“Palmera” is the name of a three star Egyptian owned and operated beachside hotel that is situated two hours drive from Cairo on the Western side of the Red Sea, near the Suez Canal. It’s where Beryl (my wife) and I would endeavour to escape to each month of our eight years in Egypt for blue sky, fresh air and respite from the heavy pollution, stress and chaos of Cairo. read on
I’m a novice ‘blogger’ and I’ve been encouraged (more like arm-twisted 
) into blogging as a way of sharing my thoughts, ramblings, experiences, meditations, etc. concerning my passion: Inspiring and equipping God’s people to become vibrant facilitators of the Holy Spirit in the work of building their church and expanding of the Kingdom of God through multiplying networks of small groups (cells). read on
I want to tell you about the small groups ministry at Monterey Church, USA.
We just finished the second round of small group pastors training with a year-end goal of 100 pastors! The woman who was my apprentice is now the director of small group ministry in our church, and she is just miles ahead of me.
It’s wonderful to see how people’s views of being a Christian are being transformed from that of a spectator to that of a participant. People are just stepping out of their comfort zones. The Lord is working miracles in creating a community out of nothing.
The Sunday service continues to grow with young people, mostly and often with commitments to following Christ. We had over 300 last weekend and we’ve started a Sunday evening service.
Recently at a post training small group get together, Bryan, our senior pastor, recounted the church’s journey from a hotel room to a large theatre. He said that he sensed that God was going to maximise the size but from that there would be multiplications. He then said that a former member who was transferred to Maryland has started a cell and Monterey Church would support that plant.
It’s really amazing to see here what I saw in Maadi, Cairo. From simple beginnings, determined faith, and the Lord’s mighty power – shows a revolution that beats like a heart and brings life to those involved.
Rosemary Kauffman
My experience with Small groups began in 2002, when I became a born-again Christian in Cairo. Encouraged to put my newly-found faith into action, I was quickly placed within one of Maadi Community Church’s Small groups. My group pastor invited me to participate in the group by first praying aloud with others, then sharing a devotion, gradually building up my confidence to the point where I would lead worship or discussion.
Within a year, I was encouraged to train as a small group pastor. On completing the training, I left my group to start a new one, but still received invaluable coaching and support from my previous cell pastor. And so it continued, until I began serving with Bill Joukhadar, training others to become Small group pastors. I was later employed by the church to assist Bill in the running of the Small group ministry.
My experience assisting Bill gave me the opportunity not only to train others, but to coach group pastors, coordinate training sessions and further refine the Small Group Development training manual, based on the feedback from trainees. With each challenge came the reward of seeing God in action and growing in faith.
Now that I have returned to settle in the UK, I would like to welcome any UK church to contact me for further information, clarification or advice on introducing small groups to their community. I would be delighted to assist you in any way possible.
Emma Oladipo
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a long established traditional ministry-based church organisation with ministry activities dominated by the clergy. Small groups at the congregation of St Marc in Helsinki are relatively new. They are a powerful and exciting testimony of laymen on fire for Christ and committed to take the Great Commission seriously
The vision for a small groups based church started to move ahead in early 2005 through the blessings of our former Head of Congregation. The minister of our congregation had been waiting for the Holy Spirit to move at the grass-roots level of the church. At an early stage of implementation he named the small groups in our church “mobile spiritual field clinics”.
Pastor Bill Joukhadar came and explained the small group development plan to us – which helped us to see the ultimate model to inspire the small group work in Helsinki. The Small Groups Development manual and training resources were subsuequently translated into Swedish.
This exciting work of God has already started to spread to other Swedish speaking congregations in the Helsinki area, with priests from a number of churches showing keen interest in the adoption of small groups in their churches.
In 2006, a Christian summer camp, with participants from all over Finland, enabled the small groups model to be further known and applied nationwide. The following feedback has been received from people who have experienced small group pastors training:
Small groups are alive and growing in Finland! They serve the will of God and rely completely upon His power.
Monica Cleve, Helsinki, Finland
Recent Comments