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JCG NEWS |
JCG June 2007 Newsletter: |
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Recently someone criticized my cell definition: A cell is a group of 3-15 people who meet weekly outside the church building for the purpose of evangelism, community, and discipleship with the goal of multiplication. Most people that criticize this definition focus on the part about weekly cell meetings or the phrase “outside the church building.” John (not real name), however, criticized the part that says, ”with the goal of multiplication.”He argued that the goal should not be multiplication but transformation. |
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He expanded on this by saying that the real goal is Christ’s presence in the cell. Yes, I agree that the real goal of God’s glory and Christ’s presence is beyond any definition. In reality, the over-arching goal of the Christian life is God’s glory and Christ’s presence, and this is certainly implied in my above definition. |
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Reaching a Lost World |
When I talk about multiplication, I’m referring to leadership development–the essence of the cell church. Multiplication is simply the context in which disciples are made. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18-20 that we are called to make disciples who make disciples. Multiplication simply provides the venue for making disciples who make disciples. |
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I believe it’s important to include multiplication in the definition because it gives practical direction and necessary movement to the cell. It reminds the leader and members why the cell exists–to penetrate a lost world through raising up disciples who make other disciples. John, the person who criticized my definition of the cell group, felt that multiplication could easily become divisive among cell members. He thought that it was best not to tell the group of future multiplication. Rather, when people were transformed, he reasoned, there would be a natural desire to multiply. But is it so simple? If you don’t tell the people in the group that multiplication is the plan, would they suddenly rejoice in multiplying because one or more members were transformed? And wouldn’t this be a “bait and switch” strategy to inform them after a transformation had occurred? I think it’s far better to tell the group from the beginning what the game plan is. If you tell them soon enough (perhaps a year before you actually multiply), you’ll give them plenty of time to prepare their hearts. The idea of setting a multiplication goal was confirmed in my Ph.D. research of seven large cell churches in eight different countries. The 700 cell leaders surveyed were asked, “Do you know when your group is going to multiply?” Possible answers were “yes,” “no,” or “not sure.” When the survey results were analyzed, cell leaders who knew their goal—when their groups would give birth—consistently multiplied their groups more often than leaders who don’t know or just “hope it will happen.” In fact, if a cell leader fails to set goals that the cell members clearly remember, the group has about a 50-50 chance of multiplying. But if the leader sets a clear goal for multiplication, the chance of multiplying increases to three out of four. |
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Steve Cordle, board member at JCG, writes, “Without the accountability of a goal, we can too easily drift into unfocused ministry and be lulled into contentment with the status quo.” It’s my observation that the focus of most small group ministry is exclusively community. I’ve also noticed, however, that community and personal growth does not lead to multiplication. There needs to be a clear focus and vision to reach beyond the group to give away the community. |
Focused Ministry |
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And the group leader and coach need to promote multiplication to actually make it happen. The idea that it will simply happen “when” people are transformed is idealistic thinking, in my opinion. |
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