About Cell Church

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"The power to reach this lost world is ours!"

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have also been commanded to fulfill the Great Commission found in Matt. 28:18-20. This can easily be accomplished if your cell group will band together to harness the power of basic Christian community to reach friends, family, coworkers and neighbors for Jesus. Whatever you do, don't let your group be "inward focused!" We are living in the last days. God has called us to storm the gates of Hell, set the captives free and fulfill the Great Commission. You can do it through your cell group, the basic building block of God's design for His bride. Cell Groups are built for storming!

Christ encountered in the cell

It has taken me years to understand the same Trinitarian relationship I experience personally also comes alive when I meet you and several other Christians in an encounter with Christ. In fact, it has been my experience that Christ is able to manifest Himself to me in a greater and fuller way when I am with "two or three." This means I am not sufficient in myself to receive the full revelation of Christ. To experience Christ in the fullest way, I need you and others to live with me in community. The cell meeting could be viewed as a group devotional with the Lord, while other experiences (individual and large group) are usually "personal," self-focused encounters with God.

His church in its most basic form

Because of my personal relationship with Christ and Christ in me, as well as your relationship with Christ when we come together in His Name, we become His living body in which Christ, the Father, and the Spirit abide in the midst. This is His church in its most basic form. We experience the immanence of God in a personal relationship and in a corporate relationship.

Worship in the cell group

The kind of worship described in the New Testament suggests a small group setting as its primary worship context. Much of what the New Testament records about worship will not fit into the large group meeting we use today, no matter how much we try to force it. The first century Christians saw each other's faces, not just the back of the head of someone sitting in the pew in front of them. First century Christians were participants, not spectators in worship.

Gifts exercised in a small group

The only context that nurtures New Testament balance, order and freedom in exercising gifts is a small group setting. In this type of group, few are tempted to play to the gallery (at least not after the first time) because no one can escape spiritual admonition if they use a gift in a carnal and unspiritual way. But freedom is also there for God's Spirit to pour out His gifts through His people.

Experience God in a small group

The church can't experience God, as in the first century, without the basic structure of the New Testament church. Part of the suffocation of the Spirit comes because the church has abandoned the small group community design of the church through which Jesus promised to be with us. From personal experience, I believe the cure for academic dryness in our souls is to meet Christ with two or three Christian brothers and sisters as the church, His body. Likewise, the answer for detached emotionalism that misuses and abuses spiritual gifts is the same-accountability in a small group.

Meeting our own limitations

We need the New Testament design of the church, meeting together as the "whole church" and as the "home church." We need both, not because of some limitation on God's part, but because of our own limitation when experiencing God. The small group setting keeps reminding us of the nearness of God, of His care, of His intimate comfort. It provides warm and caring community where Christ is in our midst and we are bonded together in our mutual pains and joys.

Identifying a cell church

If you want to understand and identify a cell church, look at the cells. The small group defines a cell church. Everything that happens in a cell church-the weekly celebrations, harvest events, training and equipping retreats, camps, meetings for oversight-exists to support the cells. Everything relates out from and back to the basic cell community.

Eat the banana

How can the taste of a banana be described to a person who has never seen one? To truly understand how a banana tastes, at some point the descriptions must become experiential. It is best to peel the banana, give it to the person and say, "Here, taste it for yourself." Even with these definitions and illustrations, you may still wonder what the cell church looks like. This is normal because, like the taste of a banana, the church is something we can only know experientially. No matter how much we understand the church theologically and academically, the one who best understands the definition of a "cell church" is the one most involved in experiencing it. The cell church is not something to simply study and analyze. At some point, our definition of church must be experienced and lived out.

Meeting Christ in the cell group

The church can't experience God, as in the first century, without the basic structure of the New Testament church. Part of the suffocation of the Spirit comes because the church has abandoned the small group community design of the church through which Jesus promised to be with us. From personal experience, I believe the cure for academic dryness in our souls is to meet Christ with two or three Christian brothers and sisters as the church, His body. Likewise, the answer for detached emotionalism that misuses and abuses spiritual gifts is the same-accountability in a small group.

New Testament design

We need the New Testament design of the church, meeting together as the "whole church" and as the "home church." We need both, not because of some limitation on God's part, but because of our own limitation when experiencing God. The small group setting keeps reminding us of the nearness of God, of His care, of His intimate comfort. It provides warm and caring community where Christ is in our midst and we are bonded together in our mutual pains and joys.

Our only agenda, Jesus

What is the agenda of cell groups? He is! Jesus, Himself, is the agenda. He is the one essential factor in the life of His called-out community on earth. You may have tried focusing on worship, ministry, therapy, discipleship, Bible Study, or evangelism in an effort to duplicate the dynamic of New Testament small group life. These approaches might work for one meeting or for a short time, but they will not sustain the dynamic growth and power of the New Testament church over a long period. Burnout is sure to come when the focus is on anything other than Christ.

Christ in the midst

Christ in the midst of His people is the one dynamic that can't be duplicated in any other type of group. This is unique. No other group expects this, prepares for it, or claims it. Only groups that live in the presence, power and purpose of Christ as their intentional focus will experience the incarnate, indwelling, resurrected and living presence of Christ in their midst. These are Christ-groups just as surely as I am a Christ-ian.

A new church paradigm

No matter how clear the vision, most people only enter into significant change which offers some practical benefit over their present methods. The cell church paradigm is not only a good idea, it is also beneficial and workable. It solves many of the problems we have struggled with over the years.

Community: the reason for cells

Because community can occur most completely only in small groups, a cell group, numbering less than 15 people, is all important. Essential elements of community include interpersonal commitments and a sense of belonging. Community takes place when there is a shared life, allowing common goals and commitments to develop between all of its members.

In The Different Drum, M. Scott Peck writes:

If we are to use the word [community] meaningfully, we must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to "rejoice together, mourn together," and to "delight in each other, make others' conditions our own." In the "kingdoms of this world" shaped by Satan, Christian community cannot exist. Only in the "Kingdom of God" can it be truly discovered. When Jesus went about announcing the "Gospel of the Kingdom," He was inviting fragmented humanity to enter into something it could not experience elsewhere. --from "Where Do We Go From Here?" by Ralph Neighbour, Jr.

Focus: evangelism!

Since the Christian life is caught, not taught, imagine the impact made in an environment where even the newest Christians are reaching out to others. In a traditional church, it's quite difficult for a newcomer to actually observe others involved in evangelism. In a cell group, the focus is placed on personal growth with a motive-winning the lost!

An alternative to "Bible Study"

Unfortunately, the study of the Bible seldom penetrates our value systems. It remains cognitive, focusing on knowledge and on a few "principles for living" we glean from it. Only when we meet with a deep sense of our life together as His Bride will we know how it makes us "one flesh," gloriously empowered to do His work in our world. The proper use of the Scripture will always be in its application to ministry.

Cell groups and spiritual gifts

The cells of Christ must never be viewed as social gatherings or cognitive groups which simply share emotional needs with some form of Bible study. They must function on the level of the Spirit, and that means they must operate through the activity of spiritual gifts.

Cell evangelism

Since the Christian life is caught, not taught, imagine the impact made in an environment where even the newest Christians are reaching out to others. In a traditional church, it's quite difficult for a newcomer to actually observe others involved in evangelism. In a cell group, the focus is placed on personal growth with a motive-winning the lost! .

Cell church and sharing Christ

A proper church life opens dimensions of evangelism not known in traditional church structures. The opportunity to first know an unbeliever in depth opens the way for the message of Christ to be inserted as a value, not just a piece of information. Bit by bit in the Share Group and in personal times together, the unbeliever begins to comprehend the joy of a life in Christ. He or she begins to question the Christian about spiritual truth, and the flow of reality begins. It continues through both discussion and observation.

The cell group church is a viable urban model

In many parts of the earth today, cities are being penetrated effectively by "Basic Christian Communities," the cell groups of churches which bury themselves within the kingdoms of this world. This is precisely what Jesus meant when He said, The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Matt. 13:33)

Penetrating the kingdoms of Satan

Satan has done his cruelest work by shaping his kingdoms with the lie that splendor will be awarded to those who are loyal to him. Along with the search for significance comes alienation from others. Whether the pressure leads to drugs, alcohol, depression, or becoming a workaholic, lack of intimacy is always the result. We, who have been called from darkness into light, are their only hope. The church must penetrate these kingdoms by developing cells that will touch these unreached ones.

Christ touches me through you

Our Lord could have chosen to minister to each one of us apart from others, but He chose one or more persons to become agents of gifts that would minister to us. This requires participants in the cell group church to use spiritual gifts in all phases of ministry to build up one another.

Cells and the authority of scripture

My strong objection to turning cell group gatherings into Bible studies is that they replace the time when a reciprocal relationship in the Christian community should take place with another cognitive activity. When the cells meet it should be for edification, not teaching. Of course, there must be strong biblical teaching before the cells meet. The cells must operate under the authority of Scripture previously received, but the gatherings must be for edification. Those who gather under the shadow of Scripture will be guided by what they have previously learned. They now meet with the intention that "Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Agents of grace

The point is crucial: one must hear God before speaking for Him. Strengthening, encouraging, and comforting one another in the cell group is to be done as each person becomes a direct agent of Christ's grace. The Holy Spirit's ministry in every participant is the source of the gifts we bring to one another.

About Oikos

To fully understand the importance of the cell group church, we must consider the word oikos, a Greek term that describes the basic building block of society. It appears throughout the New Testament and refers to the personal community, which exists for us all. It is translated into English as house or household. For example, in Acts 16:31, Paul and Silas used it when they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household." The oikoses each of us lives within are not large. We may know several dozen, even several hundred, people, but quality time spent with others is extremely limited--and only those to whom we devote quality time can be said to be a part of our oikos, our personal community.

The Holy Spirit in the cell group

The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer begins to take on a pattern. First, we were sealed by Him. We were simultaneously baptized by Him both into Christ and also the Body of Christ. He is the provider of spiritual gifts to each believer for the common good. He further directs the use of these gifts when the group assembles in such a powerful way that the observing unbeliever declares "God is certainly among you."

The cell group is the believer's gateway into gifts

There is no better place for spiritual gifts to be developed than in cell groups. All necessary conditions are present for the gifts to be received and used for edification. Needs present in the lives of the believers and the small size of the group make it possible for all present to exercise gifts for building up one another in the Spirit. The modeling of the proper use of gifts can protect new believers from absurd excesses.

The Listening Room

Before spiritual gifts can be properly manifested in cell groups for building up one another, believers must have a Listening Room and must know how to hear the voice of God. The physical location is not as significant as the event. The believer must not only talk to the Lord Jesus in prayer, but also hear from Him in the process. Christ must provide edification before the believer can use it. Otherwise, the "building up" in the cell meeting is nothing more than the activity of the flesh.

Cell, prayer and being sent

Contemplative prayer is communion with a sphere that is beyond the world we know, but that communion makes possible an authentic, healing community in the here and now into which people can come and be renewed and find out what it is they are supposed to be doing…..it is about being commissioned. It is going some place because one is sent, and then it is being a contemplative person in that place until one knows or is told what to do next. Much of our unease comes from not knowing where we are supposed to be…..Whatever our path, we do not feel right inside. The same dilemma is evident in the church's corporate life…..she is engaged without having been sent.

Meeting basic needs

Because the cell meets all the basic needs of the believer, it replaces the many "programs" that go on inside the traditional church. A cell group church has no Sunday School, Training Hour, Visitation Night, Midweek Prayer Service, or any of the other formal services which comprise other church calendars. In place of this, each cell becomes a true community, an "extended family unit" for Christians. A cell group church sees no need for other programs. Its basic needs are met in the cell groups. Adding further activities to its life dissipates the focus of believers and becomes counterproductive.

Cells provide true community

At one time, all people lived in family groupings. We now live among neighbors we barely know, where there are all sorts of beliefs, habits, and attitudes. In the cell group church, a strong focus is placed upon the development of relationships. People become responsible for, and to, each other. They sing, "Bind us together, Lord! Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken; bind us together with love." There is a deep-as-life sense of belonging to one another in the cell group church. That only exists when the group is small enough for intimacy to happen. All realize they are not there simply for themselves or their own sanctification, but for others who have parched hearts.

Community: the reason for cells

One may well be justified in wondering whether our Lord saw the church as anything, ever, larger than a cell group capable of experiencing true community. He Himself could have created large group structures: He never did. It was enough to address 5000; He chose to live with 12. He did not ignore the crowds, but he focused his energy on developing a small group. The basic building block of the Body, which would be inhabited by Jesus, would be composed of cells, not masses of people who do not experience community.

Community with a purpose

I am convinced community can flourish only if it exists for an aim outside itself. Community is viable if it is the outgrowth of a deep involvement in a purpose which is other than, or above, that of being a community.

About cell church | Cell church FAQ | More info