I’m on vacation right now in Colorado. I had to decide what to do with my LIFE group while on vacation (At Wellspring we call our “cells” LIFE groups–Living in Fellowship to Evangelize)
In my case, I asked someone else to lead our Life Group in my absence. Yet, there are times when my group just decides not to meet one week. This happens. I was in one cell church that felt it was a sin for the group not to meet each week. This church believed that even if everyone in the group was on vacation and couldn’t meet on the regular day, they should somehow meet on another day to get their regular meeting in. While I applauded their commitment, it seemed legalistic. On the other hand, I know it’s vogue in some “small group philosophies” to close all groups for the summer or worse yet, have all small groups close every semester and then reorganize (very much like Sunday School semesters).
My personal conviction is that cell ministry should continue on a weekly basis throughout the entire year–just like the celebration service. Yet, there are times when indivdiual cells choose not to meet for a particular week due to a holiday, people being on vacation, etc. This should be an individual group decision, as opposed to the pastor saying, “all of the groups will be closed during the summer” or “all of the groups will close for this semester”. If the church decrees that small groups will not meet during the summer, what happens to the person who receives Jesus during the summer? Will she have to wait until September to join a cell? I’ve written an article on this topic, so if you’d like to read more, go to: https://jcgresources.com/articles/basics/vacations.htm
What’s your feeling on this topic? All comments are appreciated!
Joel
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