Pedro, tell me a little about how the Seed of Faith Ministry came about.
I started the Seed of Faith Ministry in 2001. Since then we have been working to be efficient in the great commission. This means that we spent several years just trying to do relevant work in terms of earning and caring for people, but there were between 80 and 100 people there all that time.
In 2014, I was fortunate to visit the Central Baptist Church of Belo Horizonte, then I participated in DNA Central and applied the tools and strategies. We started with 19 cell groups and today we have 101 small groups. We are working as a cell-based church based on the model we received from Central.
Have you always needed to have a monthly cell group report?
This need actually came with the growth of the church, by the small groups. From the moment the cell groups began to grow and multiply, the idea came up for us to follow up on cell group reports that these leaders would make of their meetings.
We had curiously printed several receipts, where each leader would receive a part and each sheet would be that attendance report. Until I discovered célula.in through Central. I don't remember now exactly how, but I believe it was through Central DNA.
What do you do with the information from the célula.in cell group supervision report?
They give me a perfect picture of how the church is doing in various aspects: I have control of membership, how many are baptized, how many are not. I am in control of which people went to the cell group meetings and which were absent.
It is a true portrait of how the church is doing in various aspects, and seeing the reality of the church I make the decisions that need to be made, for example, I have now realized that services are not being attended by everyone in the cell groups and we have already made a decision to correct this.
Your church is one of those with the highest level of engagement. In your church, in the last 15 days, there are 0 cell groups that are out of date.
What do you attribute this engagement of leaders to?
To cell group supervisors. I highly value small group supervision. We use every possible way that adds value in supervision, WhatsApp groups, discipleship meetings...
I value excellence and pass that value on to all leaders, to do the work with excellence. And updating that information on célula.in is part of the leader's excellence.
I pass that amount on to the leaders. We're always talking about this, we're always asking supervisors to pass this guidance on to their leaders.
At the end of the cell group meeting, we ask that you use it there, for 5 minutes, to update. So, in this way, we are able to engage all the leaders within the app. They realize the importance of doing this.
Many leaders don't understand the value of information, for them and for the church. Does this happen, on any level, in your church?
No, they end up having the same perception that I have. I know the value that the app brings us, I value this in front of them and they will just repeat and realize that value within their level.
I look at the entire church through célula.in, the coordinator will look at your network, the coordinator your area, the supervisor of your sector. That way they will take care of that part that belongs to them. Through the célula.in app everyone has the same perception that I have.
For example, of the small groups they care for, what is the level of frequency of the cell group participants, of absence, how are their leaders in training, their evolution. That's the job I'm trying to do, to show the value that the app has.
Pedro, in your church you are the person with the most access to célula.in. Do you believe that this influences leaders so that they do not delay filling out the presence report in the cell groups?
Yes, of course. They notice that I check how the church cell groups are doing, I check the frequencies and then I use whatever means I have to communicate with them regarding the application.
Every Monday I check which cell groups are out of date and then I contact my supervisors to have their leaders update them. That way they see that I'm always watching the app.
In fact, célula.in is so rich that even though I opened a lot, using a lot, I haven't yet been able to master all the tools it offers, but those that I already understood I use with great force.
As I said, I try to make them understand the importance of filling in and reading this information correctly. Use resources to improve their leadership. It's a tool that helps us a lot.
Do you have any tips you could give to churches that are still groping in the dark?
What is a cell group in the church? Cell group is God's idea for organizing and caring for large crowds.
So I would say that making the transition to cell-group model is not a model that a particular pastor invented. When the pastor understands this he will not give up because of the problems that people bring.
For cell groups to move forward, for small groups to be successful, I believe that célula.in is essential for organizing, doing everything that célula.in provides in relation to a cell-based church is something I didn't know, and I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to learn about.
Right now, I am placing the courses to be controlled through the app, which is another innovation that you have introduced, the teachers are very optimistic and have excellent expectations about this possibility as well.
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