I'm all for spreading the "Good Word" to all corners of the earth and all, but something about this approach to evangelism leaves me a little cold. Again, from Friday's Wall Street Journal:
For the other 1,400 (mostly Hispanic) attendees at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center, a nondenominational evangelical church, leadership has become a key concept in their lives. Not only are the congregants expected to mentor 12 disciples -- newcomers to the church -- but they must also encourage the disciples themselves to become leaders. This cascading structure, called G-12 -- or Government of Twelve -- has proved to be a good way of gaining members while keeping the old ones engaged. The idea is to imitate the delegated leadership of Jesus' 12 disciples. In North America, more than 380 churches have registered to use the G-12 system.
The Wharton business school couldn't have designed a better growth strategy. According to the imperatives of G-12, leaders have to follow four steps -- win new adherents, strengthen the adherents' Christian beliefs, take them on as disciples and send them off to replicate the process -- to complete the nine-month program called "The Ladder of Success." Each leader meets with his "cell" (often in his home) apart from larger Sunday services. Disciples learn fundamental Christian doctrines as well as techniques for problem-solving, teamwork and leadership.
When used in this context, I have a hard time disassociating the word "cell" from communism. And the whole approach smacks too much of multi-level marketing for my tastes. Perhaps I'm being naïve, but when saving a soul becomes just another tally on a tote board (or, heaven forbid, a spreadsheet) and the bottom line becomes "growing the business" through a four-step process, we risk losing sight of the deeper meaning and everlasting nature of our faith.
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