Why a Cell Church Model
It is my conviction that church leaders and members alike need to see how vitally relevant cell ministry is for church life and growth today. An effective cell church model is needed if we are going to obey the call of Christ on our lives as individuals and as churches. Traditional church structures (even those who have small group programmes) must be renewed, and in some cases radically altered, in order to meet the challenges facing the 21st Century Church. Even large and apparently successful churches are often found to be ineffective when judged by the principles laid down in the New Testament.
Matthew 28:18-20, speaks of Jesus’ command to make disciples, and implicitly includes the additional work of maturing and mobilising them. This will not happen without a radical re-thinking of how we are currently doing church in much of the Western world. We are simply not making disciples of Jesus Christ. We are not even winning and retaining enough converts to Christianity to keep pace with the loss of membership across the denominations. It is not enough for evangelical churches to speak of their growth, while millions of nominal Christians abandon the notion of church altogether. We must develop such vibrant Christian life-styles both at the individual and the community level that we win, retain, train and release believers to impact our entire generation for Christ. We are called to disciple whole nations, but why isn’t it happening? Clearly, we must discover once more the New Testament principles of discipleship and find ways of implementing them today.
Perhaps there is no greater need to apply Jesus’ warning that our traditions rob the Word of God of its power than in this matter of the life and ministry of the church in the Western world today. Ephesians chapter 4 verses11 to 16 clearly teaches that the job of the leaders is to equip the members of the church, the body of Christ, to do the work or ministry of Christ in the world. The ministry is in the hands of the saints, the so-called ordinary believers. That is the only way the body of Christ will be fully built up and grow into maturity. Each member must do its part. And it is my conviction that an effective cell church model is one of the only ways we can fulfil this call of Christ today.
I have worked with the cell model for more than 5 years in our church in London, Kensington Temple. Before that, I had spent many years teaching on the principles of every member participation in the ministry of Christ, discipleship for all, and mobilisation of the whole body of Christ into service. The teaching was well received and many took up these challenges with some great results. However, they were the minority. Most people having heard my preaching went home to business as usual, and I became desperate for a new way of doing church that gave adequate focus on doing the things that really mattered for Christ, and also gave the whole church a practical way of implementing such biblical teaching.
Since we have been working with the cell church model the results have been outstanding. People are serving Christ as never before, with over 70 per cent of our church fully active in the ministry of Jesus. The levels of commitment to one another, friendship and covenant relationships have risen and risen in the church. New believers are being retained, consolidated, trained and released into leadership with, at times, breathtaking speed. We have seen real growth both in numbers and in quality among the members in the church. New, effective leaders have emerged at a rate unimagined only a few years ago.
The transition from a programme-based church to a cell church has been a thrilling if, at times, difficult one. We are still on the journey to become what we believe God has called us to be, but we are excited at the prospects of what the future holds for us a church, both in London and further afield.
For more information see the booklets INTRODUCING THE CELL VISION and WHY CELLS?
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