Created and commanded to reproduce!

Posted by Bill on December 24, 2011

“God blessed them and told them, Multiply and fill the earth …. Genesis 1:28.

… go and make disciples of all the nations …” Matthew 28:19.

God created mankind with reproductive capabilities, both in the physical and spiritual realm. When it comes to physical reproduction, it seems that mankind does not need a great deal of prompting to get on with the job of “filling the earth”. However, when it comes to spiritual reproduction, many believers need a cattle prod to get them thinking about re-producing themselves … to make disciple-makers.

Multiplication is not a term that sits comfortably in the minds of many Christians today. Some believers expend more time and energy in arguing and opposing any move to multiply, preferring to keep things the way they are. Such people are obstructing the work and power of the Holy Spirit and should move aside to allow the Spirit of God to do that which is natural and automatic in the life of a healthy spiritual Body (the Church); similar to that which is natural and automatic with the biological cells of a healthy physical body.

Why do some people oppose multiplication? There are a number of reasons. For some, “multiplication” means mutilation, fragmentation, breaking up, division or splitting – all are negative terms. When challenged to multiply, some protest … We don’t want to break up; we’ve grown close to each other; we want to stay together, and go deeper; multiplication is risky; it’s easier and safer to leave things just as they are. Does this sound familiar to you?

I credit satan as being the culprit who prompts such thoughts in the minds of believers in churches worldwide. Whilst satan is quite happy to sit back and not interfere with mankind “filling the earth” with sin-natured physical beings he’s not happy to sit idle as believers strive to populate the Kingdom of God with regenerated souls. Satan employs a vast array of diabolical tricks to discourage believers from engaging in efforts that result in multiplication. Friends, spiritual multiplication is about expanding the Kingdom of God with your unsaved friends … not mutilating, fragmenting, dividing or splitting it up!

During my term on staff at Maadi Community Church, I was the banner-bearer for multiplication through spiritual reproduction. I can still remember, back in 2006, in a community just 10 minutes drive away from our church, we dedicated the first of five of our cell-groups church plants. This exciting event resulted from multiplication efforts from those in our cell groups. Lyn Taleon was the Zone Director of this work. Though short in stature, Lyn did not fear multiplication. In fact, she dreamt about it, prayed and worked faithfully, diligently and sacrificially to see this happen. Together with her coaches, this little Pilipino laboured carefully in planting the Good Seed, and reaped a mighty harvest for their efforts. This new church plant was made up of 50 cell groups (447 members)!

Friends, satan is the minister of doom. Although he cannot kill a spiritual cell of the Body of Christ, he can interfere with its growth; limit its development and prevent it from multiplying. Satan will not warn believers that their small group will eventually die, if it does not multiply (at the right time, and in the right way).

I am glad there are believers who are faithful to the Lord’s command to reproduce.

Vision of Vision – a preview of 2012

Posted by Nick on December 3, 2011

Dear partners and friends,

Our wonder-filled “vision of visions” blossomed beautifully in 2011, and revealed new and exciting opportunities for us in Poland, Lithuania, and other places. I can understand the thrill the apostle Paul must have experienced as he returned to familiar places in Asia Minor to strengthen the work the Lord accomplished through him and Barnabus, and Titus, and other faithful servants (Acts, Chapters 13 -20).

With the encouraging outcomes of 2011 behind us, we eagerly look ahead to the opportunities that abound for CCI in 2012. Here’s a taste of the things we are believing the Lord wants to do through us next year:

Continue to coach and mentor small groups champions (Iza, Andrew, Maciej, and Vaclovas) in Warsaw, Gdynia, and Lithuania
Translate our new “Relational Evangelism” book into the Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Growing Up Into His Likeness” book (foundation-level discipleship for new and old believers) in Polish and Lithuanian languages (to be free downloads on the website)
Translate our “Small Groups Development” manual into Greek, German, Sweedish, and Spanish languages (pushing steadily towards our goal of 40 translations)
Continuing to support Dave and Jess Quak in their “Living Temple” small groups church plant on the Gold Coast in Australia
Continuing to support Gary and Aline Douglas in their small groups consultancy work at Llanelli, Wales
Continuing to support Elijah Samuel in his small groups training and development work in Nigeria, and the rest of Africa
Support Wale and Emma Oladipo in their exciting vision to plant a small groups based church in England (look out for more news soon)
A return visit to Poland and Lithuania next April-May with a focus on developing small group skills in “evangelism” and “discipleship”
Ministry with an “interested to know more about small groups” church in Germany! – initial discussions are just starting!
Possible visit to Wale and Emma in England, Gary and Aline in Wales and Monica in Finland as part of our visit to Poland, Lithuania and perhaps Germany.

Nick Truscott, our Senior Associate Director, continues to do a cracker job from Abu Dhabi in the UAE in providing CCI with the finest communications support – without Nick, his technical expertise and firm friendship, CCI would only be a figment of my imagination.

Beryl and I continue to commit all that we are and have to building a universally accessible small groups, evangelism, and discipleship resource facility – that offers its resources in many languages to God’s global harvest workers at no charge.

Lastly, Beryl and I say to you … we could not have travelled this far without your love, encouragement, and kind support – “Thank You”. Do you have it in you to stay with us for one more year? I believe I have enough energy in me to reach out and seize the opportunities the Lord will grant us in 2012.

Wishing you and your family a blessing-filled Christmas and New Year.

Bill & Beryl

Iza says “It works!”

Posted by Bill on November 19, 2011

What can I add to this fantastic testimony from Iza at Christian Fellowship North in Warsaw – especially so soon after our visit…

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Bill, I’m excited! So much is happening!

Marcin and I each chose three current small group leaders to serve as coaches. I chose Pavlina, Justyna, and Gosia; and Marcin (and Agata) chose Leszek, Dajilidzionki, and Tomek.

I met with each of my prospective coaches, separately of course. I talked with them about how to best develop the small group pastors under their leadership and how to best nurture their groups. We discussed your summary on “Where many leaders go wrong”, devoting more time on the following points that highlight the present weakness of each group:

Choose an apprentice, and form a leadership core of four
Choose a good outreach coordinator (blessing list, etc)
Take each group through the Small Groups Development process (SGD training manual)
Practice pair-partnerships (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
Plan, pray, and work hard for multiplication

During our discussion we talked about their groups – people who can be in the leadership core (who can be apprentices). It turned out that we were able to identify quite a number of new people who can be leaders! So, I will plan to start training next January, or February.

Marcin, Agata and I met with Pavlina, Tomek and Marta last Saturday. We talked about the growth of our small groups, and that Pavlina had decided to help us (Pavlina would be their coach). So, they can now meet together, call each other and pray for each other with Pavlina, not me or Martin and Agata. And later we also talked about the above points. Actually, Pavlina lead this part of meeting. And Bill, I was so surprised how well it worked! Now, I see, how important it is to first establish coaches. Pavlina and I are “one” in mind, body and purpose! We are becoming a strong leadership team with a plan to help and care for all small group leaders!

So, I’m so excited! It works!

Iza

: Beryl and Iza

: Marcin, Iza and Bill

: Agata, with Emilka and David

Thank you Iza – and THANK YOU LORD for what you are doing in and through the lives of Iza and her colleagues and Christian Fellowship North in Warsaw.

More from Warsaw

Posted by Bill on October 22, 2011

A little while ago I posted about the opportunities that the Lord has been providing for us in Poland and one of those was to make a short video about Small Groups.

Christian Fellowship North and South have a fantastic media ministry and this video has ended up on their media website, facebook, etc. So as I don’t do Facebook personally (although we do have a CCI page, so go visit it and “LIKE” us if you haven’t already) and some of you may not do it either, I am sharing both versions with you here.

This is the long version (wait for the end):