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Testimonies and Updates - Asia
Wu Liang Mu, Taiwan
We started using the GLN model by encouraging the leaders to spend Time Alone With God and to use the Book of Life. Many had their lives transformed by God once again when they heard God speaking to them. We see changes taking place in both our youth and adult cells. We also see that sharing the gospel has become a habit for the cell members. Our congregation has increased to 90 over people. Half of them have received the Spiritual Parenting training and we are ready for a greater influx of people because we have enough Spiritual Parents to take up the responsibility.
Since we adopted the GLN model, our offering towards Missions has also been increasing. It is my hope and dream that we can see a tenth of the city of Yunlin coming to know Jesus and to be able to raise up stronger disciples, not just believers – but disciples that will multiply disciples.
Indri Magdalena Gautama, Indonesia
We are so overwhelmed and blessed by the presence of your people in Indonesia who have been so willing and happy to walk alongside our ministry and have poured their lives into all of us. These 5 days have felt like just a few hours with them. We enjoyed their partnership, their friendship, and most of all, we were so impressed because we saw Pastor Naomi Dowdy in Jakarta through this team. We learned so much about mentoring from them. They are life models of what they are teaching. So we were challenged that if God could do it with them, Pastor Bryan and the team, God can do it with us too - to shake the nation, shake Indonesia for Jesus Christ.
God is doing something in our lives, in our hearts and in our minds. It is like stepping stones being set aside, being laid for us where we are just going to walk onto those stepping stones that the team has laid for us. We are committed and willing to do what God calls us to do - to do the Great Commission and we know that all this material that we have is just a tool, but it is also our preparation material to get to the place where God wants us to be. And I believe that Indonesia shall be changed because of what you are teaching us. Thank you for being faithful to God. Thank you for laying a pattern for us to go in and we will commit ourselves to God, to the Bible and to you also because we want to be a good disciple. Because you are our mentor, you are teaching us and we want to be a good disciple, so we can produce disciples in Indonesia.
V.I.D. Ranjan, India
I had attended a seminar on cell-groups in 1999 and had started the process of transiting to being a cell-based church. I did this because I was convinced that this was Biblical and relevant to us. However, I was dissatisfied with the progress made with the earlier system, so I attended the 7 Steps Conference conducted by GLN and decided to adopt their system. I found that GLN had the resource materials available in English and the local language, they were systematic in their follow-up and consultations, all of which were of great help.
The training helped me to see and understand clearly God's vision and purpose for the church and how far we were from it. Although I had heard and had been preaching about mobilization of the church to reap in the great end-time harvest of souls, it was only now that I was able to see it happen in reality.
At first I faced resistance from the members and some leaders who said that this would not work in Kerala which is a tradition-bound society. But I was able to overcome this by perseverance and spending time with key leaders. Since implementation, we have seen a break-through in the mindsets and attitudes of our members. Ministry has changed from clergy-laity to the priesthood of all believers. Evangelism has changed from handing out tracts to relationship building. We have seen a greater involvement in our members towards evangelism, serving, giving, ministry, discipleship, etc.
Since implementing carecells, the focus of my ministry as a pastor has changed. The time spent in house-visiting and counseling has reduced and the time spent in training and developing leaders has increased. Others are available to do the smaller and less important aspects of ministry while I concentrate on the larger or more important aspects which facilitates greater overall progress. I have learnt that this is what I should be doing as a pastor according to Eph.4:11-16.
The nurturing and training materials given by GLN are simple to understand and follow and have helped us greatly. The Book of Life as an evangelistic tool has helped many of our members to systematically witness Christ to their friends/relatives and see them saved and added to the church. New Beginnings as a nurturing tool has helped many of our members to nurture new converts in the carecells. We have not faced any difficulty in using them.
There have been numerous people healed, delivered, saved and added to the church through the carecells. But more important, we have seen believers become carecell leaders 1-2 years after their baptism. This is a testimony to the rapid growth, development and productivity of believers.
Now after having multiplied carecells, I am now concentrating on multiplying sections and churches. We are wanting to reach the unreached areas in our city by planting carecells and churches.
We believe that God is making us a model/beacon to our community and is increasing our influence to impact our community for Jesus! We would like to help other churches in our city and state to understand and implement the carecell strategy.
Carecells are part of God's strategy for His church to reap and conserve the great end-time harvest of souls. Even if you face difficulties, persevere in implementing the system and in transiting your church to become a cell-based church.
Pramod JB, India
Our church was birthed in 1999 with about 20-30 people mainly made up of students between the ages of 17 and 25. Today, it is about 160 strong and has 16 carecells.
What we have seen to date would not have been possible without the cell structure. There has been tremendous growth and lives have been changed and transformed in every place where cells have started. The church has since been equipped with values, a missions mindset and implementation strategies. There was a real turnaround and a breaking of many mindsets.
The cell structure has made a dramatic change not only in the church but in my personal life as well. I learned that team ministry is more important than individual effort. I learned to trust my leaders and delegate ministry to others. I learned the importance of women in ministry and the need to give them the opportunity to rise to their potential. I embraced the whole idea of cells and cell ministry as not just another program in the church but as the life of the church.
God is faithful and the work of God is never going to stop. Our desire and mission statement as a church is to plunder hell and populate heaven until we see all people come to Christ.
Daniel Foo, Singapore
One significant benefit from the consultations and conferences has been the establishment of Leadership Cells this past year. This has helped us to consolidate the leadership base in the context of nurturing and discipling our cell leaders, interns and spiritual parents.
Manoonsak Kamolmatayakul, Thailand
I have attended the Cell Church Conference several times. But the content keeps improving, and that's very good.
K. Sudhakar, India
My church has more than doubled in the last one and a half years, growing from 120 in Jan 2000 to 300 in June 2001. It all started when I attended the 7 Steps Conference conducted by Dr Naomi Dowdy. I went back from the conference and seriously applied all that I had learned. With the little knowledge I had, the cells grew.
I came back for more training, and began training the people to be spiritual parents, and everyone was winning souls. The whole church got excited. The whole atmosphere changed. My whole lifestyle has changed. Back then, when the church had 120 members, I was doing everything, and I felt very tired. Now with 300 members, I am very relaxed in mind, body and spirit. I am spending more time with my family, with my sectional leaders, and more time in the Word of God.
I was very discouraged before, doing everything I could to make the church grow spiritually and numerically. But it was like Peter casting his net, laboring all night and catching no fish. Then I got a new hope back. I am a happier - and more fruitful - pastor.
I am very grateful to God, and to the GLN consultants. God has sent them at the right time. Whatever my consultant said, I implemented - and I saw the results. I'm praying that many other pastors will get the cell church philosophy.