Cell Explosion

The Emerging Cell Church

Just recently, God has laid it on my heart to study the book of Acts and the early church.  Yesterday, He led me to look at the cell church movement that is starting to spread like wildfire where churches are implementing it.  I believe this is going to be the church of the 21st century.  This model is based on the early church whose members continued on in the temple, but also broke bread house to house, discipling new converts, and the Lord added to the church daily.  I believe this is where God is calling the church of today.

“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 programs) 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 mobilizing 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 verses 11 through 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 fulfill this call of Christ today.”

(Excerpt taken from Colin Powell: Sr. Minister of Kensington Temple, London City Church)  For more information, see http://www.cellexplosion.com.