Reviewing Our Vision

Mayor Gerardo Balmori

The Salvation Army

Cell Groups - What are they?

Cells are seen to be the basic building blocks of a church, just as cells are the basic building

blocks of life. They are 'small living things with an aim to grow and multiply!

Cells need to be big enough to function and small enough for building relationships. These

relationships will include accountability and the removal of masks allowing healing to take place.

The Key for cell life is the reality of Jesus with us.

• The presence of Christ

• The power of Christ

• The purpose of Christ

Through cells we live out the gospel in the world, being equipped for the works of service to

which God calls us. Our celebration meetings overflow from the cell life where spiritual gifts can be

developed in a context of trust and security. As we develop true community with each other we are

also enabled to reach out together to others in the world. Cell groups exist to impact the world with

the gospel in the same way you eat an elephant 'one bite at a time.'

The Goal of cell groups

Cell's are designed to nurture new believers and reach out to the unsaved all at the same

time. It can seem confusing, but the cell is to be like a young family. There can be a chain of help

set up. The youngest Christian can be helping someone who is not even saved. More mature ones

can help the younger ones. This way the church can grow. But note that actually cells exist to fulfill

the great commission of making disciples of every nation. We are there to glorify God and serve

one another.

Cells developed to make a church grow will fail every time. Growth is the never a

goal, it is the natural by-product of doing something right

“We must realize that it is God who provides the growth. We merely need to

keep sowing and provide the right environment for growth. Cell groups purpose is 'to

evangelize the neighborhoods by providing a place to bring friends and neighbors so

they could be introduced to Jesus Christ” Pastor Yo gui Cho

The components of a cell meeting

The general principle is that there are a number of things that we are trying to do on a given

evening, and that they naturally fall into an order as follows-

Meeting one another, worshiping God, studying the bible, edifying -encouraging and

using spiritual gifts, looking outwards to reach others.

These give rise to a whole range of different possible formats, the following are just some of them:-

• Food, Icebreaker, worship, study, ministry/prayer time, envisioning time.

• Welcome, worship, word, witness.

• Teaching points, worship, ministry, testimonies (for the unsaved present)

• etc...

The idea is to cause the group to come together first, then to focus on God, then hear from

him in what must be practical application-based study of his word, then meet one another’s needs

before considering the world outside the group. Studies can often been practical application

questions based on the previous Sundays sermon.

Relationship with Church

The Salvation Army New Brunswick Corps stresses small groups so much that the cells are

the church, even our Corps people agree that cells should not be seen as private churches. They are

to relate together.

Leaders

Cell group leaders need not be teachers. They are rather people who can care for and look

after a group of people. Vital to their success will be releasing all members into feeling responsible

for the work of the group. We are all called to serve, our two “S” means “save to serve” From very

early on in the life of a Christian they can get a foot on the first step of the ladder of leadership by

caring for another member in the group. Discipleship whereby we entrust values to those we can

then trust to pass onto others the same is vital.

By the time they reach cell leadership people will have been tested. Captain Gerardo

Balmori looks for enthusiasm, spirit-filled, availability and dedication in his leaders. The cell

leaders are encouraged to help develop a focus and vision specific to that group. Each group needs

apprentice leaders who are being trained to take on the next one.

In the cell model, cells are clustered into groups of around 3-5 cells which are overseen by

an experienced group leader who in turn are helped by another level of leadership who will be fulltime

overseeing several of these leaders. This aims to follow Jethro’s advice to Moses of leaders

being assigned groups of ascending size.

Bible Model Acts 2:39-47

Do you think the following comparative table is justified?

Early Church Today's Church

Grew rapidly Often in decline