The G12 Vision is a Christian evangelism and discipleship strategy to fulfill the Great Commission. It is founded upon the idea that every Christian can mentor and lead twelve people in the Christian faith, following the example of Jesus. It was first modeled from a church in Bogotá, Colombia which has now grown up from an originally 8 members up to 200,000 members, composing of 45,000 cell groups.
Contents
History
Pastor César Castellanos developed the G12 strategy after visiting with Pastor David Yonggi Cho, who had successfully implemented a cell-group structure in the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea. With about 1,000,000 members (2007), Yoido is the largest Protestant Christian congregation in the world.
Pastor César returned to his church, Misión Carismática Internacional in Bogotá, Colombia, with the revelation that he received from God while he was in South Korea — that God had given him a vision which would increase the number of Christian believers and help him to care for the growing numbers of people.
Aim of the G12 Vision
The aim of the G12 Vision is to form disciples with a Christ-like character who in turn will 'go and make disciples' as commanded by Jesus. Through prayer, encounters with God, teaching, support and encouragement, disciples are then encouraged to also make disciples. In both theory and example this process leads the church to grow exponentially, without losing accountability of Christian values due to the eventual size of the church.
Ladder of Success
"Ladder of Success" is used to describe the main steps of the G12 Vision.
Win: Evangelism aiming to win people to a new belief in Christ.
Consolidate: Bridging a convert to a disciple
Disciple: Preparing the person for leadership
Send: Making them a leader of leaders
G12 Methodology
The G12 Vision is based on the methodology used by Jesus to begin his ministry, when he chose the Twelve Apostles. Following his 40 days temptation in the desert, the first act of Jesus in his ministry was to form a group of 12 disciples, who were all men. (Mark 3:14). Additionally, in the book of Acts the first action taken by the 11 remaining disciples (Judas Iscariot having been instrumental in Jesus' eventual crucifixion and therefore no longer part of the group ) was to re-establish a group of 12. Seeing fit not to leave it at 11, or allow 13, but rather to cast lots, which fell on Matthias, to fulfill the 12. Jesus of course included women in His group of disciples,Mary Magdalene and His own Mother for example but the men only are counted as Apostles. (Acts 1:26). It was only after the re-established as a 12, that the day of Pentecost came, although Jesus had already appeared to both men and women and many men and women were present, not just the 12 Apostles, when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost.
It should be noted that this methodology was never implemented by any one of Jesus' disciples, in their individual ministries. While Jesus chose twelve men to disciple, he never taught the practice as a foundational truth to follow for his apostles or any of his disciples.
The G12 Vision is explained by Pastor Cesar in his self-published books, Dream and you will Win the World, and Successful Leadership Through the Government of 12.
G12 International Conference
An annual G12 International Conference is held in Bogotá, Colombia in January and is hosted by Misión Carismática Internacional church. The President of Colombia has frequently attended these events. Former President of Colombia (2002–2010) Álvaro Uribe attended in 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. In 2006, Senator Germán Vargas Lleras attended and in 2010, former Minister of Defence and future President, Juan Manuel Santos spoke at the conference. At the 2012 conference Álvaro Uribe returned to thank the church and delegates for their prayers and support during his time in government. In 2013, former President Uribe and current President Santos attended the conference as special guests. Over the years, there have been many influential leaders and pastors attending the international conference; such as, Prophet Cindy Jacobs, Martin Smith of Delirious, Cece Winans, John Maxwell, and many more.
G12 Internationally
Many churches of all denominations around the world work with the G12 Vision. Conferences are held each year on every continent.
Concerns
The G12 Vision movement in America is considered controversial by some conservative pastors and Christian organizations, with some going as far as calling it a cult or a pyramid scheme.
Joel Comiskey
In 2002, Joel Comiskey, founder of the Joel Comiskey Group raised concerns about the G12 Vision, saying "I'm deeply troubled by what we are observing in the G12 movement today", with concerns of "Spiritualization of the Number Twelve in the Bible, Franchising of the G12 model, and The division this model is causing".
Personal experiences
There are many negative personal experiences claimed from former members.