By Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-based Church
Where do people go to be free from their fears and doubts? Many scroll through TikTok and YouTube, looking for advice. They find tons of motivational speakers, life coaches, and even a few spiritual influencers. Some give decent advice, but most advise to “do what feels right” or “believe in yourself.”
Those same fears and doubts existed in Paul’s day, along with the movers and shakers. The influencers included:
- Legalists adding works to grace
- Philosophers elevating human wisdom above divine revelation
- Heretics promoting secret knowledge
- Idolaters pulling people away from the true God
- False teachers twisting Scripture for selfish reasons
Paul jealously wanted to guide Christ’s church from spiritual manipulators and false doctrine. He directed his spiritual son, Timothy, to base his life and ministry on God’s Word. He writes,
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4: 2-3).
As evangelical Christians, we believe in the authority of God’s Word above all church councils, traditions, and history.
We believe God intentionally communicated the Bible message in a way ordinary people could grasp. Granted, to understand it fully, we need the inner witness of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts to receive what is already plainly there.
What does preaching God’s Word have to do with the cell church? A lot. In the cell church ministry, we have the unique opportunity to preach the Word of God on Sunday and know that cell members will apply the preached Word in their weekly cell groups. The hearers can talk about God’s Word and apply it.
In our church, Lyngate Vida, we rotate the preaching among three pastors and sometimes lay preachers. We preach through a book of the Bible (chapter by chapter) and always make it clear what passage from the chapter the cell groups will cover during the week. We base our cell lessons on three questions connected with that passage.
Elim does it differently, taking the cell lesson from the mid-week teaching rather than the Sunday sermon.
For May, let’s look at how God’s powerful Word should guide the cell church from the preaching to the cell application. Sunday preaching is more in-depth, while the cell focuses more on application. Click here if you’d like to receive these blogs sent directly to your email. We’ll cover:
- May 4-10: The need for God’s Word. Paul advises Timothy to preach God’s Word. We’ll talk about the power of God’s Word to transform lives and critique traditions and councils.
- May 11-17: We’ll talk about different ways to preach God’s Word on Sunday morning: book by book, chapter by chapter, or more topical.
- My 18-24: The cell church’s beauty is the two-winged preaching and application strategy. We need both. We need to hear God’s Word on Sunday and apply it during the week in the cells.
- May 25 to May 31: Some cell churches ask the members to apply the Sunday passage in their devotions during the week. We’ll discuss how to encourage the member’s individual Bible reading