SIDEBAR: A 19 year-old student, (a member of a church in Oklahoma affiliated with Victory), went directly to her college president and asked for a room to hold a Bible study group. The president responded by giving her the entire second floor of that building, personally attending the group himself, and providing a buffet lunch for all participants.
Not long after she started the group, her pastor received an anonymous letter. In synopsis, that letter read: "We want to tell you about a little girl in our college we thought was a 'Jesus freak.' We're drug dealers and we used to make fun of her. We go to this college, and went to her Bible study. There, we got saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, have walked away from the drug cartel, and are now preparing for the ministry."
"We can't tell you who we are, because it has not been long enough and we might be killed if we did. But we want you to know this: your ministry has reached us."
Source: Jerry Peterson, Director of Victory's Fellowship of Ministries
ARTICLE: Billy Joe Daugherty regularly challenges his congregation by saying "God has called us to go into every man's world. Think about having a cell group in the neighborhood where you live, the place where you work or go to school."
Daugherty is the senior pastor of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a church that has focused on cell groups since 1983. During that time, Victory has grown from 29 groups to nearly 900, with one of the longest continuous "group track records" of any church in America. By July of 2000, 7,344 participated weekly in Victory's cell groups with an estimated 7,000 attending Victory's four Sunday worship services. Even Ralph Neighbour, Jr., leading statesman in the cell church movement, publicly declared Victory as the most mature group system he has seen in America to date.
Among Victory's nearly 900 cells are a growing number of 60 plus business and workplace groups, blended into Victory's 35 diverse kinds of need-meeting cells. These workplace groups meet in insurance companies, realty offices, hospitals, airlines offices, telephone companies and even in stores like WalMart. Workplace cell leaders hold meetings in the middle of company breaks, during the lunch hour, in workshops, in factories, in boardrooms . . . whenever and wherever it is most convenient. According to Lynn Popenhagen, who with her husband Jerry oversees Victory's pastoral care department, these workplace cells are the most evangelistic of Victory's varied cell groups aimed at adults.
Interested in starting a workplace cell to care for fellow believers and reach out to the lost? Consider these ten steps.
1. PRAY AND DEVELOP VISION
Jim Husong was a machinist whose shop makes components for utility trucks. He had a burden for both believers and the unchurched in his workplace. Husong started his weekly cell in his east Tulsa shop during his Thursday lunch break.
Radhika Mittapalli, a convert from Hinduism, had a cell in her home since 1997, but after she started a corporate job, that was no longer enough. She knew there had to be some way to bring ministry to the workplace and bridge that "worship-work gap." Soon after, she started a weekly luncheon in the company cafeteria she termed "Something to Chew On Lunch Fellowship," inviting co-workers to join her for devotions, prayer and food.
Pray that God would birth within you a vision and sense of urgency to start a cell at your workplace. You'll know when you've received it . . . the time, place and participants will all come together naturally.
2. PREPARE YOURSELF.
Husong and the dozens of other workplace cell leaders first completed Victory's application process and training for cell leaders. You should do the same. Complete your own church's application and training process for cell leadership. Choose approved curriculum that is relevant, appealing and fits the time available and start praying daily for specific people who might be in your group.
3. IDENTIFY YOUR "CORE"
Rally any interested people that share your vision for a workplace cell. Husong asked people in his shop if they would be interested in a weekly lunch break group. The response let Husong know God was directing him. Mittapalli asked her friend Christina Grimm - a co-worker and Victory member - to join her in weekly luncheons in the company cafeteria.
4. SECURE PERMISSION
Discuss the group idea with your boss or office manager, seeking approval to allow the group to begin. Make the time, place and length of your meeting plain to the decision maker.
Husong, like other workplace cell leaders, asked his company's vice president for permission, clearing that there were no conflicts of interest. Husong made sure that their group stayed within company parameters and met during the 30 minute lunch break.
5. DETERMINE YOUR DESIRED MEETING FLOW
Next, decide time frames for any song, prayer, testimonies, teaching, discussion and fellowship. Integrity is essential, so workplace groups must end promptly, allowing people to return to work on time.
Husong, Mittapalli and other workplace leaders at Victory discovered that limited time usually did not allow for songs, but always had three constants in each meeting: 1) at least one nugget shared from the weekly lesson Victory gives all cell leaders (taken from one of Daugherty's past sermons), followed by discussion; 2) prayer and ministry; and 3) opportunity for Christ-centered fellowship. Some groups, like Mittapalli's, also cater lunch.
6. DEVELOP A LEADERSHIP AND CARING PLAN
Husong speaks of how their workplace cell has become a "family," with care between meetings and different people rotating to share the weekly lesson. When I visited Allen and Kandi Thurman's workplace cell in a local cafeteria, it was clear that prayer, care and ministry were prominent themes.
Mittapalli and Grimm sent invitations, weekly e-mail devotionals, birthday calls and encouraging notes to members. Mittapalli made Grimm her intern from the start, and later turned the cell over to her. They even termed their growing leadership nucleus a "steering committee," each with designated responsibilities.
7. PROMOTE YOUR GROUP AND BEGIN!
Share the time and location with as many people as possible. Workplace leaders agree that "word of mouth" is the best way to promote any cell. Also make use of e-mail lists, voice mail, flyers, e-vites and e-groups to invite and remind people of upcoming meetings. Make sure participants receive permission from their supervisors to attend meetings.
Above all, expect God's Holy Spirit to use your workplace cell in unexpected ways. Samantha Franklin started her workplace group in a tense government department. She was surprised when 15 people attended their first meeting, and one lady accepted Jesus in her office afterward. Expect God to move in your group as well!
8. DEVELOP YOUR MINISTRY "PLATFORM"
A workplace cell creates a "platform" for a wide variety of ministry. Ministry happens both during meetings as members minister to one another, and between meetings when members care for each other and seekers come for prayer and ministry.
A workplace cell in a Boeing plant so positively touched the workers they asked that group leader to become a chaplain. Upon their request, he started an afternoon training session for employees who were having marriage problems.
Husong's workplace group impacts more than those who come to their weekly meetings; many who do not attend that cell have come to Husong and others to pray for specific needs and concerns. Husong states that "people are drawn to you because of who are, if you practice living out your faith in your workplace."
Your new workplace cell will give birth to numerous ministry avenues. Remain sharp, and look for needs. If the focus of your workplace group could be changed to fit the need, be flexible. Or, raise up a leader quickly and launch a second group to meet the need.
9. PRAY AND PERSIST PAST PROBLEMS
Problems will arise. At one point Mittapalli and Grimm stopped their fledgling workplace cell through the summer months due to low attendance. The remaining four members met weekly with Grimm in her home to pray for downtown Tulsa businesses and the future of their cell.
In September, many co-workers asked Grimm if the meetings would begin again. Not long after, Grimm started meetings similar to "monthly crusades" in the 15th floor auditorium of a business tower in central downtown Tulsa.
When you experience problems, don't give up. Rally the faithful and seek God's face. He will help you make changes that will bring success, and bring in the supportive people you need.
10. GOD USES ORDINARY PEOPLE TO DO EXTRAORDINARY EXPLOITS
Husong's weekly workplace cell has reached people in their company ranging from salesmen to secretaries. His group has helped two lost people become born again, and several nominal Christians have become fervent in their faith. They have also seen one of their members become an elder in a local church, and two members go on church staffs.
Grimm now leads a weekly leadership group using Victory's lesson material. They invite special speakers to their monthly meetings, with an average of 30 business professionals in attendance, and more than 120 addresses on their e-mail distribution list. Mittapalli, the group's original leader, is now manager of investor relations of a multi-million dollar communications company, and has become Victory's "young adults cell coordinator." She currently leads a G12 group that has birthed five other groups, including two workplace cells.
YOU CAN DO THIS. IT'S NOT HARD!
Has this article sparked something within you about starting a cell at your business or workplace? Perhaps this is the gentle nudge of God's Holy Spirit.
God uses ordinary people just like you to do extraordinary things! Follow these ten steps as you follow God, trusting Him to lead you to "go into every man's world" at your workplace!
-- Randall Neighbour President, TOUCH Outreach Ministries, Inc.
14925 Memorial Dr., Suite 101 Houston, TX 77079 USA Ph. 281-497-7901 Fx. 281-497-0904 http://www.touchusa.org
Cell Group JournalVolume10, Number 1Winter 2001;