• Obedience in CFC
  • Anointing of Leaders in CFC
  • Household Meetings
  • Acknowledgement of Contributions
  • Hosting
  • Closing Prayer
  • Baptism in the Holy Spirit
  • Inviting People to the CLP




    • Obedience in CFC

    In CFC there is a pastoral-organizational structure composed of leaders at various levels. The basic purpose of the structure is for peace, unity and order in the body. In order for the organization to work well, leaders are vested with authority. However, there is no such thing in CFC as blind obedience. Rather, what we promote is active submission. This means that subordinates do not blindly follow their leaders, but may raise questions for greater understanding of directions, may have contrary views and respectfully bring these forth, may enter into discussions, and may request for the inputs or intervention of higher-ups if need be.

     Anointing of Leaders in CFC

    Leaders in CFC, if chosen with prayerful discernment according to our criteria for various stages of leadership, with qualifications discussed with other elders when needed, will be anointed by God for the task He has called them to, because this is His work. Thus their anointing will be the foundation for their leadership, including their decisions and directions for those under them. However, such anointing should not be a cause for pride, nor claims to infallibility, nor for a demand of blind obedience from subordinates, nor for insisting on doing everything oneself. In fact, we will make mistakes sometimes in choosing leaders. Anointing is something which proves itself in the ordinary course of a leader’s continuing service.

    Household Meetings

    Households meet weekly, three times as a small cell group and once in a larger prayer assembly. Households are never canceled, except in extreme external emergencies (e.g., calamity, armed conflict), which threaten the well-being of members. Household leaders who may have a good reason for not being able to attend a household meeting should not cancel the meeting, but simply assign someone else to run the meeting.

    Ordinarily there are always three ingredients to a household meeting: a time of worship, a time of sharing/discussion, and a time of fellowship/socializing. The length of time for each ingredient should not go to extremes (either too short or too long). Thus worship, with singing, praising and individual prayers, should be about 30-40 minutes. Sharing and /or discussion should be about an hour (most of the time with husbands meeting separately from the wives). Fellowship would be from 30 to 60 minutes.

    Acknowledgement of Contributions

    Tithes (or contributions if less than 10%) of individual members are acknowledged by official receipts (except in countries where CFC is not incorporated), and are recorded by the CFC office. It is not our pastoral policy to just have anonymous tithing (though there might be cases where anonymous donations are given). We want to keep track of members' contributions for pastoral purposes.

    Heads are given a monthly copy of the record of their members' tithes. Household heads get the tithe record of their household members, Unit Heads get the tithe record of all the members of the unit, and Chapter Heads get the tithe record of all members of the chapter. This enables these leaders to support the spiritual formation of members. Just as we would ask every once in a while how is one's prayer time or dialogue with the spouse, so we should ask how one is growing in financial stewardship.

    This individual recording does not apply to instances when the collection basket is passed, like during Mass or when soliciting alms (contribution to help those in need) for members.

    Hosting

    It is part of our culture in CFC to open up our homes to guests, especially CFC brethren. It is not necessary to give up the master's bedroom for such guests. Many times these would be brethren on mission and as missionaries would be appreciative of even sparse accommodations.

    Closing Prayer

    There are different ways of closing a prayer, whether individual, group or communal. It can be a simple "Amen," or "In Jesus' name, Amen," or "Through Christ our Lord, Amen," or with all or either of the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be.

    It is not our culture to pray three Glory Be's.

    Baptism in the Holy Spirit

    The allocated length of time for prayer over for the baptism in the Holy Spirit is more or less one hour. It should not take too much longer than this. It is not a prayer for all the concerns of CLP participants. Rather, it is simply a prayer for the renewed in filling of the Spirit. This need not take long.

    Thus those who pray over must be conscious of the amount of time they have for their group. For example, if there are six persons in the group, then the average praying over time is 10 minutes, including time gaps in between. Those who have fewer persons to pray for can afford to spend more time per person.

    The participants can become very restless if the praying over session is too long. Slow worship songs should be sung during the whole time, to maintain a solemn atmosphere. After an hour, and after giving some allowance for those still praying over, the speaker should move into the conducting remarks, even while there are still others being prayed over.

    Inviting People to the CLP

    It is not necessary to be able to convince someone right at the outset that the CLP would be beneficial to him/her, nor do we have to already be able to proclaim Jesus tot he person we are inviting. In most cases, it will be the CLP itself that will be the effective process of evangelization and renewal. So all we need to do is to be able to invite the person to the CLP.

    For those who are reluctant or those who find all sorts of excuses, we can insist (request) that they just try out the Orientation session, without any commitment for the rest of the CLP. This (just one session of two hours or so) is not burdensome for anyone, and we can more readily convince a person to attend, especially a spouse, friend, loved one, or co-employee.

    Once at the CLP Orientation session, there will be many aspects/dynamics working for us that can be used by the Lord to touch the heart of our candidate. This could be any of the following: the warm welcome by strangers, meeting new people, or even just the free snack. If there is even a little bit of interest, they will be back for the next session.

    So while it will be difficult to convince many of the value for their lives of CFC or the CLP, it is not difficult to ask someone just to try out one session, without making a commitment.

    But for this process to work, the CLP team needs to do its part. Be there early, pray, warmly welcome participants, have lively music, have a good speaker and prepared sharers, do intercession. Make the participants feel welcome, important and loved. If we do our part, the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.