(a) The church enjoyed a time of peace as it was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. (b) It grew in numbers. 6(a) Peter traveled and visited believers. He healed a paralytic and raised a believer who had died. (b) All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon turned to the Lord, as well as many people in Joppa. 7(a) Those who had been scattered by persecution went to Antioch and preached. (b) A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 8(a) Paul and Barnabas preached and taught in Pisidian Antioch. (b) Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed them.
9(a) After the Jews in Antioch got upset with Paul and Barnabas, they began preaching to the Gentiles. (b) All who were appointed for eternal life believed and the gospel spread throughout the whole area. 10(a) Paul and his band of disciples traveled throughout Asia minor to encourage the churches. (b) The churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily in numbers. 11(a) In Philippi, Paul preached to Lydia. (b) She and her household believed and were immediately baptized with water. 12(a) After being thrown in jail, Paul and Silas shared the gospel with their jailer as a result of an earthquake. (b) The jailer and his entire household believed. 13(a) Paul and his group preached in Thessalonica. (b) Some Jews believed, as well as a large number of God-fearing Greeks. 14(a) Paul and Silas preached in Berea. (b) Many Jews and a number of prominent Greeks believed. 15(a) Paul preached to the Athenians on Mars Hill. (b) A few men and a number of women believed. 16(a) In Corinth, Paul preached to the Jews and then turned to the Gentiles. (b) Some prominent Jews believed and many of the Corinthians believed and were immediately baptized with water. 17(a) Paul ministered in Ephesus for two years. (b) Many believed and were dramatically changed.
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Applying Church Growth Principles in Todays Church
n Lesson 1, we studied the various Scriptures that teach us about the importance of growing churches. We saw that this is a direct response to the Great Commission of Christ to His Church (Matthew 28:18-20). As we are faithful to His call to make disciples, our churches will grow. This is pleasing to God because it reflects the increasing numbers of those who will be spending eternity with Him in heaven. It has been said that every great idea eventually degenerates into work! This is certainly true of the study of church growth. We must ultimately take the principles we learn from Scripture and apply them to our own context and situation, which is what this lesson intends to do.
LESSON OUTLINE
The Importance of Church Growth Eyes Defining Church Growth Eyes The Attitudes of a Growing Churches Person Three Kinds of Growth The Validity of Counting People Applying These Principles to Your Church Action Steps
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Identify the areas of your church that are promoting growth. 2. Identify the areas of your church that are hindering growth. 3. Understand the attitudes necessary to facilitate growth. 4. Evaluate the source of your growth. 5. Articulate the value of research and record keeping.
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6. Understand your church in relationship to growth.
The Importance of Church Growth Eyes

A good medical doctor is also a good diagnostician. This means that he is able to examine a patient who has certain symptoms and, eventually, discover what the problem is. During this process, the doctor will probably administer certain tests and evaluate the results. Once the doctor has all the data, he or she can then give a proper diagnosis of the problem and a prescription for the cure. How are doctors able to do this? First, they must be trained in medicine and the human anatomy in order to fully understand how the body functions under various conditions. Second, they learn through the experience of working with real, live people. A young doctor may have the advantage of recently learning the newest medical procedures in school, but an older doctor has the advantage of years of experience. Of course, the doctor you want to go to is the one who both has experience and has also stayed current with the latest advances and procedures! This same kind of analogy holds true for the pastor who is concerned about the health of the church. He must be trained so that he knows what a healthy, growing church looks like and how it functions. He must also know how to treat an unhealthy church. Like a medical doctor he must know the kinds of things to look for that might be the source of problems. In a real sense, there are cause and effect principles in church growth just like in medicine. In addition, there are basic tests that the pastor can administer to the church that may help him to determine not only the problem, but the cure. By carefully and prayerfully studying the particular circumstances of a church, a pastor can begin to understand why things are the way they are. By applying church growth principles he can also help to affect positive change. The combination of knowledge and experience, as in our doctor illustration above, is the best. But you must be careful: many pastors have years of experience, but not in growing and reproducing churches. Consequently, their experience might be more of a detriment than an advantage. Most of the time, one needs some good, practical knowledge in order to have a good, positive experience. In terms of church growth, one of the first things to learn is the importance of having church growth eyes.
Defining Church Growth Eyes

In church growth, the more you know the more you can seethis is what we mean by church growth eyes. It is the ability to look at a church and see all the various factors that are either furthering or hindering its growth. Church growth eyes have been referred to as the
Lesson 2 27 ability to think realistically about church growth. 1 If having a growing church is important to you, then it is worth learning what factors cause growing churches. Many churches, however, are so unconcerned with growth that they do not even keep records of attendance. Donald McGavran writes, Frequently growth has simply not entered into our thinking. We dont know the size of our church. We dont know how much it has grown each year ... 2 In Lesson 1, we established that God does care about whether or not a church is growing because He cares that people are being brought into His kingdom. Since God is concerned about this, we should be, as well. What do church growth eyes see? 3 First, they see the world from Gods perspective. This can be traced all the way back to Genesis 3:9 where we read, Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? (italics added). From the very beginning, right after the fall, God began seeking people. He sought Adam after sin entered the Garden, and He is still seeking people today. But we also need to know how to view the world. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. There are two kinds of people in the world today: those that are lost and those that are found. God is seeking to find those that are lost. The second thing that church growth eyes see is the hand of God working in the world. When you study what God is doing in Africa and in Asia and in other parts of the world, you see that He is finding lost people. He is drawing people to himself in a tremendous way. So, what about your church? Be encouraged that God wants to reach the lost through you and your church, too. The third thing that church growth eyes see is your place in Gods plan. Note Romans 10:13-14: for WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD will be saved. How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
Donald A. McGavran with Win C. Arn, How To Grow A Church (Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1974), 53.
2 3
Ibid., 9. Wagner, Foundations of Church Growth, (from class notes).
God is certainly able to find lost people without our help, but He has chosen not to! The plan He designed uses people like us to accomplish it. He has given us all the resources we need in Himself, His Word, other believers, and spiritual gifts. We just need to accept the fact that He desires to use us in this way. When our eyes see these thingsthe world from Gods perspective, the hand of God working in the world and our place in His planwe are ready to be involved in growth. If we do not see them, then chances are that our church will not grow from our ministry. This marks the importance of having church growth eyes.
The Attitudes of a Growing Churches Person

One of the factors that will determine the pastors effectiveness in helping a church to grow is his attitude. In defining just what we mean by the word attitude, we have to consider several things. Basically, an attitude is an inward feeling that is seen in outward behavior. There are at least three key attitudes that a pastor concerned with church growth should possess. The first attitude is that he firmly believes that God will cause his church to grow. This is so fundamental that it may sound too obvious! However, churches across the world are pastored by men who think that their church wont grow. And because they think that way, it wont, because that pastor will never do the things necessary to lead the church to growth. Why should he, if he doesnt believe the church will grow no matter what he does? The second important attitude to have is to be just as concerned about those outside the church as those already inside the church. If a pastor is only concerned about his flock, or the members of his church, then it will be difficult for him to add to his flock. Conversely, when churches or pastors invest as much time and energy into reaching those outside the church as they do ministering to those inside the church, they are going to experience growth. The reason that we need to be concerned about them is that they are deeply important and valuable to God. The third attitude of church growth people is they are pragmatic. Pragmatism is often misunderstood by certain Christians. However, at its root, pragmatism simply means that we constantly evaluate the effectiveness of the things we are doing. If our desire is to see God build the church, and we are doing something that hinders that, we change it. If we need to start doing something we havent been doing, we do it. People who are not interested in seeing the church grow will continue to do things in the same way they always have been done. While we have many wonderful examples from Christ and the apostles in the Scriptures, the Bible was not primarily intended to be a book on methodology. The beautiful thing about Gods Word is that the principles it contains can be applied in many different ways depending on the context. Most of us would have to agree that many of the things we do in our churches are based more upon our traditions than upon Scripture. If that is the case, then we should
Lesson 2 29
be able to change or modify certain things if it will help us complete the task that Jesus gave us to do. Do you possess these three attitudes? Do you believe that God will cause your church to grow? Are you just as concerned about those outside the church as you are about those inside the church? Are you pragmatic in your approach to what you are doing? The great thing about attitudes is that you can develop the ones you wish to have. Perhaps you tend to be a pessimistit is possible for you to become more optimistic. Basically, it is a matter of choice and discipline. Ask God to help you to have the attitudes necessary to lead your church to growth.
Three Kinds of Growth

We have previously looked at different types and aspects of church growth that can be readily identified in churches today. To these we now want to identify three kinds of growth that can cause a church to increase numerically. 4 All three are good and should be expected in any church. However, the last of the three is the most important because it is the only one we have any control over and, therefore, can plan for. The first kind of growth that a church may experience is what we call biological growth. This, of course, comes when members of the church have children. These children represent potential membership growth within the church. Of course, a church that is mostly made up of older people will not experience much of this growth. However, a church that is made up of many young families may be growing significantly because of this factor. New life in the church is a great thing and most churches experience this kind of growth naturally. Potentially, then, Gods kingdom can be enlarged through biological growth. The second kind is called transfer growth. This type of growth usually takes place when one church member moves to a different place and joins a new church. Again, this is not something a church can plan for or anticipate. The significant point to recognize is that this kind of growth involves adding people who are already believers in Jesus Christthey are simply relocating to a new church. Transfer growth can also take place for less noble reasons than moving to a different city. Sometimes, church members have disagreements with one another and change churches because of it. The result of transfer growth is that no new people are added to the kingdom of God. The third kind of growth is conversion growth, which takes place through evangelistic effort. As a result of this evangelism, certain people will repent, believe, and convert. After these people are brought into the church and incorporated into the fellowship, they become new members of the church, resulting in a numeric increase of membership. This kind of
McGavran and Arn, How To Grow A Church, 57-59.
growth must be anticipated and planned for in order to take place. The result of conversion growth is that many new people are brought into the kingdom of God. As has been previously stated, all three kinds of growth are healthy and should be anticipated in a normal church. However, it is easy to see that conversion growth is the most important kind on which to focus because of two reasons: one, it is the only kind of growth that involves the salvation of lost people, and two, it is the only kind you can act on. Too many churches can trace the majority of their increased attendance to just the first two kinds of growth. If we want to have a truly healthy, growing church, we need to be able to trace our growth to the third kind.
The Validity of Counting People

This is an area of church growth that bothers some Christians. They might be concerned for any one of several reasons. Perhaps it may appear that counting people is a worldly pursuit that seeks to glorify the outward success of man. Or, since the ultimate realities of life are spiritual in nature, counting people may seem to be a preoccupation with the temporal. After all, some may reason, these people belong to God and we have no business counting them. These concerns certainly seem valid, but do they express the whole picture? Is it always wrong when church leaders or pastors want to know for sure how many believers are in the church? Of course not! As C. Peter Wagner states, Using numbers is not intrinsically right or wrong. It depends on the motive. 5 We need to think about the reasons, both right and wrong, for counting people, if it truly is the motive that makes the difference.
Exercise 1
Right now, stop and list at least five right reasons and five wrong reasons for counting people. Lets consider the other objections to gathering numeric data on the church. In his tremendously helpful book, I Believe in Church Growth, Eddie Gibbs answers a number of the objections to gathering data. Here is a condensed summary of it: Data-gathering is unscriptural. On the basis of 1 Chronicles 21, where it is recorded that David incurred divine displeasure because he ordered a national
5
Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth, 43.
Lesson 2 31
census, some Christian leaders refuse to gather statistics of their membership. They feel to embark on such an undertaking might spiritually jeopardize their work. But the incident recorded in Chronicles must be balanced by other parts of Scripture. For instance in the Book of Numbers Moses is expressly commanded to count the people upon entering the Sinai wilderness to ensure that they can subsequently be accounted for. From the gospel record we know the precise number of Jesus select team of disciples and that on one occasion seventy were sent out two by two on a mission to prepare villages for Christs coming (Luke 10). In his account of the performance of the Church in the Book of Acts, Luke displays no inhibitions in speaking about numbers. We are informed that there were 120 believers meeting in Jerusalem (1:15). Three thousand were added to the Church on the day of Pentecost (2:41), and before long the number of male believers grew to about 5,000 (4:4). Data-gathering is inappropriate. Many people discount the value of statistical analysis by saying that what matters is quality, not quantity. This viewpoint was upheld by no less a missionary statesman than Max Warren. He speaks of the strictly limited value of all statistical assessments of the value of missionary work. This is one of the quantitative fallacies of far too much missionary thinking. Quality is indefinable and known only to God. While Max Warren is right to caution against an obsessive preoccupation with numbers, I believe that he overstates the case when he is so dismissive of all quantitative measurement. The task of mission, while depending on the empowering and guidance of the Holy Spirit, also requires human planning. The interventions of God do not set aside the need for careful evaluation. The surprises of God are not intended as a substitute for strategy. Responsible decision-making requires wellresearched data. Data-gathering is unnecessary. This may be the case in a small house fellowship, or of a small church in a face-to-face village community where everyone knows everybody else. However, most churches in todays world, with its high population density, complex relationship networks and mobility will need to take a more sophisticated approach to alert themselves to the significant trends. It is inadequate and misleading to rely on general impressions in such churches. Data-gathering is uncomfortable. Some denominations and local churches reject data-gathering because they are not prepared to face the truth about themselves. Some growing churches which have broadcast their success do not want to look too closely at where their new growth has been coming from. One further aspect
needs to be mentioned for churches that experienced prolonged decline. Their datagathering can be a disheartening exercise. 6
Exercise 2 In Lesson 1 of this course, we looked briefly at Luke 15:4-7. Turn to that passage again and, after reading it carefully, respond to the following questions: a. How many sheep total did the man have? b. How many sheep were lost from this total? c. What was the only way the man could have known that one of his sheep was missing?
As you can see, the only possible way for this man to have known that he was missing one of his sheep was to count them! Certainly the God who knows the very number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30) is infinitely more interested in the number of His children in our churches. The fact is, the Bible speaks often of numbers. This is especially true when it comes to Gods people, as was noted by Win Arn: The Bible takes the number of members very seriously indeed. Luke records numbers with great exactitude the Bible considers numbering really important. 7 Eddie Gibbs goes on to list a number of reasons why we should be involved in gathering data: 1. To be aware of general trends. 2. To evaluate their significance. 3. To allocate resources to responsive areas. 4. To draw up long-term plans for resistant areas. 8
Applying These Principles to Your Church

Whether or not you are a pastor or a key lay leader in your church, it will be helpful for you to begin to think through and apply some of the principles we have been learning so far. You will need to become a student of your particular church or fellowship in order to learn as much as possible from it. Carefully go through the following material and complete it as accurately as you can.
6 7
Eddie Gibbs, I Believe in Church Growth (London: Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., 1990), 103-108.
McGavran and Arn, How To Grow A Church, 53. 8Gibbs, I Believe in Church Growth,108-110.
Action Steps
Church Information
1. Does your church keep records of members, baptisms, and weekly attendance? What are they? 2. How accurate and current are these records? 3. Does your church keep track of its rate of growth from year to year? 4. Does your church keep records of visitors? 5. Are visitors systematically followed up? 6. Who is responsible for following up visitors? 7. Describe what is done to follow up visitors. 8. How effective is it?
Personal Evaluation of Your Church

1. Pretend you are taking a photograph of your church. Describe what it is like. We are not talking about the church building, but a fellowship of believers. Another way to approach it is to ask, How would an outsider describe my church? Use as much detail as possible. 2. Write an explanation of all the ministries of your church that are designed to help believers. 3. Write an explanation of all the ministries of your church that are designed to reach unbelievers. 4. What specific things is your church doing to help facilitate growth? 5. Identify as many things as possible that your church is doing that may hinder growth.
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3
Developing a God-given Vision Statement for Your Church
n Lessons 1 and 2, we laid the foundation for studying growing churches. First, we learned the biblical basis for it and the rationale behind it. God wants people to come to a saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to become responsible members of His Church, resulting in church growth. Second, we have learned that there are many factors involved in reaching the unsaved and helping them to become active members of Christs Church. These factors involve practices that either facilitate or hinder this process. Having church growth eyes enable us to identify these areas in our church. This brings us to the importance of developing a God-given vision statement for your church. In this lesson, we will define what is meant by the word vision, and how to develop one for your church.
LESSON OUTLINE
Illustrating the Problem Defining Vision Looking at Your Own Church Hindrances to the Right Vision The Role of Prayer Strategic Planning in Realizing the Vision Goals Action Steps
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Understand the importance of vision. 2. Deal constructively with hindrances in gaining a vision. 3. Develop a prayer team. 35
4. Develop a specific vision statement for your church. 5. Plan steps to realize your goals.
Illustrating the Problem

In the early morning hours of July 4, 1958, a thirty-four-year-old woman waded into the icy waters off Santa Catalina Island and began swimming toward the California coast. Her name was Florence Chadwick, and she was determined to be the first woman to complete the forty-two kilometer swim across the Catalina Channel. She was not a novice to the world of long-distance swimming. Already she had become the first woman to swim across the English Channel, a feat which she had accomplished in both directions. On this particular day, however, an obstacle loomed over the sea like a blanket. Fog, so thick that you could cut it with a knife, made it difficult for Chadwick to even see her support vessels. She was prepared for the numbing water and even for the sharks which had to be driven away with gunfire but, in the end, it was the fog that defeated her. After fifteen hours, fifty-five minutes, Florence Chadwick was taken out of the wateronly to find out later she was less than one kilometer from land! As she reflected upon the experience, she said it was not the cold water or the fatigue or the sharks that had caused her to fail. The fog alone was responsible. It had blinded her eyes, her reason and her heart. Because she could not see the goal ahead of her, she quit. Two months later, Florence Chadwick not only completed the swim, but in so doing, shattered the mens record by two hours! Our ability to see the goals before us is called vision.
Defining Vision
For many Christians, the word vision conjures up various images ranging from Old Testament prophets to demon-inspired seers. In this course, our working definition is much more down-to-earth and practical. Very simply stated, vision is seeing what God wants to do and believing that he will do it. It is what brings clarity, purpose and progress to our lives. In a very real sense, God will not do anything through us without our first seeing Him accomplish it. Another word for this is faith. In Hebrews 11, where faith is described and illustrated, we read in the first verse: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Faith causes us to live our lives with an assurance and conviction about things that are not seen with the human eye. How is someone able to live like this? One must first understand
Lesson 3 37
what God desires and then living accordingly. When we ask God to show us what He wants for us or our church, we are really asking Him to give us a vision. One church may have a vision for ministering to a particular group of people, like prisoners or drug addicts. Another church may develop a vision to plant several new churches in their area. Still another may gain a vision for starting a Bible school or training center. In each case, before any of these things can come into existence, they will first be envisioned by someone who desires to follow Gods leading. This vision becomes a road map for our journey as we follow Gods leading. The old axiom, If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time, is true when it comes to the church. God always has a plan for the church and we must be able to see it before we can do it. Unfortunately, many churches dont understand this and are therefore floundering. Scripture illustrates the importance of vision. One of the clearest passages is the narrative of the twelve spies who entered Canaan, found in Numbers 13 and 14. Turn to this passage right now and study it carefully. Then respond to the following questions:
Question 1
What were the basic differences between the report of Caleb and Joshua and the report of the other ten spies?
Question 2
What was the response of the majority who heard both reports?
Question 3
What were the rewards/consequences for those involved?
Question 4
All the twelve spies observed the exact same thing. Why do you think only two saw what God wanted them to see while the other ten did not?
Question 5
How might this same situation be seen in a church today?
Looking at Your Own Church

What do you see when you look at your own church in relation to fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20)? What can you see God doing now and in the future to
reach the unreached in your community? Are you able to visualize God accomplishing what He desires to do? Can you see your own church growing through evangelism and discipleship? Another important question to ask yourself and your church is: what would you do for the glory of God if you knew you could not fail? All of these questions deal with vision. If you cant see God helping your church to grow, it most certainly will not grow! In a very real sense, we must see it before we can have it. This was true of the Israelites and the Promised Land and it is true of us in regards to church growth. Many churches are like the Israelites who were relegated to wander aimlessly for forty years in the wilderness while being only a river crossing away from a land flowing with milk and honey. If only they were able to visualize Gods victory instead of their defeat!
Hindrances to the Right Vision

Unfortunately, most of us do not come empty-handed to God. We come loaded with many things that can block our ability to see what God wants. We can be just like a man who is carrying a heavy load on his back; it has him bent over so that he is not able to look up in order to see what is ahead of him. He can only see the next step in front of him and he is walking very carefully so as not to trip and fall down. Not only this, but he makes sure he stays on the familiar path so he knows the way to go. However, if the man would lay down his load he would be able to look out ahead of him. He might see a number of different paths that lead to where he wants to go. In fact, he might even see that he has been taking the wrong path the whole time! Just like this man, we might have hindrances to having the right vision for our church. These hindrances could keep us from seeing what God wants us to see. Lets look at some of them.
1. Our Past
One of the greatest hindrances to having the right kind of vision is our past. It can blind us in a way that makes it utterly impossible to see what God has for us. To put it simply, if you are looking backward, you cannot see forward. Our past reminds us, We tried that before and it didnt work or Weve never done it that way before. Traditions can be very helpful in keeping us true to that which God has called us. However, they can also make us slaves to the past and cause us to lose sight of what is really important. An example of how this can happen may be seen in a very small group in the United States called the Hook and Eye Baptists. During the last century, when there were no laws pertaining to child labor in factories, many children were employed for excessively long hours sewing buttons on clothing. This not only deprived the children of an education, it made them work under terrible conditions with little pay.
Lesson 3 39
Many Christians were upset by this practice. One church decided to protest this treatment by refusing to wear clothing with buttons. They would only wear clothing that was fastened with hooks and eyes, hence the name, Hook and Eye Baptists. This was a very good and appropriate response to a social problem. However, there are still some Hook and Eye Baptists today. Even though there are now laws that protect children from being taken advantage of, they have clung to their tradition. The fact that the tradition is no longer relevant seems not to be as important to this group as the tradition itself. Another factor from our past that can blind us is failure. If you hit your head a few times on a low doorway, eventually you learn to duck while walking through. The only problem is that we then tend to duck through every doorway whether we need to or not! The American author, Mark Twain, once said if a cat sits on a hot stove once, that cat will never sit on a stove again, be it hot or cold! Its sad when leaders in churches act like this cat. We try something, get burned, and vow to avoid that experience again. Compare that attitude with the words of the apostle Paul: ... we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed ...(2 Corinthians 4:8-9). ...forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Exercise 1
1. What are some things from past experiences that potentially could affect ones vision for the future? List as many as you can think of. 2. Now lets get more personal. Take some time right now to reflect upon your past and that of your church. What are some things you can think of that might hinder your vision?
2. Criticism
Motion makes friction. You cannot move forward while standing still. Moving forward means that some people, who want to stay where they are, may be opposed you. Remember our study in Numbers 13 and 14? Will we be any different than Caleb and Joshua who were almost stoned for their vision? The fear of criticism will cloud our vision as sure as anything. No one enjoys being criticized, but we must not allow that to hinder us. Anyone who does anything, says anything,
or stands for anything will be criticized. Aristotle said, Criticism is something we can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing. How can we deal with criticism in a positive manner? The following guidelines are helpful: A. Accept that it will come. Dont be surprised by it as if criticism were some kind of foreign invader! Turn to 1 Peter 3 and study verses 13 through 17. Respond to the following questions:
Question 6
In what ways can other Christians cause us to suffer?
Question 7
What does it mean to keep a good conscience?
Question 8
Has there ever been a time when you have been criticized by another believer? Summarize the situation and write down how you felt about it. B. Learn from it. There will always be at least a grain of truth in most criticism. We must seek to learn something positive from those who might criticize us. Turn to James 1:2-5 and respond to the following questions:
Question 9
How is the asking for wisdom linked with encountering trials?
Question 10
In what ways might God speak to us through criticism? C. Do not let it deter you. The effective Christian leader is not stubborn or unteachable. Since he desires to be the person God wants him to be he is open to change. But, if God has clearly led you through His Word to do something, you should do it faithfully even if you are being criticized! Read Acts 4:1-22 and 5:12-29, and respond to the following questions:
Question 11
Summarize the situations in both passages.
Lesson 3 41
Question 12
Were the apostles correct in disobeying the authorities? Why or why not?
Question 13
What were the results?
3. Our Problems
Every single one of us has problems. They might be in our family, job, or church, but they are there. Problems, either present or past, can cloud our vision. When this happens, its like being lost in a forest; all we can see are the trees. In order to find our way out, we must first go to some higher ground so we can see over the trees. Then we can get our bearings and find our way home. We must learn to look at problems as opportunities instead of obstaclesopportunities to trust in God. No one ever has learned to truly trust God in easy times. Paul wrote many of his epistles while in prison and John saw the apocalypse while in exile. A sailor cannot learn how to sail on calm seas; he must have both wind and waves. Read Exodus 14 and respond to these questions:
Question 14
Summarize the problem the Israelites had.
Question 15
What was God trying to show them through their problems?
Question 16
Did the Israelites learn from this incident, and what is the proof? These are just examples of some of the factors that can hinder us in having a truly Godgiven vision for our church and lives. Basically, anything in our lives that somehow keeps us from fully trusting and following God can be a hindrance.
The Role of Prayer

When God gives a leader a vision for his church, it usually happens while the leader is on his knees. Prayer is an essential part of the process God takes us through in order to show us what He wants us to see. Any great work of God is going to involve a great deal of prayer. Remember, we are after Gods vision for us and not our own vision for ourselves.
In his insightful book, Beyond Church Growth, Bob Logan emphasizes the mandatory nature of prayer when he writes, Many people, pastors and church planters among them, live as though they consider prayer a last resort weapon in lifes battles. If all else fails, we get down on our knees. We see prayer as a spiritual atom bomb, so to speak. We try things our own way, and when our own way doesnt work, we cry out to God. 1 Logan goes on to suggest the formation of a prayer team. He writes, One of the most common but devastating mistakes a church leader can make is to launch upon a ministry venture alone. Too many leaders burn out for lack of a support group of peersor other pastors, people in ministry, or church planters with whom they can test their ideas, seek wisdom, and unload burdens. More important than a peer support group, however, is the formation of a group of people gifted in and committed to the art and practice of intercessory prayer on your behalf. This group neednt be large, but it must be faithful. 2 It has been said as well that we must first be the people of God before we can do the work of God. We must spend significant time in prayer and worship to develop a vision that truly is from God, thus the importance of a small group of like-minded believers praying with us.
Exercise 2
Right now, develop a plan for praying for Gods vision for your church by utilizing the following format: Where will you pray? With whom will you pray? For what will you pray? When will you pray?
1 2
Robert E. Logan, Beyond Church Growth (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1989), 32. Ibid., 33.
Lesson 3 43
Strategic Planning in Realizing the Vision Goals

What do you do after God gives you some vision goals to accomplish? Do you just wait around until they somehow come into existence all by themselves? Of course, the answer is no! Gaining a vision is just the first step in the process. The next step involves strategic planning. Strategic planning helps the church isolate the critical issues in its vision statement and goals, and develops a plan whereby that vision can be accomplished. It always involves change and is proactive rather than reactive. Strategic planning makes the church look at the big picture and is a long-term approach to ministry. It deals with the now, but more in terms of how the present will affect the future. Strategic planning is thinking and praying through the steps necessary to accomplishing the vision goal. For example, if your goal is to be an effective witness for Christ, what might some of the steps be? 1. Learn a clear and concise gospel presentation. 2. Memorize the Scripture verses that you would use. 3. Develop a clear and brief personal testimony. 4. Go places where you can meet unbelievers. 5. Develop relationships with these people. 6. Regularly pray for those with whom you are sharing. 3
Under each one of these basic points you would develop specific, detailed steps to take, as follows: 1. Learn a clear and concise gospel presentation. a. Research as many different approaches to sharing the gospel as you can find. b. Test some of these out to find which works the best for you. c. Make a goal date for when you will complete this. 2. Memorize the Scripture verses that you would use. a. Write out each verse you want to use on separate cards that you can take with you. b. Schedule a time each day that you will work on these. c. Make a goal date for when you will complete this. 3. Develop a clear and brief personal testimony. a. Start by making a general outline of your testimony, i.e. Life before Christ; How I met Christ; Life since meeting Christ.
Taken from The Refocusing Process manual developed by Church Resource Ministries Australia (copyright pending), 1-3.
b. From the outline, fill in the details. c. Practice it so that you can give it from memory in only four minutes. d. Get feedback from others to improve it. e. Make a goal date for when you will complete this. 4. Go places where you can meet unbelievers. a. If you do not know many unbelievers, think through how and where you can meet some. b. Schedule a time each week when you will go to one of these places. c. Make a goal date for when you will go the first time. 5. Develop relationships with these people. a. Think through and list all the ways that you can develop a relationship with these new acquaintances. b. Schedule a time each week when you will do a specific thing to build a relationship with an unbeliever. c. Look for the right opportunities to share with them. d. Make a goal date for beginning. 6. Regularly pray for those you are sharing with. a. Develop a list of people to pray specifically for. b. Schedule a time each day for praying for their salvation. c. Make a goal date for beginning this. As you can see, even for a relatively basic goal like this one, there must be planning in order to effectively accomplish it. The bigger the vision, the more strategic planning must be done. For example, if the vision goal was to plant a new church, very specific things must be planned and carried out far in advance. We will see this more clearly in Lesson 9 which deals with church planting. Some people, however, object to strategic planning when it comes to Christian ministry. They say that by planning ahead you leave God out and so it is better to just let things happen by the Holy Spirits leading. Some would even go so far as to not study in preparation for teaching the Bible or preaching a sermon! Among other passages in Scripture, people with this viewpoint quote James 4:13-16: Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
Lesson 3 45
Are these people right? Is strategic planning merely a human effort that attempts to supersede the work that God wants to do? Eddie Gibbs responds: Such passages of Scripture do not deny the possibility or legitimacy of planning, rather they warn against wrong attitudes in planning. They caution against substituting human schemes for a reliance on Gods power. They remind us that nothing is impossible with God. They alert us to be prepared for the unexpected to happen, for God is not scheduled by our programs. They emphasize that no matter how diligent and energetic a person may be, it is still God who plays the major part. And they point out that there is a question mark hanging over tomorrow. All plans are provisional. 4 Can the Holy Spirit only work in and through us if we fail to plan and prepare or, instead, does He guide us as we prayerfully plan and prepare for doing the work of God? There are numerous examples in Scripture to indicate godly planning as a forerunner to the work that God accomplished through people. Spend some time studying these passages and meditate upon them. Remember to focus on the issues and apply them personally.
Question 17
Look up the following passages and summarize the principles that relate to planning: a. Genesis 12:1-3 and Romans 4:16-17 b. Ephesians 1:5, 8-12 c. Genesis 41:25-45 d. Matthew 25:14-30 From these passages, Eddie Gibbs relates four principles of planning that are pleasing to God: 1. We plan in the knowledge that we serve a God who plans. 2. We engage in planning in recognition that we are responsible co-workers with God. 3. As co-workers with God, Christians are held accountable for their actions. 4. We engage in planning in the understanding that in the final analysis we are utterly dependent on Gods providence. 5 God never honors laziness or irresponsibility, on the contrary, He desires that His servants take His work very seriously and be diligent in their ministries. This is why strategic planning is essential for us to be faithful to the vision and goals that God gives us. Here are some important principles and guidelines in strategic planning:
4 5
Gibbs, I Believe In Church Growth, 271. Ibid., 271-275.
1. Always approach it prayerfully. We must be the people of God before we can do the work of God. 2. Have a clear vision statement finalized. To begin planning before the big picture is clear is both frustrating and futile. 3. Develop a series of specific, progressive goals. Begin with the long-term goals and work your way down to the short-term goals. These need to be specific enough to know when you have reached them. 4. Work out the detailed steps necessary to reach the goals. Begin with the short-term goals and work up. 5. Establish time frames for reaching each goal and time frames for periodic review of the process. Few things are worse than setting a goal and planning out the steps and then just forgetting about it! 6. Set up a system of accountability. Whether it is the church council, the pastor or some denominational leaders, we need to state our goals and ask others to hold us accountable to them. 7. Continue to make prayer preeminent. Prayer helps us to remain faithful to and dependent upon God.
Action Steps
1. Right now, take some time to think about your own church. What are some of the things God is doing to help you and your church grow? Dont bother trying to figure out how these things could happen, or whether you consider them possible or impossible. Just reflect upon these questions and record your thoughts. 2. How do you know that God wants to do these things? What Scriptural principles do they reflect? How are they related to Christs Great Commission for His Church (Matthew 28:18-20)? 3. With whom will you test your thoughts and ideas? Who do you know and respect that can give you godly counsel? 4. With whom will you do your strategic planning? When will you do it? Where will you do it? 5. For practice, think of one thing you know right now that God wants you to do. Using the principles discussed in this lesson, plan out in detail how you will accomplish this: The goal: The steps to reaching this goal: Step-by-step time frame: Those to whom I will be accountable:
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Question 1
The major difference between Caleb and Joshuas report and the report of the other ten spies was that Caleb and Joshua gave a good report, while the ten spies gave a bad one. The two saw victory over the land, while the ten saw only defeat. The two felt God showed them that they should take the land, while the ten felt they would die in the attempt.
Question 2
The majority believed the bad report of the ten spies so much that they wanted to stone Caleb and Joshua for their report.
Question 3
The consequences for the ten spies, and all the rest of the people who believed them, were that they were never allowed to enter the Promised Land but wandered in the wilderness until they all died. Caleb and Joshua were rewarded and allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Question 4
The average person is unwilling, and therefore unable, to see things from Gods perspective. If this account is typical, only one in six people will be able to see what God really wants them to see. Addition-ally, it appears that the majority will often side with those who lack vision and faith.
Question 5
This episode is lived out in almost every church. There are very few leaders with vision and fewer congregations that are ready to follow them. When there is a visionary pastor or leader, the congregation oftentimes ridicules and stones them. These types of churches are destined to flounder.
Question 6
Other Christians can cause us to suffer through slander and false accusations. The whole context of this passage is that it was written to believers, and so these causes for suffering came from inside the church rather than outside.
Question 7
To keep a good conscience is basically to know, before God, that we have wronged no one without then making it right. This also means that we keep short accounts with God and with others. Confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness is how this is accomplished.
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Lesson 3 49
Question 8
This is to be personally answered.
Question 9
One of the first things that we ask God when we experience trials is, Why? This is not a question that can be easily or adequately answered most of the time. Wisdom helps us to see how these trials can be of benefit to us and our spiritual lives. Wisdom looks for the redeeming factors in difficult situations.
Question 10
There are a number of ways that God might speak to us through criticism. First, He might be showing us that we have gotten off track from what He desires us to do or say. Second, He may be revealing that we have a relational problem that needs to be addressed with the one criticizing us. Third, He may be showing us that we need to persevere in our commitment to please Him rather than man.
Question 11
In Acts 4:1-22, Peter and John were arrested by the Sanhedrin for preaching about Jesus. They were ultimately released and given explicit instructions not to teach or speak in the name of Jesus, but replied that they could not obey man rather than God. In Acts 5:12-29, the apostles again were arrested by the Sanhedrin and told not to teach in the name of Jesus. Once again, their reply was that they must obey God.
Question 12
The apostles were correct in disobeying the authorities. The hard part in disobeying authority is determining that we are doing exactly what God wants us to do. In both of these cases, the apostles had an unmistakable call to preach in the name of Jesus. They were so committed to obedience in this call that they were willing to disobey any authority which attempted to stop them. This must always be the case for the obedient disciple.
Question 13
The ultimate result was that most of the apostles were martyred. Yet, the gospel was spread throughout the entire known world. Gods blessing was on them because of their obedience in placing Him first.
Question 14
The problem the Israelites had was that their escape from Egypt was threatened by the Egyptian army. To complicate the matter, the Israelites were trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. They were in a totally defenseless position and, humanly speaking, had absolutely no chance of surviving.
Question 15
More than anything, God was trying to show them that He was able to solve any problem they encountered. He had already solved their greatest problemdelivering them from the Egyptians. By doing so, He had demonstrated His ability to take care of their problems. Unfortunately, the Israelites did not see it this way and, therefore, did not trust God to solve their current problem.
Question 16
No, the Israelites did not learn from this incident. In fact, one can view their entire time in the wilderness as a repeated lack of trust in God to solve their problems. Whether it was a lack of water, a lack of food or the threatening presence of powerful people living in the Promised Land, they never learned to trust God.
Question 17
a. In calling Abram to leave his country and to go to a new land, God expresses the plan He had for him and all of his offspring, both physical and spiritual. Paul explained this application through Christ. The principle is that God obviously had a plan that encompassed hundreds of centuries, and involved countless people. b. These passages talk about Gods foreknowing, predestining, and choosing us to be in Christ. This means that things do not just happen by chance or natural course, but that God plans them. c. In this passage God gave Pharaoh a dream that outlined the next fourteen years for Egypt: there would be seven years of abundance, followed by seven years of famine. In revealing this to Pharaoh, God demonstrated His plan; one that involved not only Egypt, but also Joseph and all of Israel, as well. Josephs counsel was to plan for surviving the seven years of famine by storing up resources during the seven years of abundance. Without this type of planning, survival would have been difficult. d. In the parable of the talents, a man going on a journey gave five talents to one man, two talents to another, and one talent to a third. The first two worked hard and doubled their money. However, the man with one talent did nothing and merely returned it to his master. He reasoned that his master was a hard man and that he feared losing the one talent he had been given. Because he had not invested what the master had given him, it was taken away from him, as he should have planned better for the final accounting. In other words, he accurately assessed the situation (his master was a hard man!) but failed to plan accordingly.
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The Church and Cultural Relevancy
he progression of this course so far has led us to discover the various biblical principles that teach us about the importance of growing churches. We have seen that God not only desires people to be saved, but also that as we incorporate them into the fellowship of the church, growth results. This is the very essence of Jesus command to go and make disciples. We then began to apply these principles into the life and ministry of our church. We discovered the various ways a church might grow and the importance of planning for it. These things were then applied personally to your own situation. In Lesson 3, we focused upon the importance of developing a God-given vision for your church, resulting in a detailed vision statement that people can understand and agree upon. Because God has a plan for you, He will also be faithful in helping you to accomplish it. This brings us to our present lesson, where we will explore the various issues related to helping the church to present itself and the gospel in a way that can be understood and received by those outside the church. This lesson is designed to be very thought provoking, as it deals with some of the most important issues related to the church accomplishing its task.
LESSON OUTLINE
Defining Culture The Reason for Relevance Jesus and Cultural Relevancy The Apostles and Cultural Relevancy Helping the Church to Become Culturally Relevant Action Steps
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to:
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Define accurately the various components of culture. Describe your own culture in terms of the various components. Articulate how your church relates to your culture. Trace how Jesus and the apostles related to culture. Discover how to break down the cultural barriers you and your church have erected.
Defining Culture
Oftentimes, when we think about the word culture, we think of a ballet or the beautiful sounds of a philharmonic orchestra. We think about classical music and some of the magnificent pieces that the great masters of times past have written. We may also think about going to a fine art museum and viewing paintings and sculptures. Perhaps the word culture may even cause us to focus in on the idea of looking and acting properly by knowing the protocol of any given situation. These ideas about culture are the more popular ones today. Actually, however, culture goes much deeper than those things. In fact, the above are merely expressions of a small facet of it. Culture, in its broader sense, is not just limited to outward expressions. Defining it is not an easy task and understanding it is even more difficult! However, if we truly desire to be able to effectively reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must address these issues. There are four basic systems that can be seen in any culture. 1 These four are progressive as each one is built upon the previous one. Learning about them will help us understand ourselves better, as well as those we wish to evangelize.
1. The System of Beliefs

At the very core of every culture is a system of beliefs. This has to do with things like what the people believe about God. Do they believe that God exists and, if so, in what kind of form? Do they believe that God is good and will help them or do they believe that He is bad and will hurt them? Do they believe that only one God exists or do they believe in many? Is God a personal God or just some kind of cosmic force in their way of thinking? Another aspect of this system of beliefs has to do with reality as understood by the people. In other words, what is real? What do they believe is the primary basis for reality or where do they believe reality is found? Is it in the temporal world or in the spiritual world? Third, it is within the peoples belief system that the ultimate meaning of life is determined. Questions like, What is the ultimate purpose of man? are asked. The beliefs people have about ultimate meaning are at the very heart and center of their culture.
Taken from lectures given by Don Larson [ed.: further information to follow].
Lesson 4 53
2. The System of Values

Built on top of the system of beliefs is a system of values. Ones beliefs about God, reality, and ultimate meaning will determine the things that person values. Where the system of beliefs asks, What is real? the system of values asks, What is good? The answers determine a cultures values. For example, if a group of people (a culture) believes that there is no God and that reality is only in the here and now, they might place a very high value on material possessions. Conversely, if a culture has a strong belief in a Supreme Being (God), they will probably place a high value on religious practices. Along with the question of goodness, the system of values also asks, What is true? Again, what is true for ones values is rooted in ones beliefs. The system of values also establishes the norm. For example, when a culture values time, that priority will permeate the entire fabric of society. To someone who comes from another culture where relationships are valued above time, the people from the time culture may seem impersonal and uncaring. That assessment may or may not be true, but it is built on this false premise: if they cared about people, they wouldnt be in such a hurry. However, in reality, it may be because they care about people that they are so time conscious. As you can see, values vary greatly between cultures.
3. The System of Customs

Every culture will develop its own system of customs which reflects its beliefs and values. These customs may be outwardly visible, in things like dress, but they include much more. In the system of customs, the question can be asked, What is acceptable? One area to consider is behavior. What kinds of behavior are acceptable in a given culture? For example, there are some cultures where certain levels of dishonesty are considered acceptable. Each culture will determine its own boundaries for acceptable behavior. Along with behavior, the system of customs will also set the norms for relationships. How do men and women relate to each other? What status does the family have and how do the different members relate to one another? Are women treated on an equal basis with men at the work place? How are the elderly and children regarded? What is the acceptable way to find someone to marry? These are but a few of the areas of life affected and determined by a cultures customs about relationships. Another example of custom, mentioned previously, has to do with acceptable dress. We are not referring to a national dress or folk costume, but with what is considered acceptable attire for different occasions. For example, what is appropriate to wear to ones job? How does it differ from what one wears to a wedding or a funeral? What do children wear to school? Obviously, what is acceptable dress to attend a Sunday worship service in Kenya,
Africa, differs greatly from what would be acceptable in Moscow, Russia. All of these areas are examples of the system of customs.
4. The System of Institutions

The fourth, and last, component of culture is the system of institutions. These would be, relatively speaking, formal expressions of the beliefs, values, and customs of the culture. They would include institutions such as churches, schools, police and fire departments, as well as local and federal government. This is the component that generates laws that govern the people. If one looks at these four components of culture like a building, we can illustrate how they work together. The system of beliefs is like the foundation of the building. It must be laid first and the rest of the building sits upon it. Next, the system of values is like the framework or structure of the building. You do not see it outwardly, but it is definitely there and without it, the building could not stand. The system of customs is like the sides and roof of the building. It completes the building from the outside and protects the contents inside. Lastly, the system of institutions could represent the furnishings inside the building. The very last thing that is done to complete the building is to paint, wallpaper and furnish it. The building is then functional and can be enjoyed by everyone. It is relatively easy, for example, for a European to identify the differences between African and European cultures. It requires a bit more observation for them to identify the differences between several European groups. However, as we know, most European countries are made up of more than one ethnic group. Already in this decade, we have witnessed the fierce conflicts between different ethnic groups within several countries. Just as there are inherent problems with people from different cultures trying to live together, there is difficulty in trying to relate the gospel to people from different cultures. This is why it is so imperative for us to understand the components of culture.
Lesson 4 55
Exercise 1
What is your culture like? Refer to the material just discussed, and describe your own culture. Try to be as thorough as possible. 1. What are the beliefs held by your culture? 2. What are the values held by your culture? 3. What are the customs practiced by your culture? 4. What are the institutions established in your culture?
The Reason for Relevance

Why have we addressed these issues about culture in a course like this? The reason is simple. The gospel of Jesus Christ is to be taken to all the nationsit is for everyone, everywhere. But how can we take the gospel to people who have beliefs, values, customs and institutions that are different from ours and expect them to respond? The answer is by making the gospel understandable to them. This is essentially what we mean by cultural relevancy. Is the concept of cultural relevance valid only for missionaries and churches practicing E2 or E3 evangelism? 2 What about the church that is merely trying to reach the unbelievers in their community? This will become clear as we begin to understand that a church actually represents a kind of sub-culture within the community. For example, Polish Christians will be part of the broad culture of Poland because they share a common heritage and history living within Polish society. However, there are a number of aspects of the sub-culture within a church that are unique. This can be seen in the way believers dress, the places they go, the friends they have or the terms they use when they speak. An outsider, then, would not know all the ways to be culturally acceptable in the church. They might not know how to dress properly for the church service or even how to pray. They probably go places and do things that are unacceptable. At the minimum, they wont completely understand the language used inside the church, even though it is in their native tongue! The only way to truly know all these things (and more) is to be an insider of the church. This poses a problem for those who wish to be involved in evangelism and disciplemaking. Either the people we wish to reach have to first accept, and become part of, our churchs sub-culture so that they can clearly understand what we are saying, or the church must present the gospel in a way that people outside the church can understand it. In other words, we must present the gospel in a way that is relevant to the people we desire to reach.
See Lesson 1 of this course.
Oftentimes, churches put the cart before the horse. We want people to conform to our churchs sub-culture before they are able to respond to the gospel. This erects barriers that hinder people from coming to Christ. The apostle Paul talked about the inherent barriers contained in the gospel itself when he wrote, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). But are these barriers contained in the gospel the same as the ones that are inherent in our churchs sub-culture? Usually, they are not! This is where the issue of cultural relevance becomes so imperative. People want to be able to come to faith in Jesus Christ by crossing as few cultural barriers as possible. 3 This not only refers to the major cultural barriers that exist between different ethnic groups, but also to the barriers that exist in the churchs sub-culture. We must, however, make clear that we are not referring to differences like faith in the Bible or living a godly life. Those are biblical differences that must not be compromised. Again, Donald McGavran addresses this when he states, non-Biblical barriers must not be set up. It is non-Biblical barriers which we must demolish . To reach people living on the other side of a culture barrier requires a conscious effort. 4 In a very real sense, it is not ultimately what we say to people that is important, it is what they hear that really matters. Failing to understand this results in what Wagner calls people blindness, which he defines as, the lack of cultural sensitivity. 5 This can be a detriment to growth in the church. Bible translators often face this problem. For example, in parts of Africa, the care of sheep is relegated to children or the mentally deficient. It is the care of cattle which is regarded as mans work. Therefore, when Jesus is presented as the Good Shepherd in John 10, further clarification would be needed to avoid misinterpretation! 6 God is neither the inventor of culture nor the perfecter of it; He is neither for it nor against it. Rather, He is above it, but works through it. In other words, God has, in a sense, limited Himself in order to communicate to people in understandable terms within their culture. We must do the same thing. 7
3 4 5 6 7
McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 163. McGavran and Arn, How To Grow A Church, 45, 51. Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth, 166. Gibbs, I Believe in Church Growth, 81. Ibid., 73-78.
Lesson 4 57
To prepare ourselves for becoming more sensitive to those outside the church we wish to reach, we have to know two things. First, we have to know who we are. Second, we have to know who they are.
Exercise 2
Write out as many insights as you can about your church and its culture. Then write out everything you know about the community outside the church and its culture.
Jesus and Cultural Relevancy

Jesus has given us many wonderful examples of cultural sensitivity throughout the gospels. Being a Jew, He understood the various nuances of His culture and was therefore able to speak in understand-able terms. Likewise, He also understood other cultures, as evidenced in His encounters with various non-Jews. One of the best examples of this is found in John 4:1-42. Carefully study this passage and answer the following questions:
Question 1
Who were the Samaritans and how did the Jews relate to them?
Question 2
What cultural barrier (beliefs, values, customs or institutions) did Jesus cross by going through Samaria?
Question 3
What cultural barrier did Jesus cross by initiating conversation with this Samaritan woman (vv. 7-15)?
Question 4
What cultural barrier did Jesus cross when He asked her about her husband and why (vv. 16-18)?
Question 5
To which cultural barrier did the woman try to push Jesus back, and how might someone do that today (vv. 19-20)?
Question 6
After her attempt to push Him away how did Jesus respond? What cultural barrier did Jesus then cross and why (vv. 21-24)?
Question 7
As a result of this, which cultural barrier did the woman ultimately invite Jesus to cross (vv. 25 and 26)?
The Apostles and Cultural Relevancy

At the time that Jesus gave His final instructions to the apostles in Acts 1:7-8, it is unlikely that they fully comprehended the breadth of His words. As we see later, God had to supernaturally cause the gospel to spread outside the Jewish culture. Lets study some selected passages in order to trace the presentation of the gospel into different cultures.
Question 8
Describe all the cultural issues found in Acts 8:4-25.
Question 9
Summarize the events in Acts 8:26-40 and articulate their cultural implications.
Question 10
In Acts 10:9-48, how did God show His acceptance of Gentiles?
Question 11
What do we learn about cultural sensitivity from Pauls encounter in Athens in Acts 17:1631?
Helping the Church to Become Culturally Relevant

All of the areas discussed in this lesson help the church relate to those outside. One question that is crucial at this point is, Are we essentially going to force people to become like us (the churchs sub-culture) in order for them to become believers in Jesus Christ? If your church is not willing to become culturally relevant, the answer to that question will be yes.
Lesson 4 59
If our acceptance of people outside the church is strictly on our terms (i.e. they conform to us), then we will have a difficult time reaching them. We must learn how to communicate with them in a way that they can understand. Our goal must be to make a disciple and not to add another member to the churchs sub-culture. Can you see the difference? The way for us to do that is two-fold. First, we must understand ourselves and understand those outside the church. Second, we must be able to break down some of the barriers the church has erected that hinder people from becoming Christs disciples and responsible members of His Church. This is what we mean by becoming culturally relevant. The action steps that follow are designed to help you in this process.
Action Steps
1. In order to understand those outside the church, conduct the following survey in at least twenty-five homes around your church and prepare a summary of the results: 1. Do you regularly attend a church service? a. How often do you attend? b. Which church? 2. Why do you think most people dont at-tend church regularly? 3. What do you think is wrong with most churches? 4. What would you like to see churches doing? 2. It is important to be able to effectively communicate with those outside the church. To assist you in doing this, write out (a) a one-page testimony and (b) a one-page gospel presentation that is without any Christian jargon or Biblical terms. In others words, speak so someone outside the church can easily understand you. 3. Develop at least six ideas for helping the unchurched to feel welcomed and accepted in your church. 4. Develop a detailed strategic plan for implementing these ideas into your church. Make it step-by-step and take into consideration what needs to be done to help others in the church accept these new ideas.
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Question 1
The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and foreigners who had intermarried as a result of the Assyrian captivity. Unlike the southern tribes, who had refused to intermarry during the Babylonian captivity, the Samaritans were considered an impure race and were totally rejected by the Jews. Basically, Jews would have nothing to do with them.
Question 2
By going through Samaria, Jesus crossed the first cultural barrier of institutions. A good Jew would never have traveled through Samaria to go from Judea to Galilee, but instead would have crossed the Jordan, traveled up the east side and then crossed again into Galilee. Jesus broke a religious practice by going through Samaria and, in this way, crossed the cultural barrier of institutions.
Question 3
By speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus crossed the second cultural barrier of customs. He did this in three ways. First, it was not the custom for a Jew to speak to a Samaritan. Second, it was not the custom for a Jewish man to speak to a woman that he did not know. Third, it was not the custom for a Jew to put himself under obligation to a Samaritan or a woman, which Jesus did by asking her for some water. In this way, Jesus broke through the cultural barrier of customs.
Question 4
By asking the Samaritan woman about her husband, Jesus crossed the third cultural barrier of values. Obviously, Jesus knew she was an immoral woman. When He inquired about her husband, He was moving into a deeper level by addressing her own system of values. It wasnt that she or her culture lacked values, but that she had been violating her own values. This was the real first step into getting personal with this woman.
Question 5
Apparently, this woman was not prepared to talk about her own values, and so pushed Jesus all the way back to the system of institutions. She did this by asking a question concerning religious practices. She was more comfortable talking in general about religious practices than she was about her personal behavior. This is typified today when someone responds with theological questions about creation versus evolution, or good versus evil, after being questioned about their personal needs.
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Question 6
Jesus simply answered her question! In other words, He didnt force her to discuss what she was not ready to discuss. This is important because if we force people to address issues before they are ready, the response will usually be negative.
Question 7
Because of Jesus cultural sensitivity, she invites Him all the way to her core of beliefs, by speaking to Him about the Messiah. Jesus then crosses all the way to the fourth cultural barrier of beliefs by proclaiming to her that He is the Messiah. It is important to realize that Jesus didnt begin at this point, but worked His way there through cultural sensitivity.
Question 8
After the stoning of Stephen, the church was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Philip, for the first time, went to Samaria to preach the gospel, and therefore crossed certain cultural barriers similar to those Jesus crossed in John 4. The result was that Simon the Sorcerer, along with many others, were saved and brought into the fellowship of the church. This was the first time people in this cultural group were welcomed into the church.
Question 9
Philip is led down a road to Gaza, where he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is a God-fearer. After being invited to share with him from the Scriptures, Philip tells him about Jesus. The eunuch believes and is baptized with water. Undoubtedly, this eunuch returned to his land where he shared the gospel. This is the first instance of the gospel being taken out of the general area of Judea.
Question 10
Even though some Gentiles had become believers, the apostles still did not fully accept Gentiles. To correct this, God gave Peter a dream about eating ceremonially unclean food. Ultimately, Peter saw this as a sign that Gentiles should not be considered unclean by the church. This was extremely important, because the church was still culturally biased against non-Jews.
Question 11
When the apostle Paul was touring the objects of worship in Athens, he could have criticized their culture for being superstitious and idolatrous. Instead, he utilized their own belief system by focusing on one of their own objects of worshipthe unknown god. He told them that this was the God he wanted to talk to them about. This is key in demonstrating that we need to approach people from where they are, regardless of how misguided they may be.
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The Role of Reproducing Cell Groups in a Church
n the first four lessons, we established a basis for growing churches. Obviously, if a church is going to grow, it takes a lot of effort on the part of many people. God never intended that all of the ministry would be done by just a few individuals. On the contrary, the ministry is to be carried on by all the members of the church under the training, equipping and supervision of the pastor. Now that we have established that base, we are able to move on to one of the most underutilized principles for the church found in all the New Testamentthe role of reproducing cell groups in the church.
LESSON OUTLINE
Two Critical Issues for the Church Today Defining Cell Group The Biblical Basis for Cell Groups Current Cell Group Models Centralized vs Decentralized Ministry Developing and Multiplying Cell Group Leaders How to Begin What to Do in a Cell Group Evangelism and Cell Groups Action Steps
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Articulate the importance and role of cell groups in the church. 2. Understand biblically how cell groups fit into Gods plan. 3. Conceptualize and apply the various cell group principles in your church context.
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4. Design a method to continually train new cell group leaders. 5. Structure and lead a cell group meeting. 6. Make an action plan for implementing a cell group strategy for your church.
Two Critical Issues for the Church Today

Today, there are two critical issues facing the Church of Jesus Christ. Both of these issues have to do with the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you To put it simply, Jesus commanded us to reach those who do not know Him (evangelism) and to provide a means for them to become all that He desires them to be (discipleship). The Church, then, must ask itself two important questions. The first is this: How can the church effectively reach those outside the church with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
The second is: How can the church provide a means for Christians to grow and minister to others both in the church and outside of it? Our suggestion is that the answer to both is found in the establishment of reproducing cell groups within the church.
Defining Cell Group

There are basically three levels of participation that a church offers: celebration, congregation, and cell. Each of these levels has a different dynamic and function which determines how it operates. The celebration is what we would call the worship service, when the entire church gathers together each week. In the celebration, most of the attendees are passive, which means that their participation involves following (as in singing certain hymns or praying at certain times) and listening (to a sermon). The majority of actual ministry during the celebration is done by a few people up front. The congregation has some of the same characteristics of the celebration, but on a smaller scale. This might be like a special Bible study class that meets before the worship service each
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week. Not everyone who comes to the celebration would come to the congregation. There is usually more opportunity for people to actively participate, but the bulk of ministry would still be accomplished by those in charge of leading. The cell is much different than either the celebration or the congregation. To begin with, a cell consists of four to twelve members, which means that it is significantly smaller in size. Because of its more intimate size, each member becomes an active participant. It is structured so that the leader does not do most of the ministering, but that the individual members minister one to another. For this reason, when a cell grows larger than twelve people, it must multiply itself into two smaller groups. Otherwise, before too long you no longer have a cell, but a congregation! The word cell is a technical term that refers to specific type of group that differs from a normal small group. Just as in biology, the body is made up of millions of cells, which grow, reproduce and multiply. When these individual cells are together, they form the whole body. The same picture works well to describe a church that uses cell groups. The church is like a body that, while one, is made up of many cell groups. These groups grow, reproduce and multiply causing the church to grow. Regular small group meetings in a church do not share this goal. Basically, we have covered the definition and function of a cell group. Later on, we will take a detailed look at what should take place within it.
The Biblical Basis for Cell Groups

The idea of cell groups is certainly not a new one. Even before the birth of the Church in Acts 2, we can actually see an application of celebration, congregation and cell in the ministry of Jesus. Our Lord, at times, preached to and taught the masses (celebration) as in the Sermon on the Mount or the Feeding of the Five Thousand. He also had special times with a large group of followers (congregation) such as when He sent out the seventy to preach and to heal in Luke 10. However, we clearly see that Jesus invested the majority of His time and effort in His twelve disciples (cell). This is where the truly in-depth ministry of Jesus took place. An important question for every pastor or church leader to ask themselves is this: If Jesus needed to spend the bulk of His ministry on earth with only twelve men in order to adequately prepare them to minister in His place, can I do better? Can a pastor be everything to everyone? Does any one person possess all the gifts and abilities to equip the church? Is this what God intended for the church? Is this what Jesus modeled? Lets look at how things worked when the church first came into existence, before any formal organization developed. Read Acts 2:42-47 and respond to the following questions:
Question 1
Name and define briefly at least seven activities or ministries of the church found in this passage.
Question 2
Which of these ministries do you feel was done, or would be done, best in a cell group?
Question 3
Look up the following one another passages that are listed. After each verse, summarize what the verse is telling us to do and at which level (celebration, congregation or cell) it can best be accomplished. a. Romans 12:10 b. Galatians 6:2 c. Ephesians 4:2 and 32 d. Ephesians 5:21 e. Colossians 3:16 f. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 g. Hebrews 10:24-25 h. James 5:16 From this brief study we begin to see the importance of cell groups throughout the New Testament. Why is it, then, that most churches today lack this vital element of church life? Or, better yet, how can we begin to apply these things in our churches? Lets look at what God is doing around the world today in relation to cell groups.
Current Cell Group Models

Today, there are examples of churches that are based on reproducing cell groups on virtually every continent on Earth. From Singapore to England and from Korea to Africa, churches are growing dynamically from a new focus on the cell group level. The largest single local church in the world is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea with more than 600,000 members. Yet, virtually every member is part of a home cell group. To most of us, those kinds of numbers are absolutely staggering and difficult to relate to. However, Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho, the pastor, describes his church as,
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the smallest church in the world as well as the biggest because every member is part of a home cell group consisting of 15 families or fewer. 1 Whether a church has 50 members or 50,000 members, there will be certain components, or functions, that may be seen in their cell groups. Robert Logan writes: Cell groups are not merely home Bible studies, small groups, discussion groups or prayer groups. All these titles reflect but one aspect of what a healthy cell group should incorporate. Healthy cell groups must fulfill at least seven key functions found in Acts 2:42-47: * Teaching: Learning and applying Gods Word. * Fellowship: Building supportive, mutually accountable relationships * Worship: Praising God for who He is and what He has done. * Prayer: Listening to and sharing intimately with God; inter-ceding on behalf of others and Gods work in the world. * Power: Experiencing the filling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. * Ministry: Using spiritual gifts and loving each other in practical ways to meet needs. * Evangelism: Impacting our society and sharing the Good News so that people become disciples. 2 Dale Galloway, Senior Pastor at New Hope Community Church in Portland, Oregon in the U.S.A., lists twenty-one principles for successful home cell groups. Here is a condensed version of those principles: 1. There are three elements in an effective home cell group which must be put into use and kept in equal balance. a. SHARING - People love to share their lives, one with another. Theres nothing like a life-centered testimony to illustrate what is being taught. The more a person shares with the group the more the person feels a part of the group. The other members also feel they know that person better. The goal is to participate in each others spiritual lives and to become a real family together. A word of caution. There have been groups in churches that do nothing but share. Although this experience may be very exhilarating for a few weeks, it will eventually deteriorate and get to be old stuff. Then people will grow tired of coming. In a successful group, sharing is an important ingredient but much more than this happens.
Paul Yonggi Cho and Harold Hostetler, Successful Home Cell Groups (Plainfield, NJ: Bridge Publishers, 1981), 50.
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Logan, Beyond Church Growth, 124-125.
b. CONVERSATIONAL PRAYER - In our cell groups we teach people to participate in prayer by having a conversation together with God. The leader and other mature Christians keep their prayers simple. New people begin to see that they, too, can pray. It is far more beneficial for many people to pray together than it is for one person to do all the praying. First we teach people to praise and thank God in short sentence prayers. Then we teach them to share their needs and to respond by praying one for another. In every home cell group, prayer should be a growing experience together. In praying, people find answers to the needs in their lives. In praying, people are drawn together spiritually at a deep level. c. APPLICATION OF BIBLE - The Bible must not only be studied but it must be applied to daily life. Ask practical questions. What promise does God have here for me? What truth is here that God wants me to apply in my life? What principle does God want me to learn in this lesson? Such questions help make application of the Bible lesson to the daily lives of the people present in the cell group. More than just getting Bible knowledge, they learn Bible application to daily life. Sometimes a group will major on only one of the three above parts. Invariably that group will burn itself out. But where these three elements are kept in equal balance the group will be healthy and will produce healthy well-balanced Christians. 2. Participation is the key to success. The more an individual participates in a home cell group, the more he or she receives from that meeting. As participation goes up, learning increases and enthusiasm builds. We also develop leaders for new studies to come in the days ahead. GOAL OF LEADER - The goal of the leader in our home cell system is not be the authority, the teacher, but to be the guide. The leader guides people into participation, prayer, and application of the Word. There are many people who could never be adult teachers. But with some training and supervision they can become excellent leaders in guiding people in home cell groups. ARRANGEMENT OF PEOPLE - It is amazing what a difference the way people are arranged makes in their participation. For the best participation arrange your people in a circle without any empty chairs. They need to see each other, feel close to one another, and equally participate. You want to make everyone feel a part of this family meeting together. RULE - DONT PRESSURE ANYONE TO PRAY, READ, OR SPEAK. Make it easy for the timid person to participate, but do not directly ask anyone to pray, read or speak. Some of you may remember from school days how you would fill up with fear when you thought you might be called on to read or recite. Many adults carry the same fears
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with them today. Recognize that fact and let people volunteer to read the Scripture, to pray, to respond with insights. The goal is to help each person in your group participate. In order for this to happen, some outspoken people may need to be restrained. Do this by saying, If youve already read or prayed maybe you could let others participate before you take another turn. As a leader, keep things so that those who are timid can see that they, too, have something to offer. Make it easy for them to get involved but dont pressure them. Create a comfortable atmosphere in which they feel valued and realize they have something worthwhile to give. 3. Begin and close with conversational prayer. You begin conversational prayer by thanking God for being with you. This brings the group immediately into the presence of God. It also begins to tune everyone to the Lord and what He wants to do in this special time together. Sometimes people will come with heavy hearts. If you ignore that and proceed with your study, they will get little or nothing from it. A sensitive leader, following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, will make it easy for people to share needs. Then, in the opening prayer lead the others in responding to those needs so people will get freed from their burdens before you move on into the study. We always close our time together with more conversational prayer. This time we respond to the truth that weve learned and make application of it in our lives. Once again we pray for each others needs, interceding for the requests of individuals and for our church. 4. Respond lovingly to a need expressed immediately. In James 5:16 we read, Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed (LB). We teach the people in our cell groups three principles from this verse. 1 - We are to admit our faults and needs one to another. 2 We are to pray for each other. 3 - When we do this we become a healing fellowship to each other. Cell groups are intended to be a healing fellowship. TEACH PEOPLE TO SHARE NEEDS BY EXAMPLE. As Senior Pastor there has been many a time that Ive had needs. When I have confessed those needs and asked the people to pray, my own spirit has been touched and healed. The best way to teach people in a cell group to share their needs is for the leader to open up and share areas of his or her own life and ask for prayer. RESPOND IMMEDIATELY. Through the years we have taught our people that when a request is expressed, the time to respond is immediately. In fact there is something very unloving about allowing a person to wait when they have just shared a deep concern of their life. When you say, Ill pray for you, its too easy to walk away
and forget it. Love responds not tomorrow but immediately. When we respond immediately with prayers of love and healing, an atmosphere is created in which people can feel free to share their needs, confident that they will be accepted, prayed for, loved. One technique you might use involves putting a chair in the middle of the circle of your cell group. Sit in the chair yourself and ask members of the group to pray for your needs. When they have finished praying for you, invite anyone else with a need to sit in the chair and be prayed for. Show the people in your group that they can gently lay their hands on the person sitting in the chair and in faith pray for them out of hearts of love. Whenever we have done this we have seen the power of God flow, peoples lives changed and transformed, and our home cell group bonded together in perfect love. The rule is thisneeds expressed demand immediate response. The truth is this when we respond in prayers of faith we release the healing love of God into one anothers lives. The miracle is thisas you pray for someone else your own prayer is answered. When it comes to healing prayer, we really do need each other! 5. The Bible is our authority and guidebook. In our home cell groups we tie our people into the authority of the Word of God. It contains everything necessary for their salvation and Christian walk. It has all the principles and promises that we need to be successful in every area of our lives. From time to time, groups have wanted to study a particular book some author has written. At times, for special reasons, weve allowed them to do that. But over the years we have discovered for the best results the curriculum needs to be the Word of God. It is just what the doctor ordered in peoples lives. 6. Encourage sharing in the group. We want to create an open, friendly atmosphere in which people present can express themselves freely. Each persons opinions and comments must be valued as important. However, if an individual tries to dominate the time and persists in diverging from the subject, the leader will have to insure that attention be centered on the particular verse or passage being studied. Dialogue is what youre after. People need to discuss the truth of God, sharing with each other and making application of that truth in daily life. Even while youre studying the Word of God, if someone expresses a need, stop right there and respond by praying for the need. If they are encountering difficulties and need counsel or encouragement, ask questions and help them at their point of need. However, a group is not a therapy session. The leader is not a psychologist. People that have deep emotional problems are not to be dealt with in the group but referred to the pastor or to competent counsel. 7. Dont allow doctrinal discussion that is divisive or argumentative.
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Two things will polarize a group right down the middle: doctrinal disputes and political debates. Dont allow either one to take place in a group. One time during elections this happened in a group that I was in and it created two sides instead of one group. I learned my lesson right then never to allow a group to talk about political candidates in one of our cell meetings. If someone brings up a doctrinal issue of the kind that divides people, then simply, as leader, make the statement that we do not dispute doctrine here at this meeting. Tell the person you will be glad to talk privately afterward. There are people who at times will use doctrinal differences to divert attention from what really needs to happen in their own lives. 8. Practice mutual edification. A home cell group in our fellowship is to be a mutual admiration society. We are a team together helping each other be everything we can be for God. We want to help build healthy self-esteem in one another. This is part of loving each other Gods way. The principle we practice is the principle of edificationto encourage and build up each other. The leader can best teach this by example. Express words of appreciation. Tell people how wonderful they are and why they are so special. To edify is to build up. In Romans 14:19 we read these words: Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (NIV). 9. Lead in love. Our greatest need is to be loved and give love. Make your home cell group a loving family. Give each other lots of good Christian love. In our home cell groups, when we pray we hold hands in friendship. This brings us together in love. People are encouraged to express their love for one another. Its not unusual in our home cell groups to see people giving each other hugs. Love, acceptance and forgiveness are practiced continually in our home cell groups. 10. Follow-up on members between meetings is essential. For a home cell group to be successful there must be contact between meetings. Those that have not been present must be called on the phone and encouraged and given love. New people should be called in friendship and invited to come and participate and enjoy whats going on. In our Lay Pastor training we help our leaders to overcome their fears of the phone and to make the calls. We also help them learn what to say. We teach them that phoning people is just loving people. 11. New members being brought into the group will keep it alive and growing. Home cell groups that stop bringing new people in become ingrown. After they have been together for five or six months they become very comfortable with one
another. That is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Its an advantage in that you want people to have this close Christian heart-to-heart fellowship. It can be a disadvantage if they get so comfortable that they dont want to bring in anyone new. Every time a new person is brought into the group it gives it a whole brand new life. The way to keep from becoming stagnant is to keep adding new members to the group. 12. Handle problem people away from the group on a one-to-one basis. There are in our world not only a lot of troubled people but some very disturbed ones. You cannot allow a disturbed person to become the center of attention in your group. If you do this you will ruin your group. Someone who is disturbed, easily misunderstood, or who has to have all the attention should be taken aside by the leader and talked to on a one-to-one basis. Make it clear that you love him or her, that you are glad to talk one-to-one, but that continually rehashing problems or using the group as a dumping ground cannot be permitted. If a leader does not take action and handle this particular problem, he will see his group dissipate. It is important to have pastoral supervision of cell groups. One of the reasons is that the person leading cell groups is not usually equipped to deal with getting troubled people out of their groups. In three or four weeks the group will be ruined if something is not done. A pastor in charge can move in and give the support and strength needed to deal with the troubled person and save the group. No concerned, loving shepherd will allow harm to come to the sheep. Many times one must do what is best for the whole group. You cannot afford to allow one troubled person to wipe out a whole cell group. 13. Dont allow people to confess anyones faults but their own. Tony and Martha, although they had been married for 26 years, had not yet learned to live together in harmony. In front of a group Martha seized the opportunity to apply the Scripture lesson to Tonys life and to confess that he had a roving eye. Tony didnt say anything but you could see the anger swelling up inside of him. To be injured by anyone is bad enough. But to be injured by your own mate in front of people you want to think well of you is to multiply that injury many times. Needless to say the husband never came back to the group. For years afterwards Martha kept asking why she couldnt get her husband interested in spiritual things. Never allow anyone to get by with confessing another persons sin in front of the group. If this happens the leader must immediately take hold of the situation and in good humor remind the group that we have this little rule: we dont confess anyones faults but our own (see James 5:16). 14. Dont allow anyone to do all the talking.
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If you have one person who has to do all the talking you must politely but firmly intervene. You can do this by saying, Thank you for your comment. Now lets hear what some others have to say. If the problem persists, take the person aside and explain the need to limit each persons talking so that everyone will have opportunity to participate. Often over-talkative people do not realize what theyre doing. With a little teaching and guidance they will come into line. Preachers often do not make good leaders or participants in home cell groups. The reason is that they sometimes do all the talking and become a hindrance instead of a help in the group participation process. The truth of the matter is that we who are preachers and teachers really need to listen to the feedback of other people. 15. Be tuned up spiritually yourself. The Holy Spirit will be hindered if the leader is spiritually indifferent or troubled with unconfessed sin. A person not free to the working of the Holy Spirit in his own life can hardly be a channel for His working in the cell group. Before every meeting it is essential that the leader spend time alone in fellowship with the Holy Spirit so that he can be a channel through which the Spirit flows and does His work in the cell meeting. 16. Keep learning, dont have all the answers. To be a successful leader or guide of a small group, a person does not have to be a seminary graduate, or even have attended Bible school for a year. One does not have to know all the answers. But one does have to be a learner. We find that the best teachers are all learners. The attitude we want in a home cell leader is: I dont know all the answers but I am learning how to live Gods way. And here at our cell group we are learning together. A good way to handle a question is to ask other people in the group if they know the answer. If no one knows the answer, have everyone study the question for the week and bring back an answer next time. 17. Be relaxed and maintain a relaxed spirit in the group. A good leader is one with honesty and openness who is not afraid to discuss or consider other points of view. Trust the Holy Spirit to be the teacher. Do not feel like you have to have all the answers. After all, you are a guide in leading people into truth, not the expert or big authority. Its a tremendous asset when a leader accepts himself as a person of worth and then can reach out to other people and make them feel comfortable in who they are. Let God do the changing rather than feeling like you have to change every person to conform to what you think he or she should be. A good leader learns to be a shock-proof person. He is not judgmental or harsh or opinionated, and not overly reactive when an individual says something that goes
against the grain. If youre really going to let God use your life to reach unchurched people, then youre going to have to be willing to listen to a lot of things that you dont agree with. Give God the opportunity to work and bring that person to Himself as well as bring them to Christian maturity. A good leader is not dogmatic or having to force his own ideas or opinions. He believes in the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to work in the persons life. We really can trust the Holy Spirit. If we create the loving atmosphere, He will do His work. 18. A good sense of humor is a valuable asset. In the Holy Scripture we read, A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22, NIV). We live in a time when people are heavily stressed. One thing they need to find at the home cell meeting is relaxation. Good clean humor and laughing together is marvelous for people who attend the meeting. Recently in a training session one of our District Pastors was speaking on humor from Proverbs 17:22. The pastor pointed out that laughing does these five things for us: 1) releases tension 2) relaxes our bodies 3) rests our spirits 4) renews our hearts 5) reorients us to see life in perspective 19. When you have a need in your own life, ask your cell group for help. Christians are not perfect but they are forgiven. A leader will have needs in his or her life just like anyone else. You lead and teach other people to deal with their problems by the way you deal with your own. If you are going through tough spots, confess your need in your group meeting and solicit the prayers and help of your fellow Christians. The best leaders are those who keep admitting that they need others. 20. When you have a problem or need help, quickly go to your pastor or leader and ask for it. One of the great successes of the New Hope home cell system is that our leaders know they can go to their supervisors and find a listening ear and an understanding heart. The supervisor is a fellow Christian who loves them and will pray for them in their time of need. 21. Remember its Christ who does the leading, not us.
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A good leader is a good follower of Christno more, no less. As long as you keep supplying the person and then saying, yes, Lord; yes, Lord, God will use you to do greater things than these. 3
As you can see from these examples, home cell groups offer the best opportunity for evangelism and spiritual growth to take place. The ministry is brought to its lowest level in order to include each member. Basically, it requires a decentralization of the ministry.
Centralized Versus Decentralized Ministry

What is one thing that characterizes most churches today? They are centralized rather than decentralized. This means that they are run by a centralized bureaucracy or clergy that operates the various programs or ministries. The primary ministry can only take place through this structure. Since most churches have few clergy, the flow of ministry takes place through a very narrow opening. On the other hand, a pastor who is willing to allow others in the congregation to minister to those inside and outside the church will see dramatic results. This kind of decentralization will result in a wide distribution of ministry throughout the church. In churches that are built on a network of reproducing cell groups, ministry takes place on the most basic level. In effect, each home cell group leader is a kind of lay pastor who is caring for his flock. In reality, this is the only place where true care can take place. It cannot take place in the celebration or the congregation for they contain too many people and cannot focus on individual needs. Does all this mean that the pastor relinquishes his duties and authority? Absolutely not! It does mean that the pastor realizes that he does not possess all the gifts, abilities or time to meet every need. He understands that God will use him to train and equip others to help him with these tasks.
Question 4
Turn to Ephesians 4:11-13 and take a few minutes to meditate on it. Answer the following questions: a. Who did God give to the Church? b. Why (for what purpose) did He give these leaders to the Church? c. Does this appear to be more of a centralized or decentralized style of ministry?
Dale E. Galloway, 20/20 Vision (Portland, OR: Scott Publishing House, 1990), 111-122. (In the original, all emphases were boldfaced.)
Developing and Multiplying Cell Group Leaders

One of the biggest concerns a church has about establishing home cell groups is how and where to get the leaders for them. Its one thing to talk about decentralized ministry and another to solve the need for trained and equipped leaders. Again, God has a plan that is thousands of years old. The basic nucleus for this plan is seen in a leadership crisis found in Exodus 18:13-27. Read Exodus 18:13-18 and respond to the following questions:
Question 5
Summarize the basic problem that Jethro saw.
Question 6
What did Moses see as his duty?
Question 7
How was it working?
Question 8
What was Jethros counsel?
Question 9
How might this relate to your church today? The basic principles found in Jethros counsel to Moses are still applicable to the pastor today. If a pastor attempts to assume the responsibility for meeting every persons needs, he will surely wear out, both himself and those around him. Lets break down this Jethro Principle into usable applications. Starting at the bottom, Jethro counseled Moses to choose leaders of tenthe minimum number that would require a leader. This would be like leading a cell group. Obviously, this kind of leader would get to know his group well, and they would get to know him! This leader would be able to handle the day-to-day needs of his small group. However, if something came up that either by lack of training or experience he was unable to handle, would he go directly to a Moses? No, he would go to the next level of leadershipto a leader of fifty. A leader of fifty is a person who pastors (or supervises) five leaders of ten, which means he is, in actuality, over fifty people. The wisdom of this situation is that he is only working directly with five people, much like a cell group.
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Next in progression are the leaders of hundred. This would be a person who is responsible for two or more leaders of fifty. In most cases, this would be the pastor himself. But you can readily see how instead of being personally responsible for the care of one hundred or more people, the pastor is caring for two to five. Using Roman numerals, lets diagram this principle in several different sized churches. Well use the following key: X L C D M = = = = = leader of 10 leader of 50 leader of 100 leader of 500 leader of 1,000
Example 1: A Church of Fifty Members
Example 2: A Church of One Hundred Fifty Members
Example 3: A Church of Four Hundred Members
As you can see, no matter how many (even thousands of) people you have in the church, no ones sphere of care is beyond a handful. The pastor is always in touch with the people through the leaders he is working with. Moses made this work with two million people!
How to Begin
Like most endeavors, its best to start small, go deep and think big when beginning a cell group ministry. Obviously, no church is going to start with a lot of trained leaders, but it should begin with one group. The leader of the group would probably be the pastor. Remember, though, he must adhere to the principles we have discussed in this lesson. He must also have an apprentice leader with him in the group. The purpose of the apprentice is to learn how to lead a cell group so that when it is time to multiply the first group into two groups there will be a leader ready. When there are two groups, both must have new apprentice leaders. This is an important principle! Every cell group must have a leader and an apprentice leader. This insures that leaders for future new groups are always being trained. Perhaps in the first group there might be several apprentices so that a number of new groups could multiply off the one. Eventually, the pastor would move from an X (leader of ten) to an L (leader of fifty). As the cell groups continued to multiply, the pastor would move up to a C (leader of one hundred), a D (leader of five hundred) and so on. Each level of leadership needs to have an apprentice so the growth can continue.
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Example of Progression (a=apprentice): 1. First Level: One Cell Group
In this example, the pastor is leading one cell group of ten members. He also has with him an apprentice leader for the next cell group of ten members. 2. Second Level: Two Cell Groups
In this example, the original group has multiplied into two cell groups of ten members. The original apprentice is now the leader of the new cell group and has his own apprentice. The pastor is leading the other cell group, but now has two new apprentices, which will allow him to move out of being a cell group leader when necessary. 3. Third Level: Four Cell Groups
In this example, the two cell groups have now multiplied into four. The pastor has moved out of the role of a cell group leader and is now supervising the four cell group leaders and their apprentices. He is now a leader of fifty. Notice, however, that he also has two apprentices. This is necessary so when the need arises, the pastor can move on to become a leader of one hundred.
4. Fourth Level: Eight Cell Groups
In this stage, with approximately eighty people in cell groups, the structure begins to broaden. The pastor is now a leader of one hundred and has at least one apprentice. There are now two leaders of fifty and they each have an apprentice. As you can see, this model utilizes the principle of exponential growth, which means that it is based on multiplication rather than addition. This model will always provide the leadership necessary to reach new people. It enables the church to have an ever-expanding network of reproducing cell groups that will disciple the members you have and evangelize the people you want to reach.
What to Do in a Cell Group

Earlier, we listed seven functions of healthy cell group from Acts 2:42-47. From those basic components, lets look at a possible cell group meeting and see what it looks like: 1. Opening: Introduction of guests and getting acquainted (5 Minutes) 2. Opening prayer (2 Minutes) 3. Open sharing (15 Minutes) - Testimonies - Singing - Reports of answered prayer - Expression of appreciation for each other - Thanksgiving to God
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4. 5. 6. 7.
Conversational prayer (10 Minutes) Bible lesson with practical application (30 Minutes) Intercessory prayer to apply the lesson (10 Minutes) Closing (3 Minutes): - The Lords Prayer - The Doxology
This particular meeting lasted one hour and fifteen minutes. These are just suggested guidelines to give you some ideas of possible activities and their time allotment. You may want to serve some light refreshments before or after the meeting, as well. The Bible lesson can consist of some thought-provoking discussion questions on a passage of Scripture. Sometimes, the pastor prepares these each week for all the groups and bases them on what he will preach on Sunday mornings. The important thing is that the lessons promote good discussion.
Evangelism and Cell Groups

There are two ways evangelism takes place in relation to cell groups. First, since the cell group offers the best opportunity for growth, cell group members are going to be excited about what God is doing in their lives. A natural outcome of this will be sharing their faith with others. Secondly, cell groups need to be open groups, meaning that a member could bring an unbelieving friend. This unbeliever is then able to witness Christians caring for one another and showing Christs love to them. The cell group, then, becomes a non-threatening entrance into the world of Christianity. People really do respond to genuine love and caring! New converts can then be brought into the broader fellowship of the church. Evangelism is one of the ways that cell groups multiply, but is not the sole purpose of the group. It will be, though, a natural result of becoming a vibrant, caring, loving group of Christians.
Action Steps
1. List as many principles concerning cell groups as you can think of. 2. Develop a plan for beginning a cell group in your church. Include possible members and several possible apprentices. Also include the steps necessary to implement this, like securing permission from church leaders, etc. 3. List, in order, the steps you would need to begin this process over the next month. What possible materials could you use? 4. Make a list of specific things to pray for concerning the preparation for beginning your cell group.
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Question 1
1. Teaching - The apostles, who were those Jesus had trained, were training the new disciples through teaching. This probably involved teaching the Old Testament, as well as those things Jesus had taught them. 2. Fellowship - New Testament fellowship was more than just getting together and enjoying one anothers company. Its really about developing relationships that are edifying and mutually accountable. 3. Worship - There are a number of ways to understand the phrase breaking of bread and praising God. Oftentimes the breaking of bread signified a love feast which normally included the Lords Supper. If that is the case here, especially when combined with praising God, it would signify the activity of worship. 4. Prayer - Prayer involved many aspects, including praise, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, supplication and intercession. All of these aspects are present and important parts of the churchs prayer life. 5. Power - The early church experienced many signs and wonders which demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course the greatest miracle is the changed life one experiences when born again into the Body of Christ. So, the power of the Spirit was evident to all the believers. 6. Ministry - They were learning to utilize their spiritual gifts in loving and practical ways to meet each others needs. This was done to the extent that believers shared their possessions. 7. Evangelism - They did not become ingrown, but expressed their faith to those outside the church, as well. The Lord was blessing their efforts and adding to their numbers every day.
Question 2
Any of the above may be done effectively in a cell group. Things like fellowship, prayer and ministry are very difficult to accomplish in a larger group context. Additionally, it could be argued that teaching and worship are much more effective in a small group setting where personal involvement is easier to accomplish.
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Question 3
a. We are to honor one another and to be devoted to one another. This means that we are to place the interests of others above our own, and to seek to meet their needs. This is done best in a cell group. b. We can fulfill the law of Christ by carrying each others burdens. Just as Christ carried our burden of sin to the cross, so we are to carry one anothers burdens. This is best done in a cell group. c. We are to be patient and compassionate with one another. This involves forgiving one another when a wrong has been committed, which not only brings unity to the church but reflects our Father in heaven. This is best done in a cell group. d. Out of reverence to Christ we are to submit ourselves to one another. We have freedom, but should willingly submit to one another. The principle is if you cannot submit yourself to an earthly authority, how can you submit yourself to a heavenly one? Doing this denies selfishness in our lives. This can best be done in a cell group. e. Teaching and admonishing one another is not the same as lording it over one another. By our own example, we teach and admonish each other to become all that Christ desires us to be. This can best be done in a cell group. f. We are told to encourage and build up one another. Barnabas encouraged Paul and John Mark, and they were later able to become leaders in the church. It is easy to criticize another, but its better to be one who encourages and builds up. This can best be done in a cell group. g. The admonition is to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Doing this takes a lot of thought and consideration. It is important to realize that we can stimulate someone to love and good deeds or the opposite, if we are not careful. Doing the former can best be done in a cell group. h. When we confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, it brings about a special kind of healing. Oftentimes a leader makes the mistake of thinking that if he admits his sins and shortcomings he will lose respect. However, the opposite is true, and when we model these things we set a Christ-like example. This is best done in a cell group.
Question 4
a. Christ gave gifts to the church of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. b. The reason He gave these gifts was so they could prepare Gods people for works of service, so that the body of Christ would be built up. In other words, He did not give these people to the church so that they could personally perform all the primary ministry but, rather, to prepare others for ministry.
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c. The living out of these truths would definitely lead to a decentralized style of ministry. In this way, church leaders see their primary responsibility as training others for ministry, allowing it to flow from the bottom up.
Question 5
When Jethro visited Moses, he observed that Moses alone was responsible for solving all the problems and disputes that the Israelites had. Because of this arrangement, people were lined up from sunrise to sunset to get an opportunity to stand before Moses. Because of this neverending process, the Israelites were practically immobilized.
Question 6
Moses saw his personal duty to fulfill the role of judge.
Question 7
From Jethros observation it was not working well at all! In fact, he saw that eventually both Moses and the people would experience burn-out, as no one could fulfill such a role. This would lead only to frustration for Moses and the people.
Question 8
Jethros counsel was to select and train different types of leaders. Some would be leaders over ten, others over fifty, others over hundreds, and so on. This way there was a chain of authority which began on the lowest possible level, so that Moses only had to judge the most difficult cases. Moses would ultimately be responsible for the entire process, but would not be personally involved in each and every situation.
Question 9
This situation is very much like many churches today where the pastor is the one who is carrying out most of the ministry. Its not that others are incapable but, rather, the pastor and perhaps even the church, view it as his duty. This is why many pastors and churches become worn out.
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The Life Cycle of Church Planting Part I Conception Phase
eginning with this lesson, we move from the principles of how an existing church grows to how to plant a new church. Naturally, the principles that we have learned thus far are all applicable in the context of starting a brand new church, which is the most effective way to reach new believers.
LESSON OUTLINE
The Life Cycle of a Church Plant The Conception Phase Development of a Strategic Vision Personal Preparation of the Church Planter Development of a Leadership Team Action Steps Conception Checklist
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Understand the steps involved in gaining a vision for church planting. 2. Identify a team of individuals to join you in church planting. 3. Know how to communicate a vision for church planting to others. 4. Objectively look at your own strengths and weaknesses. 5. Select a target group for a church plant. 6. Prioritize your time to optimize your effort.
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The Life Cycle of a Church Plant 1

In the previous lesson, we likened church planting to birthing a church. This analogy also illustrates the progression of planting a church. Just as in the human life cycle, there are various phases a church plant goes through: conception, prenatal, birth, growth and reproduction. By understanding the planting of a church in this way, we will be able to visualize the steps necessary not only to plant a church, but to help it grow to maturity.
The Conception Phase

There is a rather mischievous saying which explains that each of us began as merely a glimmer in our parents eyes. It is true that before actually having children, most parents dream about what they will be like. Will they be boys or girls? What color eyes and hair will they have? What will they become when they grow up? Will they make us grandparents by marrying and having their own children? All these things and more are thought about by those who desire to have children. The conception phase deals with the new church at its foundational stagewhen it is merely a glimmer in the church planters eye. And yet, just as conception is a vital time in human lifethe time when life is formed and given its basic characteristicsso too the future health of a new church hinges on the process of conception. At this crucial time in the new churchs development, the church planter must focus his energies on three separate areas in order to give vital substance and structure to the unborn entity. The three crucial areas are: Development of a Strategic Vision, Personal Preparation of the Church Planter, and Development of a Leadership Team.
Development of a Strategic Vision

In Lesson 3, we learned how to gain a God-given vision for our church. The principles in that lesson apply here as well, as we focus specifically on a strategic vision for church planting. There are four steps in developing a strategic vision for a new church.
1. Spend Time in Prayer

Prayer, praise, worship, and meditation both precede and produce effective and fruitful ministry. Throughout Scripture, Gods instructions for ministry were conveyed to believers in worship settings. Even the Great Commission was given as the disciples were worshipping the newly risen Christ in Galilee. The Lord commissioned Moses, while he worshipped before the
The basic content for Lessons 6 through 9 of this course is adapted from The International Church Planting Guide, by Robert E. Logan, and is used by permission.
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burning bush, to demand freedom for the Hebrews from Pharaoh. Isaiah also received his instructions from God while flat on his face in worship. But perhaps the clearest example of this principle comes from the early church. In Acts 13:2, we read: And while they [the prophets and teachers of the early church at Antioch] were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. (Brackets added.) As a result of that commissioning in prayer and worship, it could be truly said of Barnabas and Saul that they were sent out by the Holy Spirit (verse 4). And we all are familiar with the tremendous results that followedthe explosion of the early church into the then-known world, through the multiplication of churches. Do we desire the same thing to be said of us that we were sent out by the Holy Spirit? If so, we must spend time worshipping and ministering to the Lord.
2. Trust God for Great Results

We know that God has promised to bless his people, that this is His hearts desire. The story of the Patriarchs can be thus summarized; that God approached these menAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Josephand made a covenant with them, that they would be blessed beyond their wildest dreams. Their part was simply to believe. The promised blessing came when God raised up and set apart the people as His chosen ones. Do you believe the promises of Scripture personally? If so, the story of the Patriarchs is an analogy of what God wants to do in your country and around the world: to create a people for Himself! We know that it is His will that churches grow and reproduce, and He wants to use you as His instrument to accomplish this. He wants you to receive the promised blessing; your part is only to believe. First, ask God for His direction. Then listen carefully to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart, so that you may discern what God wants you to do, and how to do it.
3. Set Faith Goals

This third step will make your vision come alive. Ask God to give you a strategic vision of what He wants to do through you. Then be bold enough to ask Him to do it! Ask God to give you a vision of how your new church will look in each of the following specific areas: Evangelism - Who could you reach? What specific group or groups of people should you target for your church?
Cell Group Development (see Lesson 5) - How will your church be organized? Will cell groups be at the heart and soul of your church? How will you find and train cell group leaders? Growth and Reproduction - How will you maintain growth in the new church? How many daughter churches do you envision planting out of this church?
4. Consider Your Role as a Leader

Who has God called you to be? What has He gifted you to do? What style of leadership comes most naturally to you? What kind of people do you need to help you lead? What areas in your life need to grow in order to become the most effective leader? Answering questions like these will help you formulate your strategic vision.
Personal Preparation of the Church Planter

Examine the following five areas to ensure that you are personally prepared for a church planting ministry:
1. Consistent Spiritual Development

The church planter must first of all be fundamentally Christ-centered. Ministry must be the result of ones love and devotion to the Person of Christ. No other motivation will be honored by a God who has given all authority into the hands of His Son. Unless we die to self and can acknowledge with Paul that, for me to live is Christ, we will not experience the blessing God desires to give to us. Christ-centeredness springs from four things: meditation upon Gods Word, visionizing faith, prayer, and personal worship and praise. Thoughtful daily meditation upon Gods Word will bring into focus within your heart and mind the focus of Gods WordChrist Jesus. Expressing your faith in Gods promises, and in the vision He has given for your ministry, will acknowledge and reinforce your dependency upon Him. And expressing daily thanksgiving and praise to God in worshipful prayer will further strengthen that growing faith, and establish the centrality of Christs lordship in your life.
2. Evaluate Your Leadership Ability

Before you begin, it is important to develop a realistic view of yourself and how your own leadership strengths and weaknesses can help or hinder your efforts. There are seven key leadership qualities that characterize the effective church planter. This leader will be able to: Articulate a Vision - The effective church planter can develop and communicate to others a God-given vision of how the cause of Christs Kingdom will be advanced
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through the planting of churches and making of disciples. He is intrinsically motivated by a commitment to the growth of Gods Kingdom through the planting of new churches, and must be able to rally and unify others who can pursue this vision with him. He must be able to set accomplishable and realistic faith goals, and inspire those who follow by giving them ownership of ministry in which they are involved. Mobilize a Team - A man of true humility, while acknowledging and giving glory to God for the gifts God has bestowed upon him, must also recognize his own limitations and seek to surround himself with a team of individuals who will help to accomplish the goals and vision for the new church. After mobilizing and motivating this team, the effective church planter continues to identify and utilize the diverse giftedness of the individuals on his team. The true leader recognizes this principle as Gods modus operandi on earthfor even Christ Himself gathered, trained and released a team to accomplish His work. Establish Leaders - A true leader doesnt seek followers crippled by dependency; rather, he works to build up the leadership abilities of those followers. In doing so, he assumes three different situational roles: Trainer: Gives his team the resources they need to be equipped to do the job. Supervisor: Sends his team out for hands-on experience, supervises their ministry efforts, and evaluates their successes and failures. Encourager: Maintains group morale and enthusiasm for the task. Demonstrate Compassion - The leader must relate well to the unchurched. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He invested time with them in places where they were comfortable and told them the Good News in ways they would understand. A crucial quality in the church planter is the ability to reach out to the unchurched in a genuine display of Gods love and compassion. Build Relationships - Without strength and health on the cellular level, the human body cannot function effectively. So too, the effective church planter must realize the importance of establishing a strong network of cell groups as a structural basis of the church. He should know the importance of interdependency, and how to build strong relationships to accomplish this result. Exhibit Resilience - Aerospace engineers understand the secret of advanced aircraft. Its wings and other flight surfaces are construct-ed of materials which must be stronger than steel and light enough to overcome the forces of gravity with minimum thrust, yet flexible enough to yield to the forces of wind and physics without fracture. Likewise, the church planter must have the flexibility to overcome difficulties and to adapt to changes in plans and methods to accomplish the ultimate goals. Exercise Faith - Perhaps this final point should be listed first, because the distinguishing characteristic of those men and women of Scripture who accomplished
Gods purposes was that they exercised faith. Though thoroughly human (and vitally flawed!), they believed what God said He would do and, as a result, were used by God. Gods strength is made perfect in human weakness; for He desires to receive the glory for what is accomplished. True leadership believes the revelation of God, and proves it by taking risks for God. To play it safe, like the servant who buried the talent given him for safekeeping, will ensure failure. The spiritual leader sets the example of faith so that others may observe and believe that God will accomplish what He has promised.
3. Manage Your Time

This is one of the most valuableand limitedresources God has given us to accomplish His purposes. As faithful stewards, we must learn to make the most effective use of our time as possible. Time management must be as carefully administered as any other resource that God has given you. Effective administration involves three aspects: careful planning, controlled execution and honest evaluation. Evaluation is also the first step in the planning process. How are you spending your time? Keep a log of how your days are spent, and reflect upon what the most and least effective uses of your time are. Next, think through your activities beforehand. Plan how you can effectively invest the time that you have to gain the maximum results for the activities that are most important in achieving your goals. An important aspect in consistent use of time is learning to say no to requests that would require you to spend time in ways not relevant to your goals. A wise and kind person will discover tactful ways to explain to others that he has a God-given agenda, and that although he is flattered by the confidence they have in him, his first responsibility is to accomplish the tasks that God has given him. Finally, it is important to secure a tool that will help you in the task of managing your time, such as a notebook calendar. This will help you to effectively manage and increase your available time.
4. Concentrate on Priorities
Concentration, whether physical, mental, or spiritual, can be defined as the ability to prioritize and focus ones entire energy in single-minded devotion to the tasks one has established. Your success as a church planter will depend upon your ability to define your priorities and to focus your attention upon those activities that will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
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5. Make Right Decisions

First, prioritize and focus on the most important decisions that you will need to make. Often, the least important decisions are those that will consume most of our time and energy and we may never get around to dealing with the most important ones. Second, spend the time necessary to understand what the real problem is. Often, a surface analysis of the situation deceives us about the true nature of the problem. If we do not invest the time and thought energy into understanding the real problem, our solutions will be temporary measures and will not address the true issues hindering the achievement of our goals. Third, multiply your options. This means considering any possible solution to a problem. What are the true costs of each solution? Do the costs outweigh the benefits? Asking these questions is integral to the process of finding the most effective solution to a problem. Fourth, ensure that the means for implementation of the solution are built into the decision. A solution is worthless until we have determinedand everyone in the problemsolving process is made aware ofthe means by which the solution can be applied. Fifth, and finally, establish a feedback system to monitor the effectiveness of a solution. You must be able to know if the supposed solution is accomplishing the desired results and, if not, what changes must be made.
Development of a Leadership Team

One of the great follies of the twentieth-century church is the perpetuation of the idea that Gods kingdom will be advanced by super Christians of such keen leadership ability that they can single-handedly win the world for Jesus! It is true that God has greatly blessed individual men and women who believe Him in this century, as well as those from times past. Yet in reality their fruitfulness may be less than the perception of that fruitfulness. For instance, church growth studies tell us that far fewer than 1 percent of established church members were led to Christ and discipled as a result of the ministry of prominent evangelists or religious leaders. On the contrary, the vast majority of Christians established in churches are there due to the witness of a caring Christian neighbor, friend or other contact. The clear truth of Scripture is: the world will never be won by our efforts alone. We were created by God to function as a team. Scripture demonstrates that when people function together in unity, God reacts, and a powerful and immediate result is seen., The negative side to this was demonstrated in the building of the Tower of Babel, where God intervened to scatter men so that they may not reap the fruits of a godless unity. The positive side can be seen in Christs assertions in Matthew 18:18-20: Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you,
that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst. Do we truly believe these powerful promises of Scripture? If so, our imperative is the formation of a unified ministry team of individuals whose complementary strengths and weaknesses, combined with the power of unified agreement in prayer, will be an integral part of accomplishing the vision God has given us. In the next section, we will focus on how you can go about building such a team.
Seeding Your Leadership Team

Perhaps you are already surrounded by mature Christians who share your vision for advancing Gods kingdom. If so, developing a leader-ship team should be a relatively simple proposition. But more likely, you live and work with few Christians, and fewer still who share your commitment to the cause. How can you raise up a leadership team of committed Christians when you dont know any? When Christ was in Galilee, He surrounded Himself not with established religious leaders and experts, but with simple fishermen. In the unchurched and everyday folk around Him, Christ saw potential spiritual maturity and leadership. His first efforts were directed to getting these men simply to follow Himto accept His premises, to observe His way of life and the solution it offered to the problems they felt. His first task was disciple-making at the ground level. Jesus understood that the Father was drawing to His leadership the men that would comprise His team of disciples. Yet He understood the importance of His role in selecting from among the hundreds who were His followers the leadership core who would eventually be called apostles. Scripture records how He spent an entire night alone in prayer before commissioning the twelve. Likewise, you must under-stand your role in seeking Gods guidance, until you know who it is He is placing in your care to disciple as your team of leaders. In order to form a leadership team, you must invest time and energy in evangelizing and discipling these few unchurched individuals around you, and bring them to a point of commitment that will qualify them to serve as your foundation leadership team. With Christ, this process took three years. We also need to be committed to a long-term first step of evangelizing and discipling a leadership team. Our first church may be years away from completion. You may be impatient to get going, but one of the first and most tragic mistakes a church planter can make is to launch a church single-handedly when there has been no effective discipleship or preparation of a committed leadership team. All steps in the conception phase, as well as the prenatal phase which follows, should be completed first.
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With patience we must follow the example of Christ, who established His church on the shoulders of committed people in whom He first invested time and energy discipling.
Develop Your First Cell Group

Your early leadership team may comprise only three individuals, including yourself. For starters, this is a perfectly legitimate leadership team (Christ said, Where two or more are gathered ...). This young leadership team will also serve as your first cell group.
Spiritual Cells Versus Physical Cells

The cell group bears several important similarities to its micro-biological namesake: The cell is the fundamental, indivisible unit of the organism. Each of us begins as the union of two solitary cells, too small to be seen with the naked eye, and many living things can identify their origins as a single cell. Your church can spring from a single cell. It may seem, at first, microscopic in significance; but, given time and nurture, your cell can reproduce itself into a church organism which is as vital and alive as that first century church that turned the world upside down for Jesus. The purpose of living cells is growth. A healthy, nurtured cell will multiply again and again. Scientists tell us that as an organism, you and I are replaced many times throughout our lifetimes by the trillions of cells that grow, reproduce, and die within us. When these cells can no longer reproduce, the organism will stagnate and die. The very first cell contains the genetic blueprint for the organism. The strands of DNA within that very first cell will dictate the characteristicsas well as many aspects of the health and wholenessof the organism which will result from its growth and reproduction. So, too, the practices, patterns, and relationships that you establish within your first cell group will shape your church. If that first cell group mirrors loving, caring, growing relationships founded in a devotion to Jesus Christ, your eventual church will reflect those same characteristics. The cells which comprise an organism are integral to it, and interdependent upon it. How the cells relate to one another will affect the organism; what happens to the organism will affect the cells. Successful cell groups will be an integral and indistinguishable part of your church body.
Advantages of Cells
The early establishment of cell groups promises many advantages for your growing church: Cell groups decentralize leadership, taking the burden of ministry off a single man or just a few people.
96 Growing Churches for Gods Glory Decentralization of leadership ensures the continuing health of a church, in spite of the persecution or death of an individual leader. Cell groups fulfill our responsibility as shepherds to care for every single sheep in our pasture. Cell groups ensure rapid dissemination of vital information and teaching to every individual in the church. Cell groups encourage active involvement in the church, rather than passive observation. Participating members will discourage the anti-Christian notion that the church is a mere teaching society whose members discuss irrelevant concepts but lead unchanged lives.
The Role of the Leader/Pastor

One of the verses that is the greatest encouragement to pastors is Matthew 16:18: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. We can rest in the fact that the building of the churchthe final outcome of our historyis Christs responsibility. And yet this does not let us shirk our responsibility. While Christ is the builder of His church, we are managers of the local church projects that He leads and directs. Throughout Scripture, we see that while God always led His people, He selected men and held them accountable to manage His flocks. In Exodus 18, we see an exhausted and ineffective Moses, in that he was not doing a good job judging the children of Israel. His father-in-law, Jethro, offers advice on more effective management, which would prove to be motivated by the Spirit of God. Likewise, in Acts 6, the twelve apostles in their management of the rapidly growing church find themselves doing what is expedient rather than what is best. Recognizing the need to be good managers, they select seven leaders, known to be filled with the Spirit and wisdom, to manage their compassion ministries, and they turn their attention instead to the apostolic functions of prayer and the ministry of the Word. Pastors are responsible to focus their energies on the tasks God has called them to and, in the process, to manage the church well by ensuring that qualified leadership is selected, equipped, and released to minister. The first place a pastor can practice his management skills is in the development of the initial cell groups, and the first step for a leader mobilizing his church planting team is to identify, select and equip potential leaders for these groups. An effective team can be built if you can identify and encourage the following characteristics in its members: Common vision and goals, and the ability to communicate them Common values and philosophy of ministry Complementary strengths Mutual respect, affirmation, and loyalty Open and constructive communication Understanding the importance of group relationships and productivity
Lesson 6 97 Modeling of godly character and leadership traits Once a leadership team is selected, the training process must begin immediately. Training, as you know, is basically a function of modeling, and for each skill or task that you desire to train there are four steps: 1. Complete the required task by yourself, alone. 2. Complete the required task while the one you are training observes. 3. Have the one in training complete the required task, while you observe. 4. Have the one in training complete the required task on his own, then discuss the event with you afterward. This process demonstrates the coaching aspect of leadership training. However, there are other aspects of task-oriented leadership training. You must also function as a spiritual encourager, that is, as one who: Builds anticipation about the potentially successful completion of a training task Encourages the trainee throughout the actual performance of the task Leads the celebration when the task is successfully completed
Train Leaders to Train Leaders

A key dimension is training leaders to train their own apprentice leaders. As you can see, a constant awareness of the urgent mandate for church reproduction must be built into all your transactions with your leadership team, from the very beginning. First, keep before your people at all times your collective vision of multiplying cell groups. Second, using these same principles, train your leaders how to train others. This cycle is illustrated by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:2: And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Build Group Cohesiveness

The second step for team mobilization is to build group cohesiveness. The group must be knit together into a smoothly functioning unit. In 1 Peter 2:5, the comparison is made between such a group and a house: you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Peter goes on to identify Christ himself as the Chief Cornerstone of that house. Is Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone of your groupthe one factor on which the entire group stands or falls? Worship, praise, and seeking direction from Him will provide the cement that will bind your group into a cohesive entity. The purpose of these lessons on church planting is to equip pastors and leaders with a solid foundation. You may be taking this course with the express plan to do church planting in the near future. If so, the following exercises will be extremely helpful to you. If, however, you are not currently planning to plant a church, you need to work through these exercises as if you were going to plant a church out of your current church.
Action Steps
1. Every church planter must keep in mind that God is the One who builds His church. Any new church project is doomed to failure unless God is behind it. Every church planting effort, therefore, must be based on a commitment to pray. Prayer is not merely the start of the battleit is the battle! A. Work with God in prayer to develop a vision for your new church, then record how that vision provides guidance in answering the following questions. (It might be helpful to review Lesson 3.) 1) Who do you want to reach for Christ? 2) How many cell groups should you have before you begin your first worship service? 3) Who will be your cell group leaders and how will you locate and train them? 4) What do you envision your new church will look like in three years?in five years?in ten? 5) How many daughter churches would you like to have in three years?in five years?in ten? B. No person can begin a project such as planting a new church without adequate support systems. List below resources you can draw on as support systems in response to the following questions: 1) To whom are you spiritually accountable? 2) List other Christian leaders who may be able to join you on your church planting team. What steps will you take to soli-cit their support? 3) When will you meet and pray together with these individuals? 4) Who will you recruit to pray regularly with you? 5) How frequently will you meet or have contact with one another? How will you keep these individuals informed as to the progress of the new church? 6) How are you planning to arrange your financial support? 7) Who will you need to contact, and by when? 2. Evaluate your personal leadership qualities by rating yourself using the following scale (circle the appropriate number). It may be useful to allow someone you know to evaluate you, as well. Then compare the results.
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Circle One: Poor 1. I do not hesitate to take faith-motivated risks for God. 2. I have the ability to formulate and communicate a God-given vision. 3. I am committed to church growth and discipleship. 4. I am self-motivated. 5. I am responsive to the needs of people. 6. I am able to create ownership of ministry. 7. I can utilize the gifts of others. 8. I build relationships effectively. 9. I am flexible and adaptable. 10. I have the cooperation and support of my family. 11. I relate well to unbelievers. 12. I can bounce back from problems. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Excellent 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
Please do not be intimidated by this exercise! First, this depicts what might be considered the ideal church planter and no one is going to score perfectly. Second, these are areas that we can and need to grow in. We are all in process and our journey, taken one step at a time, will not seem so impossible. 3. Develop a comprehensive, step-by-step plan for building a church planting team. Include how you will train and evaluate your progress along the way.
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Conception Checklist
Strategic Vision
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ I believe it is Gods will that our new church grow and reproduce. I believe Christ will bless His Church and cause it to grow, just as He promised. I honor Christ as Head of our church in the worship services. I encourage others to put Christ first in their lives. I have developed a clear vision of what God wants to do in our church. I have clearly defined our target group. I put Christ first in my life each day. I listen daily, during planned times of prayer, for Gods direction for our church.
Personal Preparation
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ I have secured a spirit-filled advisor who can give good counsel. I am committed to work with and through a team of other Christian leaders. I am seeking to depend on the Holy Spirit in all matters. I am seeking to develop a life-style of faith and prayer in my leader-ship. I believe God wants me to be a good steward of His church. I have learned and am committed to follow the basic principles of time management. I am learning to prioritize my time and to say no when necessary. My spouse fully shares my vision.
Team Development
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ I have identified a network of people who share the vision for this new church. I have established a prayer team. I have made necessary financial arrangements. My team shares the strategic vision fully. I understand my personal role and contribution to the leadership team. I have selected at least three others who compliment my strengths and weaknesses. I am seeking to develop the members of my team to their full poten-tial. I am committed to resolving conflict appropriately and quickly.
7
The Life Cycle of Church Planting Part II Prenatal Phase
n physical child birth, the next step after conception is the prenatal phase; the time when all the essential formation takes place. The exact same thing is true in the life cycle of a church. But unlike physical child birth, this prenatal period is not a set amount of time. Rather, the length of this phase will be determined by how well the church develops during this time.
LESSON OUTLINE
The Prenatal Phase Initial Outreach and Evangelism Developing an Expanding Network of Cell Groups Agreeing on a Culturally Relevant Philosophy of Ministry Strategic Planning Before Birth Action Steps Summary Prenatal Checklist
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Develop leaders for your initial cell groups. 2. Implement a program to train and resource cell group leaders. 3. Assimilate new people in the church through cell groups. 4. Articulate a culturally relevant philosophy of ministry. 5. Help your leaders adopt the philosophy of ministry. 6. Be prepared to meet the needs of your target group. 7. Know when to begin your public worship service.
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The Prenatal Phase

How many mothers wish they could simply bypass the prenatal phase of human development? It is a trying timea time of preparation, of some discomfort, perhaps anxietyalways waiting. And yet there is hope and the knowledge that someday soon a beautiful new child will arrive. It seems that many new churches somehow bypass the prenatal phase. There is little preparation, little planning, little behind-the-scenes growth, but suddenly one daysurprise a new church appears! Unfortunately, such a church is often ill-prepared for the challenge of existence (let alone growth), and thus resembles a premature infant. Such a church may limp along for months or years, with feeble attendance and scarce resources. It is an unfortunate fact that the majority of new church projects will thus fail. No matter how strong the temptation to give birth early to the new church (birth starting at the first worship service), if you have not yet gone through the full prenatal phase of cell group building, planning, and preparationresist the urge! A strong and healthy church, like a strong and healthy infant, is worth the wait! There are four key issues which must be addressed during the prenatal phase of a churchs development: initial outreach and evangelism among your target group; the development of an expanding network of cell groups; the agreement upon a culturally relevant philosophy of ministry; and strategic planning for the actual birth of the new church.
Initial Outreach and Evangelism

First, we must rid our minds of the idea that our church will be all things to all people that is, that anyone and everyone will feel comfortable with our particular style of worship and ministry. They wontand thats why we will need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. We must tolerate and even appreciate the wide diversity in the Body of Christ. Just as God created many different types of animals to give Adam pleasure in the Garden of Eden, so God has created many types of people groups to bring glory to Himself. When the apostle John told Christ, We saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us, Christ responded, Do not stop him. He indicated that he has anointed different people to minister in different ways; we must therefore be tolerant, lest we find ourselves speaking or working against Gods anointed. Knowing this, however, we must also realize that our individual church will have the capacity to attract only a specific type of person. These people are our target audience. Our target audience may be a more broadly defined group (like Gypsies, or all ethnic Germans, for example); or it may be more narrowly focused (young families living in a particular housing project). You, as the pastor, must come to understand what these people are like and what
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their needs are. Then you must realize that, when planning your style of worship and ministry, you must focus your efforts specifically upon those needs.
Action Step 1
1. What is the target group you want to reach? 2. What resources can you use that will help you determine the needs of your target group? How will you go about conducting a demographic study?
Felt Needs Versus Real Needs

There are two types of needsfelt needs, or those perceived to be needs by the person manifesting them; and real needs, those underlying root needs of that person. You must consider both types of needs. For instance, a strong felt need of your chosen group may be their desire to motivate their children to study with greater intensity for their secondary school examinations. But you may identify the underlying real need as an assurance of security in the midst of a competitive and insecure environment. You must recognize both needs because this will form the basis of your of worship, programming, and ministry style planning. It will also be valuable to know what the needs of a target group are before you approach them to join your group. A caring shepherd must understand the needs of his flock. Finding out the needs of your target group may require more careful research than you might expect. You may, for instance, wish to conduct an in-depth study of your target group in order to learn their needs and characteristics. Expect to spend anywhere from ten to fifty hours on such a study. Once you have established the needs of your target group, you are ready to penetrate your chosen community. The first step involves more hard work than refined technique. You will be required to make many contacts with your target group in whatever way is appropriate and effective; whether it be door-to-door, by telephone, or by mass gatherings at special events. Anticipate that a very small percentage of the people with whom you will establish contact will actually be convinced to become involved in one of your community cell groups. Therefore, to maximize results, you and your leadership team must make contact with a very large number of people.
Feel Free to Experiment

This will be a phase during which you will do a great deal of experimentation to discover what evangelism and discipling methods work best among your target group. Try everything
you can think of, compare notes with your leadership team in order to ascertain what methods have been most effective, and then capitalize on those methods!
Action Step 2
1. What are some felt needs of this particular target group? 2. What are some of their real needs?
Action Step 3
1. Develop and detail your strategy for penetrating your target group. Include the methods you will use, when you will begin, and how many people you will initially contact. 2. What method(s) of evangelism do you think will work best with your target group?
Once a small core of new Christians is established, begin quickly to integrate them into the process, training them how to identify and reach their own networks of relationships. Making your initial converts will be the most difficult parttheir ability to establish networks and bring new people into the cell groups will be where true growth for your prenatal church will occur.
Developing an Expanding Network of Cell Groups

The cell group concept was developed in Lesson 5 of this course. All churches will benefit from establishing an expanding network of cell groups. However, the easiest and most natural way to have a cell group based church is to begin with this philosophy and commitment before the church is even planted. The following summarizes the basic characteristics of a cell group from Lesson 5: It is intimate - both in size and structure as well as in dynamic. Numbering ideally between four and twelve members, it meets in the comfort of its members homes and is designed to foster intimacy and interdependency among the members. A cell group may meet daily, twice weekly, weekly, every other weekwhatever frequency is dictated by the needs and constraints of the people. It is open - the ideal cell group is rooted deep within the community. It is not closed to outsiders, but rather its mission is to include new outsiders, quickly making them caredfor insiders. This results in rapid cell growth until the time when it can successfully expand into two groups. (A cell group may be considered crowded when a dozen
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members take part; an expansion at this point renders twoor even threehealthy new cell groups of four to six members each.) It is focused - although your church can minister to a broader range of people, a cell group should be more focused. Each cell group must establish its own target group of individuals who will feel comfortable with the people and the style of the cell. It is caring - the leader or leaders of a cell group, like the leader or leaders of a church, should not be simply professors or preachers, but shepherds. Their primary duty will be to see that the members of their groups are adequately cared for, that their needs are met. Although Bible study and teaching doctrine may be a valid part of these needs, this should not be the primary concern of the shepherd. The shepherd invests his time and energy primarily in prayer for and caring contact with the members of the group. It worships and prays - just as the church is called to worship and pray, so should these dynamics characterize the cell groups. Worship in such an intimate setting may even be a new experience for established believers, but one that they will wonder how they ever did without! Worship will be culturally relevant for the cell group, consisting of whatever forms and styles of music, singing, recitation, sharing, or liturgy the particular people find enjoyable. The form of prayer, likewise, will be culturally appropriate, although the group leaders will need to ensure that the form of prayer communicates the truth of the nature of Gods relationship with man in (1) our submission to and respect for His sovereignty; (2) our ability to bring our requests directly before Him as a result of the work of our High Priest, Jesus Christ; (3) the privilege of intimacy with Him as His adopted children, as a result of the role played by the Holy Spirit; and (4) the important concept that we are not merely sending up a message, but that God is present among us (where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them also). It seeks to minister - each cell group should establish ministry goals of outreach among its targeted people. This outreach may be in the form of visitation of the sick, community service, evangelism and discipleship activitieswhatever form of outreach the group determines will help meet the needs of its target group. Such outreach will not only help the group to grow in size, but will establish a ministry mindset in the groups participants. It focuses on obedience - complacency presents a great danger to cell groups, just as it does to the church. It is too easy to merely come and be fed. To prevent this, the focus of the group should be upon obedience to Christs word, and responsiveness to the leaders of the group. Since the establishment of focus is the responsibility of these leaders, they will need to be trained and reminded continually to stimulate their group to good works by stressing and teaching practical obedience to the truths of Gods word.
108 Growing Churches for Gods Glory It appropriates spiritual power - whether or not the group finds itself aligned with what has been termed the Pentecostal or Charismatic inclination, the vital importance of acknowledging the role of the Holy Spirit as equipper in the life of the believer must be brought to pre-eminence by the groups leaders. The members of each group should be taught how to discern and develop their spiritual gifts, then apply them to ministry within the context of the group. The group must have no passive participants. The Holy Spirit empowers and equips every believer, and a group, like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link. Each person must be taught to appropriate for them-selves the spiritual power God offers them. It is a source of practical training - the study of Gods revealed will for the lives of believers and how it may be practically applied, is most effectively accomplished in the intimate setting of the cell group. The teaching should be culturally appropriate, focusing on observation (what Scripture says), interpretation (what truth God is seeking to communicate to us through this Scripture), and application (how this truth can be applied to our lives today). Its goal is to multiply itself - the mandate of growth is always before the cell group which is seeking to do Gods will. The group must continually ask: How can we be reaching out to new people and incorporating them within the group? What ministry needs to occur? What contacts need to be made? What realistic faith goals can we set for this monththis quarterthis year? Your vision as a church planter must live in the hearts of your leadership team and your cell group leaders, who must likewise make it alive in the hearts of their cell group members, if your church is ever to achieve the success God desires for it.
Action Step 4
1. List eight needs of adults in your chosen target group. How will you meet these needs in your various cell groups? 2. How will you develop an ongoing system to resource your cell group leaders in the following areas: a. Recruitment, selection and training of new leaders b. Networking leaders with new group members c. Tying leaders into a supervision/support system d. Supplying leaders with resource materials e. Developing cohesion among group leaders
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Establish a Ministry Community

Ministry community is the name for the organization of cell group leaders that meets together. The ministry community can meet together weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, as best fits the situation. The purpose for meeting together is four-fold: Inspiration - Victories are celebrated and the vision for the mission of the cell group leaders is reinforced by the pastors of the church, and by sharing among the leaders. Devotion - Worship and prayer. In some ways, the meeting together of ministry community parallels the function of the church meeting itself. In worship and prayer, the focus is on concerns of church health to which these leaders of the church are particularly sensitive, as well as issues related to care groups. Instruction - Two facets of teaching are accomplished: Biblical instruction on character qualities that must pervade our lives and the principles of leadership; and development of leadership skills essential to cell group leaders. Relationship - During one hour of the ministry community meeting, clusters of cell group leaders meet together as small groups with the leaders in their supervision structure. Sharing, encouragement, praise, prayer, and leadership support characterize this time together.
Position Description: Cell Group Leader (Leader of 10)

A cell group leader serves and encourages a growing group of people who enjoy being together, so that the leader and all the group experience the Christian life together. A cell group leader walks with God and takes responsibility to love and influence people so they progress from where they are to where God wants them to be. The following is a list of the duties of a cell group leader: 1. Organize and lead regular cell group meetings. 2. Provide pastoral care to all members of your group and their families, as appropriate (visit in hospital, home, etc.). 3. Pray for all the people in your cell group each week. 4. Listen to the Holy Spirit on how He wants to work in and through the people in your group. The cell group leader needs to ask, How does the Holy Spirit want to utilize the unique gifts of people in this group? 5. Train an apprentice leader who will branch off to begin his or her own cell group. 6. Be available to help baptize, lead communion, collect offerings, etc. This, of course, would depend upon the type of government and practices of the individual church. 7. Be faithfully involved in the ministry community. The cell group leader is responsible to the pastor or the cell group coordinator who is a leader of 50.
Position Description: Cell Group Coordinator (Leader of 50)

A cell group coordinator is responsible for five cell group leaders and their ministries. Since, in our example from Lesson 5, we referred to the cell group leader as a leader of 10, the coordinator of five cell groups is considered a leader of 50. The following is a list of the duties of a cell group coordinator. 1. Facilitate cell group effectiveness. Help cell group leaders formulate goals and plans, and monitor the implementation process. Encourage and affirm care group effectiveness and growth. Attend each cell group every third to sixth meeting and person-ally debrief the leader. Help leaders to discern group and individual needs. Ask probing questions to enable leaders to identify priorities and deter-mine next steps to be taken. Guide leaders to facilitate the use of spiritual gifts in their groups. Build team spirit through ministry community meetings and prayer times together. 2. Shepherd cell group leaders. Pray consistently for each leader. Spend extended time praying to determine ministry community agenda. Build personal relationships with every cell group leader you supervise. Make regular contacts outside the ministry community setting. Offer personal encouragement and/or guidance to each leader. Schedule periodic planning times with your cell group leaders (at least quarterly). Follow-up cell group leaders who miss ministry community so that they receive the training and complete assignments on time. 3. Cultivate apprentice leaders. Help cell group leaders to identify and invest in potential leaders. Meet with potential cell group leaders and give vision for future ministry possibilities. Invite them to cell group leaders orientation meetings. Follow-up to enable apprentice leaders to launch their groups. Identify within the cell group those with gifts and/or burdens for target group ministries. Recruit and train an apprentice coordinator. The cell group coordinator is directly responsible to the pastor or, in a large church, the cell group supervisor who is a leader of 100. The initial establishment of your cell group leadership structure will be a critical time in the development of your church. Coordinators of 50 must be prayerfully and carefully selected, for theirs will be an important responsibility requiring great diligence, energy, and communication skills. Just as the cell group leader is responsible before the church and the
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Lord to ensure that every cell group member entrusted to him is adequately cared for, so the coordinators of 50 are responsible to ensure that each cell group leader under their supervision is adequately supported and cared for. Coordinators must be aware of frustrations and problems within cell groups, and must seek to facilitate each cell group leader in the management of these problems. Frequent communicationand not just in the context of ministry community alonewill be required to accomplish this.
The Pastors Role

The pastor is naturally the one who is at the top of the leadership structure, so in the beginning of your church plant, he would probably lead the very first cell group. As multiplication takes place and there are a number of cell groups, the pastor would move to the role of cell group leader coordinator. In a church with several hundred members in cell groups, the pastor would assume the role of the cell group coordinator supervisor. Here the various coordinators would report and answer to him. The pastor is also in charge of the ministry community and must be in constant communication with the various coordinators and leaders. The pastors must be concerned that bonding of supervision groups occurs from the beginning. Many churches make the mistake of sending out leaders without a support network, but the success of the cell groups will depend upon the level of support these leaders receive. We have treated the establishment of coordinators and supervisors with as much caution and scrutiny as a business leader would exercise in selecting his subordinates. Each leader has a specific job description, and is aware of and agrees to the commitment required to fulfill the responsibilities of that position. The job descriptions given earlier are for reference and should be customized and adapted to individual situations.
Multiplication of Cells
Cell groups need to be designed and started with the goal of multiplication clearly in mind. One good way to demonstrate this is to make sure that there is always one empty chair in the group. This symbolizes to groups the fact that they exist to grow. The groups pray each week that God would bring another person to fill that empty chair. When the chair is filled they rejoice, and another empty chair is set out. The key to the growth of your church is the growth of cell groups. Cell group growth must be built into the group structure from the very beginning. You will need to come up with a strategy for involving newcomers into the cell groups. Some of these newcomers will actually be new believers, but others will still be seekers. Consideration needs to be given as to how best to assimilate both groups of people into your cell groups.
The cultivation of apprentice leaders within cell groups will be a vital step to securing the future growth of those cells. Leaders of a new cell group should, from the outset, be examining their groups for the natural sub-groupings of people within it. Trust the Lord to place one or two qualified apprentice leaders within the group; prayerfully seek to determine who they are, recruit them for the task, and begin training them to lead their own groups. Thus when your group has grown to the point where its numbers will support multiplication, the leadership will be ready. In the setting of your ministry community, teach your cell leaders to define the essential qualities of leadership, and to be able to discern the apprentice leaders God has placed within their groups. Help them learn how to know when an apprentice leader is ready to take on their own cell group themselves. Have them work with the supervision structure of ministry community in helping that new leader start his own cell group. If you can establish an effective cell group structure from the very beginning in your new church, the potential for growth is limitless. The structure you establish must have built-in and comprehensive support for your leaders, a method of raising up new apprentice leaders in large numbers, and a focus upon and support of cell group growth. Cell groups must be all important to the life of your church. Cell groups are not just another program of the church, they are the church! With an effectively established network of caring, ministering and multiplying cell groups, your church could truly turn the world upside down for Jesus Christ.
Agreeing on a Culturally Relevant Philosophy of Ministry 1

In order for any church to be successful, the people within it need to embrace the goals of the church. If the people of your church do not share your vision and goals, frankly, you are doomed to failure! Therefore, it is important to define and establish at the very beginning precisely what your vision and goals are. They must be dynamic and far-reaching, for they will be what motivates your people to ministry and builds enthusiasm within the church. They will be the shared burden of your cell group leaders and the basis for growth in your church. And they must be the consensus of the individuals God has selected to comprise your church.
Refer to Lesson 4 in this course to review the issue of cultural relevancy. In addition, please refer to the BEE course Church Dynamics, Lesson 12, for a detailed study on Philosophy of Ministry.
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Growth Power Through Cultural Relevance

In order for your church to be in a position to reach the unbelievers in your community, you must design a philosophy of ministry that is culturally relevant to those people. To do this, you must fully under-stand your culture and how it differs from the traditional churches surrounding it. Then design your church to be different!
Action Step 5 Designing Your own Philosophy of Ministry - Part 1:

1. Examine and summarize the following Scriptures and explain how they might be used as a basis for determining the purpose of your church: Matthew 28:19-20 Acts 1:8 Ephesians 2:1-10 Colossians 4:5-6 Hebrews 10:24-25 Ephesians 4:11-16 Acts 2:42-47 Colossians 3:12-16
2. On the basis of the above Scriptures, combined with the vision God has given you, define the purpose of your church. 3. Why should your church exist in this particular community? What unique contribution will it make?
Action Step 6 Designing Your Own Philosophy of Ministry - Part 2

1. Answering the following questions will help you develop a philosophy of ministry for your church: a. How will your church be different from others? b. What will attract unbelievers to your church? c. What sort of person will be attracted to your church? d. What particular programs and ministries will contribute to your churchs success? 2. List what will be unique or distinctive about your church in the following areas: a. b. c. d. e. f. Worship Teaching and training Outreach and evangelism Fellowship Childrens Ministry Youth Ministry g. h. i. j. k. l. Social issues Missions Doctrine Leadership and administration Staff Other
3. Summarize how your philosophy of ministry will be reflected in the ministries of the church.
The Development of Your Philosophy

As you begin to develop a culturally relevant philosophy of ministry, it should: Involve your entire leadership team. The first step in creating ownership will be to ensure that your philosophy of ministry is developed together and not the result of one persons work. Make sure the leadership team is involved from start to finish. Discuss the most fundamental issues. What is the reason for starting a church? What is the vision for the church? What are the goals? The preliminary process will involve discovering biblical wisdom for the purpose of the church. Be written with the practical mindset of producing ministry. Your philosophy of ministry must be down to earth. What types of ministries will be necessary to accomplish your goals? Who will do certain ministries? Which ministries will you start with? Which will you add later? Consider the needs of your community. It will not be simply an ideal, but a practical solution to the needs of your particular target group. Be carefully examined for cultural relevance. In this respect, you must be a student of your target culture. Do not be afraid to use innovative means of meeting needs which you can identify within your culture. Worship and ministry take on many different forms throughout the world.
Action Step 7
Included in your plans must be the development of the initial worship team. This will be done to complement your philosophy of ministry. Write out a detailed plan including the following issues: 1. Who will your worship leaders be? What leadership will be profiled before your congregation? How will they be trained? 2. How will you use the worship time to communicate your churchs philosophy of leadership? 3. What role will corporate worship play in evangelism and disciple-ship? 4. What components will comprise your corporate worship time? 5. What style of music and prayer will you employ? 6. What content will be communicated through the preaching? What needs will preaching/teaching address?
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Strategic Planning Before Birth

In addition to a written philosophy of ministry, you will need to establish a specific plan of your churchs goals and how it will be implemented. Your preliminary plans should cover the first three years of your churchs existence. Another crucial aspect of your planning at this phase will be the development of an effective childrens ministry. It must be carefully designed and implemented before your church ever goes public with its first worship service.
How Will Your Church Be Administered?

Many other administrative issues may need to be addressed at this point. You will need to establish a structure for government and authority in the church. You will need to determine how to set up a church office. There will be issues of financial support and facilities. These, and many more, administrative points will need to be worked through.
Prepare to Open Your Doors

You will want to establish a solid core of cell groups with ministry leaders and teams before you open the doors of your church for its first worship service. Realize that the failure of new churches is often the result of church planters who underestimate whats necessary to begin worship services. Remember, there is no danger of having too many people or resources for your first worship service! Patience is a valued virtue. Select a target date for your first worship service that is the result of a consensus of your leadership team. Consider carefully the time and place based on the needs of your target group.
Action Step 8
You have decided to plant a church in a nearby town. Develop a week-by-week plan of things you will do for the next two months in preparation for this. Think of as many details as you can.
Action Steps
Summary
Developing a Target Group
1. What is the target group you want to reach? What resources can you use that will help you determine the needs of your target group? How will you go about conducting a demographic study? 2. What are some felt needs of this particular target group? What are some of their real needs? 3. Develop and detail your strategy for penetrating your target group. Include the methods you will use, when you will begin, and how many people you will initially contact. What method(s) of evangelism do you think will work best with your target group?
Cell Groups
1. List eight needs of adults in your chosen target group. How will you meet these needs in your various cell groups. 2. How will you develop an ongoing system to resource your cell group leaders in the following areas: a. Recruitment, selection and training of new leaders b. Networking leaders with new group members c. Tying leaders into a supervision/support system d. Supplying leaders with resource materials e. Developing cohesion among group leaders
Designing Your Own Philosophy of Ministry

1. (Part 1) a. Examine and summarize the following Scriptures and explain how they might be used as a basis for determining the purpose of your church: Matthew 28:19-20 Acts 1:8 Ephesians 2:1-10 Colossians 4:5-6 Hebrews 10:24-25 Ephesians 4:11-16 Acts 2:42-47 Colossians 3:12-16
b. On the basis of the above Scriptures, combined with the vision God has given you, define the purpose of your church.
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c. Why should your church exist in this particular community? What unique contribution will it make? 2. (Part 2) a. Answering the following questions will help you develop a philosophy of ministry for your church: 1) How will your church be different from others? 2) What will attract unbelievers to your church? 3) What sort of person will be attracted to your church? 4) What particular programs and ministries will contribute to your churchs success? b. List what will be unique or distinctive about your church in the following areas: 1. Worship 2. Teaching and training 3. Outreach and evangelism 4. Fellowship 5. Childrens Ministry 6. Youth Ministry 7. Social issues 8. Missions 9. Doctrine 10. Leadership/administration 11. Staff 12. Other
c. Summarize how your philosophy of ministry will be reflected in the ministries of the church.
Worship Details
1. Included in your plans must be the development of the initial worship team. This will be done to complement your philosophy of ministry. All the following must be considered: a. Who will your worship leaders be? What leadership will be profiled before your congregation? How will they be trained? b. How will you use the worship time to communicate your churchs philosophy of leadership? c. What role will corporate worship play in evangelism and disciple-ship? d. What components will comprise your corporate worship time? e. What style of music and prayer will you employ? f. What content will be communicated through the preaching? What needs will preaching/teaching address?
Prenatal Checklist
Expanding Network of Cell Groups
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ We have defined our target group. We have determined who will lead the initial cell groups. We have established a plan for recruiting new cell group leaders. We have three cell groups in operation now. We have a leadership training program developed to train four new leaders each month. We have written a description of who our leaders should be, what they should know, and how they should carry on their ministry (character/knowledge/skills). Our cell group leaders have each identified and are training an apprentice leader. We have a leadership training meeting on a regular basis to encourage and develop our cell group leaders and supervisors. New people are being assimilated into the church through our cell groups. The cell groups have begun ministries among specific target groups. Cell groups are meeting at least every other week for private worship. All cell group leaders meet at least every other week for development and resourcing.
Culturally Relevant Philosophy of Ministry

__ Each member of the leadership team has embraced the same vision and bears the same burden for the church. __ We affirm, respect and love one another in Christ. __ We have agreed on the foundational issues confronting our church. __ We have agreed on the essential elements our congregation needs in order to become a growing and reproducing church. __ We are committed to develop ministry principles that will enable us to do practical, effective ministry. __ We have thoroughly considered the purpose of our church. __ We have examined the needs of our community in each of the following areas: Culture Economic and social needs Knowledge of Christ and Christianity __ We have discussed what is unique about our church. __ We have examined the Scriptures in order to discover and affirm the purpose of our church. __ We have defined our philosophy of ministry based on vision and direction from the Holy Spirit.
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__ We have developed a focused and culturally relevant philosophy of ministry which describes our churchs: Purpose Priorities Style of worship Style of ministries Kind of ministries Our vision is spelled out in specific goals and actions to implement our philosophy of ministry.
Strategic Planning Before Birth

__ __ __ __ We have planned by faith the first three years of our churchs growth. We have designated an official worship team to launch our first public service. We have designed an initial childrens ministry. We have taken care of important administrative issues.
8
The Life Cycle of Church Planting Part III Birth Phase
ou have planned and prepared for this moment! The birth phase is the time when you hold your first public worship service. While it is more of an event than the other phases, there are many important details to take care of beforehand.
LESSON OUTLINE
The Birth Phase Celebrative and Reflective Worship Childrens Ministry Prepare Ministry Systems To Facilitate Growth Action Steps Summary Birth Checklist
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Define your purpose and style of worship. 2. Organize and train a worship leader and team. 3. Know how to evaluate your worship services. 4. Articulate what you want to achieve in your childrens program. 5. Have trained leaders for the childrens ministry. 6. Know how to resource your childrens ministry workers.
The Birth Phase

Many exciting formative months have passed since you first began developing your leadership team, and finally you have achieved the momentum required to launch your first worship service. You have incorporated a substantial number of believers, through cell groups, who are committed to the formation of the new church. You have defined a 121
comprehensive philosophy of ministry, and laid out your strategic plans. You are ready for the birth of your new church! In these first few months of development, a dual focus will occupy your heart and mind: the nurturing of celebrative and reflective worship and the development of essential programs.
Celebrative and Reflective Worship

Deciding upon a style of worship is an essential part of defining your culturally appropriate philosophy of ministry. Although many times people think that the particular style of worship with which they are comfortable is the accepted norm for all of Christendom, the reality is far different. There may be as many different styles of worship as there are churches on the planet! Different types of people are comfortable with different styles of music, instruments, preaching, teaching, prayer, liturgical forms, and traditions.
The Importance of Worship

An elevated sense of the importance of worship will create a more dynamic and relevant worship in your church. A key part of this will be the complementary emphases of planning and flexibilitythe careful and creative planning (perhaps even to the point of rehearsal) of corporate worship times together, coupled with the flexibility and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to take the worship service in a direction that He is leading. Regardless of the style of worship, its tone should be essentially the same the world over: worship should be both celebrative and reflective.
Celebrative Worship
Celebrative worship accomplishes the dual purpose of giving God the glory and praise He so richly deserves, and of lifting mans soul up beyond the everyday problems of life, to a higher plane where he can see the meaning of life in the perspective of Gods plan. When King David returned the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he celebrated by removing his kingly garments and danced in the streets. When criticized for his seeming lack of royal dignity, he proclaimed, I will celebrate before the LORD. And I will more lightly esteemed than this and will be humble in my own eyes (2 Samuel 6:21, 22). David recognized that God desires to be worshipped in his own waythat He is worthy of praise, thankfulness, and celebration. And if He doesnt get it from us, He can bring it forth from the rocks, the trees, and the rest of creation! Our worship, regardless of style, must therefore be celebrative in tone.
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Reflective Worship
Meditation and reflection are, throughout the Scriptures, corner-stones of mans rightful response to God. Meditation on Gods Word brings the light of His righteousness into focus in our inner lives. Reflection, then, gives us an accurate picture of our inadequacy before God. It not only appropriates Gods forgiveness but cleanses our heart, and therefore serves as a foundation for celebrative worship. The two go together, and must be dual components of a worship that is pleasing to God and uplifting to mans soul.
Elements of Worship
While the attitudes that are to characterize Christian worship are very specifically defined and relatively independent of culture, the specific actions that comprise worship may vary widely from one culture to the next. This diversity is a good indicator that the elements of worship have been appropriately determined by culture. Some elements of worship will uniquely reflect the heritage of your own culture. It will be your challenge as a Christian leader to creatively weave into the worship style of your church these appropriate forms, while at the same time safeguarding your congregation from the potential danger of distracting from the main focusworshipping God.
The Role of Leadership

The Christian leader will not only lead worship, but model and facilitate it as well. Modeling worship requires the adaptation of a lifestyle of celebrative and reflective worship. Are his praises always on your lips? Is worship an occasional event, or a way of life? Like King David, are you willing to shed your preconceptions and inhibitions and commit yourself to truly worshipping God the way He desires to be worshipped? If so, the example of your life will serve as a pattern that people can follow. Too often, while everyone else sings, pastors are sitting in front of the church reading their sermon notes! In contrast, your job is to communicate to the people in your church the vital importance of truly worshipping God. Facilitating worship means that you are responsible to see that the people in your church are provided with the resources and environment that will best enable them to worship God. This means two things: first, they must be taught how to worship, just as Christ taught His disciples how to pray. And second, your role as a facilitator means you will be concerned and watchful that an environment exists where worship is encouraged. This means everything from making sure the lighting and sound systems are working at optimal efficiency, to structuring worship services in such a careful manner that quality worship is encouraged.
The Role of Team Leadership

Quality worship will not be a one man show, but rather will involve a whole team of people. What will your role be on that team? Your job, first of all, is to see that the appropriately gifted people are given involvement in the team. And more than involvement, they must be given ownership of their role on the team. Worship must not reflect the efforts of just one man, or even of a professional staff, but should be a mirror of the efforts of the entire congregation. It is in this respect you will be a team leader. You must remember that although a team leader cannot take credit for the accomplishments of the team, he can certainly incur the blame for the failures!
Develop a Worship Leader

As team leader, you may be actively developing a person who will be the up-front worship leader. This person should be a creative and faithful individual who can be given overall responsibility for the flow of the worship service. Very often this person is the song leader or chief musician. Your worship team may actually have three distinct parts; only one of which is visible during the worship service: A creative planning team - this will be your idea squad, which actually plans the content and progression of the worship services. It is advisable to do this planning up to three months in advance. An administrative team - responsible for arranging the necessary details called for by the planning team (e.g. organize the music presentation, schedule the speakers, conduct rehearsals, etc.). A production team - these are the people leading the singing, playing the instruments, doing the puppet shows, etc. As you can see, each component of the three-part worship team requires different gifts. Setting up such a team will involve some work, but will pay off great dividends in terms of both quality and ownership of worship.
Prepare a Quality Worship Environment

In addition to the aspects discussed in the previous section, several other factors relating to the worship environment must be taken into consideration: Time of service - Determination of the service day and time, as well as the duration of the service, must all be taken into consideration in light of the needs of your target group. Sunday is generally assumed to be the day for a worship service, but there are churches which have chosen other days of the week with great success. The relationship of the service time to meal and sleep schedules (which has a bearing on
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the alertness of your congregation!), and to the presence of traffic, public transportation schedules, and other factors, should all be considered. Location of service - Centrality among your target group will be the key consideration here. Can the people you desire to reach find convenient transportation to your location? Also, the dynamics of the location will be a factor in determining the image of your churcha dark, cold, run-down building will promote a different atmosphere than a warm, bright auditorium. Also, an urban setting will have a much different atmosphere than a country one. Size of facility - The size of the facility is crucial to the growth prospects for your church. Your meeting hall should not be so large that a sense of isolation is created, yet you need to allow plenty of room for growth. Remember that when your attendance reaches eighty percent of the seating capacity of your facility, the limited size of the facility will become a cap on your growth potential. The key here is to think ahead in accordance with the vision God has given you for the churchs growth. This is precisely why it is better to rent your facilities instead of building or buying. This way you can adapt to the churchs growth without being tied down financially to a particular facility. Facility appropriate for childrens ministry - An effective childrens ministry has unique needs in terms of classroom space and play equipment. Can your facility accommodate the children whose presence or absence will be a controlling factor in the growth of your church?
What Is Your Worship Atmosphere?

Another aspect of a quality worship environment focuses more on the atmosphere that we intentionally want to create. This has to do with things other than the content of the service or the facility in which the service is being held. This atmosphere is created by the attitude of the participants. Is celebrative and reflective worship being modeled freely for the church by the pastors, leadership team, and other key people in the church? Does a spirit of joy and anticipation pervade the service? Is the congregation truly participating in the worship events, or is it merely observing as one would who is attending a concert? These factors will create an atmosphere for your worship service in which the Holy Spirit can easily work in the hearts of the participants
Evaluate Your Worship Service

Like all other aspects of your churchs ministry, worship services must not only be carefully planned from the beginning, but continuously evaluated as the church progresses. The leadership team should regularly consider the various factors affecting the quality of the worship service, and seek the Lords guidance to try out new ideas or omit things that arent
working. Worship is a dynamic process, and you will find your worship service evolving as your church matures. Cooperate with that evolutionary process by continuously evaluating and modifying your service. The congregation, too, can play a useful role in evaluating worship. Speak with congregation members or attendees with different perspectives. Be sure to talk to those who sit in different places in the church. Question people with different levels of involvement in the service, from worship team members to newcomers who have never experienced a worship service before, to get their feedback.
Action Step 1
Answer the following questions: 1. How would you define worship within the context of your culture? 2. What is the goal of worship within your own church? 3. What are three unique forms of worship you could incorporate into your own church that would maintain the integrity of Christ-centered worship?
Action Step 2
Look up the following verses and summarize the various expressions of worship: 1. Psalm 8 2. Psalm 33:1-3 3. Psalm 34:1-3 4. Psalm 48:1 5. Psalm 145:1-3 6. Psalm 149:1-5 7. Psalm 150
Action Step 3
What role do each of the following elements play in your worship service and will each element contribute to your unique style of worship? What other elements can you think of? 1. Music Style 2. Sermon 3. Prayer 4. Scripture Reading 5. Liturgy 6. Drama Presentations 7. Announcements 8. Lords Supper 9. Baptism 10. Congregational Involvement
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Childrens Ministry
The first thing to realize when considering ministry programs that will be offered by your church isyou cant be all things to all people! The second thing to realize is that, in answer to your prayers, God will raise up a leadership base for any new programs He considers to be truly important. The leadership base must always precede the programming. Your programs should be carefully selected to effectively meet the most significant needs of your target group. Generally, your foremost priorityand this will often make or break a new churchwill be in the area of childrens ministry. First of all, a culturally appropriate philosophy of childrens ministry should be a separate and significant component of your churchs overall philosophy of ministry statement. What are your objectives when it comes to the children of the church? Are you merely providing baby-sitting services to enable the parents to worship, or are you building the future of your church by seeking to disciple the children the Lord has given you? If your answer is the latter, then the recruiting and training of a quality, committed teaching staff will be a first priority. If you would like to attract and hold newcomers to your church, then you must provide excellent nursery care. If people can trust you with their children for an hour, chances are they will trust you to tell them the truth about Gods will for their lives. Your church will need to provide consistent and quality care for each family as a whole including its children. This becomes particularly imperative when you realize that, more often than not, children will be the key to reaching their parents with the gospel.
Action Step 4
1. What will be the purpose of your child care program? (Bible teaching, baby-sitting, etc.) 2. For which childrens age groups would you like to provide Bible teaching? 3. What facilities will be required to provide for: a. Infant care (0-2 yrs.) b. Early childhood (2-5 yrs.) c. Elementary (6-12 yrs.) d. Youth (13+ yrs.) 4. What resources will be used for teaching your children? 5. When do you plan to begin these childrens ministries? 6. Who has God provided to lead in the following ministries: a. Supervisor of Childrens Ministries b. Infant c. Early Childhood d. Elementary
e. Youth 7. How do you plan to provide training for these workers?
Prepare Ministry Systems to Facilitate Growth

A ministry system is simply a comprehensive plan for a ministry, including why it is necessary, what it will look like when operating successfully, what sort of resources will be needed, how it will be implemented and supervised, how it will be evaluated, and how any necessary corrections will be made. There are five further areas in which you must plan ministry systems if your church is to grow: 1. Spiritual Gifts Mobilization - Jesus Christ created His church to be mobilized along the lines of spiritual giftseach member doing its own part. The maturity of your congregation (as well as your own sanity!) will depend upon whether the members of the church are using their gifts in ministry as God intended. How do you facilitate this? a. Teach about spiritual gifts at the entry point of your church. New Christians should immediately be made aware that they have a spiritual gift, and are obligated to exercise it. Later in this lesson we will deal with ways to do this. b. Require as a condition of membership that each person should serve in a ministry that utilizes his gifts. c. Continue to teach periodically on the principles of spiritual gifts. d. Conduct periodic assessments to determine who within your church needs to be placed in a ministry position where their gifts can be utilized. 2. Assimilation Process - If you want your church to grow, you will need to map out processes by which new people can be assimilated into active participation in your church. Few newcomers will take initiative to reach out and involve themselves in the groups of the church. You will need to create a process whereby the cell groups and various ministries of your church will take the initiative to reach out and snatch up a newcomer into that group or ministry. Treat new people as a valuable resource which needs to be placed and discipled as quickly as possible. Commit yourself before God to develop a system making it impossible for even a single newcomer to slip through the cracks unnoticed! Remember that the Good Shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep to search for and recover the one which was lost. The lesson here is that if we allow ourselves even 1% attrition, we are not following the standard set by our Master, the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. 3. New Member Orientation - A regular orientation of new members will be an important aspect of the assimilation process. Weve already mentioned the effectiveness of a newcomers class for accomplishing this objective. Design a
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system for identifying newcomers and approaching them about joining the newcomers class. 4. Leadership Development and Resourcing - A church committed to a biblical principle of body life and ministry will hold in high regard the value of continual training of lay leadership. This can be accomplished through many avenues, including special cell groups, periodic classes, ministry training seminars, denominational conferences and seminars, and a ministry community concept. 5. Ministry Planning and Implementation - A fail-safe method of identifying evolving needs of your target group, as well as evaluating and implementing new ministry proposals should be created by the leadership team. Along with this, be sure to develop a method to evaluate existing ministries for continued effectiveness, and build in some relatively painless ways to abandon ministries which have accomplished their purpose or lost their effectiveness.
Action Step 5
How do you plan to implement each of the following ministry systems: 1. Spiritual gifts mobilization 2. Assimilation of newcomers 3. New member orientation 4. Leadership development and recruiting 5. Ministry planning and implementation
Action Steps
Summary
Worship
1. Answer the following questions: a. How would you define worship within the context of your culture? b. What is the goal of worship within your own church? c. What are three unique forms of worship you could incorporate into your own church that would maintain the integrity of Christ-centered worship? 2. Look up the following verses and summarize the various expressions of worship: a. b. c. d. Psalm 8 Psalm 33:1-3 Psalm 34:1-3 Psalm 48:1 e. f. g. Psalm 145:1-3 Psalm 149:1-5 Psalm 150
3. What role do each of the following elements play in your worship service and will each element contribute to your unique style of worship? What other elements can you think of? a. b. c. d. e. Music Style Sermon Prayer Scripture Reading Liturgy f. g. h. i. j. Drama Presentations Announcements Lords Supper Baptism Congregational Involvement
Childrens Ministries
1. Work through the following questions in detail: a. What will be the purpose of your child care program? (Bible teaching, baby-sitting, etc.) b. For which childrens age groups would you like to provide Bible teaching? c. What facilities will be required to provide for: 1) Infant care (0-2 yrs.) 2) Early childhood (2-5 yrs.) 3) Elementary (6-12 yrs.) 4) Youth (13+ yrs.) d. What resources will be used for teaching your children? e. When do you plan to begin these childrens ministries?
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f. Who has God provided to lead in the following ministries: 1) Supervisor of Childrens Ministries 2) Infant 3) Early Childhood 4) Elementary 5) Youth
Ministry Systems
1. How do you plan to implement each of the following ministry systems: a. Spiritual gifts mobilization b. Assimilation of newcomers c. New member orientation d. Leadership development and recruiting e. Ministry planning and implementation
Birth Checklist
Strategic Vision
__ We have defined the purpose of worship in our church. __ We have defined the style of worship at our church according to the needs of the target group. __ We have incorporated meaningful worship into our private lives. __ The leadership team sets the example by their actions. __ The senior pastor takes the lead in determining the overall direction of the worship. __ We plan the themes for the worship services at least a month ahead. __ We have chosen a worship leader who is qualified to oversee this area. __ We have regular planning and rehearsal times for worship. __ We have an easily identifiable sign for our church. __ We have publicized our worship times in an appropriate manner. __ We evaluate worship on a regular basis.
Childrens Ministry
__ __ __ __ We have defined what we want to provide for our children. We have trained leaders for our childrens ministry. We provide excellent nursery care that pleases the parents. Our childrens program is effective in reaching and assimilating new children and their families. __ More leaders are being trained to provide more childrens classes as the church grows. __ I am seeking to develop the members of my team to their full potential. __ I am committed to resolving conflict appropriately and quickly.
9
The Life Cycle of Church Planting Part IV Growth And Reproduction
his lesson deals with the process of the church maturity and subsequent reproduction. As you will see, there are many aspects in the developmental process of a maturing church, eventually leading to a commitment to reproduce itself and thus fulfill the Great Commission.
LESSON OUTLINE
The Growth Phase Holistic Disciple-Making Mobilizing Believers According to Spiritual Gifts Developing and Resourcing Leaders Appropriate and Productive Programming Networking with Other Churches Action Steps Summary Growth Checklist The Reproduction Phase Reproduction Checklist
LESSON OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson you should be able to: 1. Develop ongoing effective evangelism and discipleship in your church. 2. Understand how spiritual gifts work in the church. 3. Help those in the church discover and use their spiritual gifts. 4. Delegate specific tasks to others. 5. Determine which programs would best achieve the churchs goals. 6. Seek out a networking relationship with a nearby church. 7. Plan for reproducing your church by planting others.
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The Growth Phase

Birth may not be so much a phase as an event in the life of an organism. It is prepared for, then experienced. If birth is successful, then the new church will immediately find itself confronted with the everyday problem of growth to maturity. The growth phase may take only a few months, or it may take years. In reality, a church should always be growing, but the growth during this initial phase is different than that which occurs after the church reaches a certain level of maturity. During this initial phase, the church focuses on gathering internal strength and growing in numbers, spiritual depth, quality of relationships, and in ministry ability. Growth after maturity will continue in these areas, but will focus on the added dimension of the establishment of daughter churches.
Holistic Disciple-Making
In reflecting the true balance of discipleship commanded by Christ, a church that successfully involves its members in holistic disciple-making does so in three steps.
1. Demonstrating Social Concern

The first is often referred to as the cultural mandate of the Great Commission. There has been, in recent years, a rift between those who have seen our responsibility toward spreading the gospel as solely cultural, and those who have seen it as solely evangelistic. Such divisiveness, in addition to its counter productivity, misses the entire point of Christs life and ministry! The true love which Christ exhibited sought both to identify and meet peoples physical needs (the cultural mandate), as well as their spiritual need for salvation (the evangelistic mandate). He fed the five thousand, then spoke of their need to accept Him as the bread from heaven. Our Lord drew no artificial boundaries between meeting physical needs and meeting spiritual needs. He knew that the latter flowed out of the former. Likewise, our churches must seek to fulfill the cultural mandate hand-in-hand with the evangelistic mandate. Recapturing Relevancy It may seem that we are stating the obvious here, but it is a tragic fact that in many places throughout the world the church is considered to be a society which exists merely to discuss moot points. We are dismissed as irrelevant to the needs and problems of daily life in the modern world. Surely this situation breaks the heart of God! How can we become relevant to the needs of hurting people? We can focus our attention on two desperately needed processes: a. Identify needs of the target community. We already discussed the importance of defining both the felt and the real needs of our target audiencespeaking not just of those inside the doors of our church, but of the community beyondand of designing
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strategies to meet those needs. It is interesting to note that Christ spent thirty years in silent preparation for a whirlwind three-year ministry. What was occurring during that span of time? It is a fairly safe speculation that, among other things, he was silently observing the people around him, noting their needs and prayerfully developing a strategy that would seek to meet them. b. Respond in love through ministry. This twentieth-century rift between meeting physical and spiritual needs is probably the direct result of a lack of love in our hearts. True love seeks to meet needs wherever they arise. True love feeds the starving child, then seeks to slake his spiritual thirst by telling him of the true river of life flowing from the throne of Christ. A healthy and growing church is characterized by love. Christ said, By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). And the natural response of love is ministry that meets needs. Every Christian leader who truly desires to serve Christ and others should ask himself: Is my church effectively meeting the needs of the community? Are we known abroad for our heart of love? How could we offer a more Christ-like response to the needs of our church and community?
2. Develop Appropriate Evangelistic Efforts

The second step is to define what evangelism and assimilation will look like in your church. Evangelism is not a solitary event, but a process occurring in three states: Conviction Conversion Maturation
You can see why the cell group is the best setting for evangelism. After all, individuals acting on their own are not likely to risk making the life-changing affirmations involved in a profession of faith in Christ. As a member of a loving cell group, however, that individual can be coaxed and coached through the process of conviction, then conversion, then on to maturity. A new convert is not left out in the cold, but allowed to continue the conversion process through to maturation, with the helpful and loving support of the cell group.
Incarnational Evangelism
The effectiveness of your churchs evangelistic efforts will depend upon the ability of its members to practice what is call incarnational evangelism. Many people consider evangelism simply to be a one-sided communication process of verbal message-giving. Incarnational evangelism, on the other hand, recognizes that communication involves far more than simply the words we speak. The well-worn saying actions speak louder than words
demonstrates this principle. The first and foremost means of communication is the life that you live. If your life is not manifesting the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control that marks the Spirit-filled Christian, then your listeners will receive a mixed message. The good news brought by the angels to the shepherds near Bethlehem was that Christ was incarnatedGod would dwell among men. Men could see His life-style, could witness the heart of God and be touched by His healing hand. If Christ is incarnated again through the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer, it is not this incarnationrather than our spoken message alonethat forms the basis of evangelism that attracts men to God? If you want your church to evangelize, the first and foremost thing you must do is to disciple the believers God has given you already, teaching them to obey and allow Christ to be fully incarnated in their hearts. Incarnational evangelism therefore presents three facets: Presence - being who God wants us to be in the presence of others and demonstrating the character qualities of Christ through the fruit of the Spirit. Proclamation - stating the plan of salvation and telling our own story of what Christ has done in our lives. Persuasion - seeking to stir cognitive and emotional response in our hearers in order to call them to a commitment to Christ: Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men ... (2 Cor. 5:11).
Oikos Evangelism
Thus, Christians living the Christian life will be the means of evangelism. There are many methods, but one of the most effective we have discovered is what we call oikos evangelism. Oikos is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word bayit, which in the Old Testament, referred to several generations in a family, as well as all the slaves and the servants that belonged to them. In the New Testament, oikos literally means household. To the Greek, household meant your family, including your extended family, your friends and associates. Thus, ones oikos includes the entire network of a persons family, friends and associates.
Action Step 1
Look up the following verses and summarize the idea of house-holds in each: 1. Mark 2:14-15 2. Mark 5:19 3. Luke 19:9 4. John 1:41, 45 5. John 4:53 6. Acts 10:24, 44 7. Acts 16:15 8. Acts 16:30-34
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These verses demonstrate the fact, widely ignored by twentieth-century evangelistic methods, that coming to Christ was once a family event. And more than just thatoikos refers not just to the immediate family, but to all who were interrelated with them in their householdservants, friends, and relatives. New Testament evangelism often occurred in a group. Evangelism efforts often fail because they single out the individual and require him to make an individual decision, independent of the wisdom and authority of his household. If evangelism were instead to target the entire householdapproaching, as in the book of Acts, the head of the household, while still recognizing personal and individual responsibility for each member to respond to the Lordship of Christhow much more fruitful might those evangelistic efforts be! Oikos evangelism recognizes the importance of identifying and taking advantage of relational networks. The cell group should diagram the relational networks of each of its members, and establish its evangelistic goals targeting those networks, and not merely the individuals in them.
Selecting Target Group for Evangelism

Once evangelism and assimilation have been defined for your church, the next step is to uncover groups that will be receptive to your efforts. Having the members of your cell groups map out their networks of relationships will be of great help to you in accomplishing this. As you undoubtedly know, there is often a direct correlation between the degree of felt need experienced by a particular people group, and their level of receptivity to the gospel. The most difficult to reach are those who are satisfied with their lives. Christ said, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matthew 9:12-13). Therefore, it is wise to evaluate the level of spiritual need of a particular household or group before making the decision to target them with your evangelistic efforts. After evaluating the need, design a strategy for reaching out to a household. This strategy should recognize that effective evangelism is a process comprised of many steps and a serious investment of time and energy. You should set specific goals regarding contacts with members of a household, activities that you will share in common, and a general time line by which you would like to see that household collectively progress.
Building Bridges With Unbelievers

The primary energy spent will be in the process of building relational bridges with these targeted unbelievers. For too long the church has considered itself too holy to reach out and make contact with un-believers; it has desired instead to seal itself away in a fortress of its own design, supposedly to avoid being tarnished by the world. For too long we have not
recognized that, like the Pharisees who were whited sepulchersclean on the outside, but on the inside full of dead mens bonesthe sin of worldliness arises from within, and not merely from contact with unbelievers. Each person needs to evaluate and recognize what his own part will be in reaching out and building relational bridges. Leadership must be developed that is aware of the need for this training, and that can accomplish it in the setting of the cell group, newcomers class or ministry community. On a larger scale, the church must strategize how it will train and encourage its members to do this, and how the existing networks may be best employed for the cause of Christ.
3. Assimilating New Believers

The third step in successful disciple-making is the assimilation of new believers. All the evangelistic effort you expend and the fruit which results from it will be pointless if your church cannot effectively assimilate the new believers the Lord gives you. Be sure that Satans hungry crows are waiting by your harvest fields to snatch up any harvested grain which is left untended and exposed. New believers must be quickly assimilated into the life and ministry of the church, lest they be snatched away by the enemy. This will involve: Linking into a caring and supporting cell group, if the new be-liever isnt already in one. Ownership given in the body of Christ, through involvement in a newcomers class and subsequent membership in the church. Evaluation of the new believers spiritual gifts, and placement into active ministry according to those gifts.
Measuring Assimilation
In line with the above, a measurable system for assimilating new believers will therefore allow you to ask the following questions: Has the new believer been incorporated into a cell group? Has the new believer been inducted into a ministry where he is using his spiritual gifts? Is the new believer attending corporate worship on a regular basis, as well as giving regularly? Your assimilation system should not allow you to put the new believers file to rest until each of these questions has been answered in the affirmative.
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Tracking Registration and Attendance

One of your first and most crucial administrative tasks will be to develop an efficient registration and tracking system. The reason for this is that as you experience increased growth and reach more people, it will become more and more difficult to give care and personal attention to the various individuals in your church. There will be a greater danger of someone slipping through the cracks. If the development of an effective tracking system can prevent even one person from being lost in your church, it will be well worth the effort! A registration system has the dual benefit of allowing newcomers as well as regular church members to communicate important facts to you. They can share needs and decisions, allowing you to respond in a considerate and systematic manner. Furthermore, a tracking system will allow you to get a handle on the attendance trends necessary for you to evaluate your growth goals and plan for continued growth. Registration of attendees can be done at cell groups as well as at worship services, enabling church leadership to track what is happening in the realm of cell groups, as well as in corporate worship times. Your tracking system should not only alert you to the presence of new people, allowing you to make appropriate contact with them, but also to the absence of those whose attendance has been previously established. This is valuable in that you can, through the cell groups, check up on such an individual to see what action, if any, is necessary to restore them to attendance. Such notification is also valuable when the person is experiencing a crucial need that they might not otherwise have communicated to you or to their cell group. Tracking will also give you the information necessary to enable you to encourage a person toward involvement in a cell group or ministry, if needed. Beyond the purely mechanical aspects of tracking assimilation, it is important to provide a climate in which assimilation can occur. We spoke earlier of the atmosphere of a church, created by the attitude of its members. This plays an important role in assimilation. If your members demonstrate an attitude of openness and friendliness that motivates them to reach out and make contacts with newcomers by establishing relationships, new Christians will be rapidly linked in to existing networks in the Body of Christ. You must realize at this point, too, that in order for this linkage to occur there must be a sufficient number of cell groups to accommodate new members. Ideally, you should have one cell group for every ten people who attend your church; six to eight cell groups per one hundred people in your church should be a required minimum. Once again, to have an abundance of cell groups means you must have an abundance of leaders, which means existing cell groups must be training apprentice leaders. You can see how the health of your church and its ability to grow relates back to the plans and accommodations you made back during the prenatal phase of your churchs developmentwhen your leadership system was put into place.
Action Step 2
Develop a comprehensive plan for tracking attendance and assimilating newcomers into cell groups and the life of the church.
Mobilizing Believers According to Spiritual Gifts

Another characteristic of a growing church, and one of the key factors of its success, has been largely ignored. In most churches, the pastor is the ministerthe only man God has gifted with every manner of spiritual abilityand the sole doer of ministry. You, as the church planter, can chooseyou can accept this erroneous image as a life-long curse, seeking to do all the ministry of a church yourself and assure yourself an early retirement in an insane asylum! Or, you can dispel this crazy notion at the outset, teaching the believers in your church to understand that God has gifted them to do the ministry of the church. That is why He has given everyone spiritual giftsnot for our own edification, but that we might minister to others. You can accomplish this miracle of emancipation in nine simple steps: 1. Study the Bible to learn the biblical basis for gift-based ministryhow Christ has gifted each member and desires each one to do their valuable part in ministry to the body. How He has designed the body to function as one unit, giving glory to God rather than bickering over gifts. How the gifts are complementary, functioning together in an orderly and efficient manner. 2. Compile a list of the spiritual gifts that will be used in your church. This will serve as a tool in helping others to see how valuable they are in the scheme of things. 3. Define the need for workers for the ministry opportunities which exist in your church as a result of your evaluation of the needs of your target group. To do this will require you to list on paper every single role or task in your church, and then to write a job description for each position defining what gifts are appropriate and what the position will entail. 4. Design a placement system suitable for your church. Decide how you will structure gift-based ministry in your church, and prepare the written materials and resources you will need before starting the process of interviewing and placing your members. 5. Admit your leadership core into the process before introducing your new placement system to the congregation. Get their per-mission first. This will also involve working with the ministry coordinators and key leaders to figure out how the placement system will specifically benefit from and work with their ministries.
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6. Recruit and train ministry placement advisors who can counsel the members of your church, helping them to discern and implement their spiritual gifts. Establish leadership for these advisors. They must be well aware of the biblical basis of giftbased ministry, as well as the characteristics of each gift; how to discern spiritual gifts or administer an inventory designed to do this. They must also be well acquainted with the ministry structure of your church, with the available ministry positions and their requirements. And they must be in good communication with the ministry leaders. 7. Educate the congregation about spiritual gifts. Develop your plan to introduce the concept of gift-based ministry to your church. This should be done from the pulpit, in cell groups, in new-comers classes, and in gift discovery groups or special workshops. 8. Guide your members into appropriate ministry positions where they can use their gifts. Conduct spiritual gift interviews, establish a first step for involvement in a ministry (link them to the ministry coordinator), and then follow-up to ensure the step has been taken and involvement has occurred. 9. Continue the process of spiritual gifts education and placement on an ongoing basis. There should be regularly scheduled opportunities for people to receive spiritual gift instruction. The minis-try job descriptions should also be updated on a regular basis, and advisors should meet together regularly for training and support.
Action Step 3
List the gifts from 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12:3-8, Ephesians 4:11-13 and 1 Peter 4:1011 and define what they are.
Action Step 4
1. Once you have determined what gifts will be needed for the various ministries of your church, you can go a step further. Think through and write out each role or ministry and list the gifts that would best fulfill each one. 2. Design a spiritual gifts placement system for your church.
Developing and Resourcing Leaders

There is an important principle of church management that will not only help you to effectively meet the ministry goals of your church, but will also help you determine Gods will as to what those goals should be. This principle will direct the focus of your responsibility for conducting ministry upon the person of Christ, thus refreshing and strengthening your faith in Him, and will give you marvelous freedom and flexibility in designing ministries to meet the needs of your target group. It is called the pyramid principle. Simply stated, the pyramid principle recognizes that the leadership base in your church must be at least as broad as the ministry is designed to support. If a pyramid was heavier at the top (the parameters of the ministry itself) than at the bottom (the leadership base necessary to effectively conduct that ministry), it would collapse upon itself in a heap of rubbleand buried beneath the rubble would be a pile of burned-out and fed-up church workers!
The pyramid on the right shows the dynamic of increasing ministry. The proper way to do this is to first increase leadershipan increase in ministry will then follow. Too often, however, we attempt to do the reverse: increasing ministry before the leadership base is sufficiently broad. When God promised Moses He would bring His people into the land of Canaan, He set a biblical precedent from which the pyramid principle can be deduced: I will not drive them out before you in a single year, that the land may not become desolate, and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. I will drive them out before you little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land (Exodus 23:29, 30). Applying the pyramid principle to any new ministry proposal will give you a tool for helping to determine the will of God regarding it. Jesus never said, Pray for a harvest, He
Lesson 9 143
said, Pray for workers to go out into the harvest. When confronted with an attractivesounding ministry proposal, your job will be to evaluate whether a leadership base exists to support the ministry. If not, pray for workers. This puts the burden of decision on Gods shouldersif He desires the ministry to be accomplished, He will supply the workers. If not, simply shrug and say, It was a good idea. Perhaps at some point in time God will provide the leaders so we can start this ministry. Do you see how this principle is one more way that you, as a church leader, can cast your cares upon Him?
Develop a Leadership-Building Plan

The power of God is the churchs supernatural resource, and it is unleashed through prayer and worship. Aside from this, the church has only one natural resourcepeople committed to do Gods will. With these two resources working together, amazing things can be accomplished! It follows, then, that in order to effectively utilize your churchs natural resources you must invest your time and energy in equipping existing leadership and developing future leadership. There are five key factors to consider when doing this: 1. Select and recruit people with leadership potential. Like Christ gazing out over the seashore where Peter and John tended to their nets, you must examine your members for their future potential, bringing discernment and studied evaluation to bear on this process. Remember that you select leaders primarily on the basis of character qualities and willingness to serve; but you train them on the basis of existing or needed skills. Realize that to do both these things you must first define the requisite character qualities desired, and then the needed skills. 2. Agree together with your leadership team on areas upon which you should focus your training and development resources. 3. Recognize the dynamics of an effective training process. Learning is not simply a cognitive phenomenon, but one which involves feelings of self worth and group identification, as well as practical experience. Your training process must be productoriented: what kind of leaders are you putting out, and how can the process be modified to produce better equipped leaders? 4. Link leaders into a support network. Schedule regular appointments for reporting on the status of their ministry, as well as encouragement and accountability. 5. Remember the dynamic of a task-oriented training process, which we highlighted earlier. First, create an anticipation for a task, and the results if it is successfully completed. Next, supervise the actual doing of the tasktrainer does it first alone; then, trainer watches while trainee does the task; and finally, trainee does the task alone, meeting with the trainer later for feedback and support.
Cultivate Leaders Through Delegation

Perhaps you have heard the story about the Carthaginian general who crossed the Alps two centuries before Christ. Hannibal was faced with an extremely difficult problemcarrying a large amount of war equipment into position for his invasion of Italy. A less prudent man might have loaded up his gear on his own back and cried Lets go!as he and his men plunged into the snow far below the Alps lofty peaks. However, Hannibal, in his wisdom, chose to delegate this seemingly impossible task to one who was trained and equipped to accomplish itthe mighty elephant. As a result, Hannibal was credited with doing the impossible: launching a surprise attack and overcoming the enemy in very short time. This illustrates a simple but crucial point: No Christian leader can accomplish alone and unaided the agenda God has set before him.
This may be stating the obvious, but the fact is few Christian leaders are very good delegators! Generally, the catalytic personality type that motivates one to become a leader is the same personality type that says, If you want a job done rightdo it yourself. What we need, however, is to learn how we can delegate effectively.
The Motivation for Delegation

First, we must start with the proper motive for delegating. A proper view of self will tell us that, although we may be terribly gifted individuals (and chances are, we are closer to normal on that particular scale!), there are only a very few things that we can do better than those around us. God gifts each of us in different ways; He has done that intentionally so that we might be required to depend upon one another and function as one body with many members. Moreover, delegation should be motivated by the desire to serve the one to whom we are delegating. God doesnt have to use us to minister to others; He certainly has other means at His disposal. But He does it anyway. Why? So that we might grow in service and be blessed in the use of the gifts He has given us. Likewise, the blessing of ministry and service should be a motive that compels us to delegate ministry to other gifted individuals around us. Listed below are four essential steps involved in successful delegation: 1. Determine what you can and cannot delegate. Some tasks God may have gifted you alone to accomplish, so you should not dele-gate what can truly best be accomplished by yourself. Everything else, though, should be under consideration for delegation. 2. Develop an initial job description for each activity to be delegated. Some people desire to have their tasks spelled out very clearly in writing; others are more innovative and
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can develop their own job description once they have an idea of what needs to be accomplished. The detail written into this job description will depend upon the type of person you are dealing with. 3. Recruit people for their potential. Once again, multiply your options. The more selective you can be, the better your chances of successful delegation. 4. Provide ongoing support, encouragement, and training. This will be your continuing investment as a mentor in their lives.
Strive for Goal Ownership

As one who is involved in creating goals for a group, you will come to recognize that setting the goal is only half the process. One of your greatest challenges will be to transfer your sense of ownership of that goal to each member of the group. Here are some principles that can help: Human beings generally exhibit the strongest ownership over something they create, whether it be their children, a work of art, or an abstract concept. The most straightforward manner of instilling goal ownership, therefore, is to involve the group in the creation process. Goal-setting should be done as much as possible on a team basis. A talented leader will be adept at coaching a team to give birth to an idea. He simply sees to it that they recognize the problem at hand, and that they have all the information on the relative merits of the various proposed solutions. A goal will be born when the team comes to realize the best solution to an agreed-upon problem. In your planning, focus on your churchs opinion leaders. These may or may not be people in established position of authority. Regardless, you will generally not have difficulty determining who they aretheirs are the voices which always seem to give form to the group consensus. If you can successfully sell these individuals on your goals at the beginning, the rest of the church will follow almost effortlessly. A wise leader transfers ownership by asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Will Rogers once said that asking an earnest question and listening carefully to the answer was the highest form of compliment. People must feel that their opinion matters. If they arent allowed opportunity to impact the process with a positive contribution, it wont be long before they will seek to impact it with criticism and objections. Allow time for this process. People adjust to change at different rates and hate to be left in the dust by significant changes. The wise Christian leader will allow adequate time for adjustment to a proposed change. Time allays peoples fears that things are being done in the dark and are ill-conceived. Remember that the formula for motivation is 80% information plus 20% persuasion!
146 Growing Churches for Gods Glory The loss or lack of goal ownership can result in rapid disunitya serious and often fatal church disease.
Action Step 5
1. Name and evaluate both your current and potential leaders using the suggested outline: Name: Ministry Area(s): _____________________ Strengths: __________________________ Areas to Grow in: ____________________ 2. What training will be required for your leadership to give them the needed character and skills to be better equipped for their ministries?
Focus Ministry Through the Lens of Spiritual Gifts

When matching a ministry leader to their job description, it is important to bear in mind their spiritual gifts, and how well they are equipped to accomplish each task. Likewise, if you are a pastor, you should be ministering only in ways supported by your gifts. There exist certain preconceived notions about what types of things a pastor should be doing in a churchthe most common being that pastors should spend a significant portion of their time in preparation and delivery of sermons. The result of this is that many pastors throughout the world are preaching without that particular gift, while someone else on their leadership team who is gifted to preach sits idle during the service! To prevent this tragedy, match ministry along the lines of giftedness.
Arrange Leadership by Spiritual Giftedness

As a pastor, your leadership team should complement your giftedness. That is, it should contain individuals whose strengths lie primarily in areas in which you are weak. To actually do this may be hard on your egobut it makes for a dynamic and effective leadership team. In addition to your team, you should also utilize ministry assistants to whom you can delegate many of the tasks required for the ongoing administrative management of ministry. This is particularly true if you have a catalytic/organizer type of working style and prefer to focus your involvement on pioneering new ministries. Recognize the principles of gift-based ministry that God lays down in His Word. Your church will receive Gods fullest blessing to the extent that it structures its ministries to fully utilize the spiritual gifts of its members.
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Extend Your Effectiveness Through Discipleship

One of the privileges and responsibilities of leadership is to shape the environment of a church. Will your church be one in which discipleship is expected and encouraged? At all levels of training and ministry involvement, the question should be asked, How could more effective discipleship improve this process or yield a more fruitful result? All leaders should be trained to be specialists not only in their specific ministry area, but in mobilizing other church membership for ministry, as well.
Appropriate and Productive Programming

Another important factor in church management is appropriate and productive programming. An example of this is seen in Acts 6:1-5: Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation ... This passage demonstrates the following facts about the nature of appropriate church programming: It is need-responsive. The apostles implemented programming in response to a specific need of the body. The particular need in this case was physical rather than spiritual in nature. It is planned and agreed upon by the leadership team before it is actually launched. It is administered in accordance with the priorities and gifting of church leadership. The apostles realized that to invest their own time in this ministry would be an unproductive use of resources. It is led by those who are recognized to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. It is responsible. The apostles did not retain the reigns of constant supervision and authority, but rather released the ministry into the hands of men who had proven themselves capable. It creates unity among the church body.
An astonishing result of this appropriate programmingeven though it dealt strictly with a physical rather than a spiritual needis alluded to in verse 7: And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. All this resulted because the apostles established, in an appropriate manner, a ministry to meet an existing physical need.
Put Yourself in a Planning Mode

Appropriate ministries spring from faithful prayer. Prayer sensitizes us to the true needs of our target group. It helps us to see, with eyes of faith, what astonishing results of our own could be accomplished if a potential ministry was in place. A first crucial step is an honest evaluation of your present situation. The apostles realized the unpleasant alternatives to this needed minis-try. Discord was beginning to arise in the body, people were going hungry, and their focus was being taken off the crucial task of prayer and the ministry of the word at a critical time in the churchs growth. They saw that unless this ministry was established in the appropriate manner, dire consequences would result. Likewise, we need to evaluate the growth condition of our church. Timing is everything! Ask yourself about the consequences, for example, if you do not establish a ministry for secondary school children at this time. What will be the effects on your church? Will you lose existing families? Will you be prevented from gaining new families? One of the biggest mistakes made by many new churches is inadequately or poorly focused childrens programming. The clear link between appropriate childrens programming and the growth of the churchs adult population is often ignored.
Use Your Philosophy of Ministry

When considering any new ministry, you will need to review the philosophy of ministry statement which was created during your churchs prenatal phase. Remember that ministry should fall in line with the specific philosophy you have established for your church, based upon your target audience. At this point, you then need to consider whether your churchs understanding of its philosophy of ministry has been shifted, and whether your original statement needs to be revised to remain in tune with Gods plan for your church. When you have defined all these factors, you are ready to begin planning an appropriate and productive program. Determine the faith goals you are going to establish for the ministry, and design the program to meet the needs at hand. Also build into the program practical ways it can be evaluated for effectiveness in meeting your goals.
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Implement the Program

If you have given adequate planning and thought to a proposed program, four simple steps should guide your implementation of it: 1. Obtain goal ownership - ensure that the ministry is the personal pro-perty of the entire church, and particularly of those who will be active-ly involved in it. 2. Select and equip your leaders. 3. Manage implementation of the plan so all steps proceed smoothly. 4. Make necessary decisions and quickly solve any previously unfore-seen problems which arise.
Evaluate the Program

A very practical principle to guide church programming efforts is: Find out what God is blessing and do more of it! The converse of this principle is: Find out what isnt working fix it or gently eliminate it! Occasionally, church leaders run across a problem eliminating an un-productive program because someone has tenaciously clung to owner-ship of it. Generally speaking, though, most people are happy to see a program eliminated if it is creating a drain on time, energy, and other resources. The growth phase of your church will truly be a time when trial and error will shape the body that God is creating. Be bold in experimentationdo all that you can to succeed, but dont be afraid of failure! Just as some of the worlds most renowned leaders failed multiple times before experiencing their greatest success, so some of the most effective programs now being utilized by churches were once someones crazy idea. The pace of creative experimentation in a growing church may make some people dizzy, but it is a preventative for the disease of boredom and complacency which has beleaguered so many modern churches.
Action Step 6
1. List your ministry goals in (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) one year, and (d) five years from now. 2. Prayerfully review your current ministries. What is God blessing in your church? How could you increase your effectiveness in these areas?
3. Which of your current ministries are not as fruitful or productive as you had hoped? What corrections or adjustments should you make, or which need to be eliminated? 4. How and when are you going to evaluate each ministry for effectiveness?
Networking with Other Churches

The final characteristic of a healthy and growing church is its desire to seek companionship and mutual support from other growing churches. You may or may not be affiliated with a denominational structure that provides such a network of churches. But regardless, dont be afraid, as a pastor, to take the initiative to reach out and establish friendships with churches in your area. Christs admonition to love one another applies not only within the confines of our churches, but to Christians in other local church bodies, as well. Too often the world has dismissed the church because all it sees is splintered segments bickering over seemingly inane points of doctrine. The unspoken message is: They must hate each other! Why would I want to become one of them? You can go a long way to counter that notion by reaching out and establishing fellowship with other churches. Were not talking about ecumenism hereyielding to doctrinal compromise and dilution which erodes the distinctive contribution of each independent church body. Rather, we are asking for a recognition that the Body of Christ extends beyond our four walls, and that someday we will worship as one at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Why not experience a bit of that marvelous event now?
The Value of Shared Ministry

Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of establishing a relationship with other churches is that of shared ministry. A community outreach that has the backing of all the local churches can send a tremendously significant message to the community: We are one in our desire that you experience with us the joys of knowing Christ. Fellowship among local churches can also play an important role in church growth. Since churches vary in style and the type of people they appeal to, you may find yourself sending to a neighboring church a newcomer who might be more comfortable with their style. Knowing this enables you to challenge your church to commitment: If for some reason you arent comfortable being a fully committed member at this church, I know of some other churches nearby where you might better fit in. You dont want to be in the business, generally speaking, of driving people off, but it is certainly more satisfying to refer them to a church that may better meet their needs than to see them fade away into an unchurched lifestyle.
Lesson 9 151
Pool Your Resources

And finally, you will sometimes find it valuable to pool your resources with other local churches when it comes to specialized leadership training and discipleship. It may not be uncommon for three or four churches to host together a seminar on spiritual gifts utilization or ministry planning. Such an effort will yield the same or greater return on a smaller investment of resourcesand that means wiser stewardship.
Action Steps
Summary
Relevancy and Outreach
1. Look up the following verses and summarize the idea of house-holds in each: a. b. c. d. Mark 2:14-15 Mark 5:19 Luke 19:9 John 1:41, 45 e. f. g. h. John 4:53 Acts 10:24, 44 Acts 16:15 Acts 16:30-34
2. Develop a comprehensive plan for tracking attendance and assimilating newcomers into cell groups and the life of the church.
Spiritual Gifts
1. List the gifts from 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12:3-8, Ephesians 4:11-13 and 1 Peter 4:10-11 and define what they are. 2. Once you have determined what gifts will be needed for the various ministries of your church, you can go a step further. Think through and write out each role or ministry and list the gifts that would best fulfill each one. 3. Design a spiritual gifts placement system for your church.
Leaders
1. Name and evaluate both your current and potential leaders using the suggested outline: Name: Ministry Area(s): _____________________ Strengths: __________________________ Areas to Grow in: ____________________ 2. What training will be required for your leadership to give them the needed character and skills to be better equipped for their ministries?
Planning
1. Work through the following issues writing as much detail as possible: a. List your ministry goals in (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) one year, and (d) five years from now.
Lesson 9 153
b. Prayerfully review your current ministries. What is God blessing in your church? How could you increase your effectiveness in these areas? c. Which of your current ministries are not as fruitful or productive as you had hoped? What corrections or adjustments should you make, or which need to be eliminated? d. How and when are you going to evaluate each ministry for effectiveness?
Growth Checklist
Holistic Disciple-Making
__ We have established a strategy for outreach and evangelism. __ Unbelievers are coming to faith in Christ as a result of our outreach. __ We have identified at least three crucial needs in our community which we can help meet through appropriate ministries. __ We have established at least eight cell groups for every one hundred persons attending our church. __ New cell group and ministry leaders are being regularly recruited, trained, and mobilized. __ New people are being assimilated into our church in various ways. __ All members are being trained in oikos evangelism. __ Our members frequently bring their friends and neighbors to their cell groups and worship. __ Advanced training in evangelism is available to those who want it. __ Our church models incarnational evangelism and outreach. __ An adequate tracking system is in place. __ We are doing a good job in assimilating new people into cell groups. __ Responsible members are serving in the cell groups and attend worship regularly.
Mobilizing Believers According to Spiritual Gifts

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ We have developed a plan to implement spiritual gifts in our church. We have determined what spiritual gifts are needed for the minis-tries of our church. We have trained a person to assist people in ministry placement. We have developed a job description for every ministry in our church. We have a system to help new believers discover their gifts and to begin involvement in a ministry. We have sixty roles or tasks for every one hundred adults in our church. We have highlighted the use of spiritual gifts for ministry in the worship service. We include teaching on spiritual gifts in our newcomers class. We have a system to regularly update the ministry needs of our church.
Developing and Resourcing Leaders

__ The quality of Christian character and commitment is increasing in our church. __ Our people clearly understand, and are committed to, the goals of our church. __ Ministries are developed according to our philosophy and priorities.
Lesson 9 155
__ People are being effectively delegated to fulfill ministry needs and roles. __ We are training people in pastoral/caring ministries. __ New leaders are regularly recruited, trained and mobilized into new and existing ministries. __ We have defined the process by which leaders are discipled. __ Every leader is apprenticing another for their ministry.
Appropriate and Productive Programming

__ __ __ __ __ __ We have studied and understood our churchs growth patterns. We have identified at least three areas that require more attention. We have developed goals to meet those areas of need. We are training the leadership needed for these programs. We evaluate our leadership regularly. We evaluate our ministries regularly and make adjustments, occasionally eliminating those that are no longer effective.
Networking With Other Churches

__ We have established a caring relationship with at least one other local church. __ We have expressed our commitment to encourage and resource believers in other local churches. __ We have worked to develop at least one shared ministry with another local church.
The Reproduction Phase

When God created Adam, one of his first assignments was to give names to all the creatures in the garden. Imagine this scene: God parades the various creatures, two by two, in front of this man. Lets see. Thats a big fellow. Careful with those horns! You look rather belligerentI think Ill name you Bull. And whos this? Another bull? No, youre somewhat different, arent you? I see there are some strategic anatomical distinctions here! Well, well call you cow. And so on it went. Goose and gander. Stud and mare. Lion and lioness. Always male and female. Do you wonder if Adam soon began to get the picture? And there he wasall alone. Adam soon got the point. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. It was after this realization that God caused him to fall into a deep sleep, and from his own flesh created woman. God blessed them with the admonition, Be fruitful and multiply. Its interesting to note that God first gave Adam the example of the differentiation of the sexes, and resulting multiplication. Perhaps this whetted Adams appetite to fulfill Gods command, Be fruitful and multiply.
Healthy Cell Groups Lead the Way

Reproduction will be an exciting and logical step of maturity for a church that has already had its appetite whetted by example. Your church is full of cell groups which have already witnessed the blessings of the Lord as they have grown and reproduced. Its members have reproduced themselves by discipling othersby training leaders to train new leaders. Reproduction will be a joy and a blessing for a church that has already had reproductive processes modeled in microcosm in its group life and in the discipleship of new believers. In spite of this fact, however, reproduction wont come naturally, but will need to be carefully prayed about and planned for.
Cultivating the Commitment of Your Congregation

The first step in cultivating the commitment of your congregation was taken long ago when you embraced church planting as an essential element of your churchs philosophy of ministry. Someday, your members agreed, we are going to mature into all that God wants us to be and we are going to plant daughter churches. A church that has established this attitude at an early age will find that gaining the commitment of their anticipating and joyful congregation will be an easy task! The issues to decide may therefore focus on logistics: When can we plant a daughter churchand how? Are we ready now? Have we matured to the point where we can successfully give in order to establish a new church ourselves? You can lead your church to consensus and commitment by asking these straightforward questions, and by dealing directly with any objections which might be raised.
Lesson 9 157
Common Objections to Church Planting

Churches in two very different situations often share the same problem. The church which has struggled long and hard, finally establishing a foothold on survival may share the same problem as the church which has experienced great success and is resting on its laurelsthat of complacency. This may be particularly true if your church is entrenched in a society which places high value upon stability and abhors the dynamics of change. To think of stepping out in faith to plant a daughter church raises horrific visions of rocking the boat and the accompanying fear of sinking. One common objection that reflects this fear is, The resources in our church are stretched to the breaking point. Can we really afford to spend the energy establishing a new church just now? These fears may be allayed by gaining a broader perspective from the experience of churches worldwide which have been obedient to Christs mandate to multiply. Yes, there is a cost involved in planting churches! You will spend time and energy in planning, recruiting and equipping leadership; you may very well give away some of your own key leaders, and you may be required to lend financial support to the project. Yet a fundamental biblical principle must be considered which sheds revealing light on the nature of these investments: Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return (Luke 6:38). This principle is borne out in practice by churches which have given away significant resources in the establishment of a daughter church. In addition to the time and energy it requires to reproduce a church, the most substantial investment is the active, committed leadership that must be sent to the new church. The experience of many who have done this is that God honors it by replacing those leaders in the mother church. He measures it back to you, using the same measure you have used when giving to your daughter churches.
God Blesses Obedience

Faith demands that we believeand therefore act uponthe notion that God honors sacrificial obedience. It is no coincidence that the strongest churches in the world are churchplanting churches. A second common objection is, Wont our resources be more effectively utilized by expanding our own facilities, and thereby our capacity to reach newcomers? But the practical experience of the church throughout the world has shown this to be a fallacy! Throughout history, new people have been reached with the gospel not by centralized mega-churches, but by new churches multiplied throughout a society. A mega-church can minister effectively to
only one type of person, but a hundred new churches planted throughout a society can reach a hundred different types of people within that society. Cultivating the commitment of your congregation will entail your skillful use of the same principles of ownership and group consensus which were discussed earlier. Acting in unity of heart and mind, there will be nothing that can stop your church from planting the daughter churches that God desires to further His kingdom.
Planning for Reproduction

Once the commitment of your church to plant a daughter church has been established, you will need to begin the planning process for the new church. You will find useful many of the same procedures which you employed under the conception and prenatal section of this workbook. Your first step will be to select a church planting task force, which will be responsible to: Establish faith-stretching goals. Pray for workers to reap the harvest (Matthew 9:35-38). Consider possible church planters and team members and oversee the selection process. Evaluate the cell groups of the church for new church potential. Examine church planting models which have proven effective for other churches. Consider how the mother congregation can lend support to the new church. Guide and supervise the church planter and his team through the conception and prenatal phases of the new church.
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Reproduction Checklist
Cultivate Congregational Commitment
__ __ __ __ Our church is effectively making disciples in its own community. Our members understand and are committed to the need for new churches. Our church regularly prays to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. Our philosophy of ministry expressly states our commitment to reproduce daughter churches. __ Our church budget reflects our commitment to start new churches.
Reproducing Daughter Churches

__ We have developed a specific plan to reproduce other churches. __ We have targeted the next place to establish a church and have identified the target group. __ We have identified several church planters in our congregation. __ We have assisted the church planters by encouraging quality leaders to join their team. __ We are providing training for the church planting leaders. __ The church planting team has begun several new cell groups in the target area. __ The church planting team is committed to planting a reproducing church.

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1.22.

2. Applying Church Growth Principles in Todays Church ................................... 25

3. Developing a God-given Vision Statement for Your Church .......................... 35

4. The Church and Cultural Relevancy ..................................................................... 51

iv Growing Churches for Gods Glory

5. The Role of Reproducing Cell Groups in the Church.......................................... 63

6. The Life Cycle of Church Planting, Part I, Conception .................................. 87

12 Growing Churches for Gods Glory

Growing Churches in Todays World

Defining Growing Churches

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Growing Churches in the Gospels

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McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 6.

Growing Churches in the Book of Acts

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Four Types of Growing Churches

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6. Understand your church in relationship to growth.

The Importance of Church Growth Eyes

Defining Church Growth Eyes

Ibid., 9. Wagner, Foundations of Church Growth, (from class notes).

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The Attitudes of a Growing Churches Person

Three Kinds of Growth

McGavran and Arn, How To Grow A Church, 57-59.

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The Validity of Counting People

Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth, 43.

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Applying These Principles to Your Church

Personal Evaluation of Your Church

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Illustrating the Problem

Looking at Your Own Church

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Hindrances to the Right Vision

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The Role of Prayer

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Strategic Planning in Realizing the Vision Goals

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Gibbs, I Believe In Church Growth, 271. Ibid., 271-275.

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1. The System of Beliefs

2. The System of Values

3. The System of Customs

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4. The System of Institutions

The Reason for Relevance

See Lesson 1 of this course.

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Jesus and Cultural Relevancy

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The Apostles and Cultural Relevancy

Helping the Church to Become Culturally Relevant

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