The Great Commission

We as Christians have been given a great commission. In Mt 28:18-20, Jesus came to the disciples and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.

We can break this down into four steps;

Preach the gospel to every creature
Pastor believers
Prepare disciples
Plant influencers across the nations

APC will be a cell-based church i.e. building Life Groups (as we have renamed them) will become the single task of the church. It is imperative that everyone be doing the same thing. The Life Group will be the basic unit of APC church.

We will shift away from program-based ministry to a people-based ministry.
 
God has created each and every one of us:
*  First of all to love Jesus
*  Secondly, to become radical followers of Jesus

As a result of the above we will have a divine purpose and that is to win the lost to Christ. 

Why Life Groups

- Christianity is based upon relationships, first with God and then with our fellow man
- The Life group based church will enable us to grow in our relationship with both God and our fellow believers
- We will learn to serve our brothers and sisters and we will move out of receiving mode into giving mode.
- When we start using our homes for meetings the presence of God will manifest in our homes
- We will start exercising spiritual gifts
- We will make disciples of Jesus Christ
- We will have true fellowship with other believers

This will transform APC from a “come-and-see” mentality to a “go-and-show” mentality.

In order to serve others  (the example which Jesus gave) – it does not matter what your background is, what your educational qualifications are, which country you come from, what is your station in life, etc. If you are willing to allow God to mould you, you are a candidate for servant hood. In the days ahead, we will train Life Group members for the following:

(Eph.4:12,13) – to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

You will be trained on:
 How to discover, develop and display spiritual and ministry gifts.
 Basics in counseling people.
 Teaching about being good facilitators of Life Group meetings.

With this training, the Life Group member will be able to:
- meet the need of the members of the group.
- empower the members to do greater works.
- send them out to reach others.

Why are we doing this ?

“There’s coming a harvest and a hostility, and we are not ready for either”

• If we don’t make the change we will miss out on the harvest the Lord wants to send
• If we don’t make the change then when persecution breaks out we will not be prepared

All you need is an attitude to serve and a great deal of prayer.

Model G-12
Each group will grow till it has twelve members and then when members are trained they will each start their own group and so on. The relationship with the parent group will continue so that each person will belong to one group where they are mentored and another where they mentor others.

Jesus’ strategy for training and developing his twelve disciples

• He taught them privately  (Mt 11:1)
• He taught them on a privileged level (Mk 4: 10-11)
• He taught them by demonstration (Lk 8:1)
• He shared His intimate life with them (Mt 20:18)
• He lived with them (Mt 26:20)
• He was open with them (Mt 26:21)
• He delegated the responsibility of leadership to them (Lk 9:3-4)
• He demanded extreme levels of personal sacrifice (Lk 18:28)
• He asked for a lifelong allegiance (Mk 8:35)

True fellowship has the power to revolutionize lives. Masks come off, conversations get deep, hearts get vulnerable, lives are shared, accountability is invited and tenderness flows. People really do become like brothers and sisters, they shoulder one another’s burdens.

Read more (or) Download APC 12 Cell Group Model