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INTRODUCTION

It is a familiar scene; an attractive young couple comes into a pastor’s office to

talk about scheduling a baptism for their newborn child who is with her grandmother for

the evening. They sit down in at the small conference table in the church office. The

instructional materials, congregational policy, register paperwork, along with two Bibles

are set out for them. The pastor notices their long glances at the Bibles sitting before

them. The couple seems tense; they are in unfamiliar territory. The pastor tries to put

them at ease with a warm smile and some small talk, but when he invites the couple to

pray, they nervously bow their heads bringing their chins to their chests, their elbows

close to their sides and folding their tense hands. The pastor prays a short prayer of

welcoming and thanksgiving for this couple. At its conclusion, there is a long exhale

from both young parents. They give the same exact exhale as when they receive their flu

shot.

As the pastor then begins to explain the Lutheran understanding of baptism, the

couple is intrigued. They love their baby and they joyfully receive the Good News that

she will be connected to Christ forever. When the pastor directs the couple to the Bible

to show them that this is fundamental to the Christian faith, the tension completely

returns. The pastor announces that they will read a passage from the third and fourth

chapters of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The young man and woman fumble

nervously with the Bible searching the Old Testament until the pastor announces that

they can find the passage on page 1001 of the Bibles before them. As they turn to the

page, the pastor points out the exact paragraph by placing his arm across the table and

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showing the husband where the passage is. Both husband and wife are ashamed. He

went to Catholic schools as a child and she was a daughter of this very congregation.

They both feel they should have known more.

There can be another scene. Nine people gathered in a living room of a small

starter house of a couple in their thirties. They are of diverse ages. There are some

children playing in the finished basement. The people gathered talk about how their day

was and how their week is going. After a few minutes, a middle-aged woman leads the

people in song of praise and a small liturgy. The group then sits down and the young

father who lives in this house begins to lead a Bible study on the biblical text their pastor

preached on the previous Sunday. They discuss how this text applies to the experiences

and life they are living today. As questions about the text arise, they consult the sheet

provided by their pastor, which provides some historical and literary background

information about the text.

After about 20 minutes with the text, the young mother who lives in the house

begins to ask people for their prayer requests for the evening. She announces that their

first prayers will be for the young couple that is here for the first time. They plan to have

their daughter baptized at the church and the pastor asked them to come to this meeting as

part of their preparation for the sacrament. The infant carrier sits on the floor next to the

sofa where they are sitting. The people gathered all congratulate the couple and welcome

them to their community. The group presents the couple with a Bible; there is a personal

message from each person present inside the front cover. The leader then gives them a

copy of Luther’s Small Catechism, and asks the people present to read the section on

baptism with the couple. Some others share about their own child’s baptism. They

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conclude the gathering with prayer and they lay hands on the new couple; they are

moved. As they are walking out to go home they comment on how they have never felt

this way before at church and they are glad.

As I have ministered in New Jersey these past 13 years, I have met countless

people like the couple described in the opening paragraph above. Many people who are

coming to our congregations are coming from diverse backgrounds, but they all seem to

have one thing in common, a basic unfamiliarity with traditional Christian practices such

as daily prayer, Bible reading, witness, serving, and giving. Alongside this phenomenon,

there is a feeling that our lives are becoming more isolated all the time. Even as

communication technology breeds, an exponential number of new ways for people

communicate it seems that people are becoming more distant from each other. Facebook,

My Space, Twitter, text and email are no substitute for a direct look in the eye, or gentle

and comforting handshake, as they share a story of meaning face to face.

A pastor’s attraction to the cell group method would come from two basic needs

of ministry: the first being to invite and encourage people to come into community with

Christ and others, the second to help equip people to grow in their relationship with Jesus

Christ. Students of theology who wish to see how church structure informs our

theological thinking should be attracted to the theological implications of being the

church in this way. Ordinary people are attracted to the possibility of having purposeful

and powerful relationships with others centered in Jesus Christ.

Cell groups are no mere program of the church they are an intentional way to

structure the church to be a community in Christ. They represent an attempt to build a

more horizontal or bottom up way of being the church than the dominant approach in

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most churches.1 Whether this attempt succeeds or not is an open question that will not be

addressed in this study. The vision of community laid out by those who espouse cell

groups will be examined to see how it might help us structure our churches in a way that

helps people encounter the present Christ.

If this structure can foster genuine Christian community then it demands a fair

hearing and viewing. Lutherans confess “(I)t is enough for the true unity of the church to

agree concerning the teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. It

is not necessary that human traditions, rites, or ceremonies, instituted by human beings be

alike everywhere.”2 How we organize, our communities should be open for discussion so

long as they are centered in Christ present in Word and Sacrament. We should regularly

reflect on whether or not our congregational structures help us proclaim and teach the

Gospel (enthusiastically!) and administer the sacraments rightly (& lovingly!). In 1526,

Martin Luther wishing to consolidate the work of the Reformation within the structure of

the congregation3 expressed such a desire by writing in his “German Mass and Order of

Service”

The third kind of service should be a truly evangelical order and should not be held in

a public place for all sorts of people. But those who want to be Christians in earnest

and who profess the gospel with hand and mouth should sign their names and meet

alone in a house somewhere to pray, to read, to baptize, to receive the sacrament, and

to do other Christian works.

In short, if one had the kind of people and persons who wanted to be Christians in

earnest, the rules and regulations would soon be ready. But as yet I neither can nor

desire to begin such a congregation or assembly or to make rules for it. For I have not

yet the people or persons for it, nor do I see many who want it. But if I should be

1 Neighbour, Ralph, Where Do We Go From Here? A Guidebook for the Cell Group Church, (Houston:

Touch Publications, 2000), 67-69. 2Kolb, Robert, & Timothy Wengert, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran

Church, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000), 43. 3 Schwarz, Reinhard, Luther, (Göttingen: Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 1986), 164.

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requested to do it and could not refuse with a good conscience, I should gladly do my

part and help as best I can.4

As it was in Luther’s day there may indeed be a chasm between the vision of the church,

as it should be and the reality of the church we actually live in. This does not make

striving for the ideal of a more intentional and intensive Christian community any less

compelling. As faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we must proceed forward in hope. We

should never forget despite the fact that our communities are oft broken and barely

functional at times that that is not the point. The point is Jesus, who is met and lived with

in community as we gather in the company of our sisters and brothers in the faith.

4 Luther, Martin, Luther's Works, Vol. 53: Liturgy and Hymns, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald

and Helmut T. Lehmann, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1965), 63.

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CHAPTER 1:

THE CELL VISION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

Cell group ministry is a very special and unique way for Christians to minister to

one another. What differentiates cell ministry from all other types of ministry that may

go on in a particular church such as Bible study, Sunday school, youth group, service,

and outreach ministries, is that each cell sees itself as the Body of Christ. Each cell is an

intentional expression of the Body of Christ in the home where it meets. Each cell is not

only part of the wider church-- it is church. The cell is a way to experience the church;

more accurately is a way for the assembled believers to be the church.5 If indeed the cell

is church, then Jesus Christ is present with, among, and as the cell. In his Berlin lectures

of 1933 Dietrich Bonhoeffer proclaimed “Just as Christ is present as Word and in the

Word as sacrament and in the sacrament, so he is present as Church in the Church.”6

Thus, the term “cell” reveals what these groups are supposed to be. If the church

is the living Body of Christ, it must be an organism, therefore just as cells make up

organisms so the Body of Christ must have component cells. It also describes how the

groups should grow. An organism grows through cell division, so does the Body of

Christ.7 This division not only accounts for the growth of the cells but also for their

eventual death. Cells will die just as they do in any organism. Unlike most ministries

that do not account for the decline of the ministry, the cell church understands that death

is part of the process of ministry as groups are intentionally encouraged to disband if they

are not growing after a certain period.8

5 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 9-10. 6 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Christ the Center, (New York : Harper and Row, 1966), 58. 7 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 86. 8Boren, M. Scott, Making Cell Groups Work: Navigating the Transformation to a Cell Based Church,

(Houston: Cell Groups Resources, 2002), 140-141.

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The cell church sees communities in biological terms. Just as an organism must

have diverse types of all its cells to function so must the Body of Christ.9 The cells

realize that they are not self-contained units of the church but rather that they are diverse

parts of a larger structure of church life.10 Additionally as organisms have more than one

function so does the cell. The cell group way of being the body Christ is holistic in

nature. Each cell is a holistic part of the larger church and necessarily has more than one

function. While cell groups fellowship, they are more than a fellowship. While cell

groups study the Bible, they are more than a Bible study. While cell groups minister,

they are more than a ministry. While cell groups pray, they are more than a prayer group.

By doing some of each, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

The vision for cell groups is that they will be communities in Christ that are tied

together to form the Body of Christ. Those who look to the cell model of the church

advocate what they see as a different way of being the church that is a more vibrant

alternative to the ways that we are being the church today. They argue that this way of

being church is a simply an attempt to reform the church to be structured more faithfully

to our scriptural witness of what the church should be.

The contrast is that between a church that tries to build community and the church

that tries to run programs. Cell church advocate and missionary Ralph Neighbour argues

that American Christian churches regardless of denominational affiliation have lost their

way because of they have been built around the execution of program whereas Scripture

calls us to be part of community (koinonia) in Christ.11 There is no inherent problem

with programs; there is only a problem when people promote programs as an end in and

9 1st Corinthians 12: 4-31. 10 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 223. 11 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 65-70.

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of themselves. Healthy and faithful ministry programs should always be a means to an

end, which is community in Christ. Programs can lead us astray when they become idols

and therefore an end in and of themselves.

In contrast, because cell groups are communities specifically built to encounter

Christ, they more effectively approximate the goal of the church to provide Christian

community. This is because in the cell group the prime criterion is the encounter with

Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. The cell vision uses a structure of small gatherings

of Christians to be the means to the end of community in Christ. Its only goal is the

corporate encounter with the triune God. Growth in numbers of believers attending the

church, or the edification of disciples, is an outgrowth of the encounter with Christ in the

cell community. However, the first focus is always being “in Christ”.

There is always a difference between the vision and the reality, which it attempts

to describe. This is certainly true of the cell vision at times. There will also always be

gaps and blind spots in the vision. One must remember that the people who make up the

community of the cell church are simultaneously sinners and saints. However, the cell

church movement has something to witness to the wider church about what it means to be

members of Christ’s body.

The History: a Burned-out Pastor and the Book of Acts

In 1964 pastor David Yongii Cho was the pastor of a 2400 member church in

Seoul South Korea. That year he underwent a physical, psychological, emotional, and

spiritual breakdown due to his exhaustion of trying to minister to this congregation and to

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satisfy his own personal ambition for that church to grow. 12 As he wrestled with what

God was doing in his life, he was led to the book of Acts. He began to understand that

the church should never be dependent on the personal ministry of an individual pastor.

The church should be a place where “God’s servants are given to the church to equip the

lay people so that the lay people can carry out the ministry both inside and outside the

church.”13 The orientating verses for his vision were Acts 2:46-47 “Day by day, as they

spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with

glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And

day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (NRSV)

Pastor Cho saw that there was more to a vibrant church life than corporate

worship alone, there also had to be a place for more intimate gatherings where one could

live out their faith on a daily basis in their own homes. Therefore, he decided to

commission the deacons of his church to hold church in their houses. They would still

gather for the corporate worship on Sunday but they would meet during the week in the

homes of the church leaders for worship, study, prayer and ministry. 14 The two-part

pattern of small cell meetings combined with a corporate celebration would become one

of the hallmarks of cell group ministry.

Through many challenges, the church had released the God-given growth

potential of the laity over the succeeding years. By 1980, The Central Full Gospel

Church had over 8000 cell groups and exceeded 100,000 members. The church currently

has over 25,000 groups and a membership over 250,000 people making it the largest

individual protestant congregation in the world. Pastors from around the world went to

12 Cho, David Yongii, Successful Home Cell Groups, (Gainesville Fl: Bridge Logos, 1981), 4-6. 13 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 16. 14 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 18-19.

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Korea to learn the model. Huge cell churches sprang up in other places around the world.

Cell churches in Bogotá Columbia, the Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Ecuador, India, and

Singapore to name a few would duplicate the exponential growth found in Korea. By

some estimates, as many as 75 million Christians participate in cell groups worldwide.15

Naturally, such dramatic growth drew people’s attention and there was a rush to

embrace the model of the cell church as a magical way to enable exponential

congregational member growth. For the most part the pastors from the United States who

would go to Korea to learn the model would have a different experience. What happened

when most of them returned to the United States and tried to adopt the model was that it

did not work as expected. They faced misunderstandings and opposition in parishes as

well as within denominational structures.16

What had actually happened was quite easy to see. Many churches adopted Cho’s

model of the cell church unreflectively. They forgot the simple maxim that the context

matters. The model that works in one context will probably not work in another if it is

adopted unreflectively.17 People also did not critically examine where the barriers to

implementation might be. They were naively unaware that people who had a stake in

current structures of ministry would want to hold on to their ways of doing ministry that

they were used to and had sometimes served them well. People were used to behaving as

the church in certain ways and for many the cell church was far removed from what they

had experienced as church. As a result, some who advocated cell churches began to argue

15 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 17.

The International Charismatic Mission of Bogotá is the second largest individual protestant congregation

in the world with over 20,000 cell groups. 16 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 27. 17 Schwarz, Christian, Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy

Churches, VI Edition, (St. Charles IL: Church Smart, 2003), 17.

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that one should concentrate solely on new church plants as it is easier to build from the

ground up rather than transform an existing congregation.18

For many others the vision of the cell church as genuine community in Christ

would not die. What slowly started to happen during the 1990’s is that churches of

nearly every denomination and theological persuasion began to experiment with cell

groups in one form or another. They began to use the principles espoused by the cell

church movement and apply them in their context. Many churches then began see new

life as they adopted the principles of the cell church rather than simply copying the

model. Indeed many evangelical and mainline congregations proved quite capable of

applying the principles in new and creative ways.19 Other small group systems would

spring from this well. Although not cell groups per se they were influenced by the cell

movement, the most well known of these is the meta-church model. 20

What are Cell Groups?

At first glance, cell groups seem to be simple to define. The standard definition is

that of a group of 4-15 people who meet in homes for edification, fellowship and prayer.

Indeed many churches today have thriving small group ministries. Cell groups differ

from other small group structures in that congregations who use this concept see that each

cell group is a fundamental building block of the congregation. The cell concept fosters a

structure where congregants can experience Christian community one relationship at a

18 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 73-74. 19 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 28. 20 French, David, A Case Study of the Home Cell Group Approach in a Small Suburban Church,

(Memphis, TN: DMin diss. Harding University Graduate School of Religion, 1995), 30.

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time on a basic level. The small groups are not seen as a program or component of a

congregation’s ministry; they are seen as being an identical expression of the ministry of

the entire congregation. Each cell group meeting thus becomes an intentional ministry

point of the congregation. 21

The over-arching goal of the cell is to build up believers so that they can reach

out. Both sides of the equation need to be present in order for a thriving cell ministry to

develop. If only concerned about building up the individual the groups become atrophied

and too close knit. The groups therefore eventually stagnate and die. If the groups only

focus on bringing new people in, they lose the opportunity for real and sustainable

growth and quickly fly apart. 22 For this reason, churches that wish to experiment with

cell groups must be intentional about making sure that groups both build up and reach

out.

“The cell agenda in a nutshell is to fulfill the greatest of all the commandments: to

love one another. To love one another inside (edify) the cell must minister. To

love one another outside (evangelize) the cell must multiply… The cell is both

inward looking and outward looking. It seeks to help each cell member grow into

ministry. Most of all however, is the importance of the group being outward

looking, bringing Christ into the lives of un-reached people” 23

The combined principle of edification/ evangelism is one of the most important

underlying characteristics of multiplying cell churches. A simple way cell churches

facilitate this within small group meetings is with the concept of the open chair. This is

just an empty chair that tells people there is always room for one more. On a deeper

level, the empty chair becomes the open chair because it is an object of focus and prayer

reminding people that the group is always a public one. It means that the group is

21 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 20-21. 22 Hadaway, C. Kirk, Home Cell Groups and House Churches, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987), 113. 23 Geok, Ong Swee & Ralph W. Neighbor, Cell Leaders Guidebook, (Singapore: Touch Outreach

Ministries, 1994), 20.

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always ready for the outsider to come in, always ready to help a stranger in need, and

therefore always has a place open for God.24 If the group is open for God, it is open “for

you”. Personal story and witness actually make the open chair possible. “When a home

cell meeting is full of life, and when people are happy and sharing their faith and

witnessing to what the Lord has done in their lives, other people are drawn to them…

they want to know why this little group of Christians is so joyful when around them are

so many troubles.”25

The edification /evangelism principle is not merely a goal or orientation but a

process that happens both within the individual believer and within the corporate life of

the group. Cell group strategists describe this process spatially as upward, inward,

outward, and forward. The groups first come together to worship God, so they focus

upward through prayer. They then work on the relationships within the group and focus

inward so that they start to care for each other both in the group and in daily life. The

groups then focus outward because they understand that God has placed them together

for the sake of the world so that they can help lost people become disciples. Finally, the

groups move forward when they learn how to listen to and follow Christ on a deeper level

of discipleship. The forward focus involves following the example of Christ and other

Christians and then mentoring others to follow Christ more closely. “Because true

disciples make other disciples”26

To facilitate the upward, inward, outward, forward process, cell groups are

intentionally structured in a holistic fashion. A typical meeting will contain four

24 Donahue, Bill & Russ Robinson, The Seven Deadly Sins of Sins of Small Group Ministry, (Grand Rapids

MI: Zondervan, 2002), 129-130. 25 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 56. 26 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 134-38.

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components; the most common arrangement is called “the four W’s” which includes

portions designated for welcome, worship, Word, and work (or witness). The goal of the

welcome portion is to build relationships within the group. The goal of the worship

portion is to bond and strengthen one’s relation to God. The goal of the Word portion is

to determine God’s will for the life of the individual and the group so that both are built

up. The goal of the work portion is outreach. This portion begins with intercessory

prayer and moves to service with the goal of building new relationships with those

outside the group or working on some ministry task.27

The edification/ evangelism principle is also secured by monitoring the life of the

cell though accountability and oversight. Cell groups are arranged into a covenantal

system with direct oversight by the pastor and an appointed leadership team. Each lay

cell group leader serves at the pastor’s discretion alone and must belong to a leadership

team. At their weekly meetings, they report on the life of the cell and receive feedback,

support, and training. The pastor and the leadership team direct the overall life of the

cells and develop or choose the curricula used at the all the cell meetings.28

The groups and leaders are arranged into an oversight structure. Section leaders

are assigned for every five groups to monitor the quality of cell life in each and provide

support for them to thrive. Five section leaders are formed into a team and are

monitored by a zone pastor who is on the paid ministry staff. In midsized cell churches,

zone pastors would report directly to the senior pastor. In larger and mega- cell churches

five zone pastors will meet as a team under the supervision of a district pastor who

reports to the senior pastor. The system is designed to reach a consensus of the whole

27 Geok, Cell Leaders Guidebook, 20-21. 28 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 45-51.

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under the vision of the senior pastor who is called to hold the community together by

safeguarding the vision and mission of the congregation 29

Accountability is also maintained by the fact that groups are allowed to die if they

are no longer growing. Most cell churches encourage cells to think about disbanding if

they have not had any new members within a certain period. If they choose to continue,

they receive coaching and direction to try to restart the life of the cell. Usually one can

see if the group is stagnating or not by assessing the life of the cell after six months.

Most often, if a cell does not multiply within one year it is never likely to do so.30

In addition to the edification / evangelism tension, a second tension is the

cell/celebration dynamic. The cells must see that they are part of the larger whole. The

cell meeting never supplants Sunday worship. The goal is to have each cell member

attending worship as well as the cell, and each worship attendee participates in cell life so

that the cell becomes the primary (in some cases exclusive) entry point in to the

congregation. In addition thriving cell churches also encourage people to participate in

congregation-wide equipping events (educational) and harvest (evangelism) events. 31

Most intentionally planted Cell churches will require all members of the church to

be cell members. Churches that are transitioning into the cell model will often differ with

this requirement until the cell movement within the congregation has reached enough

momentum. Others never fully embrace the cell model for this reason. The largest cell

church in the world Yoido Full Gospel in Seoul Korea has a formal cell membership

29 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 45-46.

Dr. Cho’s system is commonly called the “5x5” structure. Another system used in many cell churches is

called the “groups of twelve” (G-12). In this system, the leaders of 12 cell teams are part of a leadership

team supervised by a team leader who is often a paid congregational staff member. 30 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work 140-41. 31 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 223-24.

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requirement for all members of the congregation.32 Even though some churches trying

to build community through cell groups may not yet have a formal cell membership

requirement, all cell churches emphasize that small or cell group participation is the just

as important to the life of the believer than attendance in the corporate worship service.

Most cell systems start with a unified curriculum to balance the unity of the

church with the diversity of the cells. In Korea, Dr. Cho provides all the cells with a

standard text for all the cells to guard against the groups wandering away from the rest of

the community. The Word portion becomes the anchor that connects the groups together

with a common theme.33 Many cell churches introduce this theme and text in the sermon

each week before the cells dive in during their meetings. The goal is not for the groups to

rehash or repeat the sermon. Each leader is expected to plan and prepare a lesson that

meets the contextual needs of her or his cell. The goal is that the Word is applied to the

daily lives of those attending the cell.34

The Cell group as a Building Block of Basic Christian Community

Each cell is seen as a building block of basic Christian community. Cell life

becomes the central way people engage the community. This is at times controversial for

traditionally structured churches as this aspect stands in opposition to the core values of a

Christendom mindset.35 Many mainline churches over the years have emphasized the

32 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 46. 33 Cho, Successful Home Cell Groups, 109. 34 Comiskey, Joel, How to Lead a Great Cell Group Meeting so People Want to Come Back, (Houston: Cell

Group Resources, 2001), 35. 35 Frost, Michael & Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st

Century Church, (Peabody MA: Hendrickson, 2003), 8.

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corporate communal life (main worship gathering) of the congregation over the intimate

communal life (small group) and the personal (one on one). Healthy Christian

communities should emphasize all three ways of being in community. Each way of being

in community has an effect on the health of the entire community. The presence of

holistic small groups is one the eight quality characteristics of healthy churches

determined by the church researcher Christian Schwarz, and this characteristic has been

shown to be the one most strongly linked to overall church health, because small groups

become microcosms of the whole church.36 Intentional relationships on all three levels

will help the individual Christian and the health of the community as a whole.

Thus cell groups are not only about themselves; they are about how each of the

groups and therefore each of the individuals that make up that group fit into the larger

whole. They are an intentional attempt to balance both unity and diversity. Dr. Cho

explains his commitment to both unity and diversity.

The size, the strength, and the influence of our congregation is not isolated from

the overall Church of Jesus Christ, nor is it isolated from a denomination. We are

in full fellowship with the Church universal and with our denomination, but first

and foremost we are a local church…I am demonstrating that the system of home

cell groups works within the local church and within established denominations.37

Therefore in many ways cell groups are a structure to help bridge the tensions between

discipleship and evangelism, between groups within the congregation and the

congregation as a whole, between the unity we have in Christ and the diversity of our

gifts, talents and experiences. It is in these tensions where we see the promise of cell

36 Schwarz, Christian, Paradigm Shift in the Church: How Natural Church Development Can Transform

Theological Thinking, (St. Charles IL: Church Smart, 1999), 170-71. 37 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 86-87.

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ministry. We also see in them the challenges that need to be overcome if we are to be

more fully connected to each other and the Triune God as the Body of Christ.

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CHAPTER 2:

CORRESPONDING VISIONS OF BIBLICAL COMMUNITIES

Since the cell movement and method is all about building community in Christ it

becomes important to see how it corresponds to other examples of the faithful living in

community with God and each other. The New Testament authors wrote the gospels,

histories, letters, and revelations in order to be read to Christians living in communion

with Christ and their brothers and sisters in the faith. While we do not act out of an

impulse to restart an ideal community that is unjustified by the texts,38 we do need to look

at the principles, values, virtues, and the faithful witness of the communities reflected in

Scripture. As Scripture is the source and norm for Christian living we are called to

examine how our contemporary communities are both being faithful to the Spirit of the

biblical vision of community and how we may have diverted from the vision laid out for

us by Jesus and his faithful disciples. Cell groups have some very strong correlations to

the communities represented in the New Testament. We will briefly examine some of

them and show how biblical virtues of community are represented in the modern cell

group movement.

The Spirit Filled Communities (ekklhsia) of Acts

Acts charts the birth, rise, and growth of the church so it is the logical starting

point for those who seek to understand the nature of Christian community from the

Scriptural witness. Indeed, it was written for this very purpose. The evangelist Luke

38Willimon, William H., Acts: Interpretation a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Atlanta:

John Knox, 1988), 109.

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paints an idealized portrait of the early church for the purpose of “formation and

equipment of disciples.”39 All the events of the early church described in Acts serve this

purpose. One learns not so much about how the church actually may have lived

historically but rather how the church of Luke’s day would like to be perceived and what

core virtues it holds dear. To this end, Luke sets out to show how God has the potential

to act in the lives of both individuals and communities.

The Holy Spirit is therefore the key agent in the unfolding drama of the

development of the early church. This gives the reader of Acts the clear message that

that same Holy Spirit will have the potential to break into the life God’s community in

the present. It is the coming of the Holy Spirit that represents both a starting point and

the literary high point of Luke’s account of the early church. Not only does the Spirit call

the community together, but the Pentecost experience of Acts 2:1-21 functions in the

exact same way that the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ Baptism does

in Luke 3:21-22; the Spirit provides the impetus and authority for the work of ministry.40

In Acts 2:47 the growth in number of those who are being saved is seen as the direct

work of the Holy Spirit.

Acts paints a picture of the Spirit filled community. Luke presents a community

that is both charismatic but also intentionally structured to perform certain crucial

actions. Those who work with cell groups are attuned to this dynamic. Luke’s vision of

community is revealed in his description of the actions of those who make up the

community. These fledgling communities respond to struggles of identity, mission, and

39 Willimon, Acts, 4. 40 Rolloff, Jürgen, Die Apostelgeschicte: Das Neue Testement Deustch, Band 5, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck

& Ruprecht, 1988), 37.

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even conflict (Acts 15) just as contemporary Christian communities do.41 Luke shows

how many little Christian communities scattered in cities throughout the Roman Empire

are in fact one community gathered in Jesus’ name and filled with the one Holy Spirit.

“Churches composed of those who give heed to Christ arose wherever missionaries

shared the story of Jesus, in synagogues, homes, and the house churches.”42 The Spirit

always leads a person to Christ; just an encounter with Christ will always reveal the work

of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit regulates both the unity and diversity of the community.

Throughout the book of Acts Luke tracks the growth and expansion of the Holy

Spirit filled community in Christ on its march throughout the Roman Empire. The nature

of this community will be described early on in Acts 2:42-47 and the ideals lifted up in

this passage will show what an authentic Christian community grounded in Spirit filled

love should look like. The passage is a summary of the work of the Spirit throughout the

chapter that provides both a literary transition and a foreshadowing of how the

community will act in the remainder of the book of Acts.43 The basic elements of what

the community should be doing to live out their faith are presented in a concise four-part

form. This description will become critical for modern cell group proponents. The

summary shows that the gathered community in Christ “devoted themselves to the

apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”44 The gospel

proclaimed on Pentecost is no mere piece of abstract information but an embodied reality

that must be lived out through tangible actions. As seen in Chapter 1, those who espouse

the cell method of small groups will point to this witness that faith must be relationally

41 Willimon, Acts, 109. 42 Reumann, John, Variety and Unity in New Testament Thought: the Oxford Bible Series, (New York:

Oxford, 1991), 271. 43 Conzelmann, Hans, Grundriβ der Theologie des Neuen Testaments, (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1992), 312. 44 Acts 2:42 NRSV

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lived out. Here in Acts 2:42 are contained in two groupings the four elements to the

embodied gospel, teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers.45

The first pairing begins with the element of “devotion to the apostles teaching”.

The apostles according to Luke are the witnesses of the resurrection and their teaching

contains the message and implications of the Good Friday and Easter events. Their

teaching will make plain who Jesus is (Christology) and why the times are important

(eschatology). The teaching will also help the community deal with the day-to-day

questions of life. The apostles are the sent agents of Jesus; therefore, the apostolic

teaching will hearken back to Jesus’ teachings to resolve lifestyle and ethical questions.46

This teaching of the apostles also provides stability for the community. “The church is

not to drift from one momentary outburst to the next, to resuscitate Pentecost on a weekly

basis; rather the church moves immediately to the task of teaching, keeping itself straight

about what it is and what it is to be about.”47 The teaching of Jesus that the apostles

recount will point each member of the community to the reality that each person is called

to follow the one God and therefore will always have much in common.

The gospel is further embodied in the community through fellowship

(koinonia). In the second part of the first pairing, Luke reveals how teaching leads

to community. This fellowship is based on the common experience with Jesus the

Christ and the salvation that Christ gives each member of the community. The

recognition that all belongs to God and that people are free to hold things in “common”

(koina) becomes a visible sign of the unity each person has with the other in the

community of Christ. This commonality is neither economic, nor political, but

45 Willimon, Acts, 40-41. 46 Roloff, Apostlegeschicte, 66. 47 Willimon, Acts, 40.

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theological. At the root of all of this is the common participation of each person in the

community in Christ.48 This community centered in the person and actions of Jesus will

function as an alternative family for those who make up the community. The believer

will understand that the categories where one was assigned to by society no longer

matter.49 This realization leads those gathered in Jesus’ name to compassion and

concrete acts of inclusion of others who call on God’s name.

The natural implications of living in community leads to the second pairing of

Acts 2:42, which starts with the breaking of the bread. It is yet another “tangible and

visible expression of the work of the Spirit.”50 Much more than some mere social

gathering, the work of the Spirit through provides a picture of the joy-filled end time

meal of Jesus.51 This meal is one where all the barriers within the world that artificially

separate God’s children from one another are broken down. Whether or not this was the

formal practice of the Lord’s Supper, one cannot deny that the physical act of eating with

others is a breaking down of the walls between people. By this simple fact alone, it acts

as a “sacramental religious activity.”52 The breaking of the bread itself most certainly has

its origins in the table fellowship practiced Jesus himself.53 One could see that the one

who had eaten with tax collectors, sinners, and Pharisees would leave behind a practice of

eating with one another to show how God’s boundaries are different from the culture at

large.

48 Roloff, Apostelgeschichte, 66. 49 Wright NT, The New Testament and the People of God, (Minneapolis: Fortress,1992), 448. 50 Willimon, Acts, 41. 51 Bultmann, Rudolf, Theologie Des Neuen Testaments, (Tübingen: JCB Mohr, 1984), 43. 52 Willimon, Acts, 41. 53 Bultmann, Theologie, 61.

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Prayer is the obvious final element. All call to the one God just as the people of

Israel do. The apostles appear to have kept the Jewish hours of prayer for daily devotions

(Acts 3:1). 54 This devotion to prayer predates the Holy Spirit’s initial formation of the

community at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Prayer is a universal religious activity and yet in the

context of Acts it becomes honed to a razor focus. Prayer becomes the method by which

the community comes to anticipate the next drama to unfold by the Spirit’s leading.

Through prayer the community is called and sent (Acts 10:9,13:3), hearts are prepared for

faith through the coming of the Spirit (Acts 10:2, 16:13), new communities are

established (Acts 14:23), the faithful survive adversity (Acts 7:59, 16:25,26:29), and

God’s power is made manifest (Acts 9:40,12:5, 27:29, 28:8). Devotion to prayer is even

a recognized full-time activity of the faithful (Acts 6:4). For Luke prayer is always

sufficient and enough because it paves the way for the work of the Spirit.

In the pattern of Acts 2:42, the final element prayer is tied to the meal, as it is in

Judaism where a blessing is said over the bread and the cup of wine. 55 Luke ties the four

elements together in order to show how all the elements of the community work together

and how each are related to one another. Apostolic teaching shows how we should

understand our common life in Christ. Witnessing the power of breaking bread together

leaves us no response but to lift up prayer in order to praise God for breaking downs the

barriers of sin, and to petition the Spirit to make this reality more manifest in us, our

cities and world. All together, this summary of the community life draws to our attention

that for Luke the community is the chief focal point of God’s redemptive activity in Acts.

54 Willimon, Acts, 41. 55 Bultmann, Apostelgeschichte, 61.

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This community is well rounded and yet focused on its Savior. 56 One will notice that all

the communities of Acts will act in ways faithful to the summary description laid out in

Acts 2:42.

Luke shows that the community although grounded in the teaching of the apostles

is always ready to adapt to new circumstances as in the controversy with the Hellenists in

Acts 6:1-7. Being ready to adapt actually demonstrates faithfulness to the Holy Spirit.

Acts 6 reveals some basic facts about the Christian community according to Luke. The

first is that “Leadership within the church arises from the community’s quite mundane

and functional needs.”57 In Acts 6:1-7 the seven are chosen because the widows of the

Hellenists are being neglected. This situation arose out of the practical reality that, as

members of the ancient Diaspora community they were a long distance from their place

of settlement and from immediate relatives who could care for them. The Hebrew

widows in contrast would more likely have intimate family and connections nearby. The

early Christian community remains true its Jewish roots and maintains philanthropic

attitudes and actions toward these widows. The growth of the community resulted in the

consequence that there were now more widows than the community could handle

previously.58 The answer to the crisis; raise up and empower some leaders.

The second fact of community leadership according to Luke is that true Spirit led

leadership arises from below and does not trickle down through some authorized

hierarchy. “The process of ordination moves (bottom up) - leaders arise from the needs

of God’s people for guidance and service. At the same time leadership is from above, a

56 Willimon, Acts, 42. 57 Willimon, Acts, 59. 58 Roloff, Apostelgeschicte, 109.

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gift from the Lord.”59 Luke shows God’s power from above by recounting central truths

about Jesus and the power of God through the Holy Spirit. At the same time, he

demonstrates objectively how the people affected by the Spirit live faithful lives of

discipleship from below. The power of the Spirit and the Grace of God come down

directly to the community of disciples who are working things out on the ground. God

meets the faithful where they are. The mediation for Luke happens through the

community as a whole.60

The third fact of community leadership revealed is that the Spirit ordained

leadership is always an adaptation for the present circumstances. When the

circumstances change, the leadership will change. The twelve Apostles are wrestling

with that change in Acts 6. The Seven will be sent soon be sent to new positions of

leadership as missionaries. So Spirit filled leadership is always growing and evolving. 61

Luke would find the later church practice of static offices of ministry to be alien to his

portrayal of the community in Acts.

Each individual Christian community in Acts now matter how dynamic, cannot

have it all; it must be a part of the larger body of Christ. The community at Antioch was

foundational to the formation of Christianity. In this community, one can notice for the

first time that the Christian community is no longer a mere sect of Judaism but a

community grounded in its exclusive identity with Christ.62 In Acts 11:19-29 the Antioch

church while explosively growing needed the moorings of strong and sound teaching that

Paul and Barnabas would bring. At the same time the Jerusalem church, which was in

59 Willimon, Acts, 59. 60 Conzelmann, Hans, The Theology of St. Luke, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961), 207. 61 Willimon, Acts, 59-60. 62 Becker, Jürgen, Paulus: Der Apostel der Völker, (Tübingen: JCB Mohr, 1989), 107.

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dire need because of famine, would need the material help of the sisters and brothers in

Antioch. There is a sense of flow in both directions, Antioch could only truly be a

community in Christ if it maintained the apostolic teaching; Jerusalem could only

continue to exist if it promoted mission. The relationship between Jerusalem and Antioch

shows that not only must the church grow and evangelize, but that the new Christians

must also be nurtured in the faith with the teaching of the apostles. 63 Luke shows that

evangelism must always lead to discipleship teaching. The guides to that teaching are the

Christians who have lived out the faith before, both those living today and those who are

of the communion of saints awaiting the final resurrection who lived Spirit filled-lives of

purpose and power.

Luke demonstrates this twofold pattern early on in Acts 2:46 as the early

Christians of Jerusalem meet in homes, break bread, and go to the temple. Their home

meetings are not a separatist endeavor. They meet in the temple to carry on the sound

teaching and worship handed down to them by their Jewish ancestors and Jesus himself.64

They honor and hold on to the sound teaching and practice of the faith while living out

the dynamism of the Spirit. In Antioch they will see that the Jerusalem church “and the

Twelve who reside there stand as a warning to the church that (when) we ignore our past,

we jettison the apostolic ‘facts’ of our faith at the greatest of peril.”65

Dr. Cho relied heavily on the book of Acts for his leadership in bringing about the

cell church movement. One can see there are many obvious parallels between the cell

method and vision of the community Luke portrays in Acts. With the orientating verse

of Acts 2:46, the cell/celebration dynamic is the first one comes that to mind. At first

63 Willimon, Acts, 105-107. 64 Roloff, Apostelgeschichte, 67. 65 Willimon, Acts, 107.

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glance, one may think this dynamic is only about the spaces and groups where the church

meets. The cells meet in homes and then a public place for the wider celebration.

While this is a healthy way of organizing and meeting together as an extended

community, the real reasons become apparent upon a deeper meditation of the book of

Acts. The celebration helps keep the cells grounded in genuine apostolic Christian

teaching, while the cells help people experience the Spirit on an intimate, free, and

bottom up level. The Lucan balance of sound teaching and freedom of the Spirit is given

structure through the cell/ celebration dynamic of the cell church. Ralph Neighbour

maintains that it is critical that the senior or head cell church pastor must be a charismatic

and anointed leader;66 Luke reminds us that he or she must also be grounded in Christ

centered sound Biblical and apostolic teachings handed down from the living and

historically faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. The committed cell pastor must have the

same the commitment that he or she instructs the cell leaders to have; each must always

remember he or she is a part of a wider body of Christ.

In a healthy cell church, the cells should provide place for the Holy Spirit to work

through the disciples as Luke portrays in the book of Acts. The Lucan archetype of Acts

2:42 shown above is a kindred spirit in the intentional and holistic nature of the cell

meeting with its four “W’s”. Prayer and breaking down of barriers happens in the

presence of the Holy Spirit. Teaching about how to live life as God calls and

understanding how we have both our sin and redemption in Christ in common can happen

through the gathering of Christian community through the cell. The gospel is embodied

as the Body of Christ through the holistic cell meeting; Christ’s body meets in a home as

a gathered band of disciples. Also in common with Luke’s vision, cell churches provide

66 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 227.

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space for bottom up leadership through delegation and multiplication. Leaders like the

Seven of Acts 6 are encouraged to grow in new directions of leadership as the Spirit leads

them. All this happens within the community of Christ, which like Luke’s portrayal of

the early church cares and supports those in the fellowship as family in Christ.

The final parallel is the edification/evangelism dynamic as shown above this is

right out of the book of Acts. The Antioch assembly must be taught and nurtured for a

year by Paul and Barnabas. When they are ready, the Antioch church must send out its

teachers to new Christians to share the Good News. As demonstrated in Chapter 1, this

same dynamic is a hallmark of how the cell church lives as a discipleship community.

Believers are built up in order to be sent out.

The Community (ekklhsia) in Jesus Christ of Matthew

Matthew’s Gospel is another important place in scripture to look at the nature of

what it means to be a community in Christ. Matthew will have a different take on

community than Luke does. One will clearly notice that while Luke emphasizes the role

of the Spirit, Matthew will emphasize the presence of Jesus Christ at the center of the

community. Thus, Matthew provides both a corresponding and complementary witness to

the nature of Christian community shown above in Acts. Cell leaders will also use

Matthew’s vision to guide their churches faithfully live out the gospel.

Although the community is only explicitly mentioned in Matthew Chapters 16

and 18, Jesus’ presence in the community of disciples throughout the Gospel is an

underlying reality that cannot be denied. In Matthew 1:23 quoting Isaiah, Jesus’ birth is

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proclaimed as meaning “God is with us”. In Matthew 28:20, the risen Jesus promises to

be with us until the end of the age. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus promises to be with the

community whenever it gathers in his name.

One can see this community most clearly in that same 18th chapter of Matthew’s

Gospel. Where the author paints a vivid picture of a community that lies behind the text.

By examining this text in particular, one can find out about the ideals and values of this

community of disciples. Matthew reveals in Chapter 18 a basic form of living in a

community of disciples. The materials presented in the chapter are highly relevant for

the long-term maintenance of the church’s fellowship.67 They also seem to be born out of

the actual experiences of this group of disciples behind the text who are actually in

community and working through the challenges of maintaining healthy relationships with

each other.

The chapter starts with the admonition to welcome the children and that in doing

so one will welcome Jesus (Mt 18:1-5). Humility and sacrifice to maintain relationships

is also a crucial component for maintaining this community (Mt. 18:6-9). Central to the

chapter is the parable of the lost sheep (Mt. 18:10-14) which reveals the importance of

maintaining the cohesion of the community. The chapter also deals with reconciliation

and conflict, which is inventible consequence of sinful human beings participating in

community. In the chapter a disciplinary internal judicial process to govern the life of the

community is represented in a detailed fashion (Mt. 18:15-20).68 The virtue of this

process is its promotion of transparency, as conflict is not ignored or minimized, but

67 Hare, Douglas R. A., Mathew, Douglas Hare, Interpretation: a Bible Commentary for Preaching and

Teaching, ( Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993), 208. 68 Overman, Andrew, Church and Community in Crisis: the Gospel according to Matthew, (Valley Forge

PA: Trinity Press International, 1996), 262.

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revealed to the community so that it can be brought before God in prayer to bring about

communal healing. The chapter ends with Jesus’ admonition to Peter to be as persistent

in his forgiveness as God is persistent.

The nature of persistent forgiveness is explained in its fullness in the parable of

the unforgiving servant (Mt.18: 21-35); forgiveness demonstrates one’s true commitment

to the community. The unforgiving debtor betrays his fellow slaves by his total lack of

empathy. He indeed shows by his actions that he was never really a part of this tightly

bound community. 69 In contrast, Jesus’ guaranteed presence (Mt. 18:20) is a

demonstration of his persistent forgiveness of the community that gathers in his name.

The structure of Matthew 18 reveals a community committed to active inclusiveness,

compassion, humility, and understanding that comes together to meet its Lord Jesus.

Despite all that is revealed, one should be careful not equate Matthew’s

community with the modern church. For Matthew, the term often translated “church”

(ekklhsia) at a basic level means the assembly or community of disciples. This

assembly shown in Matthew does not have any institutional overtones; it only tries to

describe how disciples are in community. ekklhsia simply means the community of

disciples of Jesus. 70 Matthew 18 clearly focuses on the internal life of the assembly of

disciples in contrast to Acts with its external focus. The emphasis on reconciliation and

group integrity that we see played out in Matthew 18 serves a practical function of giving

the community of disciples the knowledge and tools they will need to have to survive the

tribulations explained by Jesus in the final extended teaching passage of the gospel

69 Patte, Daniel, The Gospel According to Matthew, (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1987), 257. 70 Wright, People of God, 386.

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(chapters 24-25). They will realize that they are stronger when they are together in Jesus’

presence than when they are scattered.

Matthew 18 also falls between Jesus’ second and third passion predictions of the

Gospel.71 This sets the context of the teaching that Jesus gives in this chapter. The

passion of Jesus will have a fundamental and foundational effect on the community itself.

It will change the way that the disciples belong to and act in community. The self-denial

of Jesus going to the cross on behalf of others will become the prime example of what it

means to be in community. The thread of self-denial runs throughout each individual

section of teaching within the chapter.72 Acts of Christian self-denial for each member of

the community of disciples become the building blocks of a consensus to maintain unity.

Chapter 18 will explain both the ideal and intrinsic value of self-denial, and explain how

to live it out in a community in a healthy way. One will understand that self-denial

should not mean self-destruction for the disciple. The idea is highlighted particularly in

verses 18:15-20 “where both sinner and offender are given protection by the assembly.”73

The goal of the community is to live out the teachings of Jesus in an energetic, affirming,

and healthy way.

Chapter 18 of Matthew has been called a “community rule.”74 While not as

comprehensive a rule as the Rule of St. Benedict, it does reveal how those who follow

Jesus should be in community with God and each other. The picture painted by Matthew

is one of a community that balances the needs of the many with the needs of the one. The

community is composed of individuals who are so valuable, that the community as a

71 Schweitzer, Eduard, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus, (Göttingen & Zürich: Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht,

1986), 233. 72 Patte, Matthew, 245. 73 Schweitzer, Matthäus, 242. 74 Schweitzer, Eduard, The Church in the New Testament, (1965, NY: Herder and Herder), 74.

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whole must sometimes sacrifice to minister to the one individual. The dignity of the

individual is protected at all times. Each person is as valuable as the next. There is no

office or position of prestige represented where one has either expanded responsibilities

or honors. Those who are in trouble rightly receive extra attention, but that is only a

situational reality and not an ontological one.

The other side of this balance is that the community must protect itself from being

consumed by an individual agenda. For without the community itself, there will be no

individual disciples. The process keeping the community together is measured and

careful. It protects people who are in dispute with one another, but it always remembers

the priceless nature of community so that no one is allowed to harm or destroy it.

Matthew’s community is a realistic community and understands that there will be

conflicts, so transparency and honesty are lifted up as prime virtues. A community such

as Matthew’s recognizes that some will not be able to live within its ideals or its bounds.

Good communication is encouraged and modeled to keep problems small and avoid

unforeseen disturbances. Prayer is a necessity to keep the disciples aware of God’s will

for their individual and collective lives. The community sees that individual relationships

are very important. The healthy maintenance of those relationships is encouraged. Small

gatherings become a critical place where the needs of the individual are balanced by the

needs of the whole.

The values of the community inspired by Jesus are only lived out one relationship

at a time. The core values of this community are based on the values of Jesus: humility,

openness, acceptance, sacrifice, and self-denial balanced with self-esteem. The

individual relationship each has with another within the community is modeled on the

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prime relationship of the believer: the relationship to Jesus himself. The believer’s

relationship to Jesus is in turn modeled on Jesus’ relationship with the Father. Each

disciple is a child: dependent on God, open to new things and people. The community

itself is a tapestry of individual relationships united in the one relationship that each

person has with the Son of Man.

This is a utopian community in the best sense of the word. The community is a

good place for anyone to be. It is also a utopian community in that it represents an ideal

to shoot for and not concrete reality in either history or the present. The representation

of the community in Matthew 18 is a “goal directed norm” for an actual community to

move toward finding. No church or community (even, or especially Matthew’s) in the

past or in the present has fully lived out Jesus’ teachings. 75 What we can say is that

some have lived Jesus’ teachings more vibrantly than others. We can also say that some

structures that disciples use to create community are more faithful to that vision of Jesus

than others. In its best sense, Matthew 18 can be used as a foil to compare our modern

Christian communities with the ideals laid down by Jesus and his community. We can

also look at Christian communities of other times, places and cultures, then compare

them to Matthew 18 and see what we can learn from them so that we can move toward

being the people of God in new and more life giving ways.

The community fostered by contemporary cell groups is far more structured and

organized than the one revealed in Matthew’s Gospels, however the virtues of the cell

group system correspond well to the vision of community laid out in Matthew 18. As in

Matthew, the groups explicitly gather to encounter Jesus and likewise cell groups take

75 Soares-Prabhu, George M., The Dharma of Jesus, Francis X. D’sa, editor, (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 2003),

183-84.

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relationships extremely seriously. The edification/evangelism principle of cell groups

corresponds well to Matthew 18 where the lost sheep are found, children are welcomed,

people examine their lives for stumbling blocks, learn humility, and practice forgiveness.

Because there is built in accountability in the cell group system there is also a high degree

of transparency. Leaders meet in their leadership team meetings to foster that

transparency so that as in Matthew 18:15-20 relationships can be restored through the

reconciliation of Jesus.

The cell vision and the vision of the community of Matthew have much in

common and Matthew 18 can provide churches that minister through cells a model for

disciples of how to relate to one another within the cells. The most obvious parallel is

Jesus’ guaranteed presence in even the smallest group of disciples possible (two!). “For

where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."76

St. Paul: The Church in Their House (kat oikon autwn ekklhsian)

Because the theology of St. Paul has been foundational to the founding of our

faith, it is often easy to forget that all of his letters were written to people on a personal as

well as a theological level. In the salutations and greetings at the beginning and ending

of his letters one sees the names of those with whom he was corresponding. The

communities to whom Paul wrote did not meet in a public building or social hall; they

met in individual homes. These fledgling Christian communities were a minor group in

society with little if any wider social acceptance. The writings of the New Testament

76 Matthew 18:20 NRSV

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reveal that these communities were acutely conscious of the risk of persecution. The

types of spaces that our communities meet in today would not have been accessible for a

variety of reasons. Nor would they be of any practical use to these first Christian

communities.77 Paul’s letters therefore provide a valuable resource for those who wish

to look at how Christians can meet as community in their own homes.

It is most probable that all early Christian communities met in private homes. In

Paul’s letters, we see the most tangible historical evidence of this probability. The phrase

“the assembly at (name’s) house” designates specific communities that Paul was wishing

to greet. 78 In the first letter to the Corinthians Paul also speaks of baptizing the whole

house of Stephanas and later commends this house as the “first fruits of Achaia” and

greets the house of Chloe. “The local structure of the early Christian groups was thus

linked with what was commonly regarded as the basic unit of the society” 79

The household was the building block of all of the subsequent structures of the

Hellenistic-Roman society. The household a person belonged to would be the way a

person was commonly identified by the society. The household was the primary social

network; therefore, it was foundational for business and trade because most production

would occur within its bounds. As the basic unit of society, the household would also

hold an esteemed place within the dominant religions. Household religious rituals would

be the most influential for daily life by helping provide a structure and rhythm of activity

for those who made up the household. In order for one to exist socially on any level, one

77 Conzelmann, Hans The History of Primitive Christianity (Nasheville: Abingdon, 1973),108. 78 h kat oikon autwn (autwn, sou) ekklhsia Romans 16:5, 1st Corinthians 16:1, Colossians

4:14, Philemon 2 79 Meeks, Wayne, The First Urban Christians the Social World of the Apostle Paul, (New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1983), 75.

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must be part of a household; it was how one engaged society.80 Thus, whether out the

necessity of history or the providence of God, the household becomes the “basic cell” of

the early church. One must be careful in attending to the historical context of the text of

St. Paul. The ancient household was much more inclusive than the contemporary idea of

a “nuclear family”. Many households would have included “slaves, freedmen, hired

workers, and sometimes included tenants and partners in trade and craft.”81

The household became the locus of missionary activity for the work of the

Pauline assemblies. To mission within households was the most culturally relevant way

of being the church. People were used to relating to each other through the structures of

household relationships. In the later writings of the Pauline corpus, the household

(oikeioi tou qeou)82 would become a metaphor for explaining the structure of

Christian community. Using the dominant structure of the contemporary society

provided for an easy and natural way for the communities to assimilate people into

network of relationships to provide material, emotional, moral and spiritual support. The

use of the household as a base also became a self-evident mission strategy. If a key

member of the household came to the faith, then the entire household might have come

into the faith, (although this appears not always to be the case).83 Christianity was not the

only religious movement to be centered in the household. Many of the ancient mystery

religions also centered their activities around and in households. 84

80 Becker, Paulus, 258. 81 Meeks, Urban Christians, 75. 82 Ephesians 2:29, 1st Timothy 3:15, see also 1 Peter 4:17. 83 Birkey, Del, The House Church:A Model for Renewing the Church, (Scottdale PA: Herald Press,

1988),55-60. 84 Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elisabeth, In Memory of Her :A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian

Origins, (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 177.

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The early Christian assembly centered in the home provided a unique and

advantageous opportunity for women. Within the household women were in their

socially accepted sphere of activity. Women were to run the day-to-day activity of the

household. When the assembly met in a home, it was meeting in a space where women

were not only allowed to be active, but were supposed to be active. Thus, the

prominence of women in the New Testament letters is in some part due to where the

assemblies of disciples met. The society of the time usually did not allow women to

engage in public roles of leadership, but because the early communities met in the

domestic space where women were allowed to utilize their gifts, women were able to

have a public leadership role. The leadership roles of women reflected in Paul’s

correspondence came about in part because the meetings of the first Christians assemblies

were public meetings taking place within the home.

The distinction between private and public activity was different in the ancient

world than it is in our day. We live in a society much more concerned with privacy than

the ancients did. “It is clear that the house churches were a decisive factor in the

missionary movement insofar as they provided space, support, and actual leadership for

the community.”85 The household provided structure that provided for stability, intimacy,

confidentiality, and social solidarity. These social aspects may have made the Christian

beliefs easier for some to accept. It is the gift of the house church in Paul’s time to be in

the world but not of the world. While the assemblies that would meet in homes adapted

the dominant structure of society, they used that structure to form an alternative

community to the society. The community that was created would have a radically

85 Schüssler-Fiorenza, In Memory of Her, 176-77.

39

different focus than the world around it and their groups would have their own unique

culture. 86

The Hellenistic-Roman society was hierarchical in nature. There were stark

divisions within the society and within the household. There were strict customs and

conventions for how persons on the different rungs of society should interact with one

another. Each person was supposed to understand his or her place within the society. In

direct contrast, the house churches that Paul started and nurtured understood that all

would be equal before God. When one was baptized, one understood that she or he now

had equal dignity and worth with her or his counterparts in the faith. The ladder of

hierarchical society was replaced with the horizontal Body of Christ. “As many of you as

were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or

Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you

are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:27-28 NRSV)87

While there were some scattered instances of crossing social boundaries in the

ancient world, Christian groups were far more inclusive of the different ranks of society

than other types of groups and communities in the ancient world. Evidence for this is

revealed in the language that Paul uses to speak with his communities. He calls those

whom he addresses “brother”, “sister” and “children”. This is the language of the family.

Being part of the body of Christ, (1st Corinthians 12) means being part of a family.

Believers were seen as being in a familial relationship with Paul and each other. The

terms above emphasize the mutual love Christians have with one another and

demonstrate to the Christians that the obligation of love trumps the obligations of social

86 Meeks, Urban Christians, 77-79. 87 Becker, Paulus, 260.

40

stratification. Therefore, the early Christian assemblies provide a powerful alternative to

the world around them.88

The early Christian communities did not see themselves as isolated outposts of

alternative culture. Paul cultivated the implicit understanding that each of these

communities was united with all the other Christian communities in the one Body of

Christ. Each house assembly was an individual expression of the complete Body of

Christ. In a practical way, the term “the assembly at (name’s) house” distinguishes that

assembly from the expression of the entire church for which Paul uses simple term

assembly (ekklhsia).89 However, the individual assemblies were not autonomous

communities; each individual assembly represented the entire Christian assembly around

the world.

We see how individual communities represent the whole of the empire-wide

assembly in Romans 16:23 where Paul sends greeting from Gaius who hosted Paul and

the whole Church (olh h ekklhsia). Gaius as a host for Paul becomes a host for the

whole church, because Paul represents more than one person. The missionary represents

both the community that sent the missionary and the assembly that has received the

missionary. As an ambassador for Christ, Paul represents the entire body of Christ.

While in all probability Gaius merely hosted one house church, his hosting of the visiting

missionary shows the tangible connection Gaius’ house church has within the whole

church.90

The cell church movement takes much inspiration from the structure of the early

church in St. Paul’s time. Each cell is seen as the house churches were, as a part of a

88 Meeks, Urban Christians, 79-89. 89 Meeks, Urban Christians, 75. 90 Käseman, Ernst, Commentary on Romans, (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 1980), 421.

41

larger whole. The church uses the home as the locus of ministry and mission. Cell life

provides an alternative to the life of the culture of the world. Cells become the places

where ministry is carried out. The main difference for us is that if we want to use homes

for ministry it is optional for us. We have buildings and spaces that can accommodate

our communities. We are not living in a society where being Christian is a stigma of

something strange or alien. We do not suffer persecution or reprisal. However, the

examination of the early Pauline church shows us that there were both practical and

theological virtues for organizing the community in this way. Intimate space is fostered,

relationships that normally do not happen did. People see their entire lives in terms of

their faith relationship, and multiple entry points into the community are fostered. People

we never before identified can be developed into leaders. Much of what the cell church

movement is about is to remind the wider church of how the early church used their

culture in a creative way to build up the body of Christ.

It is fascinating to see that both St. Paul and Dr. Cho realized the value of the

ministry of women despite living in patriarchal cultures. The reasons for the

engagement of women in Korean cell ministry were virtually identical with those of early

Christianity; women were able, permitted, and expected to operate in the household

sphere. Thus for the early church and the cell movement, the ministry of women became

crucial. 91

How women have come to leadership in cell ministry may also explain one of the

phenomena demonstrated in cell group churches. Cell churches in societies outside of

Europe and North America have grown to sizes that dwarf even the largest of our mega

91 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 23-30, 50-52.

42

churches in the United States. 92 Perhaps the growth in the numbers of cells in these

cultures is partly due to the fact that the family structures in more traditional societies

more directly correspond to the household structures in the Hellenistic- Roman world

than do the loose and broken families of our contemporary culture. The cultural

comparison between East Asian culture and Hellenistic culture would be an interesting

question to be addressed in a future study.

The biblical witness shows the pastor wanting to use the cell church concept in

our own culture examples of how a similar way of being the church helped engender

growth in early Christian communities. There is a rich treasure trove of Biblical material

to use in this search. A more detailed study on this point would explore some of the

other New Testament witnesses such as the Johannine corpus or the examples

communities contained in the Hebrew Bible.

92 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 17-18.

43

CHAPTER 3:

CELL GROUPS AND CORRESPONDING TYPES OF SMALL GROUPS IN

CHURCH HISTORY

In the previous chapter, we saw that Christians have been gathering in small

groups for as long as the church has been in existence. Small groups in homes were the

only way Christians could meet together while they are on the margins of society in the

Roman world. With the Roman Empire’s acceptance of Christianity in the fourth

century, churches were able to meet publically in public spaces. The necessity to meet in

private homes for liturgy and ministry diminished as the church rose in prominence and

imperial favor. Home faith life would continue to be nurtured particularly through

instruction of the faith within the family, but such instruction would have little

connection with the public church. The rise of monasticism would provide a vehicle for

people to live a life of more intensive faith where the expression of faith would intersect

with all areas of one’s life. However because monasticism was a segregated phenomenon

there would be no space for the family to live out this intensive faith with other

families.93

In spite of these developments in European Christianity, small groups of

Christians continued to meet in homes at various points in Christian church history.

These meetings would fall into two basic types; the first type was comprised of house

churches. These small groups met intentionally in homes as self -sustaining churches.

They may or may have not been connected to other house churches in some sort of

network. This project will not address these types of gatherings. The second type of

93 Hadaway, Home Cell Groups, 45-47.

44

groups met in private homes in addition to the main worship or mass in the public

spaces.94 These types of groups are the exclusive focus of the present chapter.

Groups meeting in homes in addition to the Mass or worship service would

spring up at interesting times in church history and at points when the church was

actively seeking reform. The existence of such a type of group would itself be a sign

that a renewal or reformation of the church was going on.95 The usual reason for the

emergence of the gatherings was a desire on the part of some Christians to meet together

in order to live out their faith in a more intensive and vibrant way while at the same time

remaining firmly planted in the culture in which they lived. The cell group movement

historically falls into this category; the cell church movement embraces the tension

between being culturally relevant (in the world) but also at the same time being intensely

committed in Christ (not of the world).

Some Seeds of the Reformation and Small groups

The historical context of the period leading up to the events of the Reformation is

that the spiritual longings and tensions that would ultimately lead to the Protestant

reformation were well under way long before Luther’s lifetime. Some of the same

tensions would lead to the small group movements that would arise later on in the

Reformation. Although not a small group movement the Brothers and Sisters of the

Common life, which arose in Holland in the fourteenth century, has its roots in some of

94 Bunton, Peter, Cell Groups and House Churches: What History Teaches Us (2001 Ephrata PA: House to

House Publications), xi. 95 Hadaway, Home Cell Groups, 38, Birkey, The House Church, 65.

45

the same desires that modern cell church proponents express. Also known as the

Devotio Moderna, the group was composed of men and women who wished to live a

deeper religious life while not withdrawing from society. The men and women took no

vows and worked to serve God while living a common life.96 The brothers and sisters of

the Devotio Moderna share with the modern cell church movement a desire to equip

people to serve God in daily life. They differ in the fact that, despite their living in the

towns they served rather than in monasteries, they lived in ways similar to monks and

nuns where men and women lived a chaste life in separate sex segregated communities.97

At this point in Christian history there was not a place for men and women, families and

differing generations to gather into intimate groups to live out a more intensive and

intentional religious life than the society at large.

There are other points of contact with later small groups and the cell group

movement. The focus of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life devotion was Jesus

Christ. Through their Christ centered focus they sought imitation of Christ by examining

his life and those of the early church so they could strive to reconstruct it for themselves.

Using the writings of the early desert fathers as their guide, they centered on the inner life

of the heart of the believer rather than upon outward actions or works. 98

The existence of this group showed that before the Reformation Christians were

looking at creative ways to resolve the tension between living a deeper life of faith with

being part of wider society. The Devotio Moderna was an attempt to live in the

96 Williston, Walker, Richard Norris, David Lotz, and Robert T. Handy, A History of the Christian Church,

4th Edition, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985), 383-85. 97 Mathilde van Dijk, "How to be a good shepherd in Devotio moderna: the example of Johannes

Brinckerinck (1359-1419)," Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis 83, no. 1: 139-154, 2003, ATLA

Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost, (accessed June 18, 2009), 151. 98 Mathilde van Dijk, "Disciples of the Deep Desert: Windesheim Biographers and the Imitation of the

Desert Fathers," Church History & Religious Culture 86, no. 1-4: 2006, 257-289, Religion and Philosophy

Collection, EBSCOhost,(accessed June 18, 2009), 264.

46

intersection between the spiritual life and the common life. Thomas a Kempis’ (1380-

1471) “Imitation of Christ” as the best-known literary work of the group demonstrates a

commitment of the Devotio Moderna to a focus on Christ that it would share with later

lay movements.99 The focus on the inner life of the believer by calling people to examine

the condition of their heart is another area where the brothers and sisters devotional life

would have much in common with later movements. While it cannot be demonstrated

that there is any historical dependence of later groups discussed below on the Devotio

Moderna, their existence shows the resolve of Christians to live a deeper life of faith

while not withdrawing from either society or the wider church. Much of what modern

cell churches are about is addressing this same resolve.

Small Groups of the Reformation

The Reformation begun by Martin Luther (1483-1546) would unintentionally

pave the way for the development of small group movements later on. These later

movements’ emergence was a natural result of the consequences of three of the

Reformation’s core concepts espoused by Luther himself. The first was that the true

church is not always reflected in the institutional church, the second is the concept of the

priesthood of all believers so that all Christians can hear confession and proclaim the

forgiveness of Christ, the third is the honoring of the vocation of parenting and that

families are “little churches.” 100 All three of these concepts have been used by

99 Walker, History, 365. 100 Bunton, What History Teaches, 1-3.

47

contemporary small group proponents in teaching the values and virtues of churches

using small groups in general and cell groups in particular.

We saw above in the introduction that Luther’s Preface of the German Mass of

1526 lays out an ideal scenario where something like modern small groups could occur.

Luther however thought that the implementation of this “third order of divine service” to

be premature.101 Furthermore, with spread of the Radical Reformation Luther would see

the danger that these groups would present if those properly equipped or called did not

lead them. He also would express concern that the formation of groups within the

church would leave those not ready to join them neglected of pastoral care. Most of all

Luther would be worried that formation of such groups would work against the good

order of the church.102

Therefore, those looking to Luther for guidance in their attempt in providing

space for people to live in a more intensive Christian community while not withdrawing

from the world will see a mixed message. On the one hand, Luther has a natural

sentiment toward people wanting to be “Christians in earnest.” He would even model

practices to encourage this through prayer with and instruction to guests at his house.

Luther would also advocate that when the gospel was heard rightly in the home it was as

good as hearing it from any pastor.103

On the other hand, Luther feared that encouraging such gatherings in actual

practice might lead people astray because of a lack of good order. He was realistic about

the common Christian, understanding his or her God given value while remembering the

101 Luther, Martin, Luther's Works, Vol. 53 : Liturgy and Hymns, 53:63. 102 Bunton, What History Teaches, 7. 103 David John Zersen, "Lutheran roots for small group ministry." Currents in Theology and Mission 8, no.

4: 236,1981, ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost, (accessed June 23, 2009).

48

capacity of the individual to be led astray. Contemporary cell church advocates would

counter that the cell church in practice is a well-ordered way of being the church.

Leaders are trained; not just sent out. The groups are accountable through their leaders to

the wider vision of the church. The curriculum that people study is determined

exclusively by the regularly called and ordained pastor. Much of Luther’s concern for

good order is addressed in how cell group churches are organized into a structure of

oversight and accountability.

Up until the present day, the fear of churches using small groups is partially a

result of the excesses of the Radical Reformation. As the temporal authorities and the

public church rejected the movement, the Radical Reformation would rely on small

groups to spread its message out of necessity. The rejection was mutual; the radical

reformation chose to set up a community made up exclusively of true believers. It sought

through its embrace of primitivism (returning the church in an historical point in time to

resemble an ideal community, most often the church of the New Testament) to create the

so-called true church. 104

The contemporary cell church bears little resemblance to the groups that existed

because of the Radical Reformation chiefly because they are structured to work within

the existing church and not as a rejection of it.105 The radical reformation sought to

resolve the tension that the cell church embraces: the tension between living a more

intensive brand of discipleship of Jesus Christ while not separating from the wider church

or the culture. In order for the cell church to live out the edification/evangelism dynamic

explained in chapter 1 it can never resolve that tension.

104 Bunton, What History Teaches 9-10. 105 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 85-86.

49

The spiritual antecedent of the modern cell church movement would be found in

the strain of thought beginning with the reformer Martin Bucer (1491-1551), who first

among the reformers put in practice something resembling an intentionally structured and

accountable small group system.106 Bucer rejected the separatism of the Radical

Reformation and the Anabaptists. He advocated the adoption of the Augsburg

Confession in Strasbourg and was influential in its eventual acceptance in southern

Germany.107 Bucer was a tireless worker for Christian unity during the Reformation.

The avenue for working toward unity of the differing branches of the Reformation was

discourse over what was fundamental to the faith and what was secondary. He advocated

open debate and acted to bring the differing branches of the Reformation together to

share successes, failures, convictions, differences in theology, and how to live in

discipleship. He viewed that in reality there was only one true church despite the

differences held by its differing branches. Building off Augustine and Luther, he thought

that the church would always be a mixed affair with both good and bad encompassing its

membership.

Bucer also felt the way which people lived their daily life in relation to God was

more important than the theological debates of large councils. He advocated strongly the

role of the Holy Spirit and the fruit that is borne in the believer’s life when the Spirit is

active. Those that lived out their faith would show themselves to be living by the Spirit

106 Bunton, What History Teaches, 10-14. 107 Walker, History, 452 & 458.

50

and be part of the true church within the wider church. Bucer viewed sanctification as a

process that had stages through which believers would need to be shepherded.108

Bucer paid particular attention to baptismal theology in his writing. While he

advocated infant Baptism for all and that Baptism was God’s gift rather than human

choice, he also understood how the Anabaptist movement came about theologically. He

wanted find a way for Christians to demonstrate their commitment to the faith. He would

develop an evangelical order of confirmation to address this struggle. This confirmation

was not primarily a public declaration as in Anabaptism but a way for the faithful to

commit to Christ by giving themselves over to their Lord (sich ergeben). Being given

over to Christ would mean for the person to submit their life to church discipline through

confession, repentance, forgiveness, fellowship and obedience.109 The emphasis was

clearly on the daily life of faith of the believer, as Bucer would try to maintain a theology

of Baptism that embraced both belonging (free grace without human choice) and

commitment to discipleship (witness of a faith response).

Out of his baptismal theology, Bucer developed a plan for small communities of

the faithful where people could give themselves over to Christ in a more intensive way

and demonstrate commitment. Bucer instructed that lay assistants to the pastor be

appointed to help lead people into this deeper path of discipleship. The lay leaders would

meet with and interview people of the wider parish to access how mature they were in the

faith. Those who were earnestly seeking repentance and who held to sound doctrine

108 Martin Greschat, "Martin Bucer and Church Renewal in Europe," Reformation & Renaissance Review:

Journal of the Society for Reformation Studies 5, no. 1: 92-101, 2003, Religion and Philosophy Collection,

EBSCOhost, (accessed June 22, 2009). 109 Amy Nelson Burnett, "Confirmation and Christian fellowship; Martin Bucer on commitment to the

Church," Church History 64, no. 2: 202-207, 1995, Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost,

(accessed June 22, 2009).

51

would be invited to register into the community and participate in the small groups

known as christliche Gemeinschaften.

Similar to what we saw above with Luther, Bucer wished to see both a wider state

church and a place for people to live out Christian discipleship in a more intensive

manner. Bucer went further by attempting to establish an intentional structure for this

purpose. He also did this out of a desire for Christian unity as he thought that this

structure could help gather into one public church the different ways of being the church

that were springing up in the Reformation.110 Bucer was clearly embracing the dynamic

of trying to live a more intense and committed way of discipleship while not withdrawing

from the wider church and the culture. He was also dealing profoundly with the tensions

of his time. He wanted to keep the evangelical movement unified in the midst of the

Anabaptist controversies.

Bucer’s christliche Gemeinschaften would prove controversial in his native

Strasbourg for a number of reasons. There was a political reason because of a fear by the

civil authorities that those submitting to a church authority would undermine the

authority of the state. Others were offended that Bucer’s groups practiced

excommunication of those who violated church discipline. There were also those

echoing Luther’s reservations about such endeavors who felt that he would be producing

a class system for Christians with two distinct groups. The groups would eventually be

banned and Bucer would go into exile in England where he would be welcomed as a

teacher and reformer.111

110 Burnet, “Confirmation,” 210-212. 111 Bunton, What History Teaches, 12-14.

52

The difference between Bucer’s endeavor and a modern cell church is that

Bucer’s meetings were clearly closed groups by invitation only when people were

deemed worthy. Cell churches have open groups, which are public gatherings open to

all. The concern for doctrine that Bucer identified is addressed in the leadership structure

where leaders require approval by the pastor to become a leader of the group. The groups

themselves allow people to encounter Christ where they are and are open to everyone.

Cell churches are structured to be unifying and not to create a spiritual elite, which was

the theological downfall of Bucer’s attempt at a small group discipleship structure. In

spite of this failure, the writings of Bucer that inspired the creation of the christliche

Gemeinschaften would produce fruit later as his ideas from the groups would find

purchase in the Pietist movement of German Lutheranism. 112

The Collegia Pietas of German Lutheranism

Pietism was a response to the rise of Protestant Orthodoxy, which elevated the

holding of correct doctrine by the believer to primary importance above other aspects of

faith. Intellectual conformity was demanded and the holistic faith of Luther and the early

Reformers deemphasized in favor of an emphasis on the correct rational understanding of

the dogmatic formulations of orthodoxy. In reaction to this trend also known as

Protestant Scholasticism, the Pietists emphasized experience and the edification of the

believers for the daily life in the faith within the everyday world.113 They argued that up

112 Bunton, What History Teaches, 14. 113 Walker, History, 587.

53

until their time the Reformation was primarily a reformation of doctrine, but what was

truly needed was a reformation of the entire life of the church.114

In 1670, the leading figure of the movement, Phillip Jakob Spener (1635-1705),

began to meet with leading lay people of his Frankfurt congregation for prayer,

discussion of a biblical or devotional book, and the singing of a hymn. The groups

eventually known as the collegia pietas started out with university graduates but because

of the Pietist emphasis on building up the average believer eventually began to include

trade people and women. 115

Spener used the writings of Martin Bucer and 1st Corinthians 14 to help advocate

his actions and his vision for a new structure to help complete the Reformation.116 The

collegia were focused on the common person; they tried to make the life of faith

understandable to those who actually made up their community and worked to model the

practice of the faith. The groups would become the central institution of the Pietist

movement and altered the social structure of the wider society by their very existence.

The relation of the collegia to the wider church was explained with the moniker

ecclesiolae in ecclesia “little churches within the church.” 117 The collegia were clearly

seen as being part of the wider church. Like the contemporary cell group, each collegium

was seen as church and a unique expression of the entire church. Spener would maintain

114 Bunton, What History Teaches , 20. 115 Christina Bucher, ""People of the Covenant" Small-Group Bible Study: A Twentieth Century Revival of

the Collegia Pietatis," Brethren Life and Thought 43, no. 3-4: 48, 1998, ATLA Religion Database with

ATLASerials, EBSCOhost, (accessed June 23, 2009). 116 Bunton, What History Teaches , 30. 117 James O. Bemesderfer, "Pietism : the other side," Journal of Religious Thought 25, no. 2: 29-38, 1969,

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost, (accessed June 23, 2009).

54

that he was standing on the principles laid down by Luther and felt that this could lead

toward much of what Luther wanted see fostered in the church.118

The collegia started by Spener are the most relevant example of small groups in

history of the church to the contemporary cell church. The collegia were not a separatist

endeavor; they were seen as part of the wider body of Christ. The collegia were an

intentionally structured way of providing for the deeper discipleship of the common

Christian. The collegia meetings were of a holistic quality were information is

combined with practice. The collegia were structured to encourage the communion of

the Holy Spirit among those who participated. The collegia were modeled after the

churches in the New Testament in order to foster renewal.119 Spener’s groups would

meet on Mondays and Wednesdays; in the first meeting they would discuss the points of

the sermon in depth just as cell churches do.120 Spener would also teach that groups were

to multiply and leaders should work to found more groups.121

Spener’s groups would spread throughout the Pietist movement and reveal both

the promise and the pitfalls of a cell group ministry. The promise lies in the success in

leading people to discipleship and deeper engagement of the faith. The pitfalls being the

risk of separatism as members of his Frankfurt collegia would leave the Lutheran Church

and Spener’s collegia. The separatists began advocating that the true church could only

exist in such small gatherings.

As we have seen above, the cell church seeks to embrace certain tensions. The

separatists later known as the Radical Pietists would seek to resolve the tension in the

118 Zersen, “Lutheran roots,” 238. 119 Bucher, “People of the Covenant,” 48-49. 120 Bunton, What History Teaches, 26. 121 Bunton, What History Teaches, 36.

55

same way as the Anabaptists of the Radical Reformation would. The small groups

would peel off to create communities of true believers rather than to stay and try to grow

with the wider church together. The contemporary cell church with the cell/celebration

dynamic finds the tension between being a more intensive community and being part of

the wider church the best place to be for fostering a more vibrant Christianity. As we will

read below in the discussion of Bonhoeffer, it is because Christ promises to be present in

both places.

Spener, like many who have experimented with small and cell groups since his

time found that tension too much to bear over time. Often viewed as controversial he

would cease working with the collegia toward the end of his ministry. Even without

Spener’s continued leadership the collegia structure would continue to be utilized by the

proponents of the Pietist movement such as August Herman Francke (1663-1727). The

Pietist movement would spread far beyond Germany in scope and influence the successor

renewal movements of Christianity.122

Moravians and Methodists

Two of the successor movements to Pietism employed Spener’s structure of the

collegia. Both the Moravians in Germany and the Methodists in the English-speaking

regions would employ the ministry tool of the collegia as essential parts of their

respective movements.123 The groups formed by the Moravians and Methodists would

have practically identical goals and values to those of the collegia. The contributions of

122 Bunton, What History Teaches, 29-30. 123 Walker, History, 593,598.

56

both these movements would show that the groups would need to be organized into

cohesive structures in order to be effective for the long term. Both groups built on the

Spener’s idea of “little churches within the church” cited above, and both created formal

structures to enable this. 124 As we have seen in each of the previous historical groups in

the life of the church, their groups will embrace the tensions of living a more vibrant faith

while not withdrawing from the world and the wider church.

The Moravians taught that the true church is composed of true believers of all

denominations and classes of Christianity. Their small groups were to create a structure

where devotion to Christ would be enabled. There was an intentional focus on the inner

heart of the believer. The goal was to experience the joy of a relation to Christ. Count

Zinzendorf (1700-1760), the founder of the movement, would work out a number of

innovations in their semi-monastic community of Herrenhut in Saxony. The first

innovation was in the designation of a formally selected leader and a co-leader for each

group (Band). The second innovation was the creation of a structure of affinity groups for

different genders and ages (Chor). The final innovation would be the creation of diaspora

societies, which could be described as intentionally ecumenical collegia.125

Zinzendorf was an innovator for good and for ill. Some innovations arising from

the inherent mysticism of the Moravians would strike other Christians as unique or even

strange. Conversely, their attention to structures helped produce a movement that though

small in number has had profound influence in the history of Christianity. Moravian

piety would produce an unparalleled emphasis on mission to lapsed Christians and more

importantly, to spread the Good News of Christ to people and cultures who had never

124 Bunton, What History Teaches, 47,71. 125 Bunton, What History Teaches ,47-56.

57

heard it before. “No Protestant body had been so awake to the duty of missions, and

none was so consecrated to the service in proportion to its numbers.”126

The Moravians missionary influence would help bring the power and purpose of

Christians gathering in intimate community around the world. The structures pioneered

by Zinzendorf and the Moravians would embrace all the tensions that the cell movement

embraces: of being in and not of the world, building up to reach out, small group and

corporate worship. A devotion to a personal encounter with Christ for each believer

would also be another point of contact with the modern cell church. Some weaknesses of

small groups and cells would also be manifest. As noted above with Spener’s groups, the

Moravians of Zinzendorf’s day would at times also stray from mainstream Christian

belief and practice. Zinzendorf’s successors would eventually rein these tendencies in

and the group would become recognized as belonging to the family of established

Protestant groups.127

The Methodist movement within English Protestant Christianity under the

guidance of John Wesley (1703-1791) would bring revival and renewal through

advocating the transformation of the life of the believer and the creation of groups to

enable people to strive toward their own sanctification. Wesley would first link up with

the Moravians while sailing to the Georgia colony in 1733 to serve as a missionary and

again in London upon his return to Europe. He would visit Zinzendorf in Herrenhut

where he studied the Moravians organizational practice and later use the lessons learned

to start the formation of small groups of various types. He would become and

126 Walker, History, 594. 127 Walker, History,596.

58

accomplished preacher of great power and would combine the emotion engendered by his

preaching with an organizational genius to start the movement later called Methodism.128

Wesley, as in the modern cell church, had worked out a very structured way to

bring out community. In many ways, Wesley’s system is more complex than that of the

modern cell church. Building from the Moravians, he would start Bands to encourage

morality, inward purity and a transformative knowledge of scripture. These groups were

closed groups to build intimate fellowship among the participants. More analogous to the

cell church were the classes, which were groups of twelve with an appointed leader and

centered on a geographic area. They included men and women, people of all social

backgrounds, and people with differing levels of religious participation and knowledge.

Every other meeting was open to visitors to provide an opportunity for new people to

come to a deeper faith in Christ. Tickets were issued to allow people to attend. The

purpose of the tickets was to engender repentance by enforcing discipline. The Classes

were designed to be a follow up to the preaching of the sermon. The seed of the Word

would more likely find purchase if there was the proper environment in place.

Classes and Bands together would compose a Methodist Society which was all

those following “the method” in a particular area. Society meetings would correspond to

equipping events where cognitive knowledge to aid the believer in their faith life was

promoted. The final groups were the Select Societies, which were groups for those who

were in the leadership. They were to learn in the Select Society how to model the faith in

the groups they led.129 Thus, Wesley had the genius to put in place a leadership

development system for the movement that would contribute to its stability.

128 Walker, History, 600-02. 129 Bunton, What History Teaches ,57-71.

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Wesley built a comprehensive system to equip, evangelize and disciple. All the

components in the cell church method of organization are present in Wesley’s

organizational system. Wesley understood that building up believers would have to be

done in the presence of other Christians. He also understood the need for different types

of community for different situations. Much like the modern cell church with the cell

/celebration dynamic, intentional groups of differing size and scope were created to build

up the body of Christ. Wesley thought that this was best done by encouraging perfection

or “holiness” in the life of the individual believer. While in reality rare, Wesley would

advocate that Christian perfection was possible and that people could grow in

“holiness.”130

Wesley’s belief in holiness necessitated a system of small groups because the

actions that would lead to holiness were best carried out in smaller groupings. Each

Class or Band member was required to engage in individual confession, prayer, scripture,

and reading. The only way that would be physically, emotionally, and practically

possible would be in the smaller groups of the Classes and Bands. This general truth

began to be worked out by Spener in the formation of the collegia.

The small groups of the Moravians and Methodists would be at their core the

same type groups that Spener began. The groups of the Moravians and Methodists were

much improved in their planning and execution, as is especially the case with Wesley’s

groups. His groups would have far more resilience than the collegia because of Wesley’s

attention to detail in order to link the groups into a network of oversight, care and

support.

130 Bunton, What History Teaches ,70-71.

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The wide growth of Methodism was directly related to the creation of these

groups, which purposely embraced the tensions of the modern cell church. Far from

wanting to create super-Christians who would separate themselves from the wider culture

(as the Radical Reformation attempted), the Methodists worked towards its

transformation one person at a time. Those transformed would still be a part of their

wider culture. They would be committed to social ministry with the vulnerable of society

and initially never sought to leave the Anglican Church.131 H. Richard Niebuhr writes:

Wesley is the great Protestant exponent of perfectionism. His thought on the

matter is often confused with that of exclusive Christians, but he differs from

them profoundly, because he shares with Paul, John, Luther, Augustine, and

Calvin the understanding that Christ is no new lawgiver who separates a new

people from the old by giving them a the constitution for a new kind of culture.

Christ is for Wesley the transformer of life… (He) insists on the possibility again

as God’s possibility-not (humans’) - of a present fulfillment of that promise of

freedom. By the power of Christ believers… may be delivered ‘in this world.’ 132

A fascinating future historical study would examine if there were a link between

the growth of such movements as examined in this chapter and the rise of secularism in

Europe. It would seem that the more secular the society the more need there would be

for Christians to form into smaller groupings where faith can be lived out in the world.

All of the movements studied above embrace the tension of trying to live out the faith

while not withdrawing from the world or wider church. All of the groups seek to

promote a more intensive life of discipleship for the individual believer. All of these

groups also recognize that the growth that happens in small groups has the power to

affect the church in amazing ways.

131 Walker, History, 601-02. 132 Niebuhr, Richard H., Christ and Culture, (1951 New York: Harper and Row), 218-219.

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Small group movements are both a sign of renewal and cause of renewal in the

life of the wider church in which they belong. The cell movement started in Korea by Dr.

Cho stands in this same historical class. Therefore, while relatively young in the life of

the church the cell movement embraces the same tensions as other significant renewal

movements in history did. It is a movement unique to our time but the tensions leading

to its creation and the principles the movement espouses have been around a very long

time. The need for the individual Christian to form into groups of an intimate nature is

fundamental to living out an active life of discipleship. Knowing who Jesus really is, can

only been seen when we open our eyes, ears, hearts, and hands to see the present Christ

as promised when we gather in such ways.

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CHAPTER 4:

A THEOLOGICAL VISION OF COMMUITY: BONHOEFFER’S THEOLOGY AND

INCARNATION

The systematic theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer provides a fertile place to

examine the ways that we the church are in community. No other theologian describes so

simply and well what it means for us to be in community with Christ. Since the cell

church is all about promoting Christ centered community, there is no better theological

system than Bonhoeffer’s to use as a starting point. Bonhoeffer’s own life was witness to

his theological convictions. His integrity is proved in his commitment to genuine

Christian community though the “Confessing Church.” His experience with deep and

intimate community as revealed in his work “Life Together” shows a thinker in touch

with the task of applying theology to the ways that Christians actually live. My own

reading of Bonhoeffer has shaped how I view church and work with the cell church

method. It has helped me keep my focus on the goal of our efforts to build community in

Christ, which is, as we shall see nothing but a living relationship with the incarnate and

present Christ.

Bonhoeffer’s Method: A Relationship with Christ both Personally and Communally

Bonhoeffer’s theological writings reveal a central paradox. On the one side, a

person can only truly experience God in Jesus Christ within the company of other

Christians. He writes, “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus

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Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.”133 At the same time,

Bonhoeffer reminds us that those who are in relationship to Christ can only know Christ

on a personal level because Christ is Person. “Christ is Christ not just for himself but in

relation to me. His being Christ is his being for me, pro me. His being… is to be

understood as the essence, the being of the person himself.”134 Bonhoeffer presents a

theology that is both communal and personal at the same time. By embracing this

paradox, Bonhoeffer lays out a theological method that is highly relational, and

corresponds to two basic human needs: “The need to be separate and the need to be close.

We need to be separate (to be alone, to stand on two feet) and to be close (to be together,

to stand hand in hand). The two forces are in tension.”135

By maintaining this tension, Bonhoeffer presents a system that is a critique to a

“me and my God” tendency in protestant piety that emphasizes the personal while

minimizing the role of community. Bonhoeffer’s system also protects against the abuses

of the community toward an individual. A Christian community can from time to time

drift from the central focus on Christ and draw up litmus tests based on extraneous issues

to determine of who is in and who is out of their fellowship. For Bonhoeffer Christian

community is not defined by walls that keep people out but by the center that draws

people in. The Gospel of Jesus calls the individual to draw her into community with God

others and world. 136

133 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together (New York: Harper & Row,1954), 21. 134 Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center), 47, Frost, Innovation and Mission, 47-48. 135 Steinke, Peter L. How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems

(Herndon VA: Alban Institute, 1993), 10-11. 136 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 77.

The paradox between the personal and communal is stated in its most concise form in chapter 3,

The Day Alone, pages 76-78.

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Sin as Disunion

It is in the tension between the personal and the communal that one sees the heart

of Bonhoeffer’s system. The tension is the lens by which he answers and addresses

theological and practical questions. Bonhoeffer stays true to his Lutheran roots not only

by embracing paradox and tension but also by starting with the human condition’s need

for God. His system follows the classic Law and Gospel pattern, therefore the starting

point of his theology is human sin and why it is that we human beings need reconciliation

through Jesus Christ. Bonhoeffer sees our sin in clear and simple terms and uses

Scripture to explain the universality of human sin. In his work on ethics, he explains how

we are under the need redemption by pointing to the account in Genesis 3 of the Garden

of Eden where Adam and Eve choose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and

evil.

Bonhoeffer maintains that the choice of the man and woman to eat of the fruit is in

reality their choice to go it alone without their creator and sustainer God. The man and

woman assert their independence from God. Their actions show that they feel that they

will no longer need God to decide for them; they can decide for themselves what is good

and what is evil. The implication of this action is clear; by making the choice, Adam and

Eve have departed from God. “(Man) knows himself now as something apart from God,

outside God, and this means he now knows only himself and no longer knows God at

all.”137 Instead of a life without death, the woman and the man experience the

estrangement from God, which will lead to death because they are now cut off from the

source of life. This estrangement from God separates us also from other human beings

and ultimately our own personhood. “Man’s life is now disunion with God, with men,

137 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich , Ethics, (New York: SCM Press, 1959), 22.

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with things, and with himself.”138 Bonhoeffer’s definition of sin also closely corresponds

to the biblical representation of sin as a power that rules over human beings and is an

essential aspect of our existence “in the flesh”.139

God’s law in Bonhoeffer’s system is the Word that reveals our disunion. Bonhoeffer

like Luther sees the human in disunion as totally self-focused or curved in on her or

himself (cor curvum in se). He writes, “For ‘in Adam’ means to be in untruth, in

culpable perversion of the will. It means to be turned inward into one’s self… Human

beings have torn themselves loose from community with God and… also from other

human beings and now they stand alone.”140

The Good News of Jesus: Rediscovered Unity

The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to our predicament of

disunion; Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Jesus is truly and fully God and at the same time

truly and fully human. Humanity and God are bridged in the person of Jesus the Christ.

Therefore, the Good News of Jesus Christ is described by Bonhoeffer as the rediscovery

of unity, which leads to the reconciliation of humanity with God. This rediscovery of

unity with God becomes the basis for all discussion of how a person should live life in

the world.141

This gracious reconciliation to unity by Jesus Christ is nothing more than the triumph

of love over selfishness, which restores humanity to its created intention of unity with

138 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 24. 139 Butlmann, Theologie, 245. 140 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Works Volume 2:Act and Being, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 137.

Comments on Romans Chapter 5 141 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 30.

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God.142 This Gospel of rediscovered unity becomes actualized through love. Love is

defined as God choosing to be present with us to overcome our disunion. In

Bonhoeffer’s thought, the Gospel in effect becomes identical to love. “Love is always

God himself. Love is always the revelation of God in Jesus Christ… Love therefore is the

name for what God does to man in overcoming the disunion in which man lives. This

deed of God is Jesus Christ, is reconciliation.”143 We are powerless to do anything to

achieve this love since it is totally God’s act and God’s gift. “(L)ove is something that

happens to man, something passive something over which he does not himself dispose

simply because it lies beyond his existence in disunion. Love means the transformation

of one’s entire existence by God.”144 Bonhoeffer’s thought corresponds to what Paul

Tillich would call the “Protestant principle.” “According to the Protestant principle,

God’s surrender is the beginning; it is an act of his freedom by which he overcomes the

estrangement between Himself and the man in the one unconditional, and complete act of

forgiving grace.”145

Bonhoeffer also describes the gracious surrender of God, which Tillich

emphasized in his explanation of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. The central act

of love can be seen in the humiliation of God by becoming truly human. God remains

God yet becomes fully human. God subjects himself to the likeness of human flesh. 146

God is doing this to bridge the disunity of humanity. Christ is therefore the sole mediator

because only by becoming human can God bridge the disunity that is sin. For Bonhoeffer

142 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Works Volume 1: Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of

the Church, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 107. 143 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 54-55. 144 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 55. 145 Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology: Volume 3, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 192. 146 Romans 8:3 NRSV

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the incarnation of God is forgiveness since it is God’s action to restore the unity. God

enters fully into human sin to restore humanity to unity.147

Atonement in Bonhoeffer’s system is based solely on an incarnational theology of

the cross. Atonement is brought about through the utter rejection of Jesus Christ by

human beings on the cross. The cross reveals that Christ has entered into the disunion of

the world completely and totally. “Suffering and rejection sum up the whole cross of

Jesus. To die on the cross means to die despised and rejected of men. Suffering and

rejection are laid upon Jesus as divine necessity.”148 Thus, the cross is the culmination of

the incarnation of Jesus Christ; it is the only possible outcome of incarnation. The cross

reveals that Jesus is both truly and completely God and human. To overcome the

disunity of humanity, God has no choice but to fully enter into that disunity of humanity

and the world. God must completely suffer the results of human disunion: abandonment

and isolation. In no other way can the gap of humanity’s disunion be bridged except to

hear our Savior cry from Psalm 22: ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me.’149

Christ’s resurrection reveals that death (the ultimate disunion) cannot hold God

back from bringing about the restoration of God’s relationship with humanity. The

resurrection proves that nothing can keep the incarnate Christ from the restoration of

unity through Christ’s act of ultimate love.150 The resurrection shows decisively that

disunion is overcome through the love of Jesus. Therefore, the incarnation is both the

humiliation and exaltation of Christ since it is through the bridging of the divide that God

147 Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, 102-107. 148 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: SCM Press, 1959), 87. 149 Psalm 22:1, Mark 15:34, Mathew 27:46 NRSV 150 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 276.

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is fully revealed in glory.151 The present Christ, incarnate and resurrected, is the ultimate

good news because by his presence Jesus overcomes all human disunity with God world,

self, and others.

The Incarnate and Present Christ: a Personal and Communal Encounter

For Bonhoeffer the resurrected Christ is the ultimate reality. Jesus became

incarnate in time and in space to bridge our disunion. However, because this is God

bridging the gap, this event is not limited by time or space. So Bonhoeffer sees the cross

and resurrection as an event in history but not limited by it. “Even as the risen one; Jesus

remains the man Jesus in time and space. Because Jesus is man, he is present in time and

space; because Jesus Christ is God, he is eternally present.”152

Jesus who suffered on the cross and rose again is the Christ who is present among

the community of faith now! This same Christ is incarnate today! Jesus who speaks to

us now is the same Jesus who spoke the word of command to the disciples. Just as the

historical disciples heard the word of Jesus and believe, so we who are Christ do the very

same today. As contemporary followers of this Christ, we hear the sermon, participate in

the sacraments, and believe the proclamation of Jesus crucified and risen. When we do

these, we meet Jesus. 153 Jesus cannot be limited by time, space, or history, because Jesus

is the one who restores our disunion whenever we meet him personally and communally

through the grace of his presence today.

151 Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, 102-107. 152 Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, 45. 153 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 226.

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It is in the idea of the incarnational presence of Christ that one sees strongly

Bonhoeffer’s dialectic that one can only experience God personally while being in

community. We meet this Jesus Christ personally through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit

addresses each person as an individual on an individual level.154 In Bonhoeffer’s system,

it is essential that God speak to the individual believer personally because as sinners we

exist in isolation. Because the Gospel is that, which causes us to be called from our

isolation into God’s presence it must obviously be first heard in isolation. The voice of

God through the Holy Spirit has to call us from death in isolation to life with God

“personally.”155 However, the reconciled Christian knows that one can never possess this

Jesus; the personal nature has its limits, because this is also good news for others.

The paradox of the personal and communal is made clear as God calls us out from

our isolation in sin. “The reality of sin places the individual at the same time, both

subjectively and objectively, into the deepest, most immediate bond with humanity,

precisely because everybody has become guilty.”156 When I hear the word of the law

that reveals my isolation, I realize in my isolation that others are isolation as well.

Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that

call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an

account to God. You cannot escape from yourself; for God has singled you out. If

you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you and you can have no

part in the community of those who are called.157

In Bonhoeffer’s theology, it is clear that a personal encounter with Christ can only take

place within the context of community for that is where Christ promises to be. “If you

scorn the fellowship of (the sisters and brothers in Christ) you reject the call of Jesus

154 Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio,161. 155 Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio,108-09. 156 Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio,145. 157 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 77.

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Christ and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you.” 158 The community described

by Bonhoeffer is not just any hodge-podge gathering of autonomous individuals; it is the

only possible byproduct of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The community is the church,

which is the assembly of believers’ called into being by God. God creates this

community by personally calling us out of our disunion.

Because the personal and communal are held in a life giving tension, the

community is both universal and particular at the same time. The same Jesus Christ is

present in every local congregation where this community called by him is gathered.159

Thus, the community holds the critical place in Bonhoeffer’s system of thought.

“Community with God exists only through Christ, but Christ is only present in his church

community, and therefore community with God exists only in the church.”160

Community is the opposite of disunion! The disunity of sin can only be bridged for

people by the grace of being in community with Christ.

Jesus Christ promises to be present with those called to faith in, with, and as

community. The key to understanding what the community is, (like the cross) is

contained in the idea of incarnation. According to Bonhoeffer, the presence of Christ in

community takes three forms Word, Sacrament and Church. The community is not

perfect. It is still in sin; people will therefore continue to experience disunion.

Nevertheless, it is because God chooses to be present with us in spite of our sin that we

see God’s grace. When you hear the preaching of the Good News of Jesus in the

assembly from the fumbling preacher you meet Jesus. When you partake of the stale

bread and the cheap wine in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is present for you and shows to you

158 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 77. 159 Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio, 135-36. 160 Bonhoeffer, Sanctorum Communio, 158.

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your forgiveness by being present for you. When the community of is gathered for

prayer in some drafty old building Jesus is there because he promises to be so.

Bonhoeffer clearly witnesses that Jesus is incarnate in Word, Sacrament, and

Community.

It part of Christ’s willing humiliation out of love to be so. Jesus uses our

inarticulate and fumbling words to be as Word. Christ’s Word is in our feeble words.

Christ’s Word is with our questioning words. The same threefold pattern (as, with, in)

holds true for the other two forms of Christ’s presence, sacrament and community. 161

God out love chooses to be limited so we as the objects of that love are able to be with

him in community. Therefore, the church as the community gathered in Christ is not

perfect, but it is where Christ is found. It is where Jesus chooses to be the incarnate

Christ for each of us personally and communally.

The Way of Jesus: Communal and Personal Following for Con-formation

To relate to Jesus is to follow and seek after Jesus. It is not a badge one wears, or

card one carries. This relationship is a life of discipleship. Bonhoeffer reveals that

discipleship is a completely a relational way of being and acting. “Costly grace is the

gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door

at which a man (or woman) must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to

follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”162

161 Bonhoeffer, Christ the Center, 49-59. 162 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 45.

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The terms that Bonhoeffer uses are all relational terms. The disciple searches for

the Person of Christ in faith. One can only ask as person, not a thing or a thought system.

To knock is to seek to open the door of a relationship. This personal relationship

between disciple and Master can only happen in the presence of the Master. The Master,

Jesus the Christ, is present only in the community that bears his name. “The church is

one man; it is the Body of Christ, but also many, a fellowship of members… Each

preserves its separate identity and function. On the other hand they all preserve that

identity and function only as members of the one body.”163 Thus, costly grace, the grace

of discipleship is both personal and communal. If the personal is lacking, it becomes all

about the “how”. If the communal is lacking, the disciple becomes curved in upon her or

himself. Only by having the personal and the communal united in the Person of Jesus

Christ can the Gospel of the restoration to unity of humanity truly take effect in the life of

the disciple. The practical dimensions of the life of person in relation to Christ then start

to be revealed by the personal and communal embrace of Christ.

The results of our personal encounter with the Person of Christ are not spoken

about as a purification, progression or advancement. Nor does Bonhoeffer speak about

transformation in the life of the believer even though that is a Biblical image.164

Bonhoeffer never speaks about becoming a “good person” because such an idea would be

ridiculous to him.165 There is only the person in disunion and the person in union with

God. Therefore, to practice ethics is not to adhere to an abstract system of values, virtues

or rules. The truly ethical person is one who allows herself to be formed by God. Ethics

for Bonhoeffer is formation. He clarifies what this means as he speaks of ethics as

163 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 243. 164 Romans 12:2 NRSV 165 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 86, 97.

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“conformation” in its pure epistemological sense. A person is formed together with

Christ. The old person in their isolation and sin is condemned to death and the new

person rises up together with Christ. Their disunion overcome, they now live in unity.166

For Bonhoeffer there is only the ethos of Law and Gospel.

Con-formity167 with Christ is perhaps the most difficult aspect of Bonhoeffer’s

thought for people today to embrace. Conformity is always a negative in contemporary

culture and is often thought of as being synonymous with tyranny. Bonhoeffer’s system

reveals a basic flaw in our current cultural consciousness. If a person does not hear the

Word of Christ calling them out of their disunion then they will be left in isolation. Con-

formation with Christ is the only way out of a life of disunion with the self, world, and

others. The conformity people should really fear is conformity with anything other than

God (a fad, sports team, clique, political party). Conformity with the world is not con-

formation at all; it is remaining in disunion. Non-conformity is worse; it is merely

wallowing in one’s own sin! Therefore, Bonhoeffer can still challenge 21st century

people if we dare to read his words: “(t)he liberation of man as an absolute ideal only

leads to man’s self destruction.”168 Conformation for Bonhoeffer is nothing more and

nothing less than the individual and the community of people gathered in Christ’s name

living out Law and Gospel. 169

For Bonhoeffer this restored unity with God in conformation is no mere static

state; it is a complete way of life. It is not only a way of being; neither is it only a way of

166 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 83. 167 The hyphen is intended to help make clear the importance of the preposition “con” to emphasize the

“with.” 168 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 103.

Romans 12:2 NRSV 169 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 110.

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acting. Both being (what state one is in) and acting (what I do) are con-formed together

with Jesus Christ. Faith and works are united in Christ as the personal and the communal

are united in him as well. One becomes formed together with Christ when one answers

the call to come and be in the community called into being by Christ proclaimed as

crucified and risen. When called into being through the Word this community becomes

the body of Christ.

“Christ is the corporate person [Gesamtperson] of the Christian community of

faith… Christ is in the community of faith as the community of faith is in

Christ…God reveals the divine self in the church as person. This community of

faith is God’s final revelation as ‘Christ existing as community [Gemeinde],

ordained for the end time of the world until the return of Christ.”170

Bonhoeffer sees that when a person is in communion with Christ (a state of being), they

are doing work (acting) only because Christ is working through them. “When the Bible

calls for action it does not refer a man to his own powers but to Jesus Christ Himself.

‘Without me ye can do nothing.’ (John 15:5) This sentence is to be taken in the strictest

sense.”171

Works of Christ grounded in love always lead toward God’s goal of overcoming

human disunion. This action is exclusively Jesus’ action and is the only true action

possible. Human actions that are not being done as part of the community of faith are

really false actions because they do not overcome disunion. Therefore, con-forming to

Christ is not an attempt for the person “to be like Christ”; it is rather a surrendering of the

person in disunion to the will of Christ in order for Christ to form the person in con-

formity with himself. This means that one must like Christ be crucified and condemned

by God for his or her sins. Thus, to rise up in con-formity with Christ is to experience

170 Bonhoeffer, Act and Being, 111-12. 171 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 46.

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fully God’s grace. Although this happens in the life of each individual, this con-

formation happens first in the church because that is where Christ is present.172 Thus, the

tension between the personal and communal is maintained in Bonhoeffer’s system.

In the con-formation of the person with Christ, being and acting are united in

relationship with Jesus. Faith and works are thus united and become almost

indistinguishable. The way of life in conformity with Christ is called discipleship

(Nachfolge). “There is no fulfillment of the law apart from communion with God, and no

communion with God apart from fulfillment of the law… If men cleave to him who

fulfilled the law and follow him, they will find themselves both teaching and fulfilling the

law.173 The way of life, which holds all these things together, is for Bonhoeffer the life

of following. The call of God that comes to us in our disunion must be answered, even

though we are powerless to answer it ourselves.174 The only way to answer God’s call is

to adhere to the one who makes the call, Jesus the Christ; “discipleship means adherence

to Christ.”175

While those who translated Bonhoeffer into English had no other rational choice,

the translation of the German word Nachfolge as discipleship is unfortunate and brings

some difficulty to understanding Bonhoeffer’s holistic description of a life of faith in

Jesus Christ. Nachfolge literally means to follow after; it is a perfect translation into

German of the original Greek word from the New Testament (akolouqew). It is a life

on the way (odos) of Jesus Christ, who wanders the countryside of Galilee. It would

correspond to the term “walk” (peripatew) used by St. Paul to describe the way of life

172 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 82-83. 173 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 123-24. 174 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 84. 175 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 59.

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of a person in Christ.176 The term Nachfolge obviously implies movement; it also implies

a way of being. The descriptive meaning of the term Nachfolge holds together both

being acting and thus faith and works. The follower is also one who is in relative unity

with the one she is following. Thus, the use of the term Nachfolge implies Bonhoeffer’s

description of law and Gospel as disunity and recovered unity. A disciple (maqhth) is

one who was taught; it is a static term, so the unity of being and acting implied in

Nachfolge is lost. Discipleship is a better term than disciple is, but it still lacks the

holistic nature of Nachfolge where “only he who believes is obedient and only he who is

obedient believes”.177

Life Together in a Cell Group

Bonhoeffer’s theology provides a potential foundation for those experimenting

with building basic Christian community by the use of cell groups. The use of

Bonhoeffer’s theology would help solve problems that those who experiment with cell

groups face in its application. Foremost Bonhoeffer gives the key to managing the

balance between unity and diversity. This balance is revealed in “incarnation”. The

purpose of the cell groups is to encounter Christ, as He is present in, with, and as,

community. As cell proponents espouse each group is church, each group is a

manifestation of the Body of Christ. Potential conflicts between groups, wandering

away of others, and the risk of falling into self-absorption can be managed if the primary

176 Romans 6:4, 8:1, 13:13, 1st Corinthians 7:17, 2nd Corinthians 5:7, Galatians 5:16,25, 1st Thessalonians

2:12, 4:1,12. 177 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 63.

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aim of the groups is to encounter Christ. If the incarnation becomes the grounding then

the groups can avoid being tools of manipulation for reasons of organizational survival,

pride, or individual ego. The incarnation will also help keep the pastor of the cell church

grounded in humility to realize that the ministry should not be about the expansion of her

or his individual ministry but about the growth of Jesus’ body in this place and time.

Through thoughtful reflection on Bonhoeffer’s theology, a cell church pastor should

come to understand that working with cells is not about building God’s kingdom through

raising up community but is tangibly receiving the gift of community given by God to

participate in. “Christian brotherhood (and sisterhood) is not an ideal which we must

realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we must participate.”178

The cell simply affords a tangible space in the sphere of our daily lives where we

have the opportunity to receive God’s gift of incarnate community. Receiving the

incarnation as community in Christ as God’s gift will keep cell pastors true to God’s

Word that Christian community is about building up the believer into Christ-centered

wholeness so they are able to reach out to the weak, broken, and excluded of our world.

This building up to reach out will happen if the groups meet Christ through their coming

together. For Jesus built up his disciples so they too could go forth and reach out to the

worlds around them.

There is certainly a danger that incarnation can be misused and that “Jesus

(becomes)… a mirror in which we behold our own image and (makes it) so easy to spot

the sliver in the eye of the other and miss the two-by-four in our own.”179 The answer to

this question of the potential misuse of incarnation is found in the person of Jesus

178 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 30. 179 Caputo, John D. What Would Jesus Decontruct? The Good News of Post-Modernism for the Church,

(Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 34.

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himself. Jesus comes to us as both Law and Gospel. The Gospel of rediscovered unity

will come to us side by side with the Law to demonstrate that our estrangement is real

and continues now. There will always be a gap in the relationship between the person

and Christ. The Law that reveals and condemns sin shows us the divide, which must be

bridged by the Gospel. Lest we rosily look only at the promise, Jesus will come to

disturb, disquiet and shake some sense into us by his presence.180 Bonhoeffer certainly

understood this himself. His picture of a Christian life, which must seek Jesus out and

pay a real price to have the privilege of standing condemned before the cross shows a

theology fully aware of the precarious situation we are placed in by our disunion. The

pastor of the cell church will need stand firmly at the feet of the cross to help lead the

church and the individual cells that make it up to encounter Jesus in all his fullness, both

as the one who brings Law and the one who gifts Gospel.

180 Caputo, Jesus Decontruct? 32.

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CHAPTER 5:

PRACTICAL POTENTIAL: EDUCATION FOR ADULTS IN CHIRISTIAN

PRACTICES

The introduction told a story of those who wanted to know more about their faith

at a critical time in their life. The people in that story would struggle with

embarrassment because they had had little experience in living the out the basic actions

of the faith. In large part, cell groups become places where disciples are formed as they

encounter Christ. Disciples are formed in cells through their encounter with Jesus in a

simple and ordinary way: the way of Jesus. This “way” holds together both being in

Christ with living out the faith in action.181 Disciples seek God in community through the

cell group. They respond to God through folding hands in prayer; they sing a praise

chorus; they find a passage in the Bible; they offer to help a fellow member with a vital

task in a time of need. Disciples relate life experiences to new people in the faith so the

person knows God’s love in a tangible way for the first time.

In many churches of the past, the teaching of the actions of the faith was relegated

to the Sunday School or perhaps catechetical instruction. In contrast, the adults would be

informed of theology, biblical history, or relevant social issues in the “Adult Forum”.

While being informed is useful in building up a person in the faith, it is not the essential

quality of a person, which one seeks to draw out through teaching. The essential quality

that must shine forth is knowledge.

There is an oft-understated difference between information and knowledge.

Information is an impersonal collection of facts. Knowledge is a contextualized

combination of facts, experiences, judgments and relationships brought together in the

181 Soares-Prabhu, Dharma of Jesus, 3.

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life of a person. All knowledge is personal; all information is impersonal. Knowledge in

biblical and theological terms implies being in relationship.182 As we saw when

examining Bonhoeffer’s theology in the previous chapter God calls each of us on a

personal level out of our own isolation. If Christian education is all about raw

information, rather than seeing how what can be learned comes alive in the life of a

person, then we are missing an opportunity to witness the grace of God.

The holistic nature of the cell naturally leads people to knowledge rather than

information. This is because the cell provides a person a place to be taken seriously. It

also provides an opportunity to practice the faith. Participants can pray, read scripture

aloud, talk about God’s power in their life, make connections and friends, and serve

others who they meet through the cell. This opportunity can be great aid to the pastor

who is called to teach and lead her congregation. “My undergirding assumption of all

pastoral encounters is what the person really wants from me is to learn how to pray or to

be guided to maturity in prayer.”183 The cell provides the place for the practices of the

faith to be modeled and exercised. One can watch golf on television or one can go out

and play golf. The cell is like the latter, it provides the experience rather than the

entertainment. Words and deeds are lived out in an inseparable way as Jesus modeled to

his disciples.

In the concrete action-oriented biblical culture to which Jesus belonged words

without deeds to “fulfill” them, would have been as empty as deeds without words

to expound their meaning. The sharp dichotomies between spirit, matter, soul and

body, word and action, preaching and social concern… would have made little

sense to Jesus.184

182 Peterson, Eugene, Working the Angles: the Shape of Pastoral Integrity, (1987 Grand Rapids MI:

Eerdmans), 109-110. 183 Peterson, Working the Angles , 191. 184 Soares-Prabhu, Dharma of Jesus, 31.

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What are Christian Practices?

Christian practices are the activities we do together as a church to live out God’s

love awoken by the faith. Christian practices are those activities in which believers

participate together to create sacred spaces in which they can experience the power of

God. Indeed, the grace, mercy and presence of God in Christ can be revealed and made

known to us through our participation in them.185 Basic Christian practices are “the

kinds of practices that the church’s people engage in over and over again, because they

are the practices that constitute being the church, practices to which God calls us as

Christians. They… likewise… place people in touch with God’s redemptive activity.” 186

As faith cannot be taught, it is also true that faith does not originate through

participation in these practices. Nor can one say that because one person participates in

the practices more than another believer does his or her faith is somehow deeper or better.

“Rather engagement in the church’s practices puts us in a position where we may

recognize and participate in the work of God’s grace in the world.”187

Growth in faith is always a gift from our gracious Triune God. Human beings

cannot will or artificially make growth happen in the life of a believer or within the

corporate life of a congregation. What we can and should do is to tend to the

environment where we live and grow. Jesus often used agricultural analogies to describe

the reign of God. Parables such as the parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-9), the seed

growing secretly, and the mustard seed (Mk 4:26-34) remind us that growth comes from

185 Dykstra, Craig, Growing in the Life of Faith: Education and Christian Practices 2 ED., (2005

Louisville: Westminster John Knox), 43. 186 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 66. 187 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 41.

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God. St. Paul realized this himself when he described his own missionary activity in his

first letter to the Corinthians and stated that God alone gives the growth (3:5-9).188

This realization does not however lead to passivity where one sits back and waits

for a capricious god to choose whether to shower growth on us or not. Paul understood

that because God is gracious, God calls us to participate in God’s work and mission in

our world today. Paul is keenly aware of his contribution (he planted), the contribution

of others (Apollos watered), and the fact that his and others’ work produced tangible

results (I Co 3:8). As any farmer realizes, hard work is no guarantee of a good crop, but

diligent and consistent effort can produce an environment where growth is more likely to

happen and yields are likely to be greater.189 The active facilitation of Christian

practices creates an environment where growth is more likely to be seen, experienced,

and lived. Active participation in Christian practices both individually and corporately is

really tending to an environment. Farmers can remove rocks from the soil, add compost

and lime, control pests and weeds, water and prune to help facilitate growth. Where

Christian practices are being lived and modeled, much the same thing is going on, an

environment is being intentionally cultivated where the life of the Spirit is being given

room to move in our lives.190

In the suburban United States, this may indeed seem like an imposing task.

Americans today are increasingly living in a toxic dichotomy of an environment. They

are more and more likely to live in densely populated areas, but are more and more likely

to report being alone or without any friends. People are constantly surrounded by others

in highway traffic, in stores and malls, at their work places but the amount of time that is

188 Schwarz, Paradigm Shift in the Church, 254-57. 189 Schwarz, Paradigm Shift in the Church, 254-57. 190 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 63-64.

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spent in cultivating meaningful and deep relationships is dwindling. 191 The basic

Christian practice of forming and participating in community holds a promise of

providing a solution for people who live in an environment where it is hard to meet and

interact with others on a meaningful level. It can be the answer to a world, which only

finds value in the material or physical prosperity rather than in the joy of living a life of

faith in balance.

Cell groups can create “staging areas” that enable people to be in a positive

environment to give them strength to go out into the world. The formation of cell groups

by a church would be one way of making a better environment for people to thrive.

Because this program is intentionally carried out in member homes, people can

experience a positive environment not only at the church when the entire community

gathers, but also in smaller venues that are more intimate when the cell gathers. If the

formation of this healthy environment for faith has been modeled well then it will be also

available for each member to experience in his or her own home when family or friends

gather.

Participating in Christian community can be described as the culminant Christian

practice. This is because participating in Christian community itself is not an isolated

individual practice but is the result of Christians engaging in practicing their faith

together with God and each other in the context of the world they live in. One actively

participates in Christian community with others by engaging with others in the practices

of the faith here and now192. The language here is precise. One does not “do”

community; one participates “in” community. The community is a living thing with a

191 Stanley, Andy & Bill Willits, Creating Community:5 Keys to Building a Small Group Culture, (2004

Sisters Oregon: Multnomah Publishing), 21-24. 192 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 73-74.

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life of its own. This is because Christian community is a gift given out of the love of

Jesus in which we participate in rather than something we build or claim as our right.193

As one participates in Christian community, one begins to understand that “no

one Christian practice is the key to faith or the life of faith. The life of faith involves

participation in all of them.”194 If one made a list of the common practices of the

Christian faith, it would actually be quite extensive.195 An examination of the history of

the body of Christ leads us to recognize that Christian practices fall into five historical

norms. They are:

“Kerygma. Proclaiming the news of Christ’s resurrection.

Didache. Teaching and Learning (about) the faith

Leitourgia. Gathering to pray and share in the Eucharistic feast.

Koinonia. Gathering for mutual support and fellowship.

Diakonia. Service and outreach to the community…

The five historic forms noted above constitute both the purpose and the work of

faith.” 196

The essential task of a congregation’s Christian education program is to teach and invite

participation by the members in all of the basic Christian practices that are reflected in

the five norms identified above.197 In doing so, an environment is created where one can

more readily see God’s growth in action, prepare for future growth, and identify the fruit

of that growth today.

The essential Christian practice of the faith not named above is prayer. Perhaps

this is because prayer is the central practice of the faith. Prayer serves to bridge all the

other practices together. “Prayer is receptivity and responsiveness to the creative and

193 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 30. 194 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 45. 195 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices ,42-43. 196 Grothe, Rebecca, Lifelong Learning: A Guide to Adult Education in the Church, (1997 Minneapolis:

Augsburg), 135. 197 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 71.

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redemptive grace of God for us.”198 “Prayer means nothing else but the readiness and

willingness to receive and appropriate the Word… (to) accept one’s own personal

situation, particular tasks, decisions sins and temptations.”199 Prayer is God’s gift to us

that allows us to relate to God deeply on a regular basis. When one wants to begin to

instruct people in living out their faith there is no better starting point than to begin with

prayer. Prayer should never end in itself; it should always lead to the participation in

another Christian practice. Effective cell group ministries encourage this by intentionally

including a variety of practices in every cell meeting and by asking the cell leaders to

give reports and feed back about what is going on within the cell.

In order to facilitate a healthy and balanced living out of the faith for adult

believers the congregation needs intentionally to plan and prepare for it. One of the ways

that one may do this is by adopting a structure to help make this happen. This is

precisely what cell groups and their corresponding structures are designed to do. They

make sure that individual believers are living out a healthy variety of the practices of the

faith each week. By making sure there are a variety of practices cells avoid becoming too

inward looking, or task based, or just a fellowship hour. By having an intentional

balance, one makes sure that genuine ministry happens. This is why the feedback and

support structures that cell churches use are just as important as the group meetings

themselves.

198 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 76. 199 Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 84-85.

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A Holistic Cell Group Meeting

The predominant cell group meeting format is known as the four “W”s (welcome,

word, worship, and works or witness). This includes 15 minutes for the welcome portion

during which a time is allotted for people break the ice, meet and greet. Then there are

20 minutes for worship were people focus on God and experience grace and forgiveness

through Christ. Then follows 40 minutes for the Word, which is the lesson portion of the

meeting. Finally there are 20 minutes for Works (or Witness), which begins with prayer

for new people to join the group, then intercessory prayer, and finally moves on to the

ministry items that the cell is working on.200 The format is designed under the “nurture

then evangelize” premise outlined in chapter 1.201 For a cell meeting to be genuinely

effective both goals need to be met consistently. If the leaders and the pastor do not

intentionally plan and prepare for both edification and evangelization, the groups cease to

function as they should.

This is why all of the essential and historic norms of Christian practice are lived

out in the cell. Kerygma is the over arching purpose of the cell. Didache happens during

the Word portion of the meeting. Leitourgia happens during the worship portion and

again during the prayers during the works portion of the gathering. Koinonia happens

during the welcome. Diakonia happens during the works portion of the meeting. In

reality, this is an oversimplification of what occurs in a dynamic cell meeting just as it

would be an oversimplification of what goes on within a dynamic gathering of the whole

congregation. The point is that the cell group structure seeks to include all the traditional

and living practices of the faith for its goal of edification and proclamation.

200 Geok, Cell Leaders Guidebook, 20-21. 201 Cho, Home Cell Groups, 65-66.

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According to a study led by David Roozen personal spiritual practices have been

shown to have a high degree of correlation to congregational vitality and this area of the

Christian life has often not been emphasized by “old-line Protestants.”202 It may seem

obvious, but it cannot be forgotten that in order for Christian practices to have an effect

on the life of believers they must actually participate in them. It does not help the

Christian to know that prayer exists as an option. The Christian must practice prayer.

Diana Butler Bass writes; “Practices imply practice… Christians engage in these for their

own sake because they are good and worthy and beautiful not because they are

instruments of some other end like increasing membership.” 203 For Christians the

practices of the faith are simply the actions of following Jesus, which help us to be open

to the living Christ. “Christian practices embody belief, conversely beliefs form

practices.”204 Practices create habitations of the Spirit where people make room for

God.205 The cell group is an intentional structure for people to practice their faith. It is a

set time each week devoted to living out the faith as it connects to daily life. Cell

ministries are all about helping Christians with the application of their faith in daily life.

The cell meeting is also about creating a space for people to live out daily

Christian community with one another. This is a critical task for the living body of Christ

as Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

The church needs not only space for her liturgy and order but also for the daily

life of her members in the world. We must now speak of the living space of the

visible church. The fellowship between Jesus and his disciples covered every

202 Butler-Bass, Diana, The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church, (2004 Herndon VA:

Alban), 67. 203 Butler-Bass, Practicing Congregation, 65. 204 Butler-Bass, Practicing Congregation, 65. 205 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 63-64.

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aspect of their daily life. Within the fellowship of Christ’s disciples the life of

each individual disciple was part of the life of the brotherhood.206

Christian Educator Craig Dykstra teaches that in order to teach Christian practices they

must be lived out. Practices are expressed physically through the gestures, motions, being

in the right places, and doing certain things. This indeed occurs through the vehicle of

cell groups. They are designed for people to live out their faith and they are designed to

bring new believers along with them. Dykstra also maintains that the actions must be

intelligible. One must be able to recognize what the action is doing and what it

symbolizes.207 The cell group does this by placing its activities through the lens of the

edification and proclamation dynamic. For these reasons alone, cell groups can be seen

as an effective vehicle for instruction in Christian practices; however, cell group structure

and theory also corresponds well to the contemporary understanding of the principles of

adult learning theory.

Cell Groups as a Vehicle for Adult Instruction in Christian Practices

When people today talk about adult instruction they often emphasize the learning

of the adult who is acquiring the information rather than the techniques used to teach

them. The model known as andragogy emphasizes the learner’s need to know, the self

concept of the learner, the adult’s readiness to learn, the adult’s orientation to learning,

and finally the adult’s motivation to learn.208 Cell group thinkers do not specifically use

206 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 254. 207 Dykstra, Education and Christian Practices, 71. 208 Knowles, Malcom S., The Adult Learner 5th Ed., (1998 Woburn MA: Butterworth-Heinemann) 64-68.

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these categories, but how cells are used to provide for Christian instruction reveal some

interesting parallels.

Just as the andragogical model starts with the individual adult learner, the cell

group system starts with a corresponding emphasis on the life of the individual believer

who makes up the cell. In order for the system to work every cell member is equipped

with four basic components, the basics in the Christian faith that lead to spiritual

formation, an encounter with God to facilitate freedom from the bondages of life and our

own sin, the development of a daily Christian ethic grounded in the Word of God, and

personal ministry training.209 When one moves on to leadership of a cell team one is in

reality building on the equipping they have already experienced as a cell member.

“Life application” is one of the key principles of cell life; this corresponds with

adult learning theory’s emphasis on experience. The other aspects of the andragogical

model are taken also taken seriously. The self-concept of the learner is a key aspect of

this. Cell leaders are trained to understand who it is they are leading and know where

they are in their life of faith each week. This is most readily seen in new people, who

come to the cell meeting, and are introduced to an active faith life for the first time. The

community gathered in the cell mentors one another to keep motivation high, work on

that which the group feels it needs to know, assesses readiness of the group to progress to

different topics in coming weeks, and the orientation of the cell life. As specified in

chapter 1, cell group churches describe this process spatially with the adjectives upward

(to God), inward (personal and interpersonal), outward (prospects and community) and

forward (future growth).210 This information is not only used by the cell leaders

209 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 303. 210 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 275-279.

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themselves but is shared with the leadership team and ultimately the pastor so that the

ministry is able to adapt quickly to events and attitudes that are going on within the cells

and within the life of the church.211

The cell group system recognizes the truth that all healthy adult Christian

education programs promote, that every Christian is both teacher and learner at the same

time.212 The cell leader is actually a peer of those he or she is leading. They are

participants in the learning they help shape. A cell leader is a facilitator of learning in the

cell rather than an expert instructor. The most important link in the system is the

development of the lay leader to lead an individual cell. 213 Cell leader training is

designed to be simple, reproducible, structured with accountability opportunities, while at

the same time allowing for the individual character of the lay leader to be manifest.

The cell leader is trained to tend to the home environment, in which he leads the

gathering. She articulates the agenda of the cell and the church in consultation with her

fellow cell members. The leaders organize the meetings and arrange for resources to be

available to those who need them. They come prepared to the cell meeting to be a

resource for their fellow members. The cell leader knows the attitudes and prejudices of

those in his cell, and models appropriate behavior by taking the initiative to show how the

cell life applies to his own life. She is also alert to the expressions of emotions and

feelings within the group and the individuals that make it up. He is also part of a

covenantal system of accountability, which specifically acknowledges that he must

follow certain guidelines, practices and limitations. The role of cell leader corresponds

211 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 317-319. 212 Everist, Norma Cook, The Church as Learning Community, (2002 Nashville: Abingdon), 42. 213 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 304-305.

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well to the role of a facilitator of learning described by Malcolm Knowles.214 The cell

leader is almost explicitly a process manager rather than merely a conduit for information

(content transmitter).215 This means that the responsibility for learning within the cell

rests with the members who make up the cell.

Because cell groups are all about life application of the faith, and living out the

basic Christian practices mentioned in the previous section they are essentially task

based. I would maintain that the life of the cell is in itself a learning task. One is

learning how to participate in basic Christian community. A learning task is defined as

“an open question put to learners who have all the resources they need to respond.”216

The open question that each member brings to the cell is “how am I called to live in

response to God’s grace in my life?” One comes to the learning in the cell by working on

sub-tasks that help provide answers for this basic and open question of all Christians.

The assumptions of task-based learning include, “learners have the capacity to do

the work involved in the learning, learners learn when they are actively engaged with

content, new content can be presented through a learning task, and learning tasks promote

accountability.”217 These are assumptions that correspond well to the cell system, which

moves out from an assumption that the priesthood that we all share as believers makes us

capable, accountable disciples who learn new things about the faith by living out that

faith in action. As the disciples of Jesus followed his modeling they learned themselves

and applied their knowledge to the life situation they found themselves in. It is no

different today as Christian practices are modeled from one disciple to another and then

214 Knowles, Adult Learner, 85-86. 215 Knowles, Adult Learner, 200. 216 Vella, Jane, Taking Learning to Task: Creative Strategies for Teaching Adults, (2001 San Francisco:

Wiley & Sons), 8. 217 Vella, Learning to Task, 7.

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applied to the life situation of that new disciple. The cell group structure provides a

sound vehicle for this to happen.

In a church of cell groups, there will always be other avenues and opportunities

for adult education. This is because cell groups cannot meet all the educational needs of

a congregation and are probably not the best vehicle for delving into deep theological

concepts. They may not also be appropriate for discussion of controversial topics within

the church and the wider society. As seen in chapter 1, cell churches use so-called

“equipping” events for this purpose. Many cell churches employ a basic course in

Christian faith such as Alpha even before people are invited into the cell groups. This is

particularly common in traditionally organized churches transitioning to the cell model.

Then many follow up with courses in the basics of Christian practices over 6 to 10 weeks

in order to prepare people for a committed Christian life in the cell.218

Cell groups do well in helping people develop what is called crystallized

intelligence. “In contrast with what is known as fluid intelligence which is largely a

function of physiological processes within the person, crystallized intelligence is a

function of experience and education.”219 Cell groups provide an outlet for people each

week to reflect, integrate, express, and learn about the basic Christian practices and how

they influence and are influenced by the everyday experience of the believer. This gives

the practices a dynamic quality that allows them to remain continually relevant for the

individuals and the church as a whole. The cell group system has the ability to help the

218 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 298. 219 Knowles, Adult Learner, 157.

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church realize that the people who make it up are in reality its curriculum.220 What they

learn is what they find in their life of faith.

The cell team meeting and structure has a great deal to do with belonging. It

helps each person realize that he or she is a part of God’s people in the place where they

are. When cell teams work, well they facilitate an ongoing process of what Norma

Everist calls “re-membering”. The people that make up the individual cell team and the

church are daily being brought a new understanding of their own belonging to each other

as fellow members in the body of Christ through exercising the practices of the faith.

220 Everist, Learning Community, 46.

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CHAPTER 6:

WHY BOTHER?

In order to start and maintain a thriving small group ministry one must commit

extensive time, effort, emotions, and prayers to the endeavor. A healthy question to ask

oneself is, am I ready? Another simple question is, are we ready to embark on such a

journey as a church? Before asking these questions, one must examine what promise

might be provided by starting up cell groups. In chapter 4, we saw that Bonhoeffer

described the gospel answer to our human sinful disunion from God as the rediscovered

unity with God by meeting Jesus in Word, sacrament, and community. When we

encounter the present Christ in community, we are not only participating in community

with God but we will necessarily be participating in community with others. Since the

dawn of creation, we have known that it is not good for people to be alone. Cell groups

provide the promise of a tangible sign of the community we have been given by God that

allows us to encounter Christ, and our neighbor. This simple reason alone answers the

question of why should we bother with cell groups, but there are others.

An Alternative to the Decline of Community:

Everyone knows America has changed in recent decades. One of the ways that it

has changed is in how people relate together in community. American life is becoming

more isolated all the time. Robert Putnam in his influential work Bowling Alone writes:

Our evidence suggests… that across a wide range of activities, the last several

decades have witnessed a striking diminution of regular contacts with our friends

and neighbors. We spend less time in conversation over meals, we exchange

visits less often, we engage less often in leisure activities that encourage social

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interaction. We spend more time watching and less time doing. We know our

neighbors less well and see old friends less often.221

Economists refer to the transformative power of human connections and relationships as

social capital. “Neighborhoods with high levels of social capital tend to be good places

to raise children. In high social capital areas public spaces are cleaner, people are

friendlier and the streets are safer.”222 Good relationships can also help people under

stress from socio-economic factors and the importance of social capital for health and

well-being has long been one of the more easily demonstrated aspects of social

science.223

Once one enters into a cell church one enters into a potential network of care and

possibility. The cell group structure fosters the creation of social capital. Because of its

leadership structure, the groups are connected together and words and information travel

fast. In one church I have worked with I have seen how during the last ten minutes of a

cell meeting two weeks of meals were arranged for a member’s husband and children as

she was going into the hospital for surgery. Not only did the cell participate but also the

individual members of the cell recruited other members of the church to help their fellow

Christian. When a person shares a need it is common for another person within the cell

group to say, “I know someone who can help with that.”

So-called loose connections and weak ties that networks provide have been shown

to be vital for people to maintain stability within society. They are how people get jobs,

221 Putnam, Robert, Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community, (New York: Simon

& Schuster, 2000), 115. 222Putnam, Bowling Alone, 307. 223 Putnam, Bowling Alone ,320-326.

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find doctors, babysitting, and all sorts of assistance for daily needs.224 When one

participates in the cell, one has access to the loose connections and weak ties of those in

the group. One therefore obtains the ability to increase his or her access to social capital.

This power of networking through groups is by no means new to Christians.

John Wesley was by no means the most charismatic preacher of his era…. Nor

was (he) a great theologian… His genius was organizational. He stayed in each

town long enough in to form the most enthusiastic of his followers into religious

societies which in turn he subdivided into smaller classes of a dozen or so

people….(Wesley) was not one person with ties to many other people. He was

one person with ties to many groups.225

The cell concept promises to give the individual disciple the power of the entire

network of the congregation. Thus, the power of networking actually helps cell churches

monitor change, or respond to critical events in the corporate life of the community

quickly because there are so many ties. It also provides a supportive atmosphere for the

individual believer because there is a whole group of caring people and resources just one

relationship away. Cell groups are a powerful vehicle for church transformation

precisely because they can provide for the needs of those around them by placing

newcomers and seekers into a caring network of people joined not by mere altruism, but

by the conviction that they are following their savior Jesus Christ as a disciple. This then

becomes good news for the world.

The networks and loose contacts that people have relied on for social capital

formation have become increasingly harder to find in the society at large as the civic and

community organizations that once helped our society function l all have experienced

224 Gladwell, Malcolm, The Tipping Point: How Little things Can Make a Big Difference, (New York:

Little Brown, 2002), 54-55. 225 Gladwell, Tipping Point, 172-3.

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marked decline over the past forty years.226 There is an opportunity for the church to

help fill this void in American life if it dares to take the chance. The church can remain

in, but not of, the world and help transform its community culture through relationship

building and discipleship practice just as the early church did. 227 This is perhaps the

primary reason for us to examine concepts of the church that help to build Christian

community not only because they help us organizationally, but also because they can help

our world. For “the only way to follow Jesus is by living in the world.”228

An Opportunity for the Church

The cell movement was not born in the United States. As stated in Chapter 1, its

origins were in Korea. The movement has also been strongly influenced by

congregations and pastors in Bogotá, Singapore, and the Ivory Coast. Its origins lie

outside the traditional areas of Christendom.229 The movement grew up in cultures and

places that did not see being Christian as being identical to being an active member in

society, as we have so often believed in the West. One of the precise reasons a

congregation may want to explore the cell concept is because the cell movement was

born in places where people had limited contacts with protestant Christianity. In recent

years, the home front of the United States increasingly resembles the global mission field.

The global mission field is coming to our doors as the United States becomes more

diverse.

226 Putnam, Bowling Alone , 25-26. 227 Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 191. 228 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 48. 229 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 16-17.

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The myth of the “Christian Century” may still hold on in the imagination of

American life in some quarters, however being a citizen of the United States no longer

assures a that person is Christian in either practice or outlook. In the decades

immediately following World War II, Americans generally believed that being a person

of faith meant being a Christian (or perhaps Jewish in some parts of the country).

However there has been a realization in recent decades that Christians may no longer be

in charge.230 While it is still acceptable and maybe even lauded to be a person of faith, it

is supposed be a private matter. “The message of contemporary culture seems to be that it

is perfectly alright to believe… we have freedom of conscience… but you really ought to

keep it to yourself.”231 Church attendance and membership in the United States have

been in steady decline since the 1960’s, this is despite the fact that similar numbers of

people report that they believe in God in surveys.232

As faith becomes more privatized and less important for the overall society, the

church itself has moved from the center of American life to the margins.233 This has both

represented a crisis and an opportunity for the church. It is a crisis because we can no

longer take for granted that people want to come to us to teach their children about

religion or morality, or that church is the place to be because its spire is the tallest

230 Copenhaver, Martin, Anthony Robinson & William Willimon, Good News in Exile: Three Pastors offer

a Hopeful Vision for the Church (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 1999), 7-8. 231 Carter, Stephen The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religion (New

York: Basic Books, 1993), 25. 232 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 65-79.

Membership in mainline churches is in overall decline. Fundamentalist and conservative evangelical

groups are growing at a similar rate to the overall rate of growth of the population, which means the

proportion of Protestants belonging to them is on the rise. The proportion Roman Catholics in the United

States population has risen markedly as there has been steady immigration from countries in Latin America

and Asia. The amount Americans who state a belief in God but do not belong to a religious community has

risen dramatically in overall number and in proportion to the overall population. 233 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 69-71.

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structure in the town. Our institutions can no longer count on a steady stream of

members. Looking for members itself may be part of the problem.

In the days when all were assumed to be Christian membership meant obligation.

In contrast, today membership implies privilege and being served rather than serving.

People are members of health and country clubs. People invest their time, talents, and

treasure in stewardship campaigns and expect to be cared for in return. This has had the

result of making our churches less focused on the outward community at time when our

diverse world is at our doorstep and can find hope in a life that follows Jesus. Often in

the common cultural consciousness, the idea of membership has strayed from its biblical

roots to become centered in exclusivity when our congregations need to become more

inclusive.234

Because of the growing cultural ignorance of Christianity and its practices, those

who come to the church no longer have a set of shared values and beliefs upon which to

start their journey of faith. Because of the changing cultural landscape of both church

and the wider community, there is a need for our congregations to be increasingly

intentional and mission focused in our approach.235 Since cells are based on discipleship

rather than membership, they have a potential to become outposts of mission.

There is also an opportunity for the church today because, in the era when

“Christendom” was making “good citizens” for the state, the church was in fact in a

bondage to an identity and mission that may not have really been its own. The church

was unable to see the boundaries between God’s kingdoms on the right and left, and

between the nation state and the community in Christ. Bonhoeffer would lament,

234 Foss, Michael Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church, (Minneapolis:

Fortress,2000), 14-15. 235 Frost, Innovation and Mission, 21.

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“Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in

being no different from the world.”236 Discipleship is rendered irrelevant because it

actually becomes more about fitting in than following God. Perhaps the changed cultural

landscape now provides an opportunity where we are actually set free to be the church

and make committed disciples for the sake of the world. There is a gift to be found for

the church being in “exile”; it can be free to embrace God’s promise of the future before

it, as ancient Israel once did when it was relegated to the margins.237

Indeed the church can discover that there is a purpose to being on the margins of

American life. It can be free to follow Jesus more rigorously when on the margins, as the

monastic movement did in Christendom long ago when perhaps they were the only ones

who preserved what discipleship was actually all about. As Bonhoeffer writes:

Here on the outer fringe… (people) still remembered that grace costs, that grace

means following Christ. Here they left all they had for Christ sake and endeavored

daily to practice his rigorous commands. Thus monasticism became a living

protest against the secularization of Christianity and the cheapening of grace.238

In a post-modern cell church, the cell group becomes an intentional Christian community

where people live out their faith daily through prayer, service, worship, and witness.

Unlike the monastic movement which was only for a select few (its main weakness),239

the cell movement becomes an active and rigorous Christian discipleship community

which is open to all.

The cell church has worked well in societies where being a Christian is not a

given. Perhaps this is because is the cell concept mirrors the principles of the church

found in the book of Acts as was shown in chapter 2. The rise and growth of the early

236 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 51. 237 Copenhaver, Good News in Exile, 27-32. 238 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 46, see also Butler-Bass, Practicing Congregation, 61-62. 239 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 47.

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church happened in a culture that knew or cared little for that church. Christians were

seen as members of cult in a diverse Greco-Roman world full of cults. They were actually

seen as subverting the values of the wider culture. Pliny the younger in 112 AD talked of

Christians being a “contagion” that could infect the wider society and needed to be held

in check. The Emperor Trajan agreed and replied to him that indeed “(Christians)

constitute a very bad precedent and are out of keeping with this age.” 240

In this repressive atmosphere Christians met in homes (Acts 2:46, 5:42 &16:40)

and cared for one another as they plied their trades (Acts 18:3) and the church grew as

they created an alternative community to the world around them. Perhaps we can go

back to the past to learn how to create alternative communities of disciples today. We

should advocate this not out of some misguided sense to go back to an ideal church that

never really existed, but out of the realization that the principles that helped a church on

the margins throughout history can still be valid for God’s purposes today.

An Alternative to Professionalism & Shopkeeper Ministry

As American community and civic organizations have experienced decline in

recent years (and churches are no exception), the corresponding trend has been a rise in

professionalism in many areas that were once handled by volunteers. Since 1965, there

has been an explosion of the number non-profit voluntary associations in the United

States. Only around 25% of these associations have chapters or members other than paid

staffers. There are few meetings or grass roots gatherings. Members are little more than

240 Bettenson, Henry, Documents of the Christian Church 2nd Edition, (New York: Oxford, 1963), 4-5.

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names on mailing lists. Groups such as the National Rifle Association, the National

Wildlife Federation & AARP are representative of this trend. Conversely, groups that

demand voluntary participation and are chapter based (such as the Rotary or Jaycees)

have experienced a dramatic decline in their memberships.241 We have seen this trend in

the church when lay people sometimes defer to clergy in many areas because clergy are

seen as those with the right training, who wear the right clothes, who have the proper

authority to carry out ministry.

In practice, professional ministry can create a de facto hierarchy out of step with

our theological traditions. There is culturally a special status given to the ordained

minister because of his or her education and the prestige of administering and controlling

the public ministry of the local congregation.242 American Lutheran churches have often

been characterized by a clericalism that actually flies in the face of our doctrine of the

priesthood of all believers.243 We are not alone to these pressures of professionalism and

specialization; churches of every persuasion are facing them. “(We) are preoccupied

with the shopkeepers concerns-how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers

from other competitors down the street, how to package… services so that customers will

lay out more money…. Religious shop keeping to be sure, but shop keeping all the

same.”244 When the congregation cares too much about providing religious services in a

quid pro quo for attendance and contributions, it ceases to be a people and becomes a

mere organization among other organizations and corporations within society. In a sense,

241 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 51-54. 242 Frost, Innovation and Mission, 21. 243 Thomas H. Schattauer, “Ordination for All who Practice the Ministry of Word and Sacrament: a

Practice and its Implications,” Wartburg Seminary [Online] Available,

http://www.elca.org/ministry/essays/pdf/schattauer2.pdf July 13, 2006, 2. 244 Peterson, Working the Angles, 1.

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the church ceases to be the church. “Grace (is) sold on the market like a cheapjack’s

wares. The sacraments and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.”245

The cell church concept can be attractive to a congregation because it is a powerful

alternative to the consumerist model of religion and ministry.

Although the cell concept of church requires a strong pastoral oversight, the role

the pastor takes on is much different from the standard one practiced in churches with a

strong clergy /lay split. The ordained pastor is more of an overseer. The pastor is a

leader of a team of other pastors. The number one spiritual gift criterion for home cell

group leaders is the gift of pastoring. The cell leader in her or his home is the shepherd

or pastor of that cell.246 A crucial part of the cell leader’s job is to identify who in the cell

has the spiritual gift of pastoring so that person can begin to be trained as a cell leader.

The cell concept represents a re-democratization of the gift of pastoring. In the healthy

cell church, the ordained minister is never to be the sole pastoral care giver. Luther says

in “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation” in 1520:

(T)here is no true, basic difference between laymen and priests, princes, and

bishops, between religious and secular, except for the sake of office and work, but

not for the sake of status. They are all of the spiritual estate; all are truly priests,

bishops, and popes. But they do not all have the same work to do. Just as all

priests and monks do not have the same work.247

In Lutheran theology, there is then a “common” ministry exercised by all who are

baptized, and a special ministry carried out by those who are called to the public office of

the Word.248 The gift of the Word, given by God to all believers, is the basis of this

245 Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 43 246 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 20. 247 Luther, M. J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Editors, Luther's works, Vol. 44: The

Christian in Society I, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 129-30. 248 Gritsch, Eric, & Robert Jenson, Lutheranism: The Theological Movement and Its Confessional Writings,

(1976 Philadelphia: Fortress), 111.

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common ministry. Therefore, in reality, there are actually two aspects of the one

common ministry. The first aspect is the common one to all believers, and the second

aspect is the “special” one to those who are called to this ministry for the good order of

the congregation so that it can carry out mission.249

The pastor should use always discretion, but have no qualms about delegating or

empowering ministry to the laity in almost all areas of ministry because we are literally

all in this together. The chief responsibility of those who are called to the “special”

ministry aspect of our one common ministry to the Word is to “minister to the Gospel”

itself. “[These ministers are] called to tend to the life of the gospel in the congregation,

to care for its vivacity and authenticity.”250 It is this concern for “vivacity and

authenticity” which led the Reformers to accept the idea of a regular call to this “special”

ministry to tend to the life of the gospel. The goal is to maintain the integrity of the

overall ministry not to supplant the opportunity for others to minister on a daily basis.

Although all Christians are priests “they do not all have the same work to do… This is

the teaching of St. Paul in Romans 12[:4–5] and I Corinthians 12[:12].” 251This is why

the Article XIV of the Augsburg confession states. “(N)o one should teach publically in

the church or administer the sacraments unless properly called.”252 The lead pastor is the

one chosen by the community to help keep the integrity of that community’s

proclamation through the public preaching and administration of the sacraments.

The way that the cell church works in practice seems to correspond with Luther

and Melanchthon’s vision of the role of the pastor as a special minister called to tend to

249 Gritch, Lutheranism, 111-12. 250 Gritch, Lutheranism, 119. 251 Luther, Works, Vol. 44, 129-30. 252Kolb, Book of Concord, 47.

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the life of the Gospel. The head pastor oversees and approves those who lead the cells.

The head pastor is also responsible for the content of the word portion of each cell

meeting. Through the pyramidal leadership structure, she or he has the pulse on the

overall life of what is going on with congregation’s proclamation of the gospel. It is clear

that if the cell church is functioning well, tending to the ministry of the Gospel is

precisely what cell pastors do. What they do not do are the tasks that the laity may

actually be better equipped to do, like hospital visits, or lead youth groups etc. The cell

pastor is central preacher, teacher and equipper; the laity and the cell pastor together are

the priests and pastors of the community gathered in that place.253

What the cell concept does particularly well is provide for an intentional structure

for people to become the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2: 9) that God has called them to be.

Space is created to live out the faith through the intentional encouragement of

participation in the classic Christian practices of the faith. The cell church helps to foster

“intentional churchgoing”, which not so focused on ideas of membership and following

established customs. Intentional churchgoing encourages people to have a regular

encounter with their God, which pushes people into genuine community, while also

pushing people outward to risk being disciples for the world.254

While we may fear asking our parishioners to step up their level of commitment,

research tells us we have little to fear by adopting higher standards. In recent years,

“American religious life… has reenacted the historically familiar drama by which more

dynamic and demanding forms of faith have surged to supplant more mundane forms.”255

Therefore, we must try to cultivate a passion for faith through intentional structures. The

253 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 350-54. 254 Butler-Bass, Practicing Congregation , 80-84. 255 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 79.

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cell church concept can be one of those structures; it is not the only structure. Nor should

all churches try to adopt the cell concept only, those who feel the Spirit’s leading and

calling should do so., Living and authentic Christian communities can be formed through

a variety of church structures.

One should not confuse the cell group method of organizing ministry with the

community in Christ that is its goal. This is an important distinction to make. It must

still be remembered that the cell method is only a tool for helping people to know God’s

power and presence by participating in community. One should also understand that

there are other tools of ministry, which will seek the same ends. While this study cannot

address those other tools, it is important to know that they exist lest we fall into the trap

of thinking that there is only one way to be the church. Cells in churches have some

unique characteristics that enable Christian community to be fostered in a powerful way.

It is worth the effort of any Christian leader to explore the possibility of what they might

be for her or his context in ministry.

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CHAPTER 7:

CONGREGATIONAL CONTEXTS

My interest in cell churches began in 1994 to 1995 when I served as a global

mission intern and pastor in Kaohsiung Taiwan and witnessed their power in churches

first hand. I met with and worked with pastors and cell leaders from Chen Chun

Lutheran Church, Lin Lyang Tang (Bread of Life) Church in Kaohsiung, and

missionaries from First Christian Baptist Church of Singapore, which is a leader in

training other churches throughout Asia in the implementation of cell groups. Although I

was initially skeptical of their efforts, by the time I left Taiwan, I had changed my

outlook on the movement. I saw firsthand how new people were brought to the faith,

learned to live out their faith, and how individuals were cared for through cell church

ministry.

It is clear that how we structure our congregations has an effect on the quality and

depth of the community experienced by those who make up our congregations. When

one starts to adapt or revise how a church is structured there are often profound

consequences. The consequences can have important effects on both pastors and

congregations. This chapter will examine some of the aspects of trying to implement cell

groups in two differing types of Lutheran congregations. As few Lutheran churches in

North America work with cell groups, it is hoped that those wishing to examine the

model will become aware of some of the consequences that result from trying to

implement cell groups in existing Lutheran congregations.

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Lutheran Church A

Lutheran Church A is located in an upper middle class suburb within a large

metropolitan area. The community has an extremely low crime rate, and few families

under economic and social stress. Higher education rates are much greater in the area

than the nationwide average. The rate of married people in the community is also

significantly higher than the national average. Single parent households are significantly

lower than the national average.

Lutheran Church A had recently completed a steady period of growth moving

from an “at risk” congregation to a stable and viable one. Average weekly worship

attendance rose from 56 to 115 within seven years. Growth was promoted by adding a

second worship service of a contemporary format, taking steps to be more intentionally

welcoming to young families, restarting the Sunday School, and conducting regularly

coordinated direct mail evangelism campaigns. However, growth had stagnated for the

last three years and the leadership of the congregation was working to remove the barriers

to future growth. The average age within the congregation dropped significantly because

of the growth. Many who are joining the church were brought up in Protestant

denominations other than the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The

congregation also has a significant number of active participants of Roman Catholic

background who are hesitant to become members but are active in many phases of its

ministry.

The holistic focus of the cell group model seemed to answer many of the ministry

requirements and challenges that the congregation needed to focus on. Due to the high

proportions of un-churched and under-churched in the area, Lutheran Church A needed a

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tool that had an evangelism component in order to help promote continued

congregational growth. While good at mass evangelism, Lutheran Church A had

struggled in modeling personal evangelism. Education was also a necessary component,

because a high percentage of the churches new attendees had little experience in living

out Christian practices. The congregation had expressed a desire for deeper relationships

and more comprehensive pastoral care, but had grown to a size where one pastor cannot

provide a deeper level of care without neglecting other essential areas of ministry. It

also might be helpful in the long term for Lutheran Church A to move away from a

pastor-centered model to a priesthood of all believers model for pastoral care,

evangelism, and outreach to the community. Therefore, the pastor was eager to attempt

to establish a cell group ministry in Lutheran Church A.

The pastor had participated in cell ministry before and attended workshops and

training sessions. Through the research of existing cell group literature a gradual

implementation plan was formed. Conversations were conducted to persuade key leaders

of the congregation to examine the concept. If the congregation could be led to embrace

the use of cell groups, it might help this Lutheran church to grow to the next level of

congregational size while creating a more vibrant Christian community. The pastor

wanted to set up some groups so that people could experience cell group life for

themselves.

The pastor led a presentation for the church council and started to implement a

cell group ministry. The pastor decided to start a weekday group and an evening group,

which both met on Wednesdays according to the four W’s format. The pastor lead led

both groups. The pastor recruited two lay leaders to assist him in facilitating the groups.

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The evening group would meet for approximately 12 months while the weekday group

lasted 18 months. Prayer practice, Bible reading, mutual support and care were cultivated

in the groups from the beginning. Members reported a growth in their own participation

in Christian practices. Since the start of the cell groups, both struggled to find new

members outside of those who originally started them. The evening group began to

suffer from sporadic attendance early on. While the weekday group would have a more

consistent attendance pattern, it too would stagnate over time. The cell groups would not

find wide support within the congregation.

The attempt to work with cell groups at Lutheran Church A would ultimately

prove to be premature. While the experiment with cell-groups would be fruitful in many

ways, it was too much of a cultural shift. The core-principles of the cell concept of being

the church conflicted with the core values of this individual congregation. The core

values of Lutheran Church A had served the congregation well over its recent history so

making the case for further change would prove to be difficult.

Core Issues at Lutheran Church A

Lutheran Church A had in the span of seven years doubled in size. The

congregation had previously undergone a steady period of decline lasting almost 20

years. Before growth returned, on typical Sundays without a baptism or holiday,

attendance would be under 50. The church at this point was behaving as a family sized

congregation where the locus of authority is centered within a few families. People are

attracted to these churches precisely because they behave as extended families for the

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membership.256 Almost all in the congregation are familiar with each other and there are

many deep relationships between the congregants.

Unity was a prime value for this type of congregation; it had traditionally only

one weekly worship service throughout its history. Planning for growth always had to

account for how a program or emphasis might affect the overall unity of the

congregation. For example, it would take a significant period to prepare the

congregation to offer a second worship service because it was evident that two worship

services might affect the sense of unity of the congregation and create stress on the

membership. Only the sense of urgency created by the long decline of the congregation

allowed the leadership to support a second worship service as a growth opportunity.

The impetus for renewed growth is limited in how much it can move people to

take risks and embrace new concepts. In any congregation there is only so much tension

that the community can bear. Once Lutheran Church A grew to the point where there

was little risk of the church closing in the short term, it would take an increasing amount

of effort to encourage the congregation to take further risks to enable future growth.

The cell church concept would prove to be too much for Lutheran Church A to

accept and would promote some anxiety within the congregation. Because the cell

church method embraces the tension between the whole community and the parts that

make it up, misunderstandings of the concept can occur. It can be expected for some to

have a natural reaction to cell groups that sees them as ways of dividing the church into

different communities. Only upon a close examination of the cell group concept can one

see its goal of balancing unity and diversity. The core values of the cell church are

256 Roy M. Oswald, James M. Heath, & Ann W Heath, Beginning Ministry Together: The Alban Handbook

for Clergy Transitions, (Herndon VA: Alban, 2003), 31.

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naturally resisted a setting where overall unity of the entire congregation is of prime

value. There is no way for one person to know everything that goes on in every group

and that knowledge is important to the community of Lutheran Church A. By its very

nature, the cell church concept would be hard to implement at Lutheran Church A.

It was unfortunate that the pastor did not account for congregation’s natural need

for unity in the attempt to establish cell groups. This would prove to be the root of all

subsequent anxiety within the congregation while trying to implement cell groups. 257

Those who chose not to be a part of the attempt seemed to be fearful that they would be

left out of the life of the congregation. It was a miscalculation to proceed without having

the built greater consensus within the congregation and taking more time to show how

cell groups would actually enhance the sense of community that congregation desires.

Another miscalculation involved not understanding how the newer members

engaged the congregation during the period of renewed growth. As Lutheran Church A

grew in size, it grew from a family sized to a pastoral sized congregation. The dynamics

concerning the way in which people related to the church changed. When a church grows

in size from 50 to over 75 people in worship, the pastor becomes more central to the

ministry as a whole and has relationships with most if not all of the membership. The

question of “will this pastor be there for me in my trouble?” supplants the question of

“who is in charge?” of the smaller family sized congregation.258 There is a tacit

acceptance that the pastor will be available to the entire membership at all times.

The core value of the cell church, which promotes lay centered pastoral care

conflicts with this dynamic where the pastoral relationship is so important. The starting

257 Steinke, How Your Church Family Works, 31-32. 258 Oswald, Handbook for Clergy Transitions, 31.

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of cell groups sent an unintended message that the pastor was not interested in personal

relationships with some of the congregation. In order to help promote growth the pastor

used a highly engaged ministerial style in the first years of ministry. Naturally, the laity

noticed the change in focus when cell groups were started. Greater care was needed in

working through this dynamic to the ease the concerns of those who would fear that the

starting of a cell ministry would somehow mean that their pastor was not there for them.

The shift from clergy centered to lay centered pastoral care can be a difficult one to

manage because of the deep emotional attachments some members may have with their

pastor.

Another shift in thought of the cell group method was the emphasis on gathering

to encounter Christ and spend a large portion of any congregational gathering in prayer

and worship. The pastor attempted to ease the church into this pattern by intentionally

having worship and prayer at each meeting in the congregation. Many within the church

saw this as a profound shift. In many churches, meetings are opened with a short prayer

and then people would get on to the “real” work of ministry. The emphasis to do, rather

than to pray, is common in mainstream American Christian practice. While at times, we

American Protestant Christians may preach grace to be responded to with work, in actual

practice we often first do work and then respond by preaching words of affirmation for

what we have already done. “So grace/work becomes work/grace” 259 The pattern of the

cell meeting that allots such a large portion to prayer and worship is therefore a huge shift

in the life of any church that normally ministers according to the dominant pattern of the

culture. The cell group format seeks to reaffirm the grace/work relationship espoused by

the theology of the churches, which follow the heritage of the Reformation. However, it

259 Peterson, Working the Angles, 71-72.

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is a struggle to implement this practically in an actual church when both church and

world seem to emphasize tasks and doing over receiving grace. Such a shift would also

seem alien to those who are not used to living out their faith in this way.

Strategic Issues at Lutheran Church A

Many of the problems encountered in implementing cell groups at Lutheran

Church A resulted from moving too quickly, missing potential obstacles, and an

incomplete understanding the conflict between the cell vision and the current vision of

the congregation. The first strategic mistake was not taking adequate time to

communicate more clearly the values and virtues of the small group system. The result

of this failure was that only those who had a natural affinity toward the ideals promoted

by the cells would support the attempt. This group was clear minority within the

congregation. The majority may have been more open if more time had been taken and

change could have been managed better. Gradual modifications such as asking council

members to come with the pastor on care visits may have helped ease some of the

tensions around the shift from a clergy to a lay-centered model of pastoral care.

Intentional working with leaders of congregational groups to intensify and lengthen the

devotional time at the start of congregational meetings may have been another way to

start to prepare the ground for starting a thriving small group ministry.

By choosing to proceed too quickly, the pastor communicated to the church that

the cell group vision for the congregation was his alone. A more appropriate way of

leading would have been to work to build a consensus vision for the congregation. This

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was difficult since the church had under gone much change due to the growth of the

congregation. This change naturally brought about stress, which made fostering trust

more difficult. One clear lesson is that trust needs to be established in a church before

working to build an effective cell group ministry.

There were also tactical mistakes made in the attempt to start cell groups within

the congregation. The first was starting multiple groups at once without a preceding

leadership training activity. This resulted in the pastor not having enough time to work

with the leaders at the level of intensity required. The cell pastor must effectively train

the leaders to start new groups and that demands concentrated time and effort. The

second mistake made was not restricting these start-up groups to only those who would

have the capacity to later on lead groups of their own. While there were some in the

group who clearly had the ability, others were not prepared to take on the task of

leadership. The result of this is that it took a long time for the groups to meet without

pastoral supervision. If the groups had started with the premise that they would divide to

form new groups within a set period it would have provided for clearer expectations and

better long-term results. In the end, because the term of the groups was ill defined, the

groups quickly stagnated, as they would be uncomfortable about meeting without the

pastor.

Positive Outcomes at Lutheran Church A

Much of the success of the attempt at Lutheran Church A is in learning what not

to do the next time. If one is able to take in the tactical and strategic mistakes that were

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made and learn how not to make them again that alone makes the effort worth it. The

attempt also sheds light some of the demands that pastors face while serving

congregations that have of different ways operating. However, there were clear powerful

and positive outcomes that resulted from the attempt to implement cell groups at

Lutheran Church A.

The first outcome would be the modeling of mutual care for each other in Christ

that was enabled through the groups. At every meeting, the members of the group

offered each other emotional and prayer support. Physical and material support was often

offered in such forms as babysitting for a family in an emergency, making of meals for

those in the hospital on two occasions within a short span of time. Community was also

built as relationships were forged and tended. Members were starting to spend time with

each other outside of both the church and the cell when they had not done so previously.

The second area of growth was in modeling Christian practice. The most notable

and powerful manifestations surrounded prayer. The cultivation of prayer was almost

natural in the cell group setting. Many people prayed aloud in public for the first time.

Others reported a deepening of their devotional life. Biblical familiarity was also

markedly increased as people worked out for themselves how to find passages in the

Bible. The small group format allowed people to help each other navigate their Bibles

and learn about the reader helps contained in their various translations.

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Lutheran Church B

Lutheran Church B serves a densely populated suburb in the Northern United

States. Over the previous five years, the church has had an average weekly worship

attendance of 175-200. While the membership is predominately upper-middle class,

there is a significant group of working class congregants. The church serves a number of

communities in its surrounding area. More than sixty percent of the membership comes

from outside the town. In addition to the pastor, the church has four people on its

ministry staff. The ministry team includes the director of the Christian Nursery School

and Kindergarten, the music minister and worship leader (¾ time), the children’s minister

(½ time), and the youth pastor (¼ time). The school currently has 80 children enrolled.

It employs four full time teachers and three part time teachers in addition to the director.

Lutheran Church B is functioning as a program-sized church. There is a wide

variety of programs in place and there is always a new one on the horizon. The pastor is

not able to be involved directly in the many of the programs.260 Current programs in

which the pastor is not directly supervising include a semi-annual children’s afterschool

program (80-90 children), Vacation Bible School (150-180 children), youth ministry (15

teenagers), worship teams (20 people on four teams), Sunday School (65 children), and a

mid-week women’s Bible study (47 women). These programs are organized and run

primarily by those on the ministry staff or longtime lay leaders. Many who attend the

programs do not attend worship regularly. The locus of day-to-day ministry conflict is

usually centered in staff issues. This has been true both historically and today.

260Oswald, Handbook for Clergy Transitions, 31.

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Lutheran Church B has endured dramatic change and intense conflict over the

past ten years. During these changes, several intense congregational conflicts have led to

large turnovers of the membership and ministry staff. The most significant change

involves the retirement of a long-term and powerful pastor who built the current ministry

and served the congregation for 29 ½ years. There have been two full time pastors and

one interim the first six years since the long-term pastor’s retirement.

During the long-term pastor’s tenure, the congregation was transformed in

dramatic and powerful ways. There were changes in congregational affiliation as the

congregation left the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) to join the Association of

Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) and subsequently the Evangelical Lutheran

Church in America (ELCA). The congregation grew from a pastoral to a program sized

church.261 The traditional liturgical style of worship faded away to be replaced by a

charismatic and contemporary style of worship, which was influenced by the church

growth movement of the 80’s and 90’s. Lutheran Church B also began a successful long-

term small group ministry at this time. These small groups were not organized according

to the cell group method. The small groups would subsequently fade away during a

recent interim.

It is significant to note that throughout all these changes the congregation

continued with the weekly practice of the Lord’s Supper in Sunday worship in

contradiction to the attitudes of many involved in the church growth movement who

argue that communion is best celebrated in small groups.262 Lutheran Church B is a

261 Oswald, Handbook for Clergy Transitions, 31. 262 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 124.

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community that is trying to be evangelical and innovative while trying to stay true to its

roots in both Word and Sacrament.

Core Issues at Lutheran Church B

Lutheran Church B is a church that has thrived through the successful execution

of programs. As one could see in the paragraphs above most of these programs are

focused toward children. Participation in the nursery school program was often the first

entry point into the congregation for many who make up the church today. The school

has been a pillar of the community since the mid 1960’s. The school is specifically

Christian with a faith based curriculum and the active encouragement of Christian

practice. Leaders gather for prayer daily and there is weekly worship for the children.

The strength of the school explains the large numbers of participants in the semi-annual

afterschool program and the Vacation Bible School. The basic focus of both the nursery

school and the other children’s programs is evangelistic. Leaders speak regularly about

wanting to introduce Christ to those in the community through these programs.

The children’s programs have been traditionally staff led with a core of

volunteers. There is a high energy level and commitment required to run the programs,

which has often borne fruit. There are many powerful stories in the community of how

Lutheran Church B has revealed the work of God through the lives of the children that

come through its programs. There also have been impressive numerical results. Over the

years, large numbers of people in the community have participated in the congregation’s

programs.

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While there is a consistent flow of people from these programs into the

congregation, the large majority who come through the programs never take the next step

toward a deeper relationship with the community. This is can be a weakness in churches

that follow a program-based structure. They can encourage passive participation in

program over active discipleship practice, while also putting a heavy strain of time and

talent on the committed faithful who make up the community.263 Lutheran Church B has

begun to work intentionally on more effectively welcoming people into their community

so that these events become a better way to lead people down the path of genuine

discipleship.

The key issue long term for Lutheran Church B will be working toward fostering

the understanding that its children’s programs are not ends in and of themselves but a

means to help people encounter Jesus so that they can build up their faith relationship

with their God. For many this will involve a profound shift in thinking about what it

means to be a church. Continued care will be needed to help navigate the church through

this thinking. Prayer and discernment will be necessary parts of this next step of growth.

There is a clear danger that the vertical and centralized organization of the program

structured church will be too much in conflict with the more horizontal and decentralized

organization of the cell church structure.264

Lutheran Church B had a previous small group ministry that worked well. There

were four groups structured on a bi-weekly model. In the week that the groups did not

meet, there was a congregation-wide educational event. Many long-term members of the

congregation speak fondly and relate powerful stories of God working through small

263 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 67. 264 Neighbour, Where Do We Go, 67.

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group ministry. The ministry came to end at the end during the tenure of a recent part-

time interim pastor. This pastor had no experience working with small groups, so the

ministry quickly folded without pastoral oversight. The senior pastor must not only adopt

the small group vision but must also actively attend to it; otherwise, the systems always

wither in the long term.265

There are two main differences between the small groups used by Lutheran

Church B and the cell church concept. The first is that the groups were led by the same

leader throughout their existence. Often they met exclusively in the leader’s home. The

cell church works through division so leaders will always change. The second main

difference is that the leader ran the entire meeting each time. In the cell church,

delegation within the groups with the goal of leadership development is actively

promoted. This issue is one of the chief points of accountability for the small group

leaders when they gather in their leadership team. There is no expert leader; the leader is

actually a facilitator as mentioned above in chapters 1 and 5. The delegation that occurs

within the life of the cell is the key factor in faith formation within the cell because it

encourages active discipleship rather than passive participation.

Those who have participated in small groups before at Lutheran Church B have

immediately recognized these two points of difference and this has been a stress point in

the implementation of cell groups. Cell groups are actively fostered communities in

Christ rather than a program. The groups at Lutheran Church B were previously run as a

program. If the groups are seen as a program among other programs, there could be a

danger that they will be seen as competing with the other programs of the church for

265 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work, 112-113.

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participants, volunteers, and resources. This will be the most difficult problem to manage

going forward as Lutheran Church B implements cell groups.

There are two theological resources available to help aid this congregation in

dealing with these stress points in implementing cell groups. The first is the concept that

the true church is not always identical with the structure of the actual congregation. Cell

groups can be seen as way of more fully living in the true body of Christ while realizing

there may be other ways. The danger of this strategy is that it may send the message that

those who are participating will be seen as de facto elite and those who are not may feel

neglected of care and concern by the congregation.

The second would be to hold to the ideal of genuine Christian community with the

incarnate Christ as that which the entire church should aspire. Principles of the cell

church can be integrated into existing programs and functions of the congregation. This

has already happened at Lutheran Church B where the music minister has begun to start

discipleship based worship teams. Rather than just have the groups meet for music

rehearsals, the teams also meet to pray, read the Bible and worship before they rehearse.

If Christian community can be the ideal that is fostered in all areas of the churches

life, than the work of building cell groups will be rightly seen as an attempt to live as a

people in relationship to Jesus rather than as one more activity. It can also have the

blessing of turning people away from the conflicts of program vs. program, which are

essentially territorial disputes among the competing members of the leadership within the

congregation.266 The effort to help the congregation see as its mission the task to work

toward a more genuine Christian community can help reduce some of the latent anxiety

266 Steinke, Peter, Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times, (Herndon VA: Alban, 2006), 17.

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within the congregation over the long term because it will keep the community focused

on the direction it is moving in rather than its current state.267

Lutheran Church B called its current pastor in part because of his experience

working with small groups. The leadership wanted to rebuild its small group ministry.

During the pastor’s first year, temporary small groups were used to meet with the

membership to investigate core values and virtues. Each of the meetings was conducted

according to the four “W”’s format. At the end of each meeting, it would be explained

how each group was conducted to help lead those gathered into forming a more intimate

community in Christ’s name. During the “welcome” portion, the pastor inquired to the

history of the participants in the congregation. It was learned that Lutheran Church B’s

emphasis on powerful worship and preaching gave people a sense of healing that was

powerful and transformative. Many had stuck through hard times at the congregation

because of the power of those experiences. During the “work” portion of each meeting,

an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) was conducted.

The SWOT analysis led to some specific conclusions. Discussed above was the

core mission of reaching out to children through high quality programming. Additionally

it was learned that Lutheran Church B strongly desired a more intimate and close

community. The congregation has a strong evangelistic impulse, but there was also a

significant desire for spiritual growth expressed. The congregation has strong preference

for Christ-focused biblical preaching and energetic passionate worship.

While there are clearly some obstacles present in implementing small groups in

this congregation, there are also some opportunities. The desire for community is the

most obvious area where small groups can meet an expressed need of the congregation.

267 Steinke, How Your Church Family Works, 124.

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The groups can also be tailored to reach out to respond to the church’s evangelistic

impulse. Using the format of the cell group method, spiritual growth is also fostered, as

participants are encouraged to have a hands-on approach to discipleship. The most

significant opportunity for small group implementation may be that many have a positive

view of small groups from previous experience. There are people who will be willing to

invest time and effort to help build community because of their own growth through the

previous groups.

Cell Groups at Lutheran Church B

The pastor began to prepare for working with cell groups this church from day

one of his ministry. Since small groups had been part of church life before, their

implementation would be a tangible sign of faith that Lutheran Church B was going to

continue to thrive. The fact that the church was working to building community would

communicate and signal that the church was still standing firm.

The pastor started training with eight potential small group leaders by setting up a

single model cell, which would meet for eight weeks. By starting with a single model

cell, the pastor has the opportunity to concentrate heavily on leadership development.

The model cell had two participants who were on the elder board of the congregation so

the leadership would be apprised of what was going on in the cell. Seven of the

participants had volunteered and had previous small group experience. The pastor

recruited one person who had previously led a men’s ministry group. The goal was to

pair the leaders up two by two and begin four groups after the initial model cell

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disbanded. Each leader was provided with a training manual. A firm date to end the

model and begin the first cells was set at the beginning of the program. Leaders were

directed to join with another leader and choose a time for their group to meet at the

halfway point of the term of the model cell group.

The model cell followed the basic four W’s format of a typical cell group. The

formal leadership training was the focus of the “work” portion of each meeting. The last

four weeks of the work portion of the model cell were used to prepare for a congregation-

wide start up event for the new groups. The cell only met once at the church to go

through an initial PowerPoint presentation; all other sessions met in the participants’

homes. After the second meeting, the pastor designated portions of the meeting to the

participants. Each person would lead one the four W’s. After each portion of the

meeting there would be a period for feedback of how each person did and what her or his

growth areas might be.

In preparation for the start of the cells, two of the leaders set up a display table

and sign-up charts in the church lobby. There were regular bulletin announcements and

temple talks on small groups given by the leader trainees. An informational meeting after

church with a potluck dinner and a formal opportunity to sign up was scheduled. The

four groups were started during the week following the congregation-wide event. One

met on Monday evening, the second on Wednesday afternoon, the third Thursday

evening and the fourth on Friday evening.

Since the groups began to meet three of the groups have started well and a fourth

has been disbanded. The group that meets on Monday evenings has not met regularly

because the leaders, who are a husband and wife team, were unable continue. It can at

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times be helpful for leadership pairs to be chosen from two different families to help

guard continuity. The Friday evening group has been the most dynamic. It currently is

comprised of five couples and one single person. This group has begun to prepare for

division. The Thursday evening group is composed exclusively of women and has been

the most consistent of the four groups. They seem to have bonded well and there are

currently eight faithful attendees. There is a concern that this group may become too

inwardly focused and not open to new attendees. The Wednesday afternoon group

comprised primarily of women has eight regular attendees. While attendance is steady,

this group has had the most resistance to the delegation of the differing parts of the

meeting. The primary reason for this resistance appears to be that the Wednesday group

early on asked to meet in the church. Meeting in spaces within the church building can

reinforce a program mentality within a group. By meeting within a home, the dynamic of

the groups becomes radically different. Hospitality is richer; people are more

comfortable, active, and likely to participate in the home setting.

The leadership team has met monthly to go over the issues in the groups. The

leaders have been encouraged to work out solutions to the problems within their

individual groups with each other in the leadership team meeting. The pastor attempts to

model facilitation in the leadership meeting rather than giving quick answers. The goal is

to encourage leaders to become interdependent so that they will be better equipped to

train new leaders. In the coming months the leaders will decide whether they should

continue to work with the first set of groups, or to have a new campaign to involve more

of the congregation.

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The overall effort to this point at Lutheran Church B has been effective. Starting

with eight potential leaders in a model cell before opening the groups to the rest of the

congregation has worked well in practice. By having enough leaders for four groups, the

chances that the groups will flourish have increased. It has also allowed the freedom to

let one or more of the groups die, so there is little pressure to resuscitate a group that is

not functioning well. The groups seem to off to a good start and with good morale

among leaders and participants. It is too early to say where this attempt will lead but

there are signs of promise at Lutheran Church B in working with a cell group ministry.

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CHAPTER 8

CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS

Conclusions

The use of cell groups by the church has proven to be an effective way to build

community, offer pastoral support, model discipleship, and share the faith. The method,

while powerful and effective, is not for all. Traditional Lutheran congregations may find

aspects of the culture shift required to move towards the cell vision particularly hard to

accept. The more horizontal vision of community that encourages growth organically

will be exceedingly difficult to translate into existing church structures. Encouraging

growth through cell division can be difficult because the people most likely to attend cell

meetings at the outset are those who have previously attended traditional study and

growth opportunities that have a vertical style of leadership where the leader serves as a

content transmitter rather than a facilitator. The call for more self-directed engagement

of the disciple in the cell church may produce awkwardness in people unprepared for it.

A second area of awkwardness that the cell vision of the church will produce in

traditional congregations results from the expectation that each person who attends a cell

meeting is a potential leader. The new leader will represent change as soon as she takes

up leadership. The more inclusive vision of leadership of the cell vision may produce

stress as people with traditional views wonder if new leaders are “really qualified.” The

cell vision also calls for current leaders to let go of areas of responsibility in order for

others to experience leadership. This is often difficult for long time leaders to do. Many

have a genuine concern that the standard of ministry excellence will suffer. Those in the

congregation who have been well served by the long time leaders may also compare

themselves negatively with the existing leader. The cultivation of new leaders though

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critically necessary will always be somewhat stress producing. The presence of stress

retards leadership development and organic growth, so one must find ways keep the

overall stress level of one’s congregation within healthy limits. 268

The cell church model of exponential growth through division is made possible

because the system fosters the raising up of empowered leaders. This effort is extremely

difficult to foster in existing congregations. Leadership development takes time and

effort to learn because it requires the promotion of a certain type of congregational

culture. Some of the values of a leadership development culture are:

The pastor needs to model leadership development.

Even if you are better able to do it now, it is better to have new people

attempt to try to do something than to do it yourself.

All Christians have the capacity to lead in some area of their discipleship

walk.

Leadership development will never be finished since all ministries are

sending ministries.

It is acceptable to fail as long as one has prayerfully attempted to do his or

best in ministry and learned from the experience.

Leaders need more support and should take up more of the pastor’s time

than those who participate on a basic level.

The pastor is not alone in the calling alone to rise up new leaders, but

rather it is the commission of the entire gathered community

268 Steinke, Church Leadership in Anxious Times, 15.

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This required culture shift is extremely hard to manage and fraught with peril for

both the congregation and the pastor. It is therefore critical that the pastor pay close

attention to the informal and unspoken covenants between pastor and the people served.

The pastor must speak of these expectations in the open and determine if they are

negotiable for the sake of mission. Some areas of the pastoral relationship will not be

negotiable within the confines of the current pastor/congregation relationship. A

common area of tension is pastoral care where there may be an expectation that this will

be the exclusive province of ordained clergy. The pastor wishing to foster a leadership

development structure will need to tailor that structure to operate within the

congregation’s current context. Contextualization will be harder to do in places where

the pastor has served for an extended period and the relationship patterns have been long

established. Trust may be eroded when ministers behave in ways that are outside the

expectations of existing covenants.

This leads to an examination of Luther’s reservations about the effects on pastoral

care when one sets up small groups for intensive discipleship. Luther identified the first

risk, that is, a risk that those who are not ready for intensive discipleship may be left

behind by the church embracing cell groups. However, Luther did not analyze the risk

from the opposite perspective. By failing to provide opportunities for growth in

discipleship, one waters down both the amount and the quality of the pastoral care

received. By limiting the pastoral care to one person, the church limits the amount of

pastoral care that can be realistically given. There is therefore just as much risk in

centering ministry on low expectations as there is on setting them on high expectations of

discipleship.

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Cell churches are able to model and teach pastoral care to a wider circle of people

than the pastor alone which will help people communicate the Good News of Jesus to

larger groups of those in need. A key question for the pastor called to lead a

congregation in the postmodern era will be whether to communicate high or low

expectations of discipleship. Cell church ministry certainly embraces high expectations;

this has the downside of limiting the number of people who will be able to meet those

expectations. It has the upside of producing more people capable of actively

proclaiming Christ in their own life so there are more ambassadors who provide entry

points into the community. Every relationship that a disciple makes with a person

outside of the church is a potential new entry point into the Body of Christ. Low

expectations allow all to come in but provide little opportunity for equipping, so there are

less empowered ambassadors for Christ within the community to provide entry points

into it. Low commitment churches will actually over the long-term limit entry points into

their own communities.

It is critical for every church that wants to promote a life of high expectation

discipleship to have something like cell/celebration model available for its entire

community. Whether or not one adapts the cell model to build community is not the

point, the church should provide some way for people to live out the faith in the gaps

between the Sundays. If worship becomes the only way for people to engage the

congregation and learn of a life of discipleship, then one is limiting how many people can

come into the church and the quality of the community’s life.

There will always be a risk that the creation of groups within the church will

create division. The cell system envisioned by Dr. Cho tries to account for this risk by its

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strict leadership covenants and required leadership meetings. Although the plan for the

cell church is very thorough, the risk of schism can never be eliminated. Having a

structure like small groups, which is designed to help Christians live out intensive

discipleship, might actually increase the chance of disruption. If one totally illuminates

the risk then the cell system loses its greatest asset: the ability of each group to diversify

and contextualize on an intimate scale.

There is also a clear danger that those who are working with the cell church might

be artificially trying to build God’s kingdom through human means. This is a weakness

common to all human communal structures. So perhaps the greatest contribution

Lutherans can bring to the cell church movement is Law and Gospel. We understand that

our efforts and structures stand condemned under the law and are redeemed only by the

work of Jesus at the Cross.

If one is not prepared to lead a congregation to embrace the risk involved in the

cell vision, one can still move in that direction in smaller steps that may have more

manageable risk. There are certainly other ways to attempt to live as a more committed

community in Christ and many have parallel hopes, values, and virtues to the cell group

vision. Those who have worked with the Natural Church Development (NCD)

movement would recognize much in common between the core values of NCD and the

core values of the cell church. Both look at the church primarily as a living organism.

Lay movements that encourage a more horizontal vision of pastoral care such as the

Stephen Ministries will also share much in common with certain aspects of cell churches.

Many traditional churches use shepherding systems where members are assigned to keep

a list of other fellow church members just as the cell leader is called to do so for the

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members of his or her cell. Lay distribution of communion to the homebound promotes a

horizontal view of pastoral care as the cell church does. Those who have experience with

independent evangelistic organizations for youth or college students, such as Young Life,

Campus Crusade, or Fellowship of Christian Athletes will find that their “clubs”,

“meetings”, or “huddles” will be structured in ways similar to a cell group meeting.

While none of these complementary types of ministry has all the aspects of a cell church

in one structure, but each has some of them and can certainly be used to enliven the

ministry of a congregation.

Churches of other structures can find areas of genuine Christian community that

their current structure fails to cultivate by looking at the principles that the cell church

espouses. The visionary leader will also find ways to infiltrate existing ministries with

principles of holistic Christian community found within the cell vision. A clear and

proven way is to export the four “W’s” format into other congregational gatherings such

as the youth group, council meetings, and staff meetings etc. This very path has led to a

derivative form of the cell church called the “meta-church” where task and other ministry

groups are viewed as small groups as well. It harbors a more inclusive definition of what

constitutes a small group than the cell method.

The meta-church concept is the product of creative church leaders in the United

States trying to resolve the tension of having those interested in intensive discipleship

living together in the same church with those who are not ready for such a commitment

because of where they are in their faith journey. Working with cells in traditional

churches has left me with the impression that the meta-church concept is less of a cultural

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shift for most congregations and therefore probably a more realistic alternative than

adhering to the cell concept in a rigid fashion. 269

In the introduction I attempted to describe a vision where the church as a whole

came together in Christ to help each other grow and to lead new people to the faith. This

vision is obviously not always a reality. As every person is both saint and sinner so are

our congregations and communities. In most if not all cases, the cell structure and the

groups, which compose it, will represent an ideal to aspire to rather than a concrete

reality. If ever called to plant a new church I would start a cell church from the

beginning and work intentionally to build up the body of Christ. Actual Parish

experience has nuanced my view. In any particular congregation, a direct use of the cell

method may or may not be the way to live as a more faithful community. In many

communities, the disruption that would be caused by the value shifts, differing

expectations, and a reexamined picture of pastoral authority prohibits formal adaptations

of the cell church structure.

269 Boren, Making Cell Groups Work , 52.

I chose not examine the meta-church in detail because it is enough of a departure from the cell group

concept to place it outside the boundaries of this inquiry. The chief reason being that in the pure cell model

each group must be seen “as church” and be intentionally holistic. Many of the groups that would make up

the church in the meta-church model could never reach this standard. Ardent proponents of the cell church

see the meta-church as a clear compromise of the concept. Whether the meta-church is a compromise or

contextualization is the scope of another study.

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Reflections

One will immediately notice that cell churches have tended to grow larger and

quicker in contexts outside of North America.270 Part of the reason for this lies in how

trust is extended in congregations. In East Asia, there is an overall greater trust placed in

authority than in the United States so there is a corresponding greater level of trust

extended to the person who holds the pastoral office. Pastors are especially revered as

teachers who have long held an important place in Confucian thought. 271

The influence of Confucian thought in Asian cultures is one of the chief reasons

for the cell church’s appeal in Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. There are a number of

areas where Confucian thought undergirds the effective functioning of the cell church.

Confucian thought places an emphasis upon the unity of society and the components that

make it up. A person is viewed primarily as part of a whole rather than an autonomous

individual. Roles in society are more respected because they help determine one’s place.

There is naturally a greater respect for people in offices of authority, while there is also a

corresponding respect for those in supporting roles.

One should not assume that that because of this respect for roles in society that

there is a corresponding lack of mobility within the church or culture. Long before the

west, Asian cultures promoted upward mobility through competitive examinations and

competence in practices.272 Roles can be changed if one demonstrates his or her abilities.

The cell church vision that values every person as a potential leader dovetails well with

270 I will speak to the situation in East Asia in general as I have direct experience with the ministries of cell

churches based in Taiwan and Singapore and have studied Dr. Cho’s system in Korea 271 Swanson, Allen J., Taiwan: Mainline versus Independent Church Growth: a Study in Contrasts, (1970

South Pasadena CA: William Carey Library), 67-70. 272 Swanson, Taiwan, 67-70.

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Confucian thought that recognizes the potential of people gaining greater authority by

assuming a new role through the demonstration of merit or acquisition of knowledge.

Confucian cultural patterns also place a high degree of emphasis on ethics and

practical application over abstract knowledge. The emphasis on practical aspects of

Christian life allows for a high degree of participation within cell groups by those who

attend. The cell church’s emphasis on life application certainly has some its origin in this

particular aspect of the culture.273 In contrast to European culture, theology not only

flows from experience, but also from practice. Thought does not guide practice. Practice

guides thought. The cell method’s emphasis on life application and practice therefore

finds fertile ground in the Confucian cultural landscape.

Asian Christians also have an advantage in building Christian community through

vehicles such as cell groups because of the relational focus of Confucianism. Family and

kinship ties have power in Asia. One will rely heavily on family and close relatives to

start any new venture. 274 It is common for family and close relatives to go out of their

way to patronize their family member’s new business for an extended period even if it

might be a personal inconvenience. In a cell church setting, new cell groups are likely to

be filled with invitees from the other attendees’ families. If a family member starts a cell

group there will be an ethical imperative for fellow family members to help the cell group

to flourish. Another aspect of the relational focus of Asian culture is an expectation of

mutual obligation. Favors are extended and returned in a fashion that is far more formal

than in the West. An attendee to a cell group may not only feel grateful but also

obligated to give back to the members in the group. It is a different way of engaging

273 Swanson, Taiwan , 67-70. 274 Paul Varo Martinson, “The Church and China’s Hopes,” Word & World XVII, no 2, (Spring 1997):135.

137

society than in the West. Those who seek to plant churches in Asia will see that

Confucian culture has some clear advantages over a culture where “freedom of choice” is

the norm. “In China individuals are not mere individuals, but are part of a web of

relations. Families and kin stick together. There is an unspoken, spontaneous sense of

mutual obligation and trust. This is social capital.”275 Social capital is critical for the

overall health of a community. It is both fuel for and a byproduct of a healthy

community. While the cell group system promotes social capital, it is also more likely to

succeed in an atmosphere where it already exists. Cell churches are harder to get off the

ground in the United States because of a “what comes first” phenomenon. Cell churches

intensify social capital, but they need a certain amount to get up and running.

The cell church helps Christians to assimilate into the church, connect their faith

with daily life, practice Christian living in a safe environment, and to have a space to

invite their relatives and friends to learn about the faith. Even if one succeeds in leading

an effort to build up a thriving cell church there will be some weaknesses revealed that

are inherent to the model. The cell church works best when it continues to draw the

Christian ever deeper toward the center of the community. This can have the

consequence to making a cell church too inwardly focused or even parochial. That

parochialism if not countered by Christ centered leadership can lead cell churches to

abandon the wider community outside their congregation. When one sets up an

alternative community as the cell church attempts there will always be the temptation to

abandon the wider society. This is never the intention of those who promote the cell

church but it is a natural consequence of the model, which must be taken into account in

order to lead the community in faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

275 Martinson, “China’s Hopes”, 135.

138

Another weakness of the system will arise out from very strength of the cell group

meeting, which is its holistic format. Because each meeting has more than one focus

there will be less opportunity to delve into the deeper aspects of the faith. This will be

most critical in the area of education. Churches should always have some opportunity for

people to delve deeper in each of the aspects that cell meeting contains. There should be

focused opportunities for congregation-wide fellowship, prayer, education, and service

available for people to follow their discipleship callings. If the cell group is the only

opportunity to live out discipleship, then one will be limiting opportunities for Christians

to grow in that discipleship.

The cell movement values ideals that Lutherans have long espoused and worked

with primarily the concept of the priesthood of all believers. I have learned from the cell

church that it is important to be intentional about how one structures a congregation so

that there will be space, opportunity, and emphasis within the church for genuine

discipleship and Christian community life. Our churches should be more than mere

organizations. They should be vibrant communities of faith and mutual support centered

on Jesus. Tending to the quality of the discipleship life of the church is a huge and vital

task. Any tools that can be gathered to assist us should be examined for the sake our

mission to serve Christ and neighbor.

139

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APPENDIX A: FACILITATOR’S GUIDE

Part 1: Boundaries

"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37 NRSV) If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4 NRSV) I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6 NRSV) Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:5-6 NRSV)

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Cell Team Shepherds Covenant

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Luke 10:1-2 NRSV)

(Lutheran Church) empowered by the Holy Spirit is called to proclaim the liberating

Gospel of Jesus Christ showing people in word and deed that they have access to God the

Father.

I promise to assist the church in its mission to proclaim the Gospel.

I promise to teach about Jesus, serve the needy, confess the visible power of God in my

own life, identify and help train new leaders, and through my words and actions witness

God’s love to all.

I will serve Christ in this place in accordance to the witness of the Holy Bible and the

Lutheran witness to the Gospel.

I will seek the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life. I will be diligent in my study of the

Bible, faithful in worship attendance, open to God’s grace in my participation in the

sacraments, committed in my financial giving, and regular in my daily prayer.

I will witness in word and deed and by my own example encourage God’s people in

faithful service and holy living.

I will actively facilitate community in Christ by leading a home cell group.

I will follow and teach according to the lesson plan provided by the Pastor and the

leadership team.

I will invite the un-churched and those in need of healing, support, and friendship to this

group.

I will not invite speakers from other groups or organizations without the express

permission of the pastor.

I will not use cell team life for marketing purposes or for the promotion of commercial

interests.

I will protect the dignity of those whom I am called to serve. I will not share their

personal thoughts, feelings, and events in their lives with others without their explicit

permission to do so.

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I will refrain from inappropriate behavior that will harm or endanger the well-being of

my fellow sisters and brothers in Christ.

I will practice good self-care and work at effective time management.

I regularly will seek support from the Pastor and faithfully attend leadership team

meetings and training events.

I will faithfully inform the cell team I lead of congregational events and programs.

I will witness to the entire congregation and the world the actions of God and the

movement of the Holy Spirit in our communal cell team life.

(Lutheran Church) promises to provide adequate training and support for your ministry.

The Pastor and leadership team will be accessible to provide assistance or support in

resolving critical situations as they arrive in cell life.

The Pastor promises to personally pray with and for you, listen to your concerns, and

accept your feedback.

I will inform the pastor immediately if I feel that I can no longer serve as a cell team

shepherd.

I understand that this ministry is a calling and a privilege and that if I violate the spirit of

this agreement the pastor may remove me as a shepherd of a home cell group.

Shepherd________________________________________ Date__________________

Pastor___________________________________________ Date __________________

Elder: __________________________________________ Date___________________

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Cell Team Boundaries

A cell team is a home worship, mutual care, study and service group composed of at least

six persons and no larger than 15.

The cell team is not an independent of the church; it is an expression of the ministry of

(Lutheran Church) to the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The meetings will run according to the welcome, worship, word, work format.

Cell team members will be in prayer for each other and the church.

The members will provide Christian support and care for each other in a positive

environment.

The members will learn about and experience their faith in Jesus Christ in cell life.

The cell team will use the lesson format distributed by the pastor.

The cell team meeting will meet for no longer than two hours per week.

The cell team will regularly communicate with the wider congregation.

The cell team meeting will always be open to new participants and observers.

Cell team members are encouraged to invite people they meet in daily life to their

meetings.

A cell team will pray for and begin to plan for division once it reaches 12 persons.

Cell teams will keep the confidentiality of its members. The meeting needs to be a safe

place where people trust each other and feel trusted.

Cell team members will refrain from abusive or offensive language or actions not

consistent with the principles of good Christian conduct.

Cell teams will keep accurate lists of its members.

The cell team will not invite outside speakers, groups or organizations to its meetings

without the express permission of the pastor.

Cell Teams will not have individual budgets and must adhere to congregational

accounting practice.

Members of the cell team will regularly pray for a thriving communal life in Christ

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Cell teams will pray for the growth of the congregation and the effective ministry of the

Pastor.

Cell Team Shepherds Boundaries

Shepherds shall be appointed or released at the pastor’s discretion

Shepherds will protect the confidentiality of cell team members.

The shepherd will not share a fellow team member’s personal thoughts, feelings, and

events in his or her life with others without her or his explicit permission to do so.

Shepherds will encourage cell members to invite new people into the group and always

provide a place for the outsider to observe cell team life.

Shepherds will follow the welcome, worship, word, and work format for the cell team

meeting.

Shepherds will teach according to the lesson plan provided by the Pastor.

Shepherds will keep the cell team focused on home worship, mutual care, study and

Christian service.

Shepherds will not invite outside speakers or groups without the express permission of

the pastor.

Shepherds will exemplify good standards of Christian life in their personal life.

Shepherds will practice good self-care and appropriate time management.

Shepherds will behave appropriately towards children and members of the opposite sex.

Shepherds will inform the pastor and leadership team of critical situations in cell life and

ask for help in resolving difficult issues or conflicts.

The shepherd shall faithfully attend leadership meetings and training events.

The shepherd will remain in regular contact with the pastor and leadership team.

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Pastor’s Boundaries

As per the Lutheran Confessions, the pastor is publically called to preach the Gospel and

to administer the sacraments.

The pastor will respect the confidentiality of the shepherds.

The pastor will be regularly available for consultation and support of shepherds.

The pastor will communicate to the shepherds first any concerns about cell team life.

The pastor will distribute the lesson outline for the word portion of the cell team meeting.

The pastor will not visit a cell team meeting without contacting the shepherd first.

The pastor will listen to the needs of the shepherds and in consultation with them make

appropriate changes to the cell team ministry structure and program.

The pastor will be in regular prayer for the shepherds.

The saying is sure: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way-- for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7 NRSV)

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Confidentiality

Cell team members should keep good communication habits.

Personal discussion within the cell team should not be shared with those outside the

gathered fellowship.

All attendees should be made aware of the expectation of confidentiality within the cell

team.

All sensitive situations should be brought to the Holy Spirit in prayer.

Ask permission from the attendee in question before sharing information from or about a

fellow cell team member.

In a critical pastoral situation, the shepherd should ask if the information might be shared

directly with the pastor.

If permission is withheld the information may not be shared under any circumstances.

Use Matthew 18:15-18 as a conflict resolution guide.

Prayers for understanding and compassion are particularly appropriate in confidential

situations.

Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. Women likewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 3:8-13 NRSV)

152

Cell Team Etiquette

Shepherds and members should be on time.

Meetings should end within the allotted time.

Neat and casual dress should be appropriate for all cell team meetings.

The team should work to promote a positive and loving Christian atmosphere.

Be aware of behavior or actions that will potentially cause division or prejudice and work

to change them.

Politeness and courtesy should characterize conversations.

Personal or vindictive complaints about people present or not present should not be

tolerated.

Personal space and boundaries of fellow cell team members should be respected

Children and members of the opposite sex should be treated with proper respect

Inappropriate language or actions that lead to the potential abuse of an attendee will be

reported to the pastor and the leadership team immediately.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. (Romans 12:9-13 NRSV)

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Part 2: Regular Tasks

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4-13 NRSV)

154

Worship Visitor Follow Up

Evangelism team will distribute visitor contacts to the shepherd who resides closest

geographically to the visitor.

The shepherds will call the visitor to welcome them to the congregation.

The shepherd will invite the visitor to worship again.

The shepherd will invite the visitor to his or her cell team meeting.

The shepherd will inform the visitor that there are other cell meetings and suggest another

team meeting if appropriate.

The shepherd will ask the visitor for feedback about worship.

The shepherd will ask the visitor if he or she has any questions.

The shepherd will inform the visitor about any programs of the church that may be

appropriate.

The shepherd will pray that the visitor be filled with the Holy Spirit and that they come to

faith in Jesus Christ.

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:1-2 NRSV)

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Evangelism Practice and Guidelines

The cell team members are nurtured in their relationship to the Holy Spirit first.

Effective evangelism will only result if the group cares for one another.

The cell group should regularly pray for the spiritual, emotional, economic, and physical

strength of its members.

True evangelism is an act of unconditional love; evangelism is also keeping people

connected to Christ in a community inspired by the Holy Spirit.

If a regular attendee misses a meeting, the shepherd should call that person and tell the

member that he or she was missed.

In that phone call, the shepherd should ask the attendee if there is anything that the group

should pray about (both joys and concerns).

Finally, the shepherd should inform the absent member of what went on in the cell life

during the meeting and relay any prayer requests or upcoming events.

The cell group should regularly pray that more people would come to know Jesus through

their action as a group.

Attendees will be regularly encouraged to invite un-churched or under-churched friends,

family, neighbors and co-workers to share and experience cell team life.

Attendees should be on the lookout to those hurting, in need of healing, going through

adverse life situations, or without friends or connections to the community to invite into

the fellowship.

An un-churched person is a person who does not attend any Christian community except

for weddings funerals etc.

An under-churched person is a person who attends a Christian community less than two

times a month on average.

First time visitors to the cell team should be invited to worship with (Lutheran Church)

on the following Sunday.

Active members of other faith communities are welcome to join any cell group but must

be informed that this is a ministry of our church. That person should then not be overly

pressured to attend our worship.

Our external evangelism goal is not to move people from church to church but to share

the joy we find in the Gospel with those who do not have a relationship to Jesus Christ.

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Cell Team Attendance lists

Cell teams shall keep accurate attendance lists.

A copy of the accurate list shall be provided to the office.

The church office shall be informed every time there is a change in the list.

The list shall be distributed to each regular attendee.

The list shall not be given to marketers or sales people.

Shepherds may use their attendance list as a phone tree to contact church members in the

case of inclement weather closings or emergencies.

Cell Team Reporting Procedures

Cell teams will keep accurate attendance lists and distribute them to the church office and

each cell team member every time there is a change.

The cell team will conduct an annual self-evaluation and submit it to the leadership team.

The cell team shall submit prayer requests to the wider congregation.

The cell team shall complete an offering tally sheet signed by two members if a special

offering for a ministry of the wider congregation is collected.

If there is a serious incident, the shepherd will make a report to the leadership team.

Cell teams will complete the worship visitor follow up form they received from the

evangelism committee.

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Part 3: Meeting Format

What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is a God not of disorder but of peace. (As in all the churches of the saints, (1 Corinthians 14:26-33 NRSV)

For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Matthew 18:20 NRSV)

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Cell Team Meeting Outline

The meeting shall be one hour in length.

Refreshments should not be the focus of the meeting. They should be kept simple,

inexpensive, and not put out until the end of the meeting.

Every cell team meeting will run according to the following format.

Welcome: 10-15 minutes

A time to get to know each other, catch up, and find out how each person is doing this

week. People will share what is going on in their lives. Joys and concerns should be

noted for intercessory prayer at the end of the meeting.

Worship: 10 minutes

Time is taken out to praise God and be in communion with the Holy Spirit. A variety of

forms may be used. Whenever possible encourage the group to sing a hymn or two (if

there is fierce resistance don’t push it).

Word: 15-20 minutes

One of the lessons from Sunday worship is read. One person from the group is selected

the previous week in advance to recap the pastor’s sermon from the previous Sunday.

The pastor will provide 6-10 discussion questions on the sermon topic for use in the

group.

Work: 15-20 minutes

Complete any business (& reporting) the group may be responsible for.

Plan out any ministry activity you may want to be involved with.

The meeting closes with intercessory prayer.

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Welcome (10-15 Minutes)

The purpose of this portion of the meeting is to get to know one another, build friendship,

and trust.

As the meeting continues and trust builds this time will serve as a check up for each

member.

Each shepherd may structure this part of the meeting in the way that works best for their

group.

The shepherd will ask the team if there are any birthdays, anniversaries or other life

milestones going on in the group.

Informal discussion is more than appropriate.

Ice breakers should be used every meeting. They help focus and structure the time. Some

common icebreakers for community building are:

Introductions: Used whenever a new group starts or when a new member shows up.

Each person introduces who they are, where they live, their family members, their career,

their interests, and why they come to this cell team meeting.

Highs and Lows: Each person at the meeting shares their high point and low point of the

week. These form the basis for the prayer portion of the work section of the cell team

meeting. This can become more common when a trust level is built up and maintained.

Favorite things: Each person is asked to identify a favorite movie, activity, food, time

of year, sports team etc. and why they feel they way. This helps people in the group learn

about the character of person.

Surprise: Each person is asked to reveal one thing that the group may or may not know

about the person.

Interview/ Report: The group breaks up into pairs and the two interview each other

using the techniques above. They then report to the group the responses of the person

they interviewed.

At the end of this segment, the Shepherd will lead the group in a short opening prayer.

(The prayer of the day from the previous Sunday’s worship is acceptable).

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Worship (10 Minutes)

Worship is a time for people to bring their praises to God. By lifting ones’ hands, head,

and heart to God one gains proper perspective in their daily life.

The worship style should be tailored to meet the needs and abilities of those gathered for

the cell team meeting.

The goal is for the team to be in communion with God through the power of Holy Spirit.

Singing of hymns or praise choruses can help people connect with God in a way beyond

words. Some groups may be too self-conscious to find this uplifting. Other techniques

may be used.

It is best to come up with an overall style of worship for the group and to have some

variation from time to time to keep it from becoming stale. Some worship ideas that may

be used include:

Hymn Singing: Coupled with an opening and prayer it is a chance for those in the group

to sing hymns familiar and comforting to them. Hymns are chosen that the group is

likely to know (i.e. Amazing Grace).

Meditation: Quite time with God. It is introduced by a prayer inviting people center

their selves in God’s Holy Spirit. A reading may be used to help the group focus. A

simple way for this to be facilitated is after the opening payer to have three different

voices to read the text appointed for the evening with periods of silence in between and a

closing prayer at the end after a period of silence.

Recorded music: Traditional hymns and contemporary Christian music are readily

available in CD or in downloadable format. The church has some that leaders can

borrow. Recorded music can be used to help lead a hymn sing or to set a quiet

atmosphere for meditation.

Traditional Prayer Liturgies: Lutherans use a number of traditional prayer liturgies for

use at different times of the day. These include Morning Prayer (Matins), Midday Prayer

(Suffrages #2) Evening Prayer (Vespers) and Prayer at the Close of the Day (Compline).

Devotional Liturgies: There is a wide variety of materials available for home based

worship. Use Pastor and the leadership team to narrow the search for these.

If you have any questions, please approach Pastor or other members of the leadership

team for ideas and direction.

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Word (15-20 Minutes)

The Word portion of the cell team meeting is designed to help people delve deeper into

God’s Word and to find its application for the daily life.

The Pastor will appoint the Bible texts to be studied in the various cell team meetings.

Most often, the Bible readings for the groups will be from the texts designated for the

previous Sunday Worship.

The pastor will provide the congregation with a series of questions for discussion and

reflection related to the text and its interpretation through the sermon on the previous

Sunday.

The Shepherd asks the group what ideas in the sermon resonated with those present.

A short recap of the central ideas of sermon may be helpful to newcomers and those who

not in worship the previous Sunday. The Biblical text is to be the chief focus of this

portion of the meeting. The sermon recap is only to help people access the text by

providing context or historical background etc.

When the discussion breaks down the Shepherd moves and addresses each discussion

question in turn.

The Shepherd will keep the time of the meeting flowing. If the questions are not all

addressed the Shepherd will invite the participants to study them on their own.

Un-discussed questions are not to be used again in future sessions.

At the end of the time, the Shepherd may close this segment of the meeting with a short

prayer.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12 NRSV)

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Work (15-20 Minutes)

The work portion of the cell team begins with the Shepherd making sure that any

physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of any of the participants are addressed.

The group then moves on to the planning or coordination of any ministry project that they

have taken on.

Any reporting or regular tasks are designated to the members present by the Shepherd.

The meeting closes with intercessory prayer.

The Shepherd asks for specific prayer requests.

During the previous phases of the cell team meeting the Shepherd keeps notes on

potential topics for intercessory prayer and presents them to the group at this time.

With less than eight people at a meeting, the cell team can pray together effectively as a

group.

An effective way to build intimate community is to ask participants to pray for the person

sitting on their right or left.

With more than eight people, it may be better to have the cell team break up in to twos or

threes and pray for each other.

The meeting may conclude with the Lord’s Prayer (either contemporary or traditional)

Classic Christian intercessory prayer:

Part 1: Praise and give thanks to God the Father who listens and answers prayers. Thank

God for all blessings of life. Give thanks to Jesus for loving us and offering us salvation.

Give thanks to the Holy Spirit for being with us now. Remember always try to find

something positive to give God thanks for in every situation (even if it is only that the

person can come and pray at this moment).

Part 2: Ask God to have mercy on us and all the situations that we lift up now. Ask the

Holy Spirit to come into and heal a person’s body, mind and spirit. Pray that the healing

asked for may spread to all those friends, family members of the person. Pray for

troubling situations in the wider community and world. Ask God to show us how to

respond in love so that we can help those in need. Pray also for the growth of our cell

team and church. Pray for protection and safety of those gathered as they depart.

Part 3: Express confidence in God’s power. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who

answers prayer and loves us. Ask God to guide our days and direct our deeds in peace.

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Part 4: Leadership Development

And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word." (Acts 6:2-4 NRSV)

The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?" Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make known to them the statutes and instructions of God." Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God, and you should bring their cases before God; teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do. You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace." (Exodus 18:13-23 NRSV)

164

Shepherds Characteristics

The cell group system starts from the premise that all Christians are called to be leaders

and ministers to the Gospel.

Shepherds are those who have the specific spiritual gift of pastoring.

The spiritual gift of pastoring includes such aspects as compassion, caring, listening,

acceptance, tolerance, wisdom, friendship, and openness to God’s direction.

The gift of pastoring may be not evident to the person at first; it needs to be affirmed in

their life by the witness of others.

Shepherds should always be ready to affirm spiritual gifts when they are witnessed.

Cell group shepherds need more than the gift of pastoring other qualities that are needed

include.

1. Enthusiasm: People are excited about what God is doing in their life. It is

infectious to others.

2. Testimony: Christians who have a clear and powerful testimony of what God

does for them and are living proofs that the Gospel does work today.

3. Dedication: People who attend church regularly. They give financially and of

their time regularly. They have demonstrated a commitment to the unity of the

church.

4. Time and Money: The person is not under undue stresses on their family life.

The have the strength and recourses to serve at this time.276

Now as an elder myself and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you do it--not for sordid gain but eagerly. Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will win the crown of glory that never fades away. (1 Peter 5:1-4 NRSV)

276 Cho, David Yonggi, Successful Home Cell Groups (Gainesville FLA: Bridge Logos, 1981), 107-108.

165

Leadership Training

Cell Teams are always in the process of developing leaders because leadership is a

natural outcome of discipleship.

Delegation of tasks by the shepherd to cell team members begins in the first meeting.

Refreshments are immediately designated to cell team member who is not the home host.

Shepherds will be on the lookout for those who potentially have the gifts for leadership

and the resources to do so.

After 1 month one of the portions of the meeting (Welcome, Word, Worship, Work) is

designated to a cell team member who has leadership promise.

After 6 weeks, two of the portions are designated to the same potential leader.

After 2 months, the entire meeting is designated to this potential shepherd.

The potential shepherd then begins to attend the leadership team meetings.

This person then becomes a shepherd candidate and his or her name is presented to the

leadership meeting for candidacy.

The candidate may lead the meeting in the absence of the shepherd.

If the cell does not have enough participants to divide at this time, the shepherd candidate

can become a co-leader of the cell.

Once a cell divides this process should be repeated in both the new cell and the

previously existing one.

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. (Numbers 11:24-25 NRSV)

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The Nature of the Cell Team Structure and its Relation to the Wider Congregation

A cell team is a home worship, mutual care, study and service group composed of at least

six persons and no larger than 15.

A cell team will pray and begin to plan for division once it reaches 12 persons.

Each cell team is an expression of the ministry of (Lutheran Church).

Each cell team is open to any member who wants to attend that gathering.

Cell teams will pray for the growth of the congregation and the effective ministry of the

Pastor.

Cell teams will have appointed leaders who will be designated as shepherds.

Shepherds are lay assistants to the Pastor to assist in the public proclamation of the

Gospel.

Shepherds are those who live an active Christian lifestyle by being faithful in daily

prayer, worship attendance, giving, and service.

Shepherds will complete a covenant with the congregation that outlines the boundaries

and responsibilities of cell group leaders.

Shepherds are appointed or released at the Pastor’s discretion.

Shepherds shall maintain regular contact with the Pastor and attend leadership team

meetings and training sessions.

Shepherds shall identify potential leaders within their cell group and begin to train them

upon approval from the Pastor and the leadership team.

While enthusiastically encouraged, cell team attendance is not required to be considered

an active member of (Lutheran Church).

Cell Teams will not have individual budgets and must adhere to congregational

accounting practice.

All offerings collected at cell team meeting must be recorded on a tally sheet and

delivered to the church by the following Sunday.

Cell teams will keep accurate lists of its members.

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Cell teams will follow the rules of etiquette and confidentiality approved by council and

outlined in the Shepherd’s manual.

Cell teams are forbidden to invite outside speakers to their gatherings without the express

permission of the pastor.

Cell team meetings are not be used for marketing purposes by home or party based

businesses.

Cell teams will regularly inform their members of activities that occur within the wider

congregation.

Cell teams will regularly inform the congregation of what it going on in their respective

meetings.

Each cell team will conduct its own annual evaluation and present it to the leadership

team.

If there has been no growth of the within the past two years, the leadership team may

recommend that the cell team discontinue to meet as a cell team. At that time cell team

will vote to decide whether they want to continue to meet as a cell team, in some other

fashion, or not at all.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 12:27 - 13:3 NRSV)

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Attendance List Shepherd:_______________________Location:______________________

NAME ADDRESS PHONE EMAIL MEMBER

YES/NO

169

Cell Team Annual Self Evaluation

Shepherd: __________________________Location: ____________________________

How has the cell team nurtured you during the past year?

What major problems have you encountered during the past year?

What new things would you like to try to improve the experience of cell team life?

Who in your team has the gifts for future leadership?

How many new members joined your team during the past year?

Has your team divided and given birth to a new team this year?

Does the group have a particular prayer request for the pastor and leadership team

regarding its communal life?

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Cell Team Prayer Requests

Shepherd: _____________________Location:________________________

May the Holy Spirit grant: _______________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Please include on church prayer list Confidential for Pastor only

Cell Team Prayer Requests

Shepherd: _____________________ Location: _______________________

May the Holy Spirit grant: _______________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Please include on church prayer list Confidential for Pastor only

Cell Team Prayer Requests

Shepherd: _____________________Location:________________________

May the Holy Spirit grant: _______________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

Please include on church prayer list Confidential for Pastor only

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Offering Tally Sheet

Name Address phone Env # Amount

Anonymous --------------------------------- ----------- -------

Total Collected: _______________________

Team Member signature: ________________________________________

Team Member signature: ________________________________________

Please reconcile this statement before delivering to the church office

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Worship Visitor Follow Up Worship date: _____________

Shepherd: ______________________ Location: ______________________

Visitor Name: _____________________ Phone: ______________________

Address: ______________________________________________________

Names of family members: _______________________________________

Date of contact: ___________ Invited to worship: Invited to team Additional information is on the back of this form

Worship Visitor Follow Up Worship date: _____________

Shepherd: ______________________ Location: ______________________

Visitor Name: _____________________ Phone: ______________________

Address: ______________________________________________________

Names of family members: _______________________________________

Date of contact: ___________ Invited to worship: Invited to team Additional information is on the back of this form

Worship Visitor Follow Up Worship date: _____________

Shepherd: ______________________ Location: ______________________

Visitor Name: _____________________ Phone: ______________________

Address: ______________________________________________________

Names of family members: _______________________________________

Date of contact: ___________ Invited to worship: Invited to team Additional information is on the back of this form

173

APPENDIX B: CONREGATIONAL PRESENTATIONS

Introductory PowerPoint Presentation Slide 1

Small Group

Ministry

A Structure to be the Body of Christ

Slide 2 To Find the Lost

What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred

sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he

not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go

in search of the one that went astray? And if he

finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than

over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is

not the will of your Father in heaven that one of

these little ones should be lost.

Matthew 18:11-14 NRSV

Slide 3 A Vision of Christ’s

Community

Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on

earth about anything you ask, it will be done

for you by my Father in heaven. For where

two or three are gathered in my name, I am

there among them."

Matthew 18:19-20 NRSV

Slide 4 Back to the Future

Mirrors the Church Structure of the New Testament and the first 300 years of Christianity (Acts 16, Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15, Philemon 1:2)

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47 NIV)

174

Slide 5 Definition

A small group is composed of (6-15) believers and potential disciples who meet in homes to minister to each other and also those in their daily life who are in need.

It is an intentional extension of the ministry of the church to our neighborhoods and has more than one focus. It is the Body of Christ

Fed, taught, and nurtured to serve Jesus Christ.

Slide 6 Outline of a

meeting

• Welcome

• Worship

• Word

• Work

• Open Groups

• Prayer is the Glue

• A building block of the body of Christ

• Growth through division

Slide 7 Do I have the

Time?

• 1to 1½ hours per-week

• Weekly leaders meeting for their support feed back and training

• Leaders are trained in a small group and invited to leadership meeting when ready

Slide 8 The Importance of

Structure

Provide space for the Spirit to fill as to

encourage

• regular invitation of others to meet Jesus

• regular prayer

• the study of the Word

• mutual care and consolation

• faith in regular action Life Application

• loving relationships

175

Slide 9 Goals

Encounter Jesus in all areas of person’s life

• Head

• Heart

• Hands

Live out love for God and Neighbor

Learn the basic practice of the faith in a safe place

Slide

10 The Plan

• Leader Training: 8 people for 6-8 weeks. (complete)

• Trained leaders commissioned two by two to form 4 groups

at the end of the training period. (complete)

• A large event to encourage each person in the congregation

to become part of a small group. (this Sunday)

• Trained facilitators will make up the leadership team who will

meet regularly with the pastor. (ongoing)

• The leadership team will elect a coach from among the

team. (before the fall)

Slide

11 Why Bother?

• Isolation of American life!

• It is not good to be alone!

• Faith is lived out during the week!

• Ministry happens in homes!

• A regular faith life is taught through experience!

• Leaders are cultivated!

• Evangelism made simple and relational!

• Fully live out the Great Commission!

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Kick-off Letter

And every day in the temple and at home they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus

as the Messiah. (Acts 5:42 NRSV)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I greet you in the name of the risen Jesus and hope that you have had a joyous Easter

celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus and the hope that He brings each of us. I

pray that you continue to find your hope and trust in Him.

I am writing you to invite you to partake in our new and dynamic small group ministry

that will be starting up this coming week. A small group is composed of (6-12) believers

and potential disciples who meet in homes to minister to each other and to those in their

daily life who are in need. It is an intentional extension of the ministry of the church to our

neighborhoods and has more than one focus. While small groups fellowship, they are more

than a fellowship. While small groups study the Bible, they are more than a bible study.

While small groups minister, they are more than a ministry. While small groups pray, they

are more than a prayer group. By doing some of each, the whole becomes greater than the

sum of the parts. They are the Body of Christ in action; they are another chance to meet our

savior Jesus.

For our first set of groups, we will meet (at the following times). If you are looking to

meet some caring Christian friends, or to connect with God, or to know a bit more about

what the Bible means for your life please prayerfully consider coming to one of these. If

you feel that you are not ready, I ask you to pray that people will come to Jesus though these

gatherings of disciples.

On Sunday, we will dedicate this effort to the Lord in prayer. After church, we will

share a potluck dinner. We will also explain what small groups are and where they

will be meeting. (Lutheran Church) small groups are open to all at anytime, so if you are

not able to join one now but would like to in the future we encourage you to be open to

God’s Spirit where and when it blows. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any

questions. May God bless you as you walk with Jesus.

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Simple Definition for use in Congregational Presentations

A small group is composed of (6-12) believers and potential disciples who meet in homes to

minister to each other and to those in their daily life who are in need. It is an intentional

extension of the ministry of the church to our neighborhoods and has more than one focus.

While small groups fellowship, they are more than a fellowship. While small groups study

the Bible, they are more than a bible study. While small groups minister, they are more than

a ministry. While small groups pray, they are more than a prayer group. By doing some of

each, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. They are the Body of Christ in

action; they are another chance to meet our Savior Jesus.

If you are looking for growth in faith and friendships with people who will care about

you then a small group at (Lutheran Church) may be where God is leading you.