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About the Author:Joel Comiskey (Ph.D. Fuller Seminary) is an internationally recognized church consultant and speaker. He has served as a missionary with the C&MA in Quito, Ecuador and is now founding pastor of a cell-based church in Southern California. Joel's books have sold 130,000 copies in North American and an additional 200,000 copies worldwide. His titles include: Home Cell Group Explosion (Touch Publications, 1998), How to Lead a Great Cell Group Meeting (Touch Publications, 2001), and An Appointment with the King (Chosen Books,2002). Joel teaches as an adjunct professor at several theological seminaries. Joel and his wife, Celyce, have three daughters and live in Moreno Valley,California.Endorsements Include:
Dr. Peter N. Nanfelt, President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
Larry Kreider, author House to House
Billy Joe Daugherty, senior pastor of 12,000 member Victory Christian Center
Dale Galloway, dean of the Beeson International Center
For more information go to: http://www.joelcomiskeygroup.com/



Small group expert, Joel Comiskey,creates a new tool for individuals and group study. In Discover, Use Your Gifts and Help Others Find Theirs, Joel shows clear steps and guidelines to find and activate spiritual gifts. The eight lessons offer biblical insight on what the gifts are and practical suggestions on how to use them. Discover will especially help those leading a small group to know how to discern the different gifts among group members--and then to help each person activate that gift. According to the Bible, everyone has at least one spiritual gift. But many don't know what their gift is or how to effectively exercise their spiritual gift.
Discover

Why did you write this book?

So often we want to be like someone else. How often have we said, “I wish I was a great conversationalist like Tom. He always has something interesting to say, but when I’m in a group of people, my brain freezes up, and I can hardly remember what to say.” Or “I wish I could teach like Donna. She articulates her message so perfectly. In comparison, my teaching is simplistic and even superficial.”

Most of us have prayed, “Lord, make me like …. ” Because too many of us stumble through life with an inferiority complex, I wrote this book to help people discover who they are and how God wants them to function in the body of Christ.

Where is the best setting to use your spiritual gifts?

In the larger worship service, naturally experimenting with the gifts rarely happens because risk-taking is not encouraged in such an environment, nor should it be. Yet, in the safety of the small group and with the encouragement of the group leader, experimentation can happen, and the Holy Spirit will bless. When you’re sitting in a comfortable living room with just a few people, there’s far more possibilities to talk with and minister to others.

Once the group becomes comfortable with each other and more knowledgeable about spiritual gifts, the leader can encourage the participants to confirm in each other their spiritual gifts in the small-group time. Gift discovery takes place in the process of serving one another, caring for one another and living the life of the body. When you find that God consistently blesses your efforts in a certain area that builds others up, you can confidently conclude that you have that particular gift.

Are the spiritual gifts given permanently?

There are two views on this. One view, the constitutional view, says that God gives us the gifts permanently. The other side, the situational view, says that God equips a person with a particular gift when the need arises.

I personally believe that God has permanently given each born-again believer at least one or more gift. And in this sense we need to discover what he has placed in us. Yet, I also realize that God is the gift giver, and that he reserves the right to drop any gift into our lives at anytime. We need to expect God to work in our lives at all times.




The goal of Christian coaches is to move people toward Jesus Christ. The Christian coach strives to lead people forward to conformity with Jesus Christ, knowing that the ultimate crown is the one that will last forever (1 Corinthians 9:25). While Christ-like character is most important, a small group coach also equips leaders with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective in small group ministry. A cell coach encourages, nourishes, and challenges cell leaders to grow and multiply their cell groups. Coach provides step-by-step instructions on how to coach a small group leader from the initial stages of leading the group all the way to giving birth to a new one. Those who have never coached before will receive clear information on how to take the small group leader to the next level. And someone who is already coaching a small group leader will also find the eight lessons in this book invaluable to empower others to lead fruitful groups.
COACH

What is the book, COACH, about?

It's about how to come along side someone who is influencing others for Jesus Christ. My area of writing over the years has been small group based ministry, so I'm specifically writing for people who are influencing others in a small group setting. Yet, the principles of this book are much wider than just small group leadership. They reach into many areas, including how to live the Christian life.

Why is coaching so important in small group ministry?

Coaching is essential to small group ministry because small group leaders are ministering to others on a voluntary basis. They are constantly giving out. One huge question is: who is going to care for them? Who is going to minister to their needs?

The coach comes alongside the leader, not just to dish out information, but to be a friend, to listen, and to develop the leader. Often the best thing a coach can do is simply listen. Most of the time the leader knows what's wrong. More than hearing advice, the leader needs to know that there's someone available to listen.


What are some of the key principles that you bring out in your book?

I've titles my chapters after the key principles of coaching: receive, learn, plan, listen, serve, develop, strategize, and challenge.

I talk about the need for the coach to make sure his or her life is in tune with Jesus. Great coaches will first be successful with God and those closest to them (God, spouse, family).


Has coaching replaced the concept of mentoring?

Mentoring was always an obscure word. Mentor was actually one of the Greek mythology characters. And thus, it's always difficult to explain what mentoring is. Yet, coaching is all around us. We see sports coaches, business coaches, and spiritual coaches. The practice of coaching that we see around us helps explain what it is and thus people have more readily picked it up.


Often misunderstood, the cell church movement is alive and well in Northern America. We hear about explosive growth of cell churches in Colombia and Korea, but where are the dynamic North American cell churches? This book shows how the cell church concept is working in North America and dedicates an entire chapter to examining North American churches successfully using the cell strategy for growth. The Church That Multiplies gives practical examples and instructions to implement cell church strategy. This book provides the latest statistical research about the North American church and provides solutions for pastors and lay leaders to implement these concepts for cell-based ministry.
The Church That Multiplies
Why is the cell church so attractive in the 21st century?
More and more leaders around the world are attracted to a simple form of church life, one that doesn't require huge budgets and super-talented preachers but follows the pattern of the New Testament church. I now find myself desiring a simple, reproducible, New Testament model. And I believe North America needs the same thing.
Tomorrow's cell church won't depend on large buildings or technology to make it work. It will go back to the New Testament rhythm of meeting in celebration and cell.
One reason the mega churches appear so complicated is that they are. One influential mega church in the suburbs of Los Angeles, for example, is embarking on a ten-year expansion project with a 4000-seat worship center, an artificial lake, food court, coffee house, and recreational attractions including a rock-climbing wall and jumbo video screens. The list of activities sounds like the offerings at a Club Med or a small liberal arts college: poetry workshops, creative writing, singles groups, job fairs, vocational training, musical lessons, and even auto repair clinics.
The beauty of a simple cell church is that it's reproducible.
What are the first steps in starting a cell church?
Cell church plants come in different varieties: mother-daughter cell church plants, satellite cell church plants, or just starting a cell from scratch.
The simplicity of cell church planting makes it exciting. Even without a supporting mother church, a church planter can simply open the first cell in a home and begin reaching non-Christians. The cell at this stage is more like a house church. The goal is to see non-Christians come to Christ, be trained through the training track, and then be sent out to lead their own cell groups.
I recommend, however, that the church planter seek to find a team of core members. Each core member should be prepared to eventually start a cell group (or perhaps start one in partnership with another core team member). Where will these core members come from? A few possibilities are the mother church, the denomination, a plea for "missionaries," or help from another church.
The core group meets together in a pilot cell for six months to one year. During that period, the pilot cell of core members practice cell life, using the four Ws as the guide for the cell (welcome, worship, Word, witness). Each core member is encouraged to get to know non-Christians in the neighborhood.
During this same time, the church planter teaches the training track to the core team members apart from the cell itself (see Chapter 10). In our church plant, we found it effective to set apart a Saturday or Sunday for concentrated training.

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What is a cell church?
by Joel Comiskey

Cell church in its simplest form is a strategic approach that emphasizes both cell and celebration on an equal basis.

In the cell church, cell is the church and celebration is the church. Every worshipper is encouraged to attend both the weekly cell group and the weekly celebration service.
Most people know what the Sunday church celebration looks like. Worshippers gather to hear the Word preached, worship the living God, and participate in the sacraments (e.g., the Lord 's Supper and baptism).

But what about the cell? The most common definition of a cell (and the one followed in this book) is this: a group of three to fifteen people who meet weekly outside the church building for the purpose of evangelism, community, and discipleship with the goal of multiplication.

Implicit in this definition is the overarching goal of glorifying God and achieving spiritual growth in Christ.

All small groups are not cell groups. One of the major differences between cell groups and generic small groups is the cell's emphasis on evangelism, leadership development, and multiplication in each cell.

Cell churches also have other types of ministries (e.g., ushering, worship, prayer, missions, and training). These ministries, however, are not called cell groups, even though the particular ministry might be small and a group.

The ministries in a cell church, rather, support the cell and celebration. Everyone participating in a church ministry is also actively involved in a cell group, if not leading one (this is especially true of elder and board leadership).

In the cell church, the cell group is the backbone, or center, of church ministry. Cell ministry replaces the need for many traditional programs.

I like to use the phrase "the cell-driven church" because church-growth success is primarily measured through infrastructure growth as the church grows from the core to the crowd.

Some churches have cell groups as one of the programs in the church. In this scenario, the senior pastor, while overseeing all the programs, delegates the small-group ministry to another person. In the cell church, however, the senior pastor is personally involved in cell ministry and is considered the point person and cell visionary.

FREE Book to the first ten church planters who contact Kathy and are willing to write a book review for a book to be released in September entitled Planting Churches that Reproduce: Starting a Network of Simple Churches.