by Jeff Tunnell
www.bigbearchristiancenter.org
My wife and I launched a new cell last week and our second meeting is tonight. We invited 5 couples, all of which have young children. 3 1/2 couples came, bringing 3 toddlers as well. Forming began right away as we discussed the logistics of childcare versus a children’s cell group. Should we be praying for a leader of children or simply hire someone to babysit? Could we rotate parents implementing a curriculum for them alongside of ours? Would we have them stay for worship with us, go off to their cell simultaneous to ours, and return at the end to share together what we learned in an intergenerational way? Or were parents looking for a night out with a community of spirituality and support along with a break from parenting?
WOW! We are on our way and while it is not yet clear where it will settle, I feel the STORMING part won’t take long for this group! We’ll pray together for God’s wisdom and direction in all points of FORMING. This group has already expressed a definite desire and focus for evangelism and we have an assistant couple who realize that multiplication is a set goal. They are willing to start a new group within the next few weeks if our gathering of additional couples is successful right away. They would also attend our cell after multiplying, keeping the relationship with this mother cell alive.
Okay, what do you think? Mistakes made? Corrections needed? Kudos for any of this yet? Warnings? Come on pit crew, guide me as I head into the Second Lap!
Sounds exciting- can only share what has worked the best for us, and what has seemed to have made the biggest impact on the next generation of kids and young parents.
What our church is doing is having the children in the group for the welcome, worship and sometimes the works (oikos/outreach time) during the word(facilation) time the kids go to kids slot with someone in the group and they also answer a few questions on the same topic as the adults,on their level of understanding (questions are based on applying what we learned from the previous Sunday’s sermon) The predominate purpose is to allow the adult(s) in kidslot that week to spend time building relationships with the kids. This allows the kids to see modeled what we want them to catch…prayer, living in community, care, and making disciples. We believe as a group that the kids need to hear what we have to say and that we need to hear what the kids have to say. I have often been blessed during this time with the simple faith and prayers of children. This has also led to some good discussion with young parents about being consistant, dicipline of children, and them recoginizing that their children can and are a blessing not a burden to others in the group…..
I like what you’ve done on a couple of different fronts. One, you didn’t dictate what would happen with the kids. You are letting the group take ownership of that issue. Second, starting with a couple ready to multiply is a recipe for success. Praise God they see the necessity for continuity to meet with the mother group. And the evangelistic emphasis! Awesome!