Vision and Strategy for
Church Growth
Rev Lawrence Khong has a degree in business administration from the University of Singapore and a master’s degree in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He led his Baptist church in Singapore from 350 to a weekly attendance now over 8,000, with a strong emphasis on expository preaching and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This article is reproduced with permission from Chapter 14 of The Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger.
On August 17, 1986, I stood on the platform in a rented auditorium in
Singapore to preach in the first worship service of a brand new
congregation. As I approached the
pulpit, the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to my heart: “Son, today the new baby is
born!” Then the words of Haggai 2:9 flooded into my mind: “The glory of this
present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, ... And in
this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (NIV).
I was too emotionally worn out to be excited about the “greater
glory.” I simply took comfort in the
fact that in this new church there will be peace. I had just emerged from more than a year of leadership struggle
in my former church. I had grown up in
this church, a Bible-believing congregation that had been growing
consistently. This had been my
spiritual home throughout my teenage years.
The leadership of the church had clearly and lovingly affirmed my
calling into the ministry. They sent me
to pursue my theological training in the United States. I returned to be the pastor of the
church. Within five years, it grew from
350 to 1,600 under my pastoral leadership.
During the fifth year of my pastorate, I had an unexpected encounter
with the Holy Spirit that opened my heart to the reality of God’s power. In that encounter, I began speaking in a new
tongue. It was something I had always
told my congregation would not and should not ever happen in this day and
age. I clearly taught them that this
particular gift, together with other power gifts of the Holy Spirit, had ceased
at the end of the apostolic age. I
taught them so well, in fact, that the leadership of the church rejected the
validity of my experience and its theological implications immediately. I realized they were doing the very thing I
would have done if I were in their shoes.
I was confused. My experience
completely devastated my neat and tidy theology. I could not at that point give a clear biblical understanding
about what happened. On the other hand,
I could not deny the reality of that experience without compromising the witness
of the Holy Spirit in my heart.
Meanwhile, my ministry began failing apart. Before long, theological differences within the leadership
degenerated to attacks on my personal integrity. After many months of painful struggles, I was finally asked to
relinquish my role as the senior pastor of the church.
In the midst of this agonizing process, the Lord gave me a clear word
from Scripture: “A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour
has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer
remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world”
(John 16:21).
The lord told me He was bringing forth a “new baby” in my life that
would launch me into a new ministry.
The painful struggles I was going through were the labour pains needed
to bring forth this new birth.
When the Lord said, “Son, today the new baby is born!” on August 17,
1986, Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) began. It brought unspeakable joy to my spirit. Since then, the promise of God has been
true. The glory of this ministry has
far exceeded what I would ask or think.
Indeed, in the last 10 years of our church, there has been peace.
As I am writing this (1998), the baby has grown considerably. The attendance in our weekly worship
services has reached close to 8,000. In
the past 10 years, we have baptized more than 6,400 new believers. During the same period, some 16,000 persons
have made professions of faith for the first time. Most significantly, in my mind, almost every person who worships
with us is also part of a cell group ministry during the week. In these small groups, we train every member
to be a minister of the gospel, calling forth a higher-than-average level of
commitment.
As I reflect upon the grace of the lord in Faith Community Baptist
Church during the last 10 years, the Lord has impressed me with four major
factors that have contributed to the phenomenal growth in this local
congregation. These four factors
include
(1) a clear vision and strategy for growth;
(2) a cell church structure;
(3) a reliance on the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit; and
(4) one strong and anointed leader.
During the first 12 months of FCBC, I had the leaders of the church
join me in seeking the Lord for a clear vision and strategy for growth. We were determined not to be another church
that religiously maintained traditional programs. With all our hearts, we sought the Lord for a blueprint that
would enable us to take our city for God.
The Lord showed us that to do this, we must move in unity, we must share
a common vision and we must agree on the appropriate strategies to fulfil the
vision. As early as 1987, we
developed a three-part vision that has
guided our programs ever since. This
three-part vision has seen refinements
through the years. Today, it stands as
follows:
By God’s grace, we will, by the year 2000
(1) establish integrated ministries of
outreach, discipleship and service that encompass the whole of
Singapore;
(2) be a model cell group
church that provides quality pastoral training and equipping resources for transitioning cell group churches in
Singapore and around the world; and
(3) establish 50 cell group churches around the world by sending out
teams to reach hidden or responsive people groups.
To achieve this vision, we have adopted the following strategies:
1. Develop an exciting and
meaningful celebration every Sunday through music and the pulpit ministry;
2. Minimize committee meetings
by decentralization of operations to full-time staff;
3. Commit to active staff
recruitment to establish a multiple-staff ministry.,
4. Establish a discipleship
network for evangelism, prayer and Bible study;
5. Provide lay leadership
training for all leaders of the church;
6. Develop and establish
specialized ministries of outreach;
7. Train, equip, send and fully
support missionaries from the church to the mission field; 8.
Build a “Touch Centre” consisting of an auditorium seating some 3,000,
including other ministry facilities for both the church and the community;
9. Develop within every member
a deep commitment to regular, disciplined and intense warfare prayer for
spiritual revival in Singapore and around the world;
10. Strengthen the family so as
to provide a solid base for reaching the unsaved with the love of Christ.
From the beginning, we were filled with a sense of excitement that God
was going to fulfill these visions among us.
In FCBC, every one of us is given a corporate challenge to fulfill the
vision the Lord has given us. We
believe that “everybody’s job” becomes “nobody’s job.” Members of FCBC believe that if no one else
will do it, we will assume the responsibility of winning our nation to the
Lord. Before long, most of us would
begin to realize that we could no longer possess this vision. Rather, this vision has now totally possessed
us with a consuming zeal from the Lord!
In the last five years, FCBC has organized an annual “International
Conference on Cell Group Church.”
Thousands from around the world have come to learn the principles and
operations of a cell group church. Every
year, I begin the conference by proclaiming a statement that has become a major
landmark of my teaching about the cell church. My statement is:
There is a heaven and earth difference; an east and west difference
between a CHURCH WITH CELLS and a CELL GROUP CHURCH.
Just about every church in the world has some kind of small
groups. Some of these groups are Bible
study groups, fellowship groups, counselling/therapy groups, prayer groups and
many others. However, these are
churches with cells and not cell churches.
The major difference between the former and the latter is a structural
one. Hence there is a fundamental, not
a superficial, difference between them.
In a church with cells, the cell ministry is only a department within
the total ministry of the church.
Members of the church have many options. They can choose to serve in the missions department or the prayer
department or the Christian education department or the fellowship
department. They can choose between the
Sunday School or the adult fellowship.
The cell ministry is just another one of the options.
This is not so in a cell group church.
In a cell group church, the cell is the church. No menu of options is open to every member
except that they be in a cell group.
Every department of the church is designed to serve the cell
ministry. Departments do not have any
constituency of their own. All are
designed to support the ministry of the cells.
In FCBC, every believer is assimilated into cell groups, similar to
military squads. Each cell is trained
to edify one another and to evangelize so that it will multiply within a year
to a maximum size of 12 to 15 people.
These cell groups are not independent “house churches,” but basic
Christian communities linked together to penetrate every area of our
community.
Approximately three to four cell groups cluster to form a sub-zone, and
a volunteer zone supervisor pastors the five cells and its cell leaders. Five sub-zones cluster to create a zone of
about 250 people pastored by a full-time zone pastor. Five or more zones cluster to form a district, and a seasoned
district pastor shepherds as many as 1,500 people.
From the start, we created zones that were geographical (north, east,
west) and generational (children, youth, military). Later, we added our music zone for those participating in our
choirs, bands, orchestras, drama and dance.
Even these music cells are constantly winning people to Jesus
Christ. Every year, more than 2,500
make first-time decisions for the Lord in the cells.
In the early years, we worked hard to create the foundations for our
ministry. Pastors who had no previous
experience with cell church structures were trained and cell leaders were
equipped. Nonexistent equipping
materials had to be written. Soon we
had a nickname: “FCBC-Fast Changing Baptist Church”! Every experimental step helped us learn how to equip and
evangelize in the new paradigm. We were
determined to discard anything that did not help us achieve our goals, so we
revised our strategy again and again as we gained experience. Indeed, we are still doing so!
Like other cell churches, our life involves three levels: the cells,
the congregations (a cluster of five zones) and the celebration on Sunday. We quickly had to go to two and then three
celebrations of 1,000 people to accommodate the growth in the cell groups. We presently have one evening service on
Saturday and four services on Sunday of two hours duration each. A completely different congregation of
people worships in the Saturday evening service. We have studiously avoided advertising “seeker-sensitive
services,” choosing instead to grow through the ministries of our members in
the cells.
Our cells are seeker-sensitive, but our celebration is not. For us, the celebration is an assembling of
the Body of Christ rather than a means of attracting the unconverted. Nevertheless, many profess faith in Jesus
Christ as a result of the intense anointing that comes through worship, as well
as my pulpit ministry that focuses on down-to-earth life issues.
What we call “The Year of Equipping” has become an important part of
our cell group life. Each incoming member
is visited by the cell leader, who assigns a cell member to be a sponsor for
the new person. A “Journey Guide” is
used to acquaint the cell leader and sponsor with the spiritual condition of
the person. Guided by private weekly
sessions with the sponsor, this person will complete a journey through the
“Arrival Kit” and then be trained to share Christ with both responsive and
unresponsive unbelievers.
Another major part of The Year of Equipping consists of three cycles of
training for evangelism and harvest meeting in the cells throughout the
year. One such cycle begins in January,
where new members of the cell are sent for a weekend of evangelism
training. This is followed by further
practices during the cell meetings, leading up to the Good Friday weekend.
In these months, every member of the cell is asked to pray for unsaved
people whom they would invite to a special Good Friday evangelistic cell
meeting. On that one Good Friday
evening, we will have as many as 4,000 unsaved people in all our cell groups
spread throughout the city. More than
10 percent of them will give their lives to the Lord for the first time. In that meeting, every member of the cell
shares the gospel with unsaved friends.
We do this three times a year.
In this way, equipping for evangelism is an ongoing lifestyle of every
cell. It is my intention that every
cell becomes a fit fighting unit in the army of the Lord!
Because of our strong desire to penetrate the society around us, we
have formed the Touch Community Services.
This is the neutral arm of our church designed to relate to the
community. Through this separate
corporation, we conduct childcare, legal aid services, after-school clubs,
marriage counselling, a workshop to train the handicapped and many other social
ministry areas. This has earned the
respect of unbelievers around us and has provided openings for the gospel we
would not otherwise experience. It has
established good will for us among the many racial groups that live together in
harmony in our nation.
Our community services have found so much favour with government
authorities that much of our service ministry is actually funded by the
government. As of now, the juvenile
courts make it mandatory for their offenders to seek counselling from our youth
counselling services. The registry of
marriage has invited us to conduct premarital counselling for all who are
getting married in Singapore! This is
our “root system” into the unconverted world.
The structure of the cell church is nothing but a conduit for the power
of the Holy Spirit. Unless the living
water flows, the cells are lifeless. A
major spiritual breakthrough came for us in those early years as we began to
recognize the place of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our midst. As our cell groups were confronted by the
need for spiritual power in caring for people, we saw a gracious outpouring of
His presence in our midst.
I shall never forget a certain Sunday when the Lord visited us
powerfully. We were then conducting
four worship services in a rented auditorium that seated about 800. On that particular Sunday, I preached a
message about repentance. Many came
forward to repent of their sins. As I prayed
for them from behind the pulpit, the Holy Spirit came into our midst. Most of them fell under the power of the
Spirit. This was something we had never
experienced in our church. It surprised
everyone in the auditorium, especially the people who found themselves lying on
the church floor for the first time in their lives, completely unable to
move.
The presence of the Lord was so overwhelming that by the beginning of
the third service, members who were just walking into the auditorium for worship
fell under the power of the Spirit, having no idea what had been happening in
the preceding services!
This visitation of the Holy Spirit brought about a six-month period of
deep repentance among the members of the church. The anointing of the Spirit filled every cell meeting. The sick were being healed. The demonized were set free. The church grew rapidly as our cell groups
learned to minister in the power of the Spirit.
At the risk of misunderstanding me as being arrogant, I have always
told audiences around the world that one of the main factors that has
contributed to the growth of FCBC is the gracious gift of leadership the Lord
has entrusted to me. FCBC has grown rapidly
because of my strong and anointed leadership.
In the early years of the church, the leadership team carefully studied
a chapter written by Oswald J. Smith in his book Building a Better World. He began his chapter with these words: “Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader
and commander to the people” (Isa. 55:4).
God’s plan is that His flock should be led by a Shepherd, not run by a
Board. Committees are to advise, never
to dictate. The Holy Spirit appoints
men. To Bishops and Elders is given the
care of the churches, never to Committees.
They are to be the Overseers, the Shepherds. Each one has his own flock.
Because men have failed to recognize this, there has been trouble. When God’s plan is followed, all is well.
The cell group church is vision driven. It needs a strong leader to rally the people toward a God-given
vision. It is also structured like the
military. It calls for a strong
commander to instil a sense of strict spiritual discipline needed to complete
the task. At the inception of the
church, my core leaders asked,
“Pastor, what sort of leader will you be?”
My answer was unequivocal, “I believe I will be a strong leader, one
who believes what the Lord wants me to do and who pursues it with all my
heart.”
Traditionally, the church has been suspicious of strong leadership,
especially when it is centred in one person.
As a result, many man-made systems of checks and counterchecks have been
built into traditional church polity to ensure that there can be no one-man
rule. Although I agree that there is a
need for mutual accountability, these checks have more often become major
roadblocks for God’s appointed leaders to lead His people into victorious ministry. Many lay leaders have expressed great fear
of so-called “dictatorship” behind the
pulpit. After 20 years of ministry,
however, I must say that I have seen more “dictators” sitting in the pews than
those standing behind pulpits.
One day I was praying about this issue of leadership and the Lord
impressed upon me to write down these words about leadership:
Leadership is rallying people to pursue a vision. A leader successfully instils in those he is
leading a deep desire to fulfil that vision.
He gains the trust of his people by virtue of his character, his
integrity, his resourcefulness, his zeal, his good judgment, his people skills
and, most importantly, his anointing from God.
As a result, the people grant him the freedom to decide and the
authority to supervise and control.
Such leadership can never be provided by a committee or a board. If, indeed, such leadership is provided by a
group, it is because within that group someone can provide such strong
leadership first to the group and through that to the rest of the people.
We often talk about New Testament leadership as if it is completely
different from Old Testament leadership.
I believe that biblical leadership is consistent throughout the New and
Old Testaments. Whenever God wants to
do a work, He chooses a man. We have
leaders such as Moses, Gideon, David, Elijah and others in the Old
Testament. In the New Testament, we
have leaders such as Peter for the Jews and Paul for the Gentiles. In FCBC, I assert my clear leadership in
three areas:
Casting the Vision
I lead the people by casting a clear and concrete vision for the
church. In the early years, I spent
countless hours sharing, discussing, praying and formulating the vision and
strategies of the church. I realize
that a vision is only powerful when it is fully owned by the people. Our vision and strategies were clearly set
by the third year. Since that time, I
have constantly shared and reinforced this for my leaders and members. I speak to every new member of the church
about this vision in our new member orientation called “Spiritual Formation
Weekend.” I challenge every member to
consider seriously our vision before joining our church. If someone is not able to subscribe to the
vision, I strongly recommend that the person join another church.
Once the vision and strategies have been forged, I expect every leader
in the church to support them. This is
especially so for pastoral staff. They
are selected on the basis that as lay cell leaders and group supervisors they
have demonstrated their commitment to the vision of the church. Today, the church has a paid staff of almost
200. In the last 10 years, we have had
a staff turnover of fewer than 10 persons.
There is a tremendous sense of unity on the team. The reason for this is that I have clearly
provided leadership in casting for the people a clear vision and articulating
specific strategies from the Lord.
Creating an environment for Growth
As leader, I am concerned about creating an environment conducive to
growth. We have written a clear mission
statement and we have agreed upon specific core values that define the
uniqueness of FCBC, both in terms of belief and of practice. I will reproduce the mission statement
here: We seek to fulfil God’s role for
us in bringing the gospel to the world by developing every believer to his full
potential in Jesus Christ within a vision & value driven environment and a
God-centred community.
Preaching and Teaching from the Pulpit
The main vehicle by which the growth environment is established comes
through dynamic teaching and preaching during the celebration. Some think that the cell church consists of
only cells. This is not true. Although the cell is the church, the church
is more than just cells. The cells come
together in the celebration meeting, absorbing the apostolic teaching that
shapes the direction, commitment and spiritual atmosphere for the whole Body. The church in Acts 2 met in homes, but they
came together to listen to the
apostles’ teaching. I spend some
20 hours every week preparing my sermon.
The sermon each week is more than teaching the Bible. Every sermon conveys a passion for God and
communicates His purposes for His people.
There is no doubt that the growth of FCBC is the result of God’s
special grace in and through my life.
As long as I walk humbly before the Lord in intimacy, the Lord will lead
us from glory to glory. I realize that
as I promote and support strong apostolic leadership, there is always the
danger of abuse. It is altogether
possible for apostles to abuse the authority God has given us as His apostolic
leaders. Nevertheless, this apparently
is a risk God is willing to take with us because, in His grace, He has chosen
to do just that. God is more than able
to bring down His erring servants just as quickly as He raises them up. Meanwhile, I believe in affirming God’s
appointed leadership over His
people.
I believe that God’s leaders need affirmation and encouragement as they
agree to take positions of leadership.
Yet they must have the humility to serve. Strong leaders have often been misunderstood to be dictatorial
and proud. For my part, though, I would
rather affirm them, pray for them and release them to become a blessing to the
Body of Christ.
When FCBC started, my heart was completely shattered by the rejection
of the leaders of my former church. The
issues that finally brought about the split of the church turned personal. I was attacked for being controlling,
dictatorial and even dangerously influential.
At the inception of FCBC, I had lost my confidence to lead. Thus I became laid back, relinquishing the
leadership to my core leaders who, together with me, started the church.
In the beginning of 1987, a few months after the church had started, we
invited Pastor Bill Yaegar from the First Baptist Church of Modesto,
California, to speak to us about leadership.
Pastor Yaegar was in his 60s and since then has retired. In his visit with us, Bill Yaegar noticed
how discouraged I was. I could never
forget his parting words to me at the Singapore airport. He said, “Son, I was praying for you this
morning. The Lord told me He was giving
you a new name. Your name shall be
called ‘Ari.’ This is a Jewish name
that means ‘lion.’ Lawrence, the Lord
tells you that you are the ‘Lion of Singapore.’ You are to stand up and roar.
And whenever others forget that you are the ‘Lion of Singapore,’ stand
up and roar again!”
No one had ever previously affirmed me that way. It was an extremely important moment in my
ministry career. I realized in that
instant that through all my years of Christian ministry, people were constantly
warning me to go slower, to be more cautious and to be more “humble.” This was the first time a seasoned servant
of God had actually encouraged me to take charge, to lead and to press on. Something burst forth within the depths of
my spirit. I have been roaring ever
since for the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom!
© From Chapter 13, “A Vision and Strategy for Church Growth”, in The
Transforming Power of Revival edited by Harold Caballeros and Mel Winger
(Peniel, Buenos Aires, 1998), excerpted from The New Apostolic Churches
edited by C. Peter Wagner (Regal
8ooks, Ventura, 1998), used by permission.
© Renewal Journal #15: Wineskins
(2000:1) www.renewaljournal.com
Reproduction is permitted so long as the copyright acknowledgement remains intact with the text.