by Steve Cordle
One of the great strengths of cell ministry is that it can involve every believer, not just a select percentage with specific gifts. How intentional can you be about mobilizing everyone in a group?
One practical way to do this is to enlist each member with a specific responsibility, perhaps even a title! Beyond Leader, Intern, Host, there can be prayer champion (who takes leadership in group prayer and recording answers), snack provider, mission co-ordinator (scouting and organizing projects outside the group), children’s co-ordinator, etc.
When members feel responsible for a part of the group, they engage more actively than if they just come to see what the leader has prepared for the meeting. And a mobilized group is a strong group.
Yes, each member should be praying for lost people and reaching out to them. True, each member can look for ways to support and encourage other group members. But enlisting additional roles can sometimes transform a stagnant group to one that is one the move again.
Is this an example of a “man directed cell?’ It describes what “each member” does, but what about the corporate life of the cell, where “each one” is “prophesying?” This requires a “Christ directed cell.” Jesus guided his twelve to go to Samaria, a place none of them would have selected.
I maintain there is a higher level of cell life we must enter into: “A community formed and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Each member is led by the embodied Christ, who edifies and reveals his presence, power, and purpose through them.â€
We are to express the invisible Person who lives within the cell: CHRIST! Corporately, the church must express tht whole Christ. “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way.â€
Ephesians 1:22,23.
The question we must answer is: does a cell consist of dismembered body parts, or does it function as a body where the Head directs and empowers it to witness as community?
The first cells in the book of Acts came from spending ten days alone until they wee all in one accord. Their empowerment anointed them to share in multiple languages, “He’s back! He’s back!” He has come to dwell in us!” Paul says when ALL prophesy, the onlookers fall to their faces and say, “God is among you!”
Can we find this reality in today’s society? Is corporate prayer by the cell the missing link to become a Christ-led cell? Can a cell be led to reveal Him by observation of its corporate prophesying? That is my quest!
Ralph, thanks for posting on the JCG site. It’s a privilege to have someone of your stature post here.
Ralph, I love your emphasis on HOLISTIC SMALL GROUPS!
I wrestle with the fact that in my observation and experience there’s always a mixture of God and man in the cell (because of our fallen nature). What do you think?
Joel
Hi Ralph –
Yes, I agree with you that the cell is an expression of the Body of Christ, and as such, each person has a role/part in the Body. Spirit-led leadership can help the cell recognize (not decree) those the Lord wants to use.
The deeper question from which your question flows is about the nature of the relationship between God’s role and man’s role (we have one, yes?) in ministry. How much of ministry is God’s purely sovereign action, and how much do we play a part?
No question about our fallen nature. Yet, the indwelling Christ is the head of His body, and the hands, feet and inward parts must hear HIS voice and not substitute their own inclinations for His leadership. He is still saying, “Let’s go to Samaria, boys! I have someone there who needs me to sit by the well.”
We can come up with our own directions that are good things to do, like standing at an intersection and handing out Cokes “in the name of Jesus” but when the indwelling Christ is revealed by the actual cell being observed, flowing with His prophetic power, men will fall on their faces and cry out, “God is certainly among you.”
The manifestation of Christ is revealed by ALL prophesying, which is different than our showing off what we are doing on His behalf. This is the issue Paul talks about when he says, ‘If you speak in tongues, you are directing attention to yourselves and unbelievers will say you are mad. But when you prophesy, it clearly Christ’s empowerment sourcing the acitivty. Then the unbeliever cries, “God is certainly among you.”
That is my concern. If one cell member gets an inspiration to have the group do a good deed, it may or may not be of Christ. It would seem the proper pattern is what happened at Antioch, where all the Elders “ministered to the Lord” and were told, “Send out Paul and Barnabas.” That is God-directed and is given to the whole, not just to one person. Should not the cell as a community learn how to pray and collectively hear the mandate of the Head to carry Him to the location where He can reveal His power?
Please forgive me if I sound judgmental…that is not at all my heart…but I do feel we must not settle for man-directed cells when passionate prayer can provide His clear direction. And when a Cell knows that Christ has led and empowered them, they will multiply passionately as He flows through them.
I hope we can investigate this at length when we are at the Cell Symposium next month.