The Cell as a Family Group

mario

by Mario Vega

Our cell work began more because of intuition than knowledge; more because of enthusiasm than familiarity with the values.

The trigger was Pastor Cho’s first books which were translated into Spanish. One of them was called “Family groups and church growth.” Precisely because the title was “family groups” we decided to adopt the name and during the first years we called our cells “family groups.”

But it was not only a matter of name. There was a determined effort for our cells to be precisely that: family meetings in houses. The entire families were encouraged to meet in the houses. We also asked the entire family to minister together. For example, the father could be the leader, the mother the host, a son could welcome the guests, the daughter could lead the opening prayer, etc…

The idea was to use the cells not only as an effective means of evangelism but also as a resource to strengthen families. Subsequently, children’s attendance began to flourish because we promoted family ministry. In fact, there were so many children that some people decided to take care of them separately, so that the adults could be undisturbed during the meeting.

In the early years I always opposed this and insisted that it was not necessary to take the children out of the meeting to a different place. My proposal was that each parent could take care of their kids while participating in the “family group”.

Later, when meeting Joel Comiskey, Ralph Neighbour and other teachers on the cell subject, I realized that what we called “family groups” were called “cells” worldwide. It was then that I decided to change the name to “cells” to be in tune with the universal language. But I always look back at amazement at how God laid the family on our heart from the very beginning and in fact, our purpose in the cell was the strengthen the entire family.

Mario

Korean translation (click here)

Spanish translation:

La célula como grupo familiar

por Mario Vega

Nuestro trabajo con células comenzó más por intuición que por conocimiento. Más por entusiasmo que por familiaridad con los valores. El factor desencadenante fueron los primeros libros del Pastor Cho que se tradujeron al español. Uno de ellos se llamaba “Los grupos familiares y el crecimiento de la iglesia.” Precisamente porque el ttulo era “los grupos familiares”, decidimos adoptar el nombre y en los primeros años de trabajo nuestras células se llamaban “grupos familiares”.

Pero, no era solo cuestión del nombre. Haba un decidido esfuerzo para que nuestras células fueran precisamente eso: reuniones de las familias en las casas. Se animaba a que fueran las familias enteras las que se reunieran en las casas. Además, se impulsaba el involucramiento de toda la familia en el trabajo. Por ejemplo, el padre de familia poda ser el lder, la mamá la anfitriona, uno de los hijos daba la bienvenida, la hija diriga la oración inicial, etc.

La idea era utilizar las células no solo como un medio eficaz de evangelismo sino también como un recurso para consolidar a las familias. Posteriormente, la asistencia de los niños comenzó a ser abundante a los “grupos familiares”. Eran tantos niños que algunas personas tomaron la decisión de atenderlos aparte para que los adultos pudieran estar tranquilos durante la reunión. En los primeros años siempre me opuse e insist en que no era necesario llevar los niños a un lugar aparte. Mi propuesta era que cada padre poda cuidar de sus hijos mientras participaba del “grupo familiar”.

Posteriormente, al conocer a Joel Comiskey, a Ralph Neighbour y otros maestros en el tema celular, me di cuenta que lo que nosotros llamábamos “grupos familiares” eran llamados mundialmente “células”. Fue entonces que para estar a tono con el lenguaje universal decid que el nombre se cambiara a “células”. Pero, fue una etapa extraordinaria la que vivimos con las células como recurso para fortalecer con la fe a las familias.

1 thought on “The Cell as a Family Group

  • It all sounds so simple How did the culture of the world so invade the church that we lost the heart of the environment God created us to thrive in? So encouraged by this series of blogs. Lets get back to being “normal” in the church! Am cheering you on Mario!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *