How to Revive a Struggling Church
For too long, many Christians have relegated their spiritual gifts to the giving of money to an organization, including their church. Unfortunately, too many Christians are settled into the belief that if they give money to a ministry or a church, they have then done all they could to send forth the gospel. Sure, they give a little of what they allocate to their church for its children school and its effort to feed the homeless. And they may occasionally serve as a Sunday school teacher. But that's usually all they do as a personal ministry.
Giving money to a community church should not be the end of your personal ministry, it should be the beginning of your ministry.
Christians meet on Sabbath morning, not to complete our ministry but to get a spiritual boost in our ministry. The question is, are you spiritually refreshed when you leave church on Sabbath morning. Sabbath services are the time to gather together to be ministered to and be re-energized.
Now there is nothing biblically wrong with giving money to a church or ministry but I want you to think from a different angle. Let us say there is a church with 500 saved people in it. Those 500 bring their financial offerings into the church and that is all they do as fulfillment in their ministries. Now we have one pastor preaching the Gospel. This means that 500 people have relegated their ministry to one man but that ministry stays within the confines of the church building unless they have some type of community outreach. Now the point I am making is, if those 500 people would view themselves as being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do some type of individual ministry, there would be 500 ministries in that church and not just one! Do you see what I am trying to get across?
The lack of personal ministry is alarming. Christians seem to feel that once they write their check to a ministry or attend church, their obligation is done. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When did the Great Commission end? We sing that great Hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers” and one of the stanzas says, “Like a mighty army, moves the church of God.” WHERE IS THAT ARMY? Take a look at an army. You have a General commanding thousands of troops into battle. Now who does the fighting? Is it the General or the Troops? It is the troops! What Christians have done is instead of fighting in an army, they send the General into battle and the troops stay home. The parallel is that thousands of Christians allow one pastor or radio preacher to do all the ministry, while they do nothing. Then they go to church and murmur and complain that the unbelievers are overtaking the church and country. With no opposition, it is easy to conquer!
As God’s body you can’t let your church get stagnant, like many churches today are. If you do that means that you are not fully accomplishing the “great commission!” but lying dormant!
Businesses or events are relaunched when they get stuck. Either the product is sub-par or an event is not going well. Perhaps the product or event has gotten stale or outdated. The goal is to have a product or an event that is fresher and better, something that is more attractive to people.
But can you relaunch a Church? A family of Christ?
When people talk about a “relaunch”, they often talk as if the problem in their church is how well events are planned and put together. But what is a relaunch? What all does that entail for the church? Changes in programming? ministry? vision etc? What do you need to do to be a church that helps people discover Jesus?”
One of the most common blocks to growth in a stagnant congregation is leadership that is closed to a true vision of the future. Your church can have a spirit filled minister who delivers a terrific sermon each Sunday but still the church is slowly losing active members, especially the younger adults who are the next generation of lay leaders for your church. So we're not necessarily talking about the minister but instead about the lay leaders themselves --- the old timers who head the deacons and committees. They can be domineering and can throw a wet blanket on any new idea. Often these entrenched old timers have run off the very people who could have provided vital ministry by insisting the church continue down the same stale path it has always done. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Isaiah 43:18-19Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
The failure to effectively change the lay leadership contributed to the failure of a restart of an old urban church in the Bunker Hill section of Boston. "The nucleus of old timers were still trying to call the shots and were not willing to see change," recalls a denominational staff member. "When the few new people showed up they were intimidated by the older core of people.
Revelation, 3:1-3. The letter to the church of Sardis says,
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
As a struggling church you are called to “strengthen what remains and is about to die”. To our knowledge, every one of the seven churches in Revelation went out of business, just like the more than 4,000 churches in America that go out of business each year. A "turnaround leader" and the church lay ministers should see a better day for the church they are serving and be willing to endure the pain necessary to get the church there. The critical decisions necessary to move a struggling church towards health and mission are painful and hard. In fact, just getting your church to admit it’s struggling may be the hardest thing of all.
But never forget you serve an expert in resurrection and He loves to bring the dead back to life, so get after it. He is an awesome coach.
In discerning the best path for the church, invite outsiders, people from vibrant and successful churches, to analyze you church's strength and weakness and to make recommendations for change. What do you do really well? What are your best assets (e.g. small groups, youth, music, facilities, location, equipment, etc)? Make a list.
Face up to Your Weaknesses.
Making a Decision. No matter what path of change you take, trust that God wants to do a new thing in you. The question becomes "how does God want to use us to do a new thing?" Look hard at your strengths and weaknesses. Pray. Check your motives. What is driving your decision-making? What is the likelihood of success?
In re-launching the church, the frame of mind is that all the things we do and think about in the early days when we were planted as a church, we need to think about again. When things are fresh and new, you tend to pray, invite new people, evangelize, and reach out with a spirit-filled attitude to new visitors.
According to reported statistics, 80% of all first-time church visitors come because they were invited, and someone personally asked them to come. But 95% of them never returned again, or if they did attend for a while they left shortly thereafter, because the church never really made them fill welcome or needed. Just shaking hands in the church lobby is not enough! Sit with them during the church service and try to have someone their own age sit with them also. Offer to share your Bible with them. If they have children, make sure the minister acknowledges the children during the service. Make sure to follow up with a phone call later in the day to let them know how valuable they are to your church and how much you enjoyed having them as a guest. And by all means, invite them to come back to your church and become members.
The Largest Church in the World
Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church in Seoul, South Korea. With about 830,000 members (2007), it is the largest Christian congregation in the world.
The Yoido Full Gospel Church was founded by Pastor David Cho and his mother-in-law, Choi Ja shil, both Assemblies of God pastors. On May 15, 1958, a worship service was held in the home of Choi Ja-shil. Apart from the two pastors, only Choi Ja-shil's three daughters and one elderly woman, who had come in to escape from the rain, attended the first service. The two pastors began a vigorous campaign of knocking on doors to invite new members, providing spiritual and humanitarian help to the poor, and praying for the sick. Within months, the church had grown to fifty members, too many to accommodate in Choi Ja-shil's living room. Worship services were accordingly moved to a tent pitched in her backyard.
Pastor Cho began preaching on the Three-Fold Blessing, the blessing of the spirit, soul, and body. Inspired by his message of hope, many previously uncommitted people joined the church, and by the beginning of 1961, membership had grown to a thousand. Having grown too large for its tent, the church purchased its first plot of land, at Seodaemun.
Church membership continued to grow, reaching three thousand by 1964 and eight thousand by 1968.
At this time, Cho decided to restructure the church. He divided the city of Seoul into zones, with church members in each zone comprising a "open cell" (also known as a home ministry) that would meet on a weekday for worship and bible study in the home of a "cell leader." Cell members were encouraged to invite their friends to attend cell meetings to learn about Christianity. Each cell leader was instructed to train an assistant. When cell membership reached a certain number (24 families), it would be divided, with about half of its members joining the new cell led by the person who had been the assistant.
Cho believed that women would make ideal cell leaders, having both the time and the desire to make home visits to other members, something that many men, for reasons pertaining to Korean culture as it was at that time, were unwilling to do. His decision to appoint women as cell leaders, went against the grain of Korean culture, which at that time was not open to the idea of women leading groups that had male members. He persisted, and the open cell concept turned out to be an outstanding success. From 125 cells in 1967, the church has grown to thousands of cells today.
In March 1996, the Seoul Logos Company published a 21-volume collection of Pastor Cho's sermons, delivered over his ministry of thirty-eight years. What the church regarded as a crowning honor came in September 1992, when Pastor Cho was elected Chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. This was the first time that international leadership of the denomination of fifty million members in sixty countries had passed out of American hands. He served in this capacity until August 2000. Pastor Cho, now assisted by a total of 171 associate pastors and 356 lay pastors, continues to lead the Yoido Full Gospel Church, whose status as the world's largest congregation has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Fastest Growing Church in the World Today
The fastest growing church in the world today is the International Charismatic Mission in Bogota, Columbia. It is growing through open cells (home ministries) that are doubling every year or less. In fact, a lot less. They ask each open cell to double its membership each year, but many of them are doubling within three to six months.
Pastor Castellanos of the I.C.M in Bogota, went to Korea in 1986 and was fascinated by Dr. Cho's (Yoido Full Gospel Church) cell system. He went to work right away to develop a similar system in his church. By 1991 they had 70 groups. Then, they tweaked the plan and developed what they call the "G12 group system" (see below for an explanation of the system). To say the church took off is a gross understatement. By 1999 the church had 20,0000. . . you thought I was going to say 20,000 in attendance, right? No. The church had 20,000 open cell groups. Today, they have about 52,000 groups. If each group averages 10 they have half a million groups at International Charismatic Mission.
Pastor Castellanos asks each G12 group to make goals for group multiplication. Every three months the church leaders at ICM review their goals, and at that time the leaders confirm both the long term and short term goals. Every group is asked to multiply at least once per year, but cell leaders are encouraged to multiply their groups every six months. Every open cell must evangelize, win others to Christ and eventually multiply. "Pastor Castellanos says, "Our future projection must come through definite goal setting. All of the growth we have obtained thus far has come by focusing on specific goals. Since the beginning of ICM the Lord revealed to me the importance of defining goals and since that time I have always focused on goals. Goals place rails on our faith; they arm us with a clear path--not to help God but to help us. Clear goals help us to evaluate our work because our work must bear fruit. The church must make specific goals, which will help the growth of the church."
ICM has solved one of the thorniest problems of group life when he implemented their G12 group system. A G12 group is not an open cell group that meets in someones home. It is a leadership training group conducted by a trained lay minister. The G12 system is all about evangelism and multiplication without division. They have found a way to multiply groups while maintaining long term relationships.
Growth will eventually kill a small group. That is, eventually it is not small any more and it becomes hard to personalize services like in a small group. Group Gurus banter back and forth as to when is the ideal size for a group to divide, but they all agree that they must divide in order to grow. This is where the rub is, because it is common that many groups refuse to divide. Many a Minister has told countless stories of people who have said to them, "Don't you ever think of dividing this group!"
Pastor Castellanos has solved this problem in a very creative way. They don't ask the group to divide. They ask each group member to form their own group once they have received training from a G12 lay minister (usually a couple of hours each week for about 6 months). Thus, they have multiplication without division. Each member goes out to form their own group, while still remaining a part of the existing network.
The fine print is this. Say I am in a Monday night group. Everyone in the cell is encouraged to start their own group and I agree to become an assistant to our open cell's lay leader. Assuming I do a good job and show leadership capabilities (usually for about 6 months), I next spend time receiving G12 training from a specially trained lay minister. Then I leave the original Monday night open cell, but I leave with some of those who want to join my new cell instead. So, I have my own cell, say, on Thursday night. And, I now belong to a G12 group (where I am fed, nurtured, and ministered to) and my own open cell on Thursday night.
Eventually, I will encourage the Thursday night participants to form groups of their own. From this group, I will form my own G12 group where I will be feeding, nurturing and ministering to these disciples that now have open cells of their own. Thus, I will be in one G12 group where I am fed, another G12 group where I train leaders, and an open cell. Once all of my disciples have 12 disciples of their own, I would close my own open cell and just concentrate on training my 12 and their 12.
Because of the nature of the way this works, it is not uncommon for disciples to give three nights a week to group life. It requires a very high time commitment. In Bogotá, they actually have many cell leaders who lead more than one group, thus give four of five evenings a week.
G12 churches are springing up all over the world. Here are a few examples:
If you take the time to think about it, Jesus actually started the very first Christian cell group with his 12 Apostles and their close followers. These Apostles, in turn, started many different cell groups wherever they traveled. None of these folks had a Christian church in which they could hold meetings or services, so they met in a home of one of their cell group members or they would meet in a clearing in the countryside close by.
When the Jamestown settlers and the Pilgrims first came to America there were no church buildings waiting for them, so they mimicked the first Christians by having meetings in their homes or in a clearing close by. They didn't build their meeting houses until several years later, after they were comfortably settled in and their crops were producing.
Anabaptist's actually preferred meeting in their homes in cell groups, so many of them never even built a church or meeting house.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, also practiced this principle and laid the foundation for the modern cell-church explosion. By the end of the 18th century, Wesley had developed more than 10,000 cells groups (called classes). Hundreds of thousands of people participated in his small-group system.
Wesley wasn’t persuaded that someone had made a decision for Christ until that person became involved in a small group. The classes served as an evangelistic tool (most conversions occurred in this context) and as a disciplining agent. George G. Hunter III (author of "To Spread the Power") wrote, “To Wesley, evangelism … took place primarily in the class meetings and in people’s hearts in the hours following the class meetings.”
As the forerunner of the modern cell movement, Wesley promoted evangelism that led to rapid multiplication. Hunter notes, “He was driven to multiplying ‘classes’ for these served best as recruiting groups, as ports of entry for new people, and for involving awakened people with the gospel and power.” Wesley would preach and then invite the people to join a class. Apparently, these classes multiplied primarily as a result of planting new ones, much like the emphasis on cell planting today.
Smaller Success Stories
1. In the early 1990's, Bethany World Prayer Center realized they were not ready for the coming harvest. After a performance of the evangelistic drama "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames," at their church, over 18,000 people came to Christ in 21 days. However, only a handful ever got involved in the church. Pastor Larry Stockstill stated: "The Holy Spirit spoke to me that there are two things coming to the church in America—hostility and harvest. I knew our church was ready for neither. The cell structure addresses both of these needs. It decentralizes the church in such a way that open hostility cannot affect it as radically—as illustrated by the thriving house church movement in China. Also, it provides assimilation points where the church can bring new converts into a relational environment."
Today, Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, Louisiana, is a dominant cell church in the United States with 7,000 worshippers and over 500 cell groups. When they transitioned to a cell church in 1993, they concentrated on reaching new converts and visitors. A high percentage of the existing congregation, seeing the benefits of a cell relationship, also became involved in cell groups.
2. It was the early 1980s when Ibrahim Omondi, from Nairobi, Kenya knew his people were not living up to their full potential. Having a keen interest in the cell church concept, he sought for a working model before returning to Africa and asked to “tag along” with a pastor in a cell-based church. The pastors church had been birthed several years earlier in Pennsylvania and was in the process of growing from one cell to 2300 believers meeting in cells during its first few years.
Ibrahim watched and listened. He observed how cell group ministry was a place where everyone had the opportunity to experience and demonstrate Christianity built on relationships rather than meetings. He saw how our evangelism-focused small groups reproduced themselves while reaching out to the lost in their communities.
One day, Ibrahim opened his heart to the pastor he was accompanying. Weeping, he unburdened, “Western evangelists come to my nation and hold massive crusades. The TV cameras are rolling. When the evangelist asks my brothers to raise their hands to receive Christ, many respond. The next week, another evangelist comes to town, and many of my same brothers come to the crusade and raise their hands again. My people need a sense of dignity, where every individual believer understands he is important to God and to His purposes. We need a new model of church life.”
Ibrahim returned to Kenya, led his neighbors to Christ and started a cell group in his home. Cells were soon birthed throughout Nairobi, and a new cell church was born. Before long, cells were started in neighboring areas of the city, multiplying into dozens of cells and cell-based churches throughout Kenya and into Uganda. Today, Ibrahim has a vision to train leaders to start cells and celebrations throughout Africa. Ibrahim’s people have received a new sense of dignity!
We can take our world for God by giving the ministry to spirit-filled laymen who are using their gifts to grow their open cells to double every year or less.
The following scriptural values will help to give us a foundation for a healthy relationship-centered cell-based church. A thriving cell ministry is simply a “wineskin” for these scriptural values to be encouraged and experienced.
1. Understand that you are preparing for the harvest. The Lord promises to pour out His Spirit in the last days. A harvest is coming when the Lord will draw multitudes into His kingdom. He is calling the church to prepare new wineskins (new cell groups) to contain the new wine of His harvest (Matthew 9:37; Matthew 9:17; John 4:35).
2. Know your purpose is to reach the lost (evangelism). Genuine fellowship occurs when we focus on reaching the lost together as a group. Cells that focus only inward become stagnant. Focusing outward brings life (Mark 1:17; II Timothy 4:5).
3. Practice the Great Commission (discipleship). The mandate from our Master is to make disciples, not just converts. Cell groups provide the opportunity for every believer to be actively involved in making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Built in leadership training occurs in cell groups. As assistant leaders are trained, their spiritual gifts are developed, and they start to train others.
4. Raise up spiritual parents. There are thousands of teachers today, but few spiritual fathers and mothers to nurture young Christians. Cell groups are hot beds for spiritual families to grow in. With a spiritual father or mother by their side, a spiritual son or daughter will grow spiritually strong and learn quickly and naturally by example. Just like natural families, healthy spiritual families expect their children to eventually become parents themselves, then be released to start their own cell groups and churches (I Corinthians 4:15-17; I John 2:12-14).
5. We must see the church as people, not a building. I call this resisting the “holy building myth.” The church is people (called out ones). Every person is important and chosen by the Lord. Jesus tells us He will build His church. He was not talking about a physical building but a company of people. The New Testament church met both from house to house and publicly (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:20).
6. The saints are called to do the work of ministry. We must also resist the “holy man myth.” Thinking that the “holy man” (pastor) should do all the work of ministry is a myth. God has given each of His children gifts, talents and ministries to be used to build His church. Many of these gifts and ministries can only be effectively nurtured in a small group setting. In this way, believers are released to train others. When all members are functioning properly in their gifts and ministries, the church will grow and prosper. The pastors and elders will not have to do all of the ministry, but instead, be released to train each believer to be a minister (Ephesians 4:11-12).
7. Build trust and relationships. The New Testament church is built on trust and relationships, not on meetings and programs. First and foremost, we need to trust in God. Then we need to trust others with whom we serve. When relationships are strong “underground” in cell groups, relationships will be strong in the entire church. God builds living stones together through the mortar of healthy relationships (I Peter 2:5; Ephesians 4:16).
8. Expect spiritual multiplication. We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Everything with life will multiply. Believers who lead others to Christ multiply. Cells multiply. Churches multiply. A key to experiencing spiritual multiplication is to expect it to happen (Genesis 1:28; Acts 6:1,7; 9:31). Cell ministry should train as many assistant leaders as possible to prepare for future cell group multiplication.
9. Be flexible and creative. God values flexibility and creativity, and we need to do the same. No two snowflakes are alike, and no two cells are the same. We all use the same biblical principles, but the way they work out varies from culture to culture, church to church, and cell group to cell group. Expect the Lord to give wisdom to stay creative in cell ministry. Beware of having a “cookie cutter” mentality. Sameness produces boredom. Creativity releases life! (II Corinthians 3:17-18). For a season at our church, we had only family cells, with no homogeneous groups. This was a mistake. Today we have youth cells, businessmen’s cells, family cells, single cells, etc.—whatever wineskin is needed for the new wine to give freedom for growth and maturity.
10. Empower God’s people. Jesus promised His disciples they would do greater works than He did, and we are included in that promise. He has empowered us to do the works of God in our generation. Wise church leaders empower cell leaders as ministers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wise cell leaders empower cell members (John 14:12; II Timothy 2:2). A cell leader will work himself out of a job. As a leader, do nothing someone else can do. Allow others to serve. Enjoy seeing the Lord using others to minister by His Spirit as you coach and mentor them.
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What specific changes do church leaders need to make to develop disciples who lead others? What is the pastor’s role? In our current ministry model, it would appear the pastor’s role is to gather a crowd, be a paid performer. But Jesus’ life and leadership didn’t reflect that. He coached and equipped people to release an army on a community. He didn’t focus on gathering a crowd out of the community alone, but rather on releasing a crowd of disciples who can make disciples. Think about it. Jesus essentially said to the disciples, “You don’t need me to physically be here, walking with you. I’ve equipped you with what you need to be a disciple and make disciples in your homes and neighborhoods.” Also, we have to look at this idea of, “What is success?” What are we as leaders celebrating? What do people in our churches aspire to? If we’re honest, we know we're celebrating many of the wrong things. Or we're celebrating just some of the right things so our people are aspiring to, especially our young leaders, a ministry with thousands of people. I’m all for numbers of converts, but those aren't the right numbers alone. We should be counting and asking the question, “How many disciples have I made who can make disciples without me?”
Giving money to a community church should not be the end of your personal ministry, it should be the beginning of your ministry.
Christians meet on Sabbath morning, not to complete our ministry but to get a spiritual boost in our ministry. The question is, are you spiritually refreshed when you leave church on Sabbath morning. Sabbath services are the time to gather together to be ministered to and be re-energized.
Now there is nothing biblically wrong with giving money to a church or ministry but I want you to think from a different angle. Let us say there is a church with 500 saved people in it. Those 500 bring their financial offerings into the church and that is all they do as fulfillment in their ministries. Now we have one pastor preaching the Gospel. This means that 500 people have relegated their ministry to one man but that ministry stays within the confines of the church building unless they have some type of community outreach. Now the point I am making is, if those 500 people would view themselves as being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do some type of individual ministry, there would be 500 ministries in that church and not just one! Do you see what I am trying to get across?
The lack of personal ministry is alarming. Christians seem to feel that once they write their check to a ministry or attend church, their obligation is done. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When did the Great Commission end? We sing that great Hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers” and one of the stanzas says, “Like a mighty army, moves the church of God.” WHERE IS THAT ARMY? Take a look at an army. You have a General commanding thousands of troops into battle. Now who does the fighting? Is it the General or the Troops? It is the troops! What Christians have done is instead of fighting in an army, they send the General into battle and the troops stay home. The parallel is that thousands of Christians allow one pastor or radio preacher to do all the ministry, while they do nothing. Then they go to church and murmur and complain that the unbelievers are overtaking the church and country. With no opposition, it is easy to conquer!
As God’s body you can’t let your church get stagnant, like many churches today are. If you do that means that you are not fully accomplishing the “great commission!” but lying dormant!
Businesses or events are relaunched when they get stuck. Either the product is sub-par or an event is not going well. Perhaps the product or event has gotten stale or outdated. The goal is to have a product or an event that is fresher and better, something that is more attractive to people.
But can you relaunch a Church? A family of Christ?
When people talk about a “relaunch”, they often talk as if the problem in their church is how well events are planned and put together. But what is a relaunch? What all does that entail for the church? Changes in programming? ministry? vision etc? What do you need to do to be a church that helps people discover Jesus?”
One of the most common blocks to growth in a stagnant congregation is leadership that is closed to a true vision of the future. Your church can have a spirit filled minister who delivers a terrific sermon each Sunday but still the church is slowly losing active members, especially the younger adults who are the next generation of lay leaders for your church. So we're not necessarily talking about the minister but instead about the lay leaders themselves --- the old timers who head the deacons and committees. They can be domineering and can throw a wet blanket on any new idea. Often these entrenched old timers have run off the very people who could have provided vital ministry by insisting the church continue down the same stale path it has always done. According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Isaiah 43:18-19Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
The failure to effectively change the lay leadership contributed to the failure of a restart of an old urban church in the Bunker Hill section of Boston. "The nucleus of old timers were still trying to call the shots and were not willing to see change," recalls a denominational staff member. "When the few new people showed up they were intimidated by the older core of people.
Revelation, 3:1-3. The letter to the church of Sardis says,
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. 3Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
As a struggling church you are called to “strengthen what remains and is about to die”. To our knowledge, every one of the seven churches in Revelation went out of business, just like the more than 4,000 churches in America that go out of business each year. A "turnaround leader" and the church lay ministers should see a better day for the church they are serving and be willing to endure the pain necessary to get the church there. The critical decisions necessary to move a struggling church towards health and mission are painful and hard. In fact, just getting your church to admit it’s struggling may be the hardest thing of all.
But never forget you serve an expert in resurrection and He loves to bring the dead back to life, so get after it. He is an awesome coach.
In discerning the best path for the church, invite outsiders, people from vibrant and successful churches, to analyze you church's strength and weakness and to make recommendations for change. What do you do really well? What are your best assets (e.g. small groups, youth, music, facilities, location, equipment, etc)? Make a list.
Face up to Your Weaknesses.
Making a Decision. No matter what path of change you take, trust that God wants to do a new thing in you. The question becomes "how does God want to use us to do a new thing?" Look hard at your strengths and weaknesses. Pray. Check your motives. What is driving your decision-making? What is the likelihood of success?
In re-launching the church, the frame of mind is that all the things we do and think about in the early days when we were planted as a church, we need to think about again. When things are fresh and new, you tend to pray, invite new people, evangelize, and reach out with a spirit-filled attitude to new visitors.
According to reported statistics, 80% of all first-time church visitors come because they were invited, and someone personally asked them to come. But 95% of them never returned again, or if they did attend for a while they left shortly thereafter, because the church never really made them fill welcome or needed. Just shaking hands in the church lobby is not enough! Sit with them during the church service and try to have someone their own age sit with them also. Offer to share your Bible with them. If they have children, make sure the minister acknowledges the children during the service. Make sure to follow up with a phone call later in the day to let them know how valuable they are to your church and how much you enjoyed having them as a guest. And by all means, invite them to come back to your church and become members.
The Largest Church in the World
Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church in Seoul, South Korea. With about 830,000 members (2007), it is the largest Christian congregation in the world.
The Yoido Full Gospel Church was founded by Pastor David Cho and his mother-in-law, Choi Ja shil, both Assemblies of God pastors. On May 15, 1958, a worship service was held in the home of Choi Ja-shil. Apart from the two pastors, only Choi Ja-shil's three daughters and one elderly woman, who had come in to escape from the rain, attended the first service. The two pastors began a vigorous campaign of knocking on doors to invite new members, providing spiritual and humanitarian help to the poor, and praying for the sick. Within months, the church had grown to fifty members, too many to accommodate in Choi Ja-shil's living room. Worship services were accordingly moved to a tent pitched in her backyard.
Pastor Cho began preaching on the Three-Fold Blessing, the blessing of the spirit, soul, and body. Inspired by his message of hope, many previously uncommitted people joined the church, and by the beginning of 1961, membership had grown to a thousand. Having grown too large for its tent, the church purchased its first plot of land, at Seodaemun.
Church membership continued to grow, reaching three thousand by 1964 and eight thousand by 1968.
At this time, Cho decided to restructure the church. He divided the city of Seoul into zones, with church members in each zone comprising a "open cell" (also known as a home ministry) that would meet on a weekday for worship and bible study in the home of a "cell leader." Cell members were encouraged to invite their friends to attend cell meetings to learn about Christianity. Each cell leader was instructed to train an assistant. When cell membership reached a certain number (24 families), it would be divided, with about half of its members joining the new cell led by the person who had been the assistant.
Cho believed that women would make ideal cell leaders, having both the time and the desire to make home visits to other members, something that many men, for reasons pertaining to Korean culture as it was at that time, were unwilling to do. His decision to appoint women as cell leaders, went against the grain of Korean culture, which at that time was not open to the idea of women leading groups that had male members. He persisted, and the open cell concept turned out to be an outstanding success. From 125 cells in 1967, the church has grown to thousands of cells today.
In March 1996, the Seoul Logos Company published a 21-volume collection of Pastor Cho's sermons, delivered over his ministry of thirty-eight years. What the church regarded as a crowning honor came in September 1992, when Pastor Cho was elected Chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. This was the first time that international leadership of the denomination of fifty million members in sixty countries had passed out of American hands. He served in this capacity until August 2000. Pastor Cho, now assisted by a total of 171 associate pastors and 356 lay pastors, continues to lead the Yoido Full Gospel Church, whose status as the world's largest congregation has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Fastest Growing Church in the World Today
The fastest growing church in the world today is the International Charismatic Mission in Bogota, Columbia. It is growing through open cells (home ministries) that are doubling every year or less. In fact, a lot less. They ask each open cell to double its membership each year, but many of them are doubling within three to six months.
Pastor Castellanos of the I.C.M in Bogota, went to Korea in 1986 and was fascinated by Dr. Cho's (Yoido Full Gospel Church) cell system. He went to work right away to develop a similar system in his church. By 1991 they had 70 groups. Then, they tweaked the plan and developed what they call the "G12 group system" (see below for an explanation of the system). To say the church took off is a gross understatement. By 1999 the church had 20,0000. . . you thought I was going to say 20,000 in attendance, right? No. The church had 20,000 open cell groups. Today, they have about 52,000 groups. If each group averages 10 they have half a million groups at International Charismatic Mission.
Pastor Castellanos asks each G12 group to make goals for group multiplication. Every three months the church leaders at ICM review their goals, and at that time the leaders confirm both the long term and short term goals. Every group is asked to multiply at least once per year, but cell leaders are encouraged to multiply their groups every six months. Every open cell must evangelize, win others to Christ and eventually multiply. "Pastor Castellanos says, "Our future projection must come through definite goal setting. All of the growth we have obtained thus far has come by focusing on specific goals. Since the beginning of ICM the Lord revealed to me the importance of defining goals and since that time I have always focused on goals. Goals place rails on our faith; they arm us with a clear path--not to help God but to help us. Clear goals help us to evaluate our work because our work must bear fruit. The church must make specific goals, which will help the growth of the church."
ICM has solved one of the thorniest problems of group life when he implemented their G12 group system. A G12 group is not an open cell group that meets in someones home. It is a leadership training group conducted by a trained lay minister. The G12 system is all about evangelism and multiplication without division. They have found a way to multiply groups while maintaining long term relationships.
Growth will eventually kill a small group. That is, eventually it is not small any more and it becomes hard to personalize services like in a small group. Group Gurus banter back and forth as to when is the ideal size for a group to divide, but they all agree that they must divide in order to grow. This is where the rub is, because it is common that many groups refuse to divide. Many a Minister has told countless stories of people who have said to them, "Don't you ever think of dividing this group!"
Pastor Castellanos has solved this problem in a very creative way. They don't ask the group to divide. They ask each group member to form their own group once they have received training from a G12 lay minister (usually a couple of hours each week for about 6 months). Thus, they have multiplication without division. Each member goes out to form their own group, while still remaining a part of the existing network.
The fine print is this. Say I am in a Monday night group. Everyone in the cell is encouraged to start their own group and I agree to become an assistant to our open cell's lay leader. Assuming I do a good job and show leadership capabilities (usually for about 6 months), I next spend time receiving G12 training from a specially trained lay minister. Then I leave the original Monday night open cell, but I leave with some of those who want to join my new cell instead. So, I have my own cell, say, on Thursday night. And, I now belong to a G12 group (where I am fed, nurtured, and ministered to) and my own open cell on Thursday night.
Eventually, I will encourage the Thursday night participants to form groups of their own. From this group, I will form my own G12 group where I will be feeding, nurturing and ministering to these disciples that now have open cells of their own. Thus, I will be in one G12 group where I am fed, another G12 group where I train leaders, and an open cell. Once all of my disciples have 12 disciples of their own, I would close my own open cell and just concentrate on training my 12 and their 12.
Because of the nature of the way this works, it is not uncommon for disciples to give three nights a week to group life. It requires a very high time commitment. In Bogotá, they actually have many cell leaders who lead more than one group, thus give four of five evenings a week.
G12 churches are springing up all over the world. Here are a few examples:
- Bethany World Prayer Center, Baker, Louisiana. 800 groups. 8000 active members in attendance. They conduct an annual conference for pastors on the G12 model.
- Abbalove Church, Jakarta, Indonesia. 510 groups. 6000 active members in attendance.
- Church of the Nations, Athens, Georgia. 2000 active members in attendance.
- The Christian Center in Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador. 6,500 active members in attendance.
If you take the time to think about it, Jesus actually started the very first Christian cell group with his 12 Apostles and their close followers. These Apostles, in turn, started many different cell groups wherever they traveled. None of these folks had a Christian church in which they could hold meetings or services, so they met in a home of one of their cell group members or they would meet in a clearing in the countryside close by.
When the Jamestown settlers and the Pilgrims first came to America there were no church buildings waiting for them, so they mimicked the first Christians by having meetings in their homes or in a clearing close by. They didn't build their meeting houses until several years later, after they were comfortably settled in and their crops were producing.
Anabaptist's actually preferred meeting in their homes in cell groups, so many of them never even built a church or meeting house.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, also practiced this principle and laid the foundation for the modern cell-church explosion. By the end of the 18th century, Wesley had developed more than 10,000 cells groups (called classes). Hundreds of thousands of people participated in his small-group system.
Wesley wasn’t persuaded that someone had made a decision for Christ until that person became involved in a small group. The classes served as an evangelistic tool (most conversions occurred in this context) and as a disciplining agent. George G. Hunter III (author of "To Spread the Power") wrote, “To Wesley, evangelism … took place primarily in the class meetings and in people’s hearts in the hours following the class meetings.”
As the forerunner of the modern cell movement, Wesley promoted evangelism that led to rapid multiplication. Hunter notes, “He was driven to multiplying ‘classes’ for these served best as recruiting groups, as ports of entry for new people, and for involving awakened people with the gospel and power.” Wesley would preach and then invite the people to join a class. Apparently, these classes multiplied primarily as a result of planting new ones, much like the emphasis on cell planting today.
Smaller Success Stories
1. In the early 1990's, Bethany World Prayer Center realized they were not ready for the coming harvest. After a performance of the evangelistic drama "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames," at their church, over 18,000 people came to Christ in 21 days. However, only a handful ever got involved in the church. Pastor Larry Stockstill stated: "The Holy Spirit spoke to me that there are two things coming to the church in America—hostility and harvest. I knew our church was ready for neither. The cell structure addresses both of these needs. It decentralizes the church in such a way that open hostility cannot affect it as radically—as illustrated by the thriving house church movement in China. Also, it provides assimilation points where the church can bring new converts into a relational environment."
Today, Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, Louisiana, is a dominant cell church in the United States with 7,000 worshippers and over 500 cell groups. When they transitioned to a cell church in 1993, they concentrated on reaching new converts and visitors. A high percentage of the existing congregation, seeing the benefits of a cell relationship, also became involved in cell groups.
2. It was the early 1980s when Ibrahim Omondi, from Nairobi, Kenya knew his people were not living up to their full potential. Having a keen interest in the cell church concept, he sought for a working model before returning to Africa and asked to “tag along” with a pastor in a cell-based church. The pastors church had been birthed several years earlier in Pennsylvania and was in the process of growing from one cell to 2300 believers meeting in cells during its first few years.
Ibrahim watched and listened. He observed how cell group ministry was a place where everyone had the opportunity to experience and demonstrate Christianity built on relationships rather than meetings. He saw how our evangelism-focused small groups reproduced themselves while reaching out to the lost in their communities.
One day, Ibrahim opened his heart to the pastor he was accompanying. Weeping, he unburdened, “Western evangelists come to my nation and hold massive crusades. The TV cameras are rolling. When the evangelist asks my brothers to raise their hands to receive Christ, many respond. The next week, another evangelist comes to town, and many of my same brothers come to the crusade and raise their hands again. My people need a sense of dignity, where every individual believer understands he is important to God and to His purposes. We need a new model of church life.”
Ibrahim returned to Kenya, led his neighbors to Christ and started a cell group in his home. Cells were soon birthed throughout Nairobi, and a new cell church was born. Before long, cells were started in neighboring areas of the city, multiplying into dozens of cells and cell-based churches throughout Kenya and into Uganda. Today, Ibrahim has a vision to train leaders to start cells and celebrations throughout Africa. Ibrahim’s people have received a new sense of dignity!
We can take our world for God by giving the ministry to spirit-filled laymen who are using their gifts to grow their open cells to double every year or less.
The following scriptural values will help to give us a foundation for a healthy relationship-centered cell-based church. A thriving cell ministry is simply a “wineskin” for these scriptural values to be encouraged and experienced.
1. Understand that you are preparing for the harvest. The Lord promises to pour out His Spirit in the last days. A harvest is coming when the Lord will draw multitudes into His kingdom. He is calling the church to prepare new wineskins (new cell groups) to contain the new wine of His harvest (Matthew 9:37; Matthew 9:17; John 4:35).
2. Know your purpose is to reach the lost (evangelism). Genuine fellowship occurs when we focus on reaching the lost together as a group. Cells that focus only inward become stagnant. Focusing outward brings life (Mark 1:17; II Timothy 4:5).
3. Practice the Great Commission (discipleship). The mandate from our Master is to make disciples, not just converts. Cell groups provide the opportunity for every believer to be actively involved in making disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Built in leadership training occurs in cell groups. As assistant leaders are trained, their spiritual gifts are developed, and they start to train others.
4. Raise up spiritual parents. There are thousands of teachers today, but few spiritual fathers and mothers to nurture young Christians. Cell groups are hot beds for spiritual families to grow in. With a spiritual father or mother by their side, a spiritual son or daughter will grow spiritually strong and learn quickly and naturally by example. Just like natural families, healthy spiritual families expect their children to eventually become parents themselves, then be released to start their own cell groups and churches (I Corinthians 4:15-17; I John 2:12-14).
5. We must see the church as people, not a building. I call this resisting the “holy building myth.” The church is people (called out ones). Every person is important and chosen by the Lord. Jesus tells us He will build His church. He was not talking about a physical building but a company of people. The New Testament church met both from house to house and publicly (Matthew 16:18; Acts 20:20).
6. The saints are called to do the work of ministry. We must also resist the “holy man myth.” Thinking that the “holy man” (pastor) should do all the work of ministry is a myth. God has given each of His children gifts, talents and ministries to be used to build His church. Many of these gifts and ministries can only be effectively nurtured in a small group setting. In this way, believers are released to train others. When all members are functioning properly in their gifts and ministries, the church will grow and prosper. The pastors and elders will not have to do all of the ministry, but instead, be released to train each believer to be a minister (Ephesians 4:11-12).
7. Build trust and relationships. The New Testament church is built on trust and relationships, not on meetings and programs. First and foremost, we need to trust in God. Then we need to trust others with whom we serve. When relationships are strong “underground” in cell groups, relationships will be strong in the entire church. God builds living stones together through the mortar of healthy relationships (I Peter 2:5; Ephesians 4:16).
8. Expect spiritual multiplication. We are commanded to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Everything with life will multiply. Believers who lead others to Christ multiply. Cells multiply. Churches multiply. A key to experiencing spiritual multiplication is to expect it to happen (Genesis 1:28; Acts 6:1,7; 9:31). Cell ministry should train as many assistant leaders as possible to prepare for future cell group multiplication.
9. Be flexible and creative. God values flexibility and creativity, and we need to do the same. No two snowflakes are alike, and no two cells are the same. We all use the same biblical principles, but the way they work out varies from culture to culture, church to church, and cell group to cell group. Expect the Lord to give wisdom to stay creative in cell ministry. Beware of having a “cookie cutter” mentality. Sameness produces boredom. Creativity releases life! (II Corinthians 3:17-18). For a season at our church, we had only family cells, with no homogeneous groups. This was a mistake. Today we have youth cells, businessmen’s cells, family cells, single cells, etc.—whatever wineskin is needed for the new wine to give freedom for growth and maturity.
10. Empower God’s people. Jesus promised His disciples they would do greater works than He did, and we are included in that promise. He has empowered us to do the works of God in our generation. Wise church leaders empower cell leaders as ministers of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wise cell leaders empower cell members (John 14:12; II Timothy 2:2). A cell leader will work himself out of a job. As a leader, do nothing someone else can do. Allow others to serve. Enjoy seeing the Lord using others to minister by His Spirit as you coach and mentor them.
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What specific changes do church leaders need to make to develop disciples who lead others? What is the pastor’s role? In our current ministry model, it would appear the pastor’s role is to gather a crowd, be a paid performer. But Jesus’ life and leadership didn’t reflect that. He coached and equipped people to release an army on a community. He didn’t focus on gathering a crowd out of the community alone, but rather on releasing a crowd of disciples who can make disciples. Think about it. Jesus essentially said to the disciples, “You don’t need me to physically be here, walking with you. I’ve equipped you with what you need to be a disciple and make disciples in your homes and neighborhoods.” Also, we have to look at this idea of, “What is success?” What are we as leaders celebrating? What do people in our churches aspire to? If we’re honest, we know we're celebrating many of the wrong things. Or we're celebrating just some of the right things so our people are aspiring to, especially our young leaders, a ministry with thousands of people. I’m all for numbers of converts, but those aren't the right numbers alone. We should be counting and asking the question, “How many disciples have I made who can make disciples without me?”