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For the other 1,400 (mostly Hispanic) attendees at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center, a nondenominational evangelical church, leadership has become a key concept in their lives. Not only are the congregants expected to mentor 12 disciples--newcomers to the church--but they must also encourage the disciples themselves to become leaders. This cascading structure, called G-12--or Government of Twelve--has proved to be a good way of gaining members while keeping the old ones engaged. The idea is to imitate the delegated leadership of Jesus' 12 disciples. In North America, more than 380 churches have registered to use the G-12 system.

The Wharton business school couldn't have designed a better growth strategy. According to the imperatives of G-12, leaders have to follow four steps--win new adherents, strengthen the adherents' Christian beliefs, take them on as disciples and send them off to replicate the process--to complete the nine-month program called "The Ladder of Success." Each leader meets with his "cell" (often in his home) apart from larger Sunday services. Disciples learn fundamental Christian doctrines as well as techniques for problem-solving, teamwork and leadership.

Upon his return to Colombia, Mr. Castellanos adapted Mr. Yonggi's cell movement to increase the size of his own church, the International Charismatic Mission in Bogot. The results were immediately obvious. In three years, the number of members of his congregation in Colombia increased exponentially and has now reached around 300,000 meeting at various satellite churches throughout the country.

In Colombia, Mr. Castellanos's wife, Claudia, who is also a pastor, has expanded her influence beyond the church. She thinks that the G-12 model should change not only lives but nations as well. In 1991, Ms. Castellanos became the first Christian senator in her country, and she has been a staunch opponent of abortion and euthanasia in Colombia ever since. Pastors from G-12 churches in Peru, Argentina, Mexico and Canada are already following her footsteps by taking on active careers in politics. Ms. Castellanos is also promoting an entrepreneurial network, under G-12 principles, to foster small-business creation.

In the U.S., the G-12 system is largely concentrated among Hispanic populations, especially immigrants. According to Tony Carnes, the director of the International Research Institute on Values Changes in New York, smaller groups that allow for one-to-one interaction appeal to the Hispanic sense of family. They also help newly arrived immigrants to feel a sense of belonging in a strange land. Arlene Sanchez Walsh, the author of "Latino Pentecostal Identity: Evangelical Faith, Society, and Self," explains that the structured environment provided by G-12 facilitates integration into society, because it "allows followers to travel the ranks of leadership, learn about organizations and become aware of how management structures are run in the U.S."

The Rev. Joseph Mattera, from the Church of the Resurrection in Brooklyn, N.Y., says that the success of the "cell church" is yet to be seen outside of Hispanic churches in the U.S. The reasons are many, not least the American style of life, with its long working hours, cramped urban spaces (in which it is difficult to hold meetings) and jobs that require frequent travel.

But as long as numbers are a sign of success in evangelical churches, systems like the G-12 will likely continue to thrive, both in Latin America and among Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. As an assistant pastor at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center tells me: "Woe to him that is alone."

Ms. Tunarosa is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal.

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