The Cell Driven Church

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by Joel Comiskey

I like to use the phrase “cell driven church,” to describe cell church ministry. A cell driven pastor prioritizes the care of leaders, training new leaders, and bringing the cell members together to celebrate to hear God’s Word. The cells gather to celebrate and then scatter in house churches to live out the message during the week. This is how I envision the two-winged church.

While I greatly respect the house church movement, I don’t agree with the idea that house churches are independent entities that have no leadership structure outside the house church leader. I don’t see this in the New Testament. On the other hand, many churches use small groups as one program among many. They position their small groups as an optional ministry that might be good for some and not appropriate for others. In this scenario, the real church comes togetgher on Sunday.

The cell driven church (or the two-winged church) believes that cell leaders must be coached and trained to function properly. Cell church ministry also believes in the importance of congregating those cells to celebrate (normally Sunday) to worship and hear God’s Word. After all, meeting together in cell and celebration has a lot of biblical precedence (e.g., Acts 2:42-46, etc.).

What about you? Do you believe that both wings of the cell church are necessary? Why or why not?

Joel

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La Iglesia Digida por Células

Por Joel Comiskey

Me gusta usar la frase “the cell driven church” (una iglesia dirigida por células)para describir el ministerio de la iglesia celular. Un pastor en la visión celular da prioridad a la atención de los lderes, la formación de nuevos lderes, y llevar a los miembros de la célula a la celebración a escuchar la Palabra de Dios. Las células se reúnen para celebrar y luego se dispersan en iglesias en las casas para vivir el mensaje durante la semana. As es como me imagino a la iglesia con dos alas.

Yo siento un gran respeto por el movimiento de la iglesia en casa, pero no estoy de acuerdo con la idea de que las iglesias en las casas son entidades independientes y que no tienen una estructura de liderazgo fuera de la casa del lder de la iglesia. Yo no veo esto en el Nuevo Testamento. Por otro lado, muchas iglesias utilizan grupos pequeños como un programa de entre muchos. Colocan sus grupos pequeños como un ministerio opcional que puede ser bueno para algunos y no para otros. En este escenario, la verdadera iglesia se reúne el domingo.

La iglesia celular conducida (o la iglesia con dos alas) cree que los lderes celulares deben ser entrenados y capacitados para funcionar correctamente. El Ministerio de la iglesia celular también cree en la importancia de congregarse en las células para celebrar (normalmente el domingo) para adorar y escuchar la Palabra de Dios. Después de todo, el reunirse en la célula y la celebración tiene bastante precedencia bblica (por ejemplo, Hechos 2:42-46, etc.)

¿Y usted? ¿Cree usted que las dos alas de la iglesia celular son necesarias? ¿Por qué o por qué no?

Joel

5 thoughts on “The Cell Driven Church

  • Alexander writes:

    I Agree with Joel Comiskey position of running the church both as cell and as celebration. The reason is biblical as referenced with more verses on Acts 5:42 (In the temple and in the houses) and Acts 20:20 (publicly and in every house). However i would like to view this point from the perspective of suitability in core church ministries. We can agree that the Cells can be an ideal strategy to effectively Run Fellowship/Pastoral Care and Coaching/Shepherding; However We can also see the Celebration outweighs suitability With Regard to Worship/Prayer/ and evangelism. In some special cases too; Teaching Valuable Messages of the Lord will reach much more in celebration than in the Cells. So We need both and they are complementary (one suits more than the other for a specific church affairs)

    Alexander G.
    Small Group Coordinator of A church in Ethiopia

  • Great point, Alexander. Sometimes the celebration service attracts more non-Christians than the cells but I believe that the cells needs to work hard to reach out–to exercise their muscles.

  • Deysi Marin writes:

    las celulas me parecen importantes porque permiten el pastoreo personal y con mas tiempo que el que se le pueda dedicar a una persona en una celebracion del domingo, a la vez que alguien nuevo puede irse capacitando en un ambiente conocido para el y luego poder ir creciendo como lider

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