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MentorNet # 21 & 21 (combined) Helping Church Leaders to Develop a Copyright
© 2000 by Galen Currah and George Patterson When you consult, mentor or coach leaders
who help their congregations to transform into a church of small groups, give
to them some clear guidelines and cautions. Prepare the way for them by
explaining these action points: 1. Let members discover
the joy of meeting with a group small enough to practice the kind of edifying
interaction that Jesus and His apostles want for us. · Let members join in the
joyful trend of spiritual chiropractic. A healthy trend is slowly gaining
speed among Western churches, correcting some deeply-entrenched traditions
that define what we must do when we gather. This trend embraces several New
Testament practices, placing obedience to God’s Word above conformity to
human traditions. · Let members practice
the New Testament “one another” commands. These include: “bear one
another’s burdens,” “confess your faults to one another,” and “admonish one
another.” There are over forty such ‘one-anothers’ and many are
repeated several times. As urban populations become more talented, literate
and aware of non-Christian religions and political trends, they grow
impatient, even bored, with the typical one-way, Sunday diet dispensed almost
exclusively by a paid, professional staff, without regard to the New Testament’s
requirement of dynamic interaction between all members. · Free
your people to obey Christ. “Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Cor. 3:17) Many believers, especially among
the younger generation, enjoy freedom from the routine of assembling once a
week to sit facing a focal point, usually a pulpit or worship team, and watch
singers and musicians perform, hear a lecture and sometimes an appeal for
money. This form was adopted in the 18th-century, codified in the
19th century, elaborated in the 20th, and is dying in
the 21st. 2. Begin groups with an
organizational structure and a curriculum that are entirely new and radically
New Testament. · Start cells that are
entirely new. It almost never works to force change upon old structures or small
groups that have not reproduced nor done evangelism. Pastors who simply add
on small group ministry to their programs and preach the benefits of “body
life” will usually experience disappointment and later become resistant to
cellular ministry. This disappointment often leads to casting blame on the
cell concept. We hear the complaint that small groups are effective only for
poor, rural or · Build new cells around
new believers. Bring them into an existing cell only as a last resort. Try first to
start a new cell in new believers’ homes. Keep “mining the new vein of gold.”
As new believers, they still have many non-believing friends and can often
bring them easily into their homes. Let new believers host these meetings, as
did Zacheus, Levi, Cornelius and · Keep groups small
enough, that every participant has a chance to talk if they want. Believers, especially
of the younger generation, enjoy small groups, cell churches and even
independent house fellowships where they can develop close, edifying relationships.
They also seek to encounter Christ in a mystical way as the Holy Spirit uses
the different spiritual gifts of the body to serve one another. Aware of this trend, some
traditional pastors experiment with forms of small group ministry that offer
more than the home Bible study and prayer group of the 1960s. Most
large-churches of which we are aware have incorporated small groups as an
important part of their church life, and often talk about launching a
church-planting movement like those they have read about in developing
countries. Keep experimenting until you get it right! · Focus on current
concerns in the cells. Believers and seekers are increasingly seeking to
enter into a mystical experience of Christ, along with genuine community, and
to find timely help with the temptations and exigencies that they face daily.
The only way leaders can know what their current concerns are, is to listen
to them. 3. Allow small groups to
take to themselves many of the functions and privileges of traditional
pastors. · Admit, when you see it,
that small groups often do a better job of shepherding. Even
professional counsellors have been writing on the power of small groups to
provide the kind of personal and social growth that used to be provided by
professional counsellors, although there is still a need for both types of
counselling. · Risk the inevitable
failures.
Dare to trust God to let you to reap the benefits of face-to-face groups, in
spite of their problems. Some small groups have become self-centred, unsupportive
of the congregational budget, and have ignored other programs. These
pitfalls, however, should prove minimal, if you follow these guidelines. · Let new leaders make
mistakes. Older pastors, especially more educated ones, almost always expect
too much of new leaders. They often refuse to let new believers lead a group
of their own family and friends. Yet new believers are the ones that God uses
most often to win others to Christ and give them their first instruction.
They should be mentored behind the scenes, however, by a more experienced
believer. · Let new believers lead
temporary gathering groups. Normally, new believers make the best leaders of
temporary ‘gathering groups’ such as the group that Cornelius gathered in his
house to listen to Peter’s message (Acts 10). These ‘gathering groups’ are
short-lived, because the non-believers who come at first either receive
Christ and become (or join) a regular group, or reject Christ. These
temporary gathering groups can meet on a playing field, in a coffee shop, on
a commuter train, in a home, or anywhere convenient. 4. Start small groups as a
means of discipling seekers and new believers, rather than simply as a way of
causing numerical growth. · Let cells grow out of
prayerful, aggressive evangelism. If a church is not evangelistic,
then simply to change the structure of its organization to incorporate small
groups, will not cause evangelism to happen. Structure is not the important
thing. Evangelism and a passion to disciple the new believers biblically are.
These pastoral dynamics must be supported with fervent prayer. We have
observed in several countries a strong relationship between small groups and
numerical growth has been observed, leading to an erroneous conclusion that
small groups automatically attract non-believers. Usually the opposite is
true: where a church brings people to Christ, they are best incorporated into
little churches (cells or small groups) that are integral parts of the bigger
churches. · To conserve new believers
more effectively, form small, face-to-face groups. Build new cells around
them. Let these small groups freely discuss their social and spiritual needs,
and find answers from the Bible and from Christian testimonies. · Pray for grace simply
to serve others. Where pastors have a vision not merely of growing a bigger church, but
also of serving their city and nation, where the continually seek ways to
meet social and spiritual needs of their communities, people normally repent
and come into their churches. 5. Let small group
participation be voluntary. · Let small group
participation be spontaneous. Let older believers who are indifferent to small
groups “lie in green pastures beside still waters.” Forcing them into face-to-face
“growth” breeds stagnant groups that die without reproducing. If older
believers feel no desire for a small group experience, or have so many
activities that they resist “one more thing to do”, then they will try out
small groups with a reluctance that can quickly turn into revulsion. This is
particularly so where members are assigned to a group by a clergyman who drew
zone lines on a map. · Keep the entire
congregation aware of what God is doing in the small groups. One way to encourage
small group workers is to interview briefly, during the congregational
worship time, individuals who have had spiritual victories in their small
groups. Even where group members find some affinity one for another, and make
the group part of their busy lives, groups can stagnate if left to their own
devices without continual, fresh input and encouragement from their pastors
through their small shepherds or hosts. 6. Small group shepherds
can help older believers to grow in their practice of church body life, as they
receive on-going guidance from church leaders. · Equip the members of
the body. This is the primary task of teachers and pastors. Ephesians 4:11-16
requires pastors and others to train and model mature Christian life. They
can do this more effectively in a congregation that has multiple “elders” or
group shepherds who receive regular coaching from more experienced pastors. · Listen to those whom
you coach before telling them what to do. Pastors who coach small group
shepherds must listen to them often and help them to serve their groups.
Respond to urgent issues, and add to group activities more of the kinds of
“one-another” ministries that the New Testament requires. 7. Start small and
reproduce the first group or groups. · Develop your own forms
and methods. Many cultural variables prohibit one church from merely adopting the
forms and methods of another church, especially a culturally-distant one.
Every shepherd will have to try different things, develop what works, and
grow in his own coaching skills and mentoring wisdom. · Start three groups at
about the same time if possible. This has some advantages. Even if one or two
disband, there is still a group. A pastor can meet with more than one group shepherd
for mentoring, and have time to hear from all of them, give them advice, and
make plans with them for their groups. It will become clear faster, what
kinds of group activities meet needs and lead to the starting of new groups.
Furthermore, the group leaders can encourage and counsel one another. · Aim to reproduce. From the very start,
let each group shepherd share the vision to lead his group to help start
another group. Seldom do groups start another one by splitting, for it is too
hard to break up the friendships. Usually, group members start new, smaller
groups with others, while maintaining ties with their first group. Groups and
their shepherds should envision and pray to make that happen continually.
Often those who start a new group never leave the original one. They simply
visit friends to win them to Christ, and train new leaders in the new group,
while remaining with the original group. This is similar to what Paul and
Barnabas did; they started many churches but kept returning to their home
church in 8. Start with new
believers, where there are any. · Let new believers start
immediately to form new groups. Even traditional congregations sometimes see folks
come to salvation. Where new believers have no other opportunity but to sit
on pews once a week and listen to sermons, they are not likely to bring
seekers with them. · Let each new believer
be a doorway to many other neglected people. Where every new believer is seen
as a member of a family and a circle of existing friends, they should be
viewed as the door into a potential new cell. So you should coach shepherds
in how to encourage new believers to identify those of their acquaintances
who might be interested to hear about their new life with Jesus. Shepherds
should also coach those new ones to witness and pray for their relatives and
friends. 9. Allow rustic believers
to take leadership from the start. · Recognize the gift of
leadership when it emerges. Often people will emerge, as Cornelius did, whom
God affirmed as a spiritual man even before he knew Jesus. While the New
Testament sets standards for ordination as an elder, the Holy Spirit often
distributes pastoral gifts even to immature believers. Where these “diamonds
in the rough” are able to bring others together, share with them and care for
them, pastors should treat them as apprentice shepherds and coach them in
pastoral duties. · Hold up to new
shepherds the possibility of becoming elders. Let them view church leadership
as something to be developed, while serving with all the love and skill that
God gives to them for their small groups. Some may eventually leave
shepherding to others, while others will become competent pastors or elders. 10. Provide regular,
patient coaching, in addition to training seminars. · Include mentoring of
group shepherds in your list of primary pastoral duties. Where a pastor is too
insecure or unskilled to mentor others, he should assign that training task
to another, perhaps a staff member or associate missionary, and show
frequent, public support of that helper’s work. · Maintain a balance
between mentoring and classroom training. Rapid cell multiplication
requires training new leaders the way Jesus and the apostles did it. Pastors
who rely mainly on big-group training classes for small group leaders will be
disappointed, for shepherding is not so much an academic subject as it is a
relational skill with a God-given desire to see others grow in faith and
obedience. This skill cannot only be taught, but it can be modelled. · Avoid over-training
with too much information. Experienced trainers have found that providing
information before workers see a need of it, will require you to train again
later when the need becomes apparent. Furthermore, learning without
implementation often leads to a haughty attitude and unwillingness to listen
later. 11. Keep group leaders
focussed on the commands of Jesus and the New Testament. · Focus primarily on
obeying New Testament directives. Western pastors who are educated
in theology, management practices, and popular psychology, tend to
demonstrate doctrinal precision, elegant social customs, and domesticated
personality traits. They often like to preach about these things and seek
them in others. However, Jesus and the New Testament put far more emphasis on
spiritual power, on obedience to the commandments of Christ, and on showing
of grace and love one’s fellow believers, neighbours and enemies. · Keep coming back to
those directives. There are enough explicit New Testament guidelines to keep every group
and its shepherd quite busy growing in faith and obedience for over a year,
without demanding that they adopt or demonstrate non-biblical cultural
ideals. 12. Form groups mainly from
existing relationships. · Keep new believers in a
loving relationship with their relatives and friends. In the Book of Acts,
historically, and as a usual pattern across cultures, new groups of believers
are formed mainly by new believers drawing relatives, associates and friends
into their group and to faith in Jesus. Pastors who will let such natural
bridges serve as paths for supernatural faith will see more growth, over
time, than will those who depend on public evangelistic meetings. · Avoid forcing new
believers to meet together with people with whom they normally would not
associate. Groups of new believers that are least likely to grow and reproduce
are those that have been forced together by a pastor or missionary for his
own convenience, or as a social statement about inter-cultural unity. There
are better ways to express Christian unity than by disallowing growth through
normal relationships, thereby requiring cultural suicide in order to become a
follower of Jesus. To find mentoring tools and sites, visit <http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com>. |