Manchester Cell Church Forum

I just found an essay by Laurence Singlehurst which discusses some of the lessons learned from 10 years of doing cell church in the UK. We are not the only church to have found it difficult to develop an outward focus. Here is an extract:

So what have we learned? We have learned that this is much harder to do in practice than theory. That many people are very caught up in their relationship with God and their community with other Christians, and it is a challenge for everyone to become outward-focussed. For a church to become outward-focussed, where it is the norm for people to be in relationships, and these relationships to be carriers of Christian love, light and truth, is a two to five year process and could take longer. We have learned that still revival fantasy is locked up in our souls, that our idea of evangelism is that God will do everything and we have to do nothing, or surely to goodness, this is the leader’s and evangelist’s responsibility. For this to become the passion and responsibility for every church member is a necessary but difficult journey. It is easy for cell groups to revert to fellowship groups, and by this, I mean they have two strands of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission: they’ve become places where people exercise their love for God and love for one another through Bible study and fellowship, but the outward focus drifts away.

In another part of the document Laurence discusses the problem of discipleship

However, we have also learned that the honesty that is required to make these small groups work, because discipleship issues have to do with life and not just ideas, and that means there has to be a measure of honesty as people share the problems they face in their lives as it relates to discipleship, and the group then prays; hopefully the Holy Spirit is at work, and the group supports one another as we all go through our life-changing experiences. So whereas the idea of facilitation is in the culture, the ideas of behind honesty and vulnerability are not. So this is a challenge and it is easy for groups to settle at a theoretical level. Again we see the importance of coaches who visit groups on a regular basis, and well-trained cell leaders who are able to model honesty and vulnerability so that it becomes a part of the life of the group.

In another place he looks at the difficulty of mobilizing every member into ministry:

... it is very difficult at times for leaders to learn how to be a leader, but their leadership changes inasmuch as they are not doing things themselves, but are facilitating and inspiring others to do it, which, in the short term is always much more work, but in the long-term is extraordinarily rewarding.. We have seen churches which have sought to go on the journey of cell, but when they have seen the implications of going to cell, and the spiritual anarchy that this can produce, as many are inspired to do their own vision and own ministry, many will do things that perhaps in the past, church leaders might not have thought were as worthwhile as what they had in mind. This can be frustrating, until you learn that mobilisation has a benefit. That church leaders can still put vision on the table just like everybody else, and the church can hear the Holy Spirit speaking to them as a group, agree that this is the direction, and because of mobilisation, you will always have a percentage who want to put their energy into that particular vision, so you can have your cake and eat it, as there is enough manpower to go around. But this is a journey to go on.

The most powerful section for me was this analysis of why it is so difficult to get people to do what they are capable of doing:

Thirdly, mobilisation is hampered through what is a major discipleship issue. That is the appalling low self-image that many British people seem to have. While at work, or in other spheres in our life, there are constraints and pressures that force us to live beyond our self-image, church is a voluntary organisation, and we can just fall back to our underlying self, our underlying view and listen to the negativity that is in our souls, and hence to nothing. So we must continue to disciple people in a high view of themselves, so that they can do what God has caused them to do.

Fourthly, mobilisation is hampered by a benefit-based culture. There is a sense that in the 80s and 90s, people were won into church on a be-blessed mandate; be healed, be whole. Yet now, we are seeking to challenge them to be a blessing, to work hard, to reach out. We are seeking to create a different culture, and if we are honest, within every Christian soul, there is a swerve to rot, that says ‘I would like to be blessed. I’m not sure I want to be a blessing. It’s too much. I can’t work.’ So the cell church faces, as everybody does, the leftovers of our benefit-based consumerist influence, which is in the life of our churches.

Click on the link to read the full article:

http://www.celluk.org.uk/documents/ImagineEssayLICC-LessonsfromCell.doc