Far more time in ministry is spent upon personal visitation than upon preparing for the cell meeting event. The focus of cell leaders and staff pastors is upon ministering directly to troubled persons face to face on their own turf.[1] Cell leaders, section leaders, deacons and deaconesses, staff pastors and elders spend many more hours in personal visitation than in cell meetings, both in visitation of the lost and visitation of cell leaders and church members who are struggling.
Visitation is an old, traditional ministry discipline. Yet a church member in the world’s largest church of 700,000 members receives more pastoral visitation than parish
churches in America. Staff pastors at Yoido watching over an average of two thousand members do more prayer and personal visitation than a full-time pastor in America watching over one hundred church attenders.[2] It is not that laity take up all the other administration and programming; there is no such comparative programming or endless committee meetings to interfere with ministry visitation.
QUOTE [1]
NOTE
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
RESOURCES
[1] The quote is a selection from David O. Kueker’s Fuller Seminary Doctor of Ministry project submitted in September, 2007, entitled Diagnosis, Dialogue, and Decision: A Threefold Process of Revitalization For the Illinois Great Rivers Conference.
It is shared here in recognition of its 12th Anniversary along with comments to update and provide perspective on the material. The original project was a Training Manual/Study Guide of three Seminars supported by three chapters of research and an Introduction. The material is available for download at www.disciplewalk.com/Resources.html. In 2009 it was provided for purchase as a softcover book entitled Designing Discipleship Systems: Christian Disciple Making For Any Size Church, Any Theology through CreateSpace.com.
[2][3] [4][5] [6][7] [8]
All Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Please review the page How and Why We Use Quotes.
[1]Karen Hurston, “A Day in the Life of a Staff Pastor: A Study in Contrasts,” Church Growth Today 9, no. 3, under http://www.hurstonministries.org/art_c_05.htm (accessed June 18, 2007).
[2]“While the average cell leader prays for one hour daily, the typical staff pastor prays for at least two hours. While the average cell leader makes three to five prayer visits a week, the typical staff pastor makes ninety-one prayer visits each month. More than seven hundred full-time pastoral staff members start their days five mornings a week in prayer and reporting, then spend eight hour days making prayer visits to leaders and members, always accompanied by at least one lay leader.” Karen Hurston, “The Small Groups Behind the World’s Largest Church,” Strategies for Today’s Leader 36, no. 2, (Spring 1999): 15-17, under http://www.hurstonministries.org/art_c_03.htm (accessed June 13, 2007).