Cell Church
Cell church refers to a church structure based on the regular gathering of small groups. Rather than focus on a large Sunday service, cell churches focus on developing close relationships between members by meeting regulary in houses or smaller meeting places. A meeting may consist of a number of elements including reading of scripture, discussion, sharing, prayer and worship. Cells provide spiritual nourishment for members and encourage church growth by inviting guests. As with cells in the human body, when a cell grows beyond a normal size, the cell multiplies into two cells, and the cycle continues.
The Essence of a Cell Church
Any viable community, including cell churches, is bound together by love, support, loyalty of members, and a shared sense that it fufills an essential need in the life of its members. Traditional families normally provide these elements of community stemming from the natural biological dependence of children on their parents and the sense of love and responsibility biological parents feel towards their children. The cell church is like a family unit except its membership is voluntary rather than biological. It must provide essential community and spiritual nourishment or it will dissolve.
Traditional churches often perform this function. They are a source of spiritual community, and where no government infrastructure exists, often a source of welfare for those who are dependent on society. However, many traditional churches are too large to provide small group community and frequently bible study groups, youth groups, sewing circles, and other cell groups have informally organized within traditional churches to fill the need for close interpersonal community.
Reasons for Cell Churches
Loss of Community
Communities of 3-15 people are a size in which people can experience close personal interaction, share with one another, support one another, and develop open and honest communication. Traditional natural communities are rooted in the extended family, and among neighbors in sparesly inhabited areas. Large population shifts to urban areas leads to a breakdown of these traditional communal bonds because individuals migrating to cities for work find themselves alone and without traditional community support. A cell group in an urban area can therefore become a substitute for natural community.
Religious Intolerance
In many part of the world cell churches have developed where public worship is highly controlled or forbidden. Christianity in Maoist China is an example of where the number of Christians spread in the country even while churches were officially forbidden and repressed. Underground churches also flourished in Eastern Europe under communism.
Official state churches are often a source of religious intoleration as well. Monopoly on religious doctrine is frequently used in collusion with government officials in an effort to perpetuate a status quo. In Latin America, base communities were organized among the poorest groups of people by priests desiring to lift people out of dire poverty. The liberation theology used by some of these base communities was frequently condemned by both political regimes and the Vatican. Cardinal Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, condemned liberation theology as heretical in the 1970s.
Failure of Traditional Churches
The failure of traditional churches is frequently cited by promoters of cell churches.[1] There are many reasons for failure of traditional churches, which include:
- Lack of experience or charisma of the pastor.
- Doctrine that appears obsolete.
- Lack of flexibility of the denomination.
- Church boards stifle pastor creativity.
- Demographic changes in the neighborhood.
When traditional churches fail to provide community and spiritual resources to members, they will seek alternative sources. In areas where several cell churches are active, the members may hold a Sunday service as an extension of the cells, thereby creating a new traditional-type church.
Success of Traditional Churches
Traditional churches that have experienced tremendous growth due to the success of their ministry become too large to provide a community experience. Such churches include those which broadcast services over wide areas like Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral, or the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea which has over 800,000 members. People want to remain members of these churches to affiliate with their mission but yet enjoy the community found in traditional churches or othe cell churches. Cell churches form a necessary and integral part of the overall structure of a successful megachurch.
Megachurches that work on a traditional worship pattern with one or more weekly services, including the Sunday morning service, operate cell churches as an extension of these worship activities. These cell church meetings are primarily bible study meetings with discussion and sharing, but can work as a group-focused evangelism program, or other activities based on a common interest.
Cell structure
There are a number of structures used to organise multiple cells within a church.
The G-12 Structure is one of the ways cell churches care for cell leaders. It consists of a leadership cell ideally consisting of 12 people who each facilitate their own cell, traditionally a group of 4 to 7 people.
Notes
- ^ For example, Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: A Guidebook for the Cell Group Church (Houston, TX: Touch Publications, 2000), pp. 32-40, 57-77, ISBN 1880828170
External links
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