Hercules Panayiotides

The Lord calls his church in community to love God and others, to share the good news in word and in deed and to equip people to do these. We at the Greek Evangelical church in Nicosia, with the strategic help and support of Pastor Bill Joukhadar at Maadi Community Church, have found that by structuring the church into a small group based body we have a structure which greatly facilitates this calling. This is not just something that makes theoretical sense. Implementing the small groups church plan in the Greek Evangelical Church in Nicosia resulted in a number of very encouraging results:

People from the fringe of the church have been led into the mainstream, from being visitors/spectators they have become active players. A testimony from a busy woman: “Both the cell group and the training I have received have really helped me in my spiritual life to move ahead.”
Reticent and hesitant church members have been allowed to see that they are able to be active and to serve. It has moved people from the sidelines to see that they have the ability to give and to do things that otherwise they thought was not possible for them; and they have found fulfilment! “Now we have the means and training. We have been motivated by this training and really felt as a family, one body with one purpose.”
Those who want to use their gifts to serve have a ready structure to serve within. This at the same time relieves the leadership from the stress of having to be ready to consider how to provide avenues for service for members.
Unbelievers are being exposed to the church in a place that is non-threatening to which a believer can easily invite an unbeliever and to which that person can without much fear attend.

As a pastor, I find that the small groups church plan provides an excellent framework for the mission of the church. It calls for improved leadership which poses challenges but at the same time because it provides an organized and coherent structure for us to move ahead and keep moving ahead, because it covers the important things that we need to be doing as churches and keeps us pointed in the right direction, it is well worth pursuing and I unreservedly and wholeheartedly recommend it.