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A Basic Definition Of A Cell Church
A cell group based church is a church which tries to meet its objectives through small groups of people who form the basic building block of the church into
which non believers are absorbed through a network of relationships. The high point of its life is the Sunday Celebration services which becomes an expression of the community life happening at cell level. Its
resources and effort are focused on equipping the whole body of believers, in cells, to be growing and reaching out. In this kind of church, staff are charged with the responsibility of enabling every individual
Christian rather than provide and organise programmes and activities. Its strengths are that every member, young and old, is fully involved in the mission and objectives of the church, and that the church can
grow to a much greater size and still be caring. Its weaknesses are that it is harder to establish in the first instance and that it is often difficult to count what is happening.
Bible Foundations for the Cell Church
A Cell Church is both Cell and Celebration. In the same way that a biological cell is the basic building block of all living things so the
spiritual cell is the basic, essential building block of the cell church. In Cell Life, followers of Jesus edify one another and increase the kingdom by sharing their lives with each other and with unbelievers. New
leaders are raised up from within the group to grow and expand the ministry to the hurting world. When the group multiplies the process repeats itself.
This may sound very familiar. In fact, in the book of Acts we see church in both big meetings and in smaller "house to house" gatherings.
Both of these are "church", but for 100's of years our emphasis has been the larger way i.e. the Sunday congregation.
Even in churches that operate a home group system, the needs of the Sunday service generally take priority over the needs and focus of relationships
between people in small groups.
Jesus taught that the 2 main things to do in life were to love God + to love our neighbour (believers and non-believers).
It's hard to do this well if the main place to learn how to do it and to practice doing it is in large meetings. Clearly, it's difficult
to get to know people closely in large gatherings. Also only a small number of people can really participate - most are either just singing, listening, or at worst, just spectating.
Based on the idea of Jesus' small group of 12 followers, Cell church teaches that lasting changes in lifestyle occur
best through the relationships fostered in small group gatherings rather than in the large gatherings of Sunday services.
Therefore Cell Church puts resources into the development and life of cell groups.
The early church saw the importance of the home early on.
In Acts 2:46,47 we see that "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad
and sincere hearts". In fact, when Paul wrote his letters to the churches, they were really written to many small 'house churches' which made up the overall church in the city.
For example, he wrote "Greet Priscilla and Aquilla, greet also the church that is in their
house. Greet those of the house of Narcissus" (Romans 16:3,5,11). Again, in his letter to the Colossians "Greet Nympha & the church that is in her house" (Col 4:15). His instructions to
these 'home groups' or basic church units, were instructions to small groups of believers. They were the church he had in mind when he wrote his letters.
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