Cell group

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The cell group is a form of church organization that is used in some Christian churches. Cell groups are generally intended to personalize Christian fellowship, and are always used in cell churches and may also be employed by other forms of organization but with less emphasis. The cell group differs from the house church in that the group is part of an overall church congregation, whereas the house church is a self-contained congregation.

They may also be called growth groups, small group ministries, home groups, connect groups, home friendship groups, home care groups, house fellowships or small Christian communities.

1 Composition
2 Aims
3 Terminology
4 Cell meetings
5 Segregation
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Composition

Cell groups are made of small numbers of Christians, often between 6 and 12, and led by a cell leader. Members may be in the same cell group because of common locality, schools or interests. Cell meetings are usually not conducted in the church sanctuary, if any, but in any of the members' homes, rooms in the church building or other third-party venues. When the cell group believes that the cell group has grown too large, the cell group may divide to form two separate and smaller cell groups.

[edit] Aims

Cell groups are frequently intended to grow by members bringing along friends, who start attending regularly and become part of the group, becoming Christians at some stage. Even more importantly is that a small group (2-15 people) fosters accountability, bonding and discipleship that is missing the larger church atmosphere. When the cell members believe that the cell has grown too large (ideally less than 15 people), it may split into two groups, providing an opportunity for more members to assume leadership responsibilities for one of the two new groups. While members may participate in these cell groups, the church that it belongs to still holds weekly services or masses, handles collection of offerings, support of missionaries and community outreach.

[edit] Terminology

The term cell group is derived from biology: the cell is the basic unit of life in a body[1]. In a metaphorical sense, just as a body is made up of many cells that give it life, the cell church is made of cell groups that give it life.

[edit] Cell meetings

Cell meetings may consist of a fellowship meal, communion, prayer, worship, sharing, bible study and discussion, depending on the choice of the cell members and doctrine of that denomination, or the lack thereof.

[edit] Segregation

The nature of the cell meeting is also affected by how the cells are segregated.

Integrated cells may separate into male and female groups for a portion of the meeting so as to remove obstacles to open discussion while groups segregated by sex may have to make extra effort to interact with groups of the opposite gender or to involve one another's spouses in some meaningful way. Cells that are segregated by geography may only meet at homes within a given community so as to take advantage of the conveniences of proximity. These are, by depending solely on location, integrated cells to most extents. Cells segregated by marital status may focus on discussion of marital or dating concerns while integrated groups would stay clear of such discussions as they would be irrelevant to some of their members. Groups segregated by age or life stage may focus on discussions relevant to their given life stage and generation whereas again integrated cells would stay clear of such discussions that may effect to exclude some people.

In youth churches, cells are segregated by the "sire" system, whereby friends who were brought by a certain person is integrated into that person's cell. When the age gap between the oldest and the youngest grow too wide, the cell is divided into the older group and the younger group to better interaction intra-cell. This results in hybrid models of segregation; several different models of hybrids will appear in bigger churches.

There are no set rules for how groups should be segregated, and there are many cell-based models that are intergenerational and non-homogeneous.