letusreason.org/latrain24.htm Glancing at the G12 Movement By Steven Mitchell (Power To Stand Ministries) This article is merely a glancing glimpse into the standard teachings of the G12 church growth model currently making its rounds through many churches worldwide Ever wonder why we have so many diet plans that come along so frequently? Each subsequent “new and improved” dietary course or exercise routine claims to be a step above the previous. Some even claim to finally be the ultimate weight loss programs or the pinnacle of exercise machines or the last routine you will ever need to finally shed those unsightly pounds and begin your new life slim and trim. Accompanied by endless infomercials and slick marketing campaigns, these revelations are constantly emerging from so-called laboratories and testing facilities that claim to have finally reached the “Eureka!” level idea. As the diet war goes, so goes the Church Growth Movement and here we are with the latest gimmick growth pattern to ensure that those seats get filled and your church gains massive attendance weight by finally having the multiplication theorem that will bring about “fat” cell groups and expand your local Body as well as the Body of Christ as a whole. Enter the Government of 12 or G12 Movement. It’s the latest innovative way to “grow your church” and “take the nations for Christ”. It’s a cell church model advertised as being directly revealed from Jesus Himself received via special revelation beyond the Bible from a new “apostle” in the Church today. We’ll look briefly at a popular promotional flyer that introduces the reader and eager pastor to the secret theorems of G12. Implement these in your church and buy into the proposed rhetoric and you might be able to have a mega-church and, well, as is implied, actually BEGIN to glorify God in your local congregation. Please read the following statements from the flyer and the comments concerning the tenets introduced as the G12 movement. Test all things by the Word of God and ask yourselves as you read: “Do we really need this latest theory or is Christ building His Church and responsible for its growth?” G12 Has Landed! On Feb. 10-12th, 2003, The G12 conference was held in Mumbai, India and a standard flyer was handed out to attract churches and their pastors and lay-leaders to come out and be indoctrinated into the latest fad from the church Growth Movement. The flyer is not comprehensive but is extremely revealing. In the flyer we read: “G-12, short for Government of 12, is a discipleship strategy pioneered by Cesar and Claudia Castellanos of Mission Charismatica Internationale in Bogotá, Colombia.” First of all we see that this strategy, in the G12 format, appears to be man-centered as are most of the similar growth gimmicks in the church growth movement. It’s not hailed as from the Bible or something we could deduce from study of the Scriptures. We see that it is called “Government of 12” which definitely implies a sort of rulership or hierarchy among the discipler and disciple. Further study shows that it is indeed pyramidal in structure with the discipler emerging as the pinnacle of authority over his expanding base of twelve subordinates. But how important is this new strategy? “It is based on a vision from the Lord about how to reach the world with the Good News.” Obviously, God thought it necessary to grant this secret vision to Castellanos, who, incidentally is in league with the heretical and doctrinally unsound New Apostolic Reformation. I am always curious why God is alleged to be the revealer of extra biblical truths and strategies to groups or persons who have a demonstrable track- record for error and false prophecies. At the very least, one would think God would choose men and women who don’t have such extensive affiliations with false teachers, but among the churches that accept these new apostles and prophets, they carry great authority and are bolstered by the claims that God Himself is the author of their theories and ideas. It is clear that Castellanos believes that, although he pioneered the implementation of G12, God is the author of it. If this is true, then G12 needs to be accepted and implemented without delay and without question. Look how it is tied into our very purpose as believers: “Every Christian has a purpose. That purpose is to win the lost for Jesus. If you don’t fulfill that purpose, then you will never be fulfilled. The purpose is best fulfilled within the G12 cellular vision. If you don’t fulfill your purpose today, you may never fulfill it at all.” Apparently the G12 Movement holds the key to spiritual success and effective evangelism. Without it, we are being found to fight against God or, at the very least, we are doomed to the failure of substandard, non-effectual witnessing if we ignore the exhortation to do G12. Why do I say this? Because it is claimed to be a vision from the Lord. According to the flyer, the G12 model is “a cell group system that God gave Castellanos.”(Emphasis mine). How God missed giving it to his disciples and the true apostles in Scripture is irrelevant to the Third Wave teachers because they believe that God is doing a “new thing” anyway, and that this privileged group of end time prophets are the revealers of His truth for the Church in this day and age. It is clearly implied that we better get on board with this new model and fast! Combine this with their other teachings and one can see why the emphasis is on a “government” motif in this strategy because the new prophets/apostles are all about authority in the Church because they believe that God is only now instituting the proper governmental structure in the Church in this generation, and this new breed is on the top of it. Do I have to remind any of our readers that this notion is heretical? G12 = Success? The claims and pressure to accept G12 continue: “The model of ministry based on 12 is the most effective means of obeying the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to win disciples and of growing the Church.” Then we should expect to find Christ’s own disciples and the apostles in the Book of Acts practicing this theory in fullness. But wait, if the above statement is correct, then Christ actually in person commissioned them to reach the world for Christ but omitted the most effective way to do that. One thing is clear; we don’t see this model employed in the Book of Acts or anywhere else in the New Testament or church history, although similar schemes have come and gone. It is frightfully clear then, that Jesus’ own personal disciples weren’t effective and it’s God’s fault for not telling them. That is, if the G12 model is essential. I hope you can see that I am trying to make my point. But to the G12 crew, even this India conference is mandatory for any pastor or cell group leader who is serious about good ministry: “If you are a firm believer in Jesus and want to see His church grow and see our nation India be saved then this conference is for you.” So if I stay home, what happens? I miss out on a divinely revealed key to seeing India be saved. I will be unfulfilled and ineffective with merely the Word and the Holy Spirit as my guide. All other teachers that God has illumined in the past will also be no real help to me apart from the G12 model. It is “the most effective” way to see souls saved. These claims are manipulative and worse yet, misrepresentative of what Christ has said in Scripture (Matt. 16:18”…I will build My church…”). (See also Acts 2:47: “…And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”). Could He do all this without the G12 theorem? Apparently so.... Click on the link below for full view.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 09:07:22 +0000
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