Monday, September 25, 2006
What does a successful cell church look like?
A few months ago I was asked to write an article for the Cell UK magazine. It never made it into print, but someone might find it helpful, so here it is :
How big is your church?
Have you ever been at a conference or training event where you were asked, “How big is your church?” or “How many cells have you got in your church?” or “How often has your cell group multiplied?” How did it make you feel? If your church is big with lots of cells that multiply every 6 to 9 months without fail I’m sure you were quite happy to share your story. If, like me, you are in a small church with only a few cells that mutate rather multiply, you may not have felt so good.
If we take a step back and look at what is happening when we have conversations like this, we will see that we are comparing ourselves with other people. The danger in this is that we can become discouraged if we don’t feel as successful as the church down the road or the cell group that has multiplied four times already. Or if we do have a “success story” we can become proud, as if we are responsible for the growth that God has given. The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthian church not to fall into this trap when he said, “I planted the seed; Apollos watered it; but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Each is rewarded for his (or her) work, not for the results.
Jesus calls each of us to focus on the work that he has called us to do. We are accountable to him, and we should not be comparing ourselves with others. In John 21:20-21 when Peter was being re-commissioned by Jesus he looked at John and asked, “what about him?” Jesus’ replied, “What is that to you? You must follow me.”
I was feeling discouraged about our perceived “lack of success” recently and was greatly helped by a friend who reminded me of the parable of the talents. Some people, he said, have been placed in five-talent churches which are becoming ten-talent churches. Others are in one or two-talent churches. It is unreasonable to expect five-talent results in a two-talent church. In the parable the master said to two of his servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If the one-talent man had come back with two talents I am sure he would have received the same praise. God is looking for faithfulness and good use of the gifts and circumstances where we have been placed. Be encouraged.
What is success in the Kingdom of God?
A deeper question raised by my experience is “what is success in the Kingdom of God?” In the world of international business, where I worked for 10 years, big is best. I was very ambitious in my younger days and I was employed as an executive trainee with Citibank which was and probably still is the biggest bank in the world. Success was defined by high standards, the pursuit of excellence, and above all, big profits.
It is easy for this worldly understanding of success to sneak into churches. We want the church to grow because we long to see more people in the Kingdom, so we go to conferences about church growth and we read books written by people who lead big churches. We dream of the day when our little church becomes as big as Willow Creek or Saddleback. Or in cell church circles we want to see the experience of Seoul, Singapore and Bogata replicated in Stretford or Bognor Regis or wherever we happen to be.
Worldly success was often challenged by Jesus, not because it is wrong to have money, or high standards, or growth, but because these things can lead us away from God. Success often gives us money and power. Jesus said it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. To the powerless he said, “the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” A sobering thought?
Does Jesus want Big Churches?
Once we stop equating success with big we need to ask what success in the Kingdom of God looks like. Over the past few months the dominant parable in my mind is the parable of the leaven (or yeast) in the dough. I don’t remember ever hearing anyone praising the baker for the tasty lumps of yeast in the bread. The yeast does its work on a small scale and has a massive impact throughout the whole batch of flour. In a similar way God’s objective is the transformation of the whole of society so that the world becomes the Kingdom of God.
As cell churches I believe we need to focus even more strongly on the small scale aspects of being the church. When Bill Beckham came to England he said very little about the big wing of the church because he said we already know how to do that. He taught us how to do cells, but I don’t think I appreciated until recently just how easy it is to get sucked back in to “big church” thinking. Too many people still “go to church”. Too much emphasis is still placed on how many turn up on a Sunday. If they don’t come we worry that they are not hearing the teaching … and as a preacher I sometimes feel very rejected if “they” don’t turn up to hear “my” pearls of wisdom. Subtle isn’t it?
And then there are the buildings and the professional ministers. Oh dear. Very dear. Expensive even. Crippling for some. As a vicar in an Anglican church I feel a burden of responsibility for gathering a big enough congregation to generate enough income to maintain the chilly Victorian building where we meet and my stipend (salary). We just about manage to stay afloat with our weekly attendances of about 100 adults of whom about 60 are in cell groups. It all feels very heavy. The big wing is still too big.
Small is Beautiful
Churches add members to an existing congregation and grow slowly. Yeast multiplies. We need to find the Kingdom dynamic which simply allows the good news to be passed on from one person to another. Yeast is a living organism. We need the ordinary member of our churches to be so full of the vitality of the Holy Spirit that they are contagious wherever they are in their daily lives.
As people catch the Kingdom virus we must resist the temptation to then bring them to the hospital of the Church for discipling where they can learn all the big-wing habits and the “come-to-us” mentality that stifles mission. We need to be disciples who know how to lead another person in the Kingdom way of life out there in the big bad world. We need to be confident that the Holy Spirit living in the new believer will work with us to lead them into all truth (John 16:13).
What about worship celebrations?
Oh, you big-wing people! I tell you the truth. The time is now coming, and has already come when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. (cf John 4:23) Maybe cell is the big wing and you and your disciple are the small wing? Think about it.
How big is your church?
Have you ever been at a conference or training event where you were asked, “How big is your church?” or “How many cells have you got in your church?” or “How often has your cell group multiplied?” How did it make you feel? If your church is big with lots of cells that multiply every 6 to 9 months without fail I’m sure you were quite happy to share your story. If, like me, you are in a small church with only a few cells that mutate rather multiply, you may not have felt so good.
If we take a step back and look at what is happening when we have conversations like this, we will see that we are comparing ourselves with other people. The danger in this is that we can become discouraged if we don’t feel as successful as the church down the road or the cell group that has multiplied four times already. Or if we do have a “success story” we can become proud, as if we are responsible for the growth that God has given. The Apostle Paul warned the Corinthian church not to fall into this trap when he said, “I planted the seed; Apollos watered it; but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Each is rewarded for his (or her) work, not for the results.
Jesus calls each of us to focus on the work that he has called us to do. We are accountable to him, and we should not be comparing ourselves with others. In John 21:20-21 when Peter was being re-commissioned by Jesus he looked at John and asked, “what about him?” Jesus’ replied, “What is that to you? You must follow me.”
I was feeling discouraged about our perceived “lack of success” recently and was greatly helped by a friend who reminded me of the parable of the talents. Some people, he said, have been placed in five-talent churches which are becoming ten-talent churches. Others are in one or two-talent churches. It is unreasonable to expect five-talent results in a two-talent church. In the parable the master said to two of his servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If the one-talent man had come back with two talents I am sure he would have received the same praise. God is looking for faithfulness and good use of the gifts and circumstances where we have been placed. Be encouraged.
What is success in the Kingdom of God?
A deeper question raised by my experience is “what is success in the Kingdom of God?” In the world of international business, where I worked for 10 years, big is best. I was very ambitious in my younger days and I was employed as an executive trainee with Citibank which was and probably still is the biggest bank in the world. Success was defined by high standards, the pursuit of excellence, and above all, big profits.
It is easy for this worldly understanding of success to sneak into churches. We want the church to grow because we long to see more people in the Kingdom, so we go to conferences about church growth and we read books written by people who lead big churches. We dream of the day when our little church becomes as big as Willow Creek or Saddleback. Or in cell church circles we want to see the experience of Seoul, Singapore and Bogata replicated in Stretford or Bognor Regis or wherever we happen to be.
Worldly success was often challenged by Jesus, not because it is wrong to have money, or high standards, or growth, but because these things can lead us away from God. Success often gives us money and power. Jesus said it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. To the powerless he said, “the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” A sobering thought?
Does Jesus want Big Churches?
Once we stop equating success with big we need to ask what success in the Kingdom of God looks like. Over the past few months the dominant parable in my mind is the parable of the leaven (or yeast) in the dough. I don’t remember ever hearing anyone praising the baker for the tasty lumps of yeast in the bread. The yeast does its work on a small scale and has a massive impact throughout the whole batch of flour. In a similar way God’s objective is the transformation of the whole of society so that the world becomes the Kingdom of God.
As cell churches I believe we need to focus even more strongly on the small scale aspects of being the church. When Bill Beckham came to England he said very little about the big wing of the church because he said we already know how to do that. He taught us how to do cells, but I don’t think I appreciated until recently just how easy it is to get sucked back in to “big church” thinking. Too many people still “go to church”. Too much emphasis is still placed on how many turn up on a Sunday. If they don’t come we worry that they are not hearing the teaching … and as a preacher I sometimes feel very rejected if “they” don’t turn up to hear “my” pearls of wisdom. Subtle isn’t it?
And then there are the buildings and the professional ministers. Oh dear. Very dear. Expensive even. Crippling for some. As a vicar in an Anglican church I feel a burden of responsibility for gathering a big enough congregation to generate enough income to maintain the chilly Victorian building where we meet and my stipend (salary). We just about manage to stay afloat with our weekly attendances of about 100 adults of whom about 60 are in cell groups. It all feels very heavy. The big wing is still too big.
Small is Beautiful
Churches add members to an existing congregation and grow slowly. Yeast multiplies. We need to find the Kingdom dynamic which simply allows the good news to be passed on from one person to another. Yeast is a living organism. We need the ordinary member of our churches to be so full of the vitality of the Holy Spirit that they are contagious wherever they are in their daily lives.
As people catch the Kingdom virus we must resist the temptation to then bring them to the hospital of the Church for discipling where they can learn all the big-wing habits and the “come-to-us” mentality that stifles mission. We need to be disciples who know how to lead another person in the Kingdom way of life out there in the big bad world. We need to be confident that the Holy Spirit living in the new believer will work with us to lead them into all truth (John 16:13).
What about worship celebrations?
Oh, you big-wing people! I tell you the truth. The time is now coming, and has already come when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. (cf John 4:23) Maybe cell is the big wing and you and your disciple are the small wing? Think about it.
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Interesting post. I think it's much more important to be obeying God rather than achieving other objectives even if they are very laudable.
I responded to your comment on my women post here
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I responded to your comment on my women post here
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