One of the oldest churches in the Dominican Republic, planted in one of the most difficult areas of that beautiful Caribbean country, struggled for almost 40 years with only 60-75 members.

In 1985, two members of the Christian Training Network team were invited to give five regional workshops on “cell discipleship.” One of those workshops took place in this church located in downtown Santiago, the capital city. The pastor immediately began to put into operation the things he had learned in the workshop—adapting those Biblical principles to his congregation and culture.

In s recent seminar held at the Latin American Advanced School of Theology at Bogota, Colombia, this same pastor came to us with a mischievous grin on his face.

His testimony was this. “For years our church was barely able to reach and maintain 60 members, and we were the largest Assemblies of God church in the entire region. With the use of cell groups, we were able to grow to 200 members…. Then we split! Now we have split seven times with the cell groups, and each of those groups is a flourishing church with its own pastor.”

“And by the way,” he quipped, “in the mother church, we still maintain an average of 200 members… not including the many cell groups that meet in homes!”

Praise God for these kinds of splits!