HOW WE STARTED
Senior Pastor H.L. Bester modelled discipleship.The Strategic year - August 1994 - 88 membersWe received training for one year every Monday evening. Senior Pastor shared his heart / vision without realizing that he introduced the cell life to us. He role modelled relationships. We learned that it is impossible to trust God if you can not trust a man. Relationships and unity became stronger.
THE INTERVENTION
One night the Holy Spirit intervened in the group. God raised up a spiritual father. He must reproduce spiritual sons, not hirelings. 90% of the people that made that commitment are still part of the team today
THE "SET MAN" (SENIOR PASTOR) BUILDS A TEAM.
Our Church was on the edge to transition from "BUILDING A CHURCH to BUILDING THE KINGDOM". God has given the vision to our Senior Pastor. At that time there were however several major problems 1. Our Senior Pastor was the only one who had the vision
There was no vision posed team committed to the Senior Pastor.
The result: the vision could not come into action.
We were primarily an Afrikaans community who did not accommodate all people.
Our Senior Pastor knew that he needed a committed team that would submit to him and the God given vision. And so he proceeded in doing the following.
He chose men and woman
He chose 12 men and 2 women. 80% of us were young and therefore not well equipped or capable. The basic qualities that we had were faithfulness, submissive, available and teachable (FAST). That was the basic criteria by which we were chosen. The one year investment The senior Pastor challenged and got committed from the potential team to abide with weekly meeting/model cell for one year. In the first year the foundation was laid in our lives. I might just add over the years the potential team has matured and multiplied but our Senior Pastor never stopped investing in us. In fact the team now invests in teams and the principle is in the process of snowballing.
The vision was shared
Without vision people perish. We've been taught important principles. One can never be entrusted with a God given vision until you follow the vision of a spiritual leader. Rather be second or third in something great than the head of something dead. The vision is Godly and therefore needs to be followed. We were challenged to submit to and receive this vision.
God gives vision to a man
The church must be led by one man not a board or a committee. You can not submit to the vision without submitting to the man. When God gives vision to a man, He places His spirit upon that man to fulfil he vision. The team must submit to the vision and the man, only then God can take of the spirit that he placed upon man and place it upon the team. The team can then work towards fulfilling the vision because they have the spirit that rest upon the leader, ex. Moses and the elders. The vision is God given and therefore controls us.
Everybody submit to the vision
The vision is greater than all of us and must be obeyed no matter the cost. We love and respect the Senior man, but we worship God. The team are sold out today, because we love God. This came about though by the investment of the Senior man.
The principles of cell life were communicated
We were taught that growth is never a goal, but a by-product of doing something right. The heartbeat of a cell is God cares for the individual. If we can be trusted with the individual we can be trusted with the masses.
Our values were challenged and changed
We learned that God has entrusted our lives into the hands of the Senior Pastor to change us. Our values were and still are changed by him. He is the one making us disciples. We were taught many principles ex.
- God loves people
- discovering my own and other people's true potential.
- God is more interested in your character than in your gift.
- God rewards faithfulness, not performance.
- Live to make someone else successful
- empty yourself.
- Loyalty to the Senior man and ultimately to God. I want to see God's vision fulfilled.
Do the work of an evangelist - reaching our city, nation, and world.
Our Senior Pastor practiced what he preached
He never expected us to believe in or to care for someone unless he has proven to us he cares for us and he believes in us. That gave the team tremendous security, strength and an example in doing it.
Strategic Year continues
It is of utmost importance that there must be unity and trust. Only when unity and loyalty was established among us, did Senior Pastor start sharing the vision in more detail. People are important not the programs.
Loyalty of the team members
The loyalty of the team towards the vision and the Senior man, will secure the future of the church and the fulfilment of the vision. The following characteristics must be present in a loyal team (please understand that all of us were very young, and had to learn this very vital principle. The church ever since day 1 has always been made up of 80% young people, 30 years and younger) Loyalty means to change your plans for the Senior man's plans.
The team must constantly change their agenda and program to accommodate that of the Senior man
If this is not done and understood by every team member the end result will be a team member being disloyal. There can only be 1 vision. 2 visions cause division.
A loyal team is a transparent team
There can be no hidden agendas in the team. If a team member can not trust the leader with his personal life, disloyalty soon stands in the doorstep. This will be fatal. As a team leader you entrust a team member with people. The member becomes an extension of the leader's ministry. If the team member is not transparent that can cause disloyalty. The team member and the people will be hurt.
The team stands with the leader, not the people
A loyal team stands with the leader even if they don't understand him. The leader sees the "big picture" and by standing with him, the team will soon, by measure, see it as well. This does not mean that the team member is not allowed to differ from the set man. In fact a true leader appreciates this. What is important to the member is the attitude in which he disagrees. Loyalty is tested in that the member in spite of his difference still accept the decision of the set man as final and submit to it.
Loyalty to the vision and the set man tags the team with tremendous responsibility and accountability
If I say I am loyal to the set man, I will do what he tells me to do in a responsible way, with accountability. If I am loyal to the vision I will do what the vision expects with accountability.
Loyalty is the very substance of trust. Trust develops unity and where that is, things happen
Where a team is loyal to the set man and the vision, God will command His blessing.
In closing
Many people always ask: "But what happens if the Senior man makes a mistake?" Well, what if the person asking the question makes a mistake. True loyalty outranks the mistakes we make. In fact, loyalty is tested when things aren't going so well.
We were primarily an Afrikaans speaking community
The vision is for the city, not only a chosen few. In order for us to fulfil this vision, we had to reach everyone. Senior Pastor would start preaching on a Sunday with an associate pastor translating every word in English (Senior Pastor himself is a true Afrikaans man, who worked for a big Afrikaans company all his life and was therefore not to comfortable with English). He made the commitment to God however and could not turn around now.This went on for 8 months. Word got round that there is a church who accommodates everyone, and people (all kinds) started coming.
Today we are a multi rational, cultural and generational church. A wonderful sinergy exists between young, old, coloured, black, white, Indian, Portugese, Italian, Greek, Zambia, Zimbabwe, just to mention a few.
God has truly accomplished something great in our Local church regarding the above statement.
The poor become rich, the rich become dependant on God. The unschooled is schooled. The sick is healed. The youth changes the world, while the adults give them the guidance.
We are planting cells every where and amongst everyone - children (7-12 with adult leaders), youth (13-19 with adult leaders), young adults, adults, senior citizens, couples and singles; In prisons and hospitals; In Germiston, Alberton and surroundings, Heidelberg, Secunda and Pretoria. We have ongoing community projects including feeding the children in our city. We give financial support to churches in Germiston, Zimbabwe and Malawi and support a big Missions network in the rest of Africa. We are connected to churches in Singapore, Ivory Coast and the USA to whose success we are totally committed.
We love the people of our city, nation and world. In the cell the people are taken care off, with no strings attached.
We reproduce the character of Christ in the people who we are ministering to and seek to develop and see them reach their full potential in God.