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Appendix B: Questionnaire: Cell Multiplication FactorsThe primary motivation for this questionnaire was to discover essential variables associated with cell group multiplication. Because the questionnaire was administered specifically to cell leaders, most of the findings relate to leadership patterns. Administration
of the Questionnaire Before
administering the questionnaires, I obtained permission
from those in authority.
Normally, the cell leaders would fill out the
questionnaires while I was present (e.g., in a cell
leadership training meeting).
[i] I tried to make the anonymity issue very
clear to the respondents, telling them that there
was no place for them to write their name. I urged them to answer the questions as honestly as possible.
I tried to make the questionnaire clear and
easy to follow, knowing the educational level of some
of my respondents.
While they were filling out the questionnaires,
I made myself available to answer their questions.
Limitations
of the Questionnaire I
purposely tried to disguise the dependent variables
(cell multiplication questions) by placing them at
the end of the questionnaire and by not announcing
the importance of these questions.
However, this proved to be a limitation for
two reasons.
First, those respondents who took more time
felt pressured at the end, due to lack of time, and
thus some respondents skipped over the last questions.
[ii] Another reason for the missing data
was that these questions were harder and required
more thinking, and thus some decided to leave them
blank. If
I were to do it over again, I would explain these
dependent variables more clearly and placed them near
the beginning of the questionnaire.
Description of the Questionnaire Respondents
I
received a total of 521 questionnaires that I was
able to use in my analysis.
Table 7 gives some descriptive background of
these leaders.
The
key questions (dependent variables) are questions
twenty-seven (whether the group had multiplied), twenty-eight
(length of time for a cell to multiply) and twenty-nine
(number of times the cell had multiplied).
All of the other questions (independent variables)
will be analyzed according to their correlation with
these three questions.
I did not consider a correlation significant
unless the probability level was .05 or lower. TABLE
1
DESCRIPTIVE DATA FROM QUESTIONNAIRE
Question Twenty-seven: Whether the Group Had Multiplied
This was a very straightforward question, "Has your group multiplied yet?" There were only two responses, yes or no. Out of the 521 respondents, 398 said yes (sixty-three percent), 193 said no (thirty-seven percent). The
next step was to try to determine the significant
patterns related to those who said yes versus those
who said no.
First, there was no significant relation between
country, gender, social class, age, civil status,
education, salvation, number of outside meetings,
gifting, personality, or homogeneity and whether the
leader had multiplied the cell
group. On the other hand, the statistics did show that there was significant correlation between cell multiplication and the number of assistants in the group, number of visitors in the group, and the cell leader's devotional life, prayer life, visitation, and goal orientation. Table 8 outlines those relationships. TABLE 2 FACTORS CORRELATED WITH CELL MULTIPLICATION
According to these findings, it is imperative that cell leaders prepare themselves spiritually and intellectually, engage in visitation, instill an outreach orientation in the group, and have specific goals for cell multiplication. It is not possible to say that one of these aspects is more important than the other. However, taken together, they provide the cell leader with needed information about how to successfully multiply the group. Question Twenty-eight: Length of Time
This correlation is based on
question twenty-eight which asked the cell leaders
how long it took to multiply their cell group.
There was a significant relationship between
the length of multiplication time and the particular
country, F (4,203) = 4.33, p< .0001.
For example, in Honduras it took an average
of thirty-seven weeks to multiply the group (mean
= 39.5 ±
22.0), whereas in El Salvador it only took an average
of twenty-one (mean = 22.4 ± 26.5) and Colombia only took an average of sixteen
weeks (mean = 18.1 ±
18.3). Table
37 adds clarity. TABLE 3 CELL GROUP LENGTH AND MULTIPLICATION TIME
Just as important as what this question did say was
what it did not say.
For example, the statistics showed no correlation
between time that it took to multiply a group and
gender, civil status, age, occupation, personality,
or gifting.
The statistics did indicate that educational levels
were significantly related to multiplication length,
F (4,199) = 3.03, p< .0187. Among the Latin American churches, an elementary educated leader
took forty weeks to multiply his group (mean = 40.3 ±
43.8) versus twenty-two weeks for a high school educated
leader (mean = 22.3 ± 19.0).
The study showed multiplication length was significantly
related to the number of times the group met outside
the normal cell meeting, F (4,197) = 3.58, p<.007.
Those leaders who did not meet with their group
outside the regular meeting took significantly longer
to multiply than those who gathered their group occasionally
for outside activity.
It is interesting that Colombia rated significantly
higher than any of the other countries with regard
to number of outside meetings, F (4, 14.2) = 21.5,
p< 0.000.
Homogeneity was also significantly related to the
time it took to multiply a cell group, F (4,162) =
7.67 p< .0001.
Those leaders who said that there was a medium
level of homogeneity in the group (mean = 24.4 ±
24.1) took significantly longer to multiply their
group that those who indicated a high level (mean
= 11.0 ±
11.6).
The study also indicated that newer Christians tended
to multiply their groups faster than those who had
been believers for a longer period, F (4,201) = 1.99,
p< .094.
Those who were believers for more than three
years (mean = 29.3 ±
28.9) took an average of twenty-nine weeks
to multiply the group versus those who were believers
six months (mean = 5.8 ±
2.8) and took an average of only six weeks. TABLE 4 FACTORS CORRELATED WITH MULTIPLICATION FREQUENCY
Question Twenty-nine: Number of Times That Group Multiplied
Question twenty-nine asked the cell leaders how many
times that they had multiplied their group since becoming
the leader.
Thirty-five percent (172) said that they had
not multiplied their group, twenty-eight percent indicated
that the group had multiplied one time (137), fourteen
percent indicated they had multiplied two times (sixty-seven),
eleven percent indicated that had multiplied three
times (fifty-four), while twelve percent (fifty-nine)
said that their group had multiplied four or more
times. This
question is important because it goes beyond whether
or not the group had multiplied to determine what
factors were significant for those leaders who continually
multiplied their group.
Table 38 highlights these multiplication factors. The correlations coincide exactly with what was discovered under question twenty-seven in the following areas: number of assistants, training, devotional life, lesson preparation, contacting members and newcomers, exhorting group to invite friends, number of visitors in the cell group, and goals for cell multiplication. This question did show a positive correlation between salvation and cell multiplication and the number of outside meetings and cell multiplication while question twenty-seven did not. This statistical study has
demonstrated a consistent statistical relationship
between a cell leader's success in multiplying his
or her group and the time spent in training, devotions,
preparation, and visitation (members and newcomers).
It also clearly showed that the number of assistants,
the goal orientation of the leader, and the number
of visitors that the leader is able to attract to
his cell group, all play a significant role in whether
or not that leader will successfully multiply the
group.
ORGANIZING THE DATA INTO CATEGORIES The following statistical comments are based on 521 questionnaires quite equally divided among the seven churches:
RELAX YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A SUPERSTAR Social Standing
Personality
Leadership Giftedness
THE LEADER'S IMPACT The Devotional Life
Goal
Orientation
Training
Preparation
HIERARCHICAL ANALYSIS FOR
LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
#27
Multiplied Yet?
#29
Number of times multiplied?
REACHING OUT Visitation of New People
Exhortation In Cell Group To Invite Friends
Growing Cell Groups Consistently Receive Visitors
HIERARCHICAL
ANALYSIS FOR REACHING NEW PEOPLE, EXHORTATION, AND
VISITORS Question 27--Multiplication
Yet
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Resourcing the worldwide cell church movement