A cell church is a church where the main focus of ministry happens in small groups
called cells. Unchurched friends are invited to the cell. Most of the teaching happens in
cell. Relationships are built in the cell which allow people to hold each other accountable
and encourage spiritual growth.
Each cell in a cell church is a church all its own. On Sundays the cells gather for large
group worship, but the worship time is just a time of collective worship, not the main focus
of the church.
Why make cells the main focus of the church?
The generations coming up have known more broken relationships than any other
generations in the history of the world. They need the solid relationships that cells offer
before they will trust us enough to listen to what we have to say about God.
In addition, the current young adult generation has lost faith in institutions of any kind.
They don't believe the public school system is working, they don't trust our government,
and they don't believe the institutional church is relevant to their lives. They will, however,
respond to a non-traditional model of church that focuses on relationships.
Also, if you read the book of Acts you will find that this is the way the early church
built the church. Acts 2.46-47 says that the early church met in homes and large gatherings.
Philemon 1.2 clearly states that a group that met in a home was considered a church.
What do you do with the children while the cell meeting is going on?
We have them join in the group. The children will of course play and talk together, but
we also have them take part in the discussion. The scripture is read and the children are
asked the first discussion questions.
This does several things. First, we teach our children. Teaching our children about
God is not the responsibility of the Sunday School teacher, it is our responsibility.
A great bonus is that parents who don't normally teach their children about biblical things
see other Christian parents modeling the Christian training of their children. These are often
good Christians who know they need to be teaching their kids about God, but feel weird
about how to start.
Another thing this does is gives guests a non-threatening arena in which they can have
basic questions about Christianity answered without feeling ignorant. We live in a society
where many people know absolutely nothing about Christianity. In the past even
unchurched people knew that Jesus died on a cross to pay for the sins of the world. Now
we can't assume that people know anything about God.
