MINISIZING; SMALL IS BETTER.

Dion Robert is coming to be with the D. Min. cohort I lead for Golden Gate Seminary next year in June. He has created the Body of Christ to be deliberately limited to 12-15 persons, no more.

The fact that there are 14,583,333 of these BASIC bodies sounds impressive: the total number of the Church and Mission in the Ivory Coast numbers 175,000 believers. But he doesn't count that as significant. He understands that the ecclesia must never number more than a limited number of body parts. It all has to do with the eternal plan of God for authentic Kingdom communities.

Accountability and responsibility requires a limited size. There's a mathematical formula to realize how many communication lines exist in a group: N x N - N = CL: Number in group times number in group, minus same number, equals communication lines. Ten persons = 90 communication lines; 12 persons = 132! That is the absolute limit for an intimately shaped community.

Think of this: the most basic community is formed when a man and woman have a child: ". . . and baby makes three . . ." Families are formed with siblings and twelve seems to be about as large as most will become.

God formed Israel into groups of ten (Exodus 18:25). That was the limit for a group at the Passover Meal. Christ formed His disciples into a community of twelve. He actually was closest to three of the twelve: Peter, James, and John.

My friend Dan Ho has suggested an acronym for the cell, an assortment of hands, feet, inward parts, etc.:
B A S I C: "Brothers And Sisters In Christ. That is a wonderful term for a cell group, the basic Christ body. It captures the concept of minisizing.

GOD FORGIVES ALL SINS, BUT STUPID IS FOREVER!
(-Milton Womack)

In today's church life, we continually strive to see MAXISIZE as the signs of success. "How large is your congregation?" is the first question we ask a pastor about his church. Stupid! What is the significance of rows and rows of people who gather for one session a week, staring at the backs of heads and the smiling face of a man on the platform? There is ZIP community, no accountability, no authentic BASIC community. Only a man-made event.

Is it stupid to watch a celebrity on the platform "healing" people as spectators in the audience, mimicking a basketball stadium where all the non-athletes admire the players on the field? I think it is! This maxisized church service is a huge problem for the gospel. The "conversions" that take place require someone to "come forward" as an individual to "be saved," but there is not the slightest thought in the entire group that this person is to be attached as a B A S I C to the body of Christ.

I realize I am defying the core values of churchianity by suggesting we should abandon our typical church formats. I do know that Wesley did not grow his ministry from the "big church service": unless you received an admission ticket in the B A S I C class meeting, you were not allowed to attend the large gatherings. At the same time in history, Whitfield gathered masses for preaching services and nothing lasting resulted from it. Wesley left a powerful community in the world.

Seumean Kuon, pastor of the TOUCH Family Church, preached a sermon in June of 2008 about the way God reduced Gideon's army from 30,000 to 10,000 to 300. Scripture shows he minisized the number before the miracles related to victory over the enemy could take place. If we are going to defeat the enemy, we are going to have to decentralize these masses of sit-and-soak Christians who come to the large meetings and equip them to become body members in cell groups.

Any comments?

THE NEW TESTAMENT EQUIPPERS

The New Testament church never experienced "Hired Holy Men" who called themselves "Senior Pastors." Nor did they celebrate distinguished celebrities who lorded over the people of God, taking titles.

In this illustration, we see the centrality of Christ as the source of a group of equipping servants. These terms are not titles (nouns). They are verbs. The five fold servants are not superiors, but rather servants who mentor Body Members.

Ephesians makes it very clear: these equippers are not given by the Holy Spirit: "...and CHRIST gave..." Their tasks all relate to mentoring believers in Christ's body who are latent with spiritual capacities that must be developed. Christ the Source--the Holy Spirit the "One called alongside to help"--to install the power of Christ's gifts in the body members who use them for edification.

One of the most amazing events in recent years was when we began to examine the members in our TOUCH FAMILY cell groups. We discerned latent tendencies related to these five areas of ministry. They were then connected to the proper Five Fold equippers to be coached.

If the ecclesia is alert to how spiritual gifts are evolving, the five fold servants can then begin to draw together these different groups and mentor them. This is a very important truth that has been hidden by our mistaken definitions of the five fold as "above" the Body members rather than "beneath" them to equip them for their future ministry areas.

It is wrong to think that every cell member can become a cell leader. That is not true. It would be like saying that every body member should be an arm or a leg. We see there are five distinct areas of ministry in the Kingdom. We find our servant activity as they are developed.

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THE CURSE OF SEVERED LIMBS

Recently we had a lady visit us who shared her personal converson in great detail. She has a successful business and "supports" one of the TV preachers with her wealth.

It did not take long to learn she is a typical "cruisematic"--that is, cruising between churches but uncommitted to any of them. Her explanations of the various church groups she has attended revealed her total ignorance that she is a limb in the Body of Christ. She had no knowledge of the powerful experiences that occur living in a true ecclesia..

The Christian community suffers violence because of the heretical teaching that salvation is a "personal" experience that allows a new believer to remain endlessly detached from authentic community life. This precious woman loves her Lord! Her tramping around is because she is a victim. She has never been taught that there are no "lone rangers" in the Kingdom. She was, of couse, carefully taught she could experience the personal baptism of the Holy Spirit, but never exposed to the great truth that life in Christ is life attached to hands, feet, arms and inward parts that compose Christ's present body.

How do you feel about this? Post a response, please!