The purpose of this article is to tell you something about the modern Cell Church movement, and to help you see how the principles of Cell Church could help your church to grow and prosper too.
Over the last 30 years or more the church has been in decline in the western world. Especially in the UK, church congregations have become smaller and smaller, many have no leader, and many others have been forced to close or to join together with another congregation to survive. We are now said to live in a "Post-Christian Culture" where people have largely given up on organised religion, and have instead filled their lives with a multitude of other things. Shopping and other social and leisure activities have become the norm on Sundays; most people no longer have time for God.
Yet, just as in the days of Elijah (1 Kings 19:13-14, 18), God still has many good people who belong to him, who love him and remain faithful to him. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is no less powerful and no less needed than when it was first preached nearly 2000 years ago. The kingdom of God is still attractive and desirable to people when they have the opportunity to see and experience the real thing for themselves.
We could take a lot of time analysing what's wrong with the traditional church, asking why it seems unable to relate to modern culture, but it's enough for now to simply admit that things are not what they should be – we rarely engage with unbelievers, and even believers are often disappointed with their experience of church.
In stark contrast to the decline of the traditional, Sunday-focused church, the Cell Church movement has exploded across the world over the last 30 years. According to Cell Church pioneer Ralph Neighbour, 19 of the 20 largest churches in the world are Cell Churches (Where do we go from here? page 37).
The modern Cell Church movement began in about 1963 when South Korean pastor, David Yonggi Cho, began to re-organise his church on the basis of small groups led by lay leaders. His church grew at an ever-increasing rate until it became the largest church in the world. Today it has held that title for many years, and still it continues to thrive. A 2007 entry in Wikipedia claimed the church has around one million members! Even if this figure is disputed, we have an independent estimate from cell church researcher Joel Comiskey, who visited the church in 1997. Even then, he estimated a Sunday attendance of about 253,000! The Guiness Book of Records also recognises Cho's Yoido Full Gospel Church as the world's largest church.
The story of Cho's church is astonishing – growing the largest Christian church in history, and that in a land considered to be Buddhist. Is Yoido just a one off? The answer is a resounding "No!" I have been amazed to discover churches of astonishing size all over the world. Yoido Full Gospel Church is a Pentecostal church (Cho was once president of the worldwide Assemblies Of God denomination). But Cell Churches exist in many denominations. The largest Methodist and the two largest Presbyterian churches are also cell group congregations based in Seoul, South Korea.
Here are some more examples of Cell Churches across the world:
Lots more examples can be found in Joel Comiskey's writings, including his website, https://jcgresources.com/ and in his classic book, Home Cell Group Explosion.
There are Cell Churches in many other parts of the world too, including South Africa, Australia, Russia and former Communist countries. Only Western Europe seems left behind at the moment by this global move of the Holy Spirit.
When you talk to some people about these huge churches, they think of them as massive, impersonal organisations – and they want nothing to do with them! Yet, by definition, a Cell Church is made up of small groups – everyone is important; everyone has a place to belong in a Cell Church.
I think of these mega-churches as examples, models (like the New Testament church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8) that show the rest of us the power and potential of God's kingdom. I certainly do not believe every church is called to become a mega-church, but we are all called to fulfil our potential in Christ!
Christians in the UK have been involved in the Cell church movement since the 1990's, with most early interest being shown by Anglican Churches. Notable examples are St. John's in Bradford (Vicar Howard Astin; book Body And Cell), and St. Mark's in Haydock, Merseyside (Vicar Phil Potter; book The Challenge Of The Cell Church). The current ‘flag-ship' cell church in the UK is Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough, with a weekly attendance of around 1500 people. The UK also has its own national training organisation, Cell UK, that runs training courses, conferences and supplies resources.
So what is a Cell Church? The word ‘cell' is taken from biology. Every living thing is made up of cells. Each cell is a complete working unit with the capability to reproduce itself. Many cells together form a larger unit – a body. Cell Church is like this. A cell is a group of up to 12 people, usually meeting in homes, and when the group reaches 12 in regular attendance it ‘multiplies' to become 2 groups of 6. All cell groups are linked together to form a single body – a church. Thus, however large a church grows, everyone continues to experience church in a small group. This enables supportive personal relationships, encourages spiritual growth, and provides opportunities to make a meaningful contribution.
It is important to note that the body must be carefully fitted together as a complete system – all parts working together for the same purpose – just like a healthy human body!
The 5 core values of Cell Church correspond to God's purposes for his church. These can be described in different ways, but essentially they are:
It should be emphasised that Cell Church promotes an equal balance between large congregational meetings and intimate small group meetings – each has its own advantages. Bill Beckham, in his book, The Second Reformation, describes this as the "two-winged church". The church that correctly balances the two "wings" of large and small gatherings is like a bird that is able to soar skyward and achieve great things – it functions effectively in accordance with the original design of its Creator!
The New Testament does not describe or promote any particular church structure, cell church or otherwise. Yet, a careful look at God's word reveals a clear Biblical basis for the ideas of Cell Church. Jesus spent a large proportion of his brief 3 years of ministry investing in the spiritual development of 12 men – his cell group! He also preached and ministered to great crowds. He balanced the large and the small!
The Apostles did the same. The first church gathered both in the temple courts and in each other's homes (Acts 2:46). The Apostles moved among the groups of early Christians, going from house to house, not knocking on the doors of strangers, but visiting the homes where Christians were gathered, encouraging the saints (Acts 5:42 and Acts 20:20). For the first 300 years of its existence the church did not own its own buildings. The home group was their normal form of meeting (see for example Romans 16:5; Philemon 2).
A Cell Church regards both large and small gatherings as equally important. Cell groups are not treated as optional extras but as an essential part of the church's core activity. Both large and small meetings are equally church – celebration is church; cell is church!
Cell Church promotes supportive personal relationships, spiritual character growth, the discovery and use of your God-given gifts, continuous, relationship-based evangelism, and the creation of warm Christian community – a place to belong. Sunday celebration focused churches often fail to provide some or even all of the above benefits – no wonder people often find them disappointing!
A cell group is first and foremost a family of Christians, a place to belong. Just as God intended the natural family to provide a network of supportive relationships, he intends his spiritual family to do the same. The advantage, of course, is that if we submit to God and follow his ways in our relationships with our fellow believers, then our relationships should be of higher quality, more positive, constructive and supportive than even those within our natural families!
While a lot of Cell Church teaching refers to building the right structures, we must always remember that the kingdom of God is about people and relationships. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27) The structures exist to help us; they must remain our servants and not become our masters.
Having said that, a cell meeting does have a structure. Meeting weekly, usually in members' homes (rotating round several homes is best), a typical cell meeting lasts 1 to 1½ hours. A normal meeting would use the "4 W's" structure.
The "4 W's" are:
The cell group meeting also incorporates an emphasis on 3 other vital elements:
Always, the aim is to support and develop the people in the group, rather than simply getting through the planned programme. Therefore, the cell leader always has the discretion to alter the programme in order to minister to the current needs of those present.
Cell groups exist not to fulfil their own ends, but to fulfil the purpose of the church. The regular meeting is designed to both build up believers and reach out to the unchurched. But not every meeting has to be a normal cell meeting; there is scope for variety in cell group life! In fact, a regular social event is recommended, whether in a home or going out somewhere together. This has several advantages: It helps members get to know one another, thus building community; It creates a regular opportunity to let unchurched friends experience the cell community without any formal Christian content; and it gives members a break from the normal routine, thus helping to keep things fresh.
Other valuable alternatives to the normal meeting might be an evening of prayer, or a special outreach event designed to share something of the gospel with the unchurched. Yet, the mainstay of cell group life remains the regular "4 W's" meeting, and the guiding principle behind all activities is, "Are we fulfilling the purpose of the church?"
There is not only a regular cycle of meetings, but cell groups normally have a definite start and a definite end. The goal of every cell group is to produce another cell group! Either the current group grows large enough to divide in two (the process of "multiplication"), or the group supports one or more members starting a new group ("cell planting"). In both cases, the preparation of new leaders is the key.
It should be clear by now that Cell Church is rather different from a traditional, Sunday celebration-focused church. It should also be obvious that the great potential of Cell Church – to mobilise ordinary church members as workers for the kingdom of God – cannot be realised unless the church has great leadership. This doesn't mean leaders have to be super-human or perfect saints, but they must be humble enough to learn lessons from others who've pioneered the way. As Rick Warren says, "God always uses imperfect people in imperfect situations to accomplish his will." (The Purpose Driven Church, page 38.)
I believe our goal as church leaders is to try to build a great expression of the kingdom of God; a church focused on accomplishing the purposes God has given us. We are not all called to build massive mega-churches; just to fulfil the potential God has placed within us.
Leaders need to be able to see the big picture – where does our church fit into society, what is our purpose, and what is God's desire for us? Excellent churches have a clear understanding of God's purpose for them (this comes from God and does not change), and a clear vision that describes how their particular church will seek to accomplish God's purpose. Bill Hybels, famous US pastor, defines vision as, "a picture of the future that produces passion." Defining and communicating a clear vision is one of the best ways to launch a change to Cell Church; it inspires commitment and let's people know which direction you're heading – successful leaders have a ‘dream' of what the future could be like.
To support your vision you must break it down into goals that can be actioned – smaller steps you can actually plan to achieve. Having clear goals at all levels of church life enables the vision to become reality, little by little.
One more important aspect of the big picture is the church's target group; who are the people you want to reach with the gospel of Christ? While the easy answer is simply to say, "All unbelievers", this is just not realistic. Every church has its own culture and character – a person who would feel perfectly at home in your church might feel like a fish out of water in another church down the road. If you know the type of people you're trying to reach then you'll be better focused on how to meet their needs, whilst not wasting your energy trying to please everyone – an impossible task!
A cell group system is only as strong as its weakest link. If we are intentionally aiming to help many ordinary Christians become cell leaders, we must give them excellent support. One of the great weaknesses of the traditional house group is that the leader is generally left to get on with it alone. Cell leaders are probably the most important workers in a cell church. As such they need the best preparation and support we can give.
Cell leader support should include:
Study materials are usually provided by the main church leaders. There are a variety of ways to do this, one being to link studies to the Sunday preaching.
Training is usually accomplished by a mix of on-the-job experience in a cell (as an apprentice leader), and structured training as part of the church's general Equipping Track.
Coaching may be carried out in different ways, but basically relies on an experienced coach forming a personal link between a cell leader and the main church leaders. Regular personal contact helps cell leaders cope with challenges, keep on track and stay motivated even when the going gets tough. A coach also helps to ensure the quality of the cell group experience.
To keep the whole support system functioning properly, senior church leaders must regularly support the coaches – giving them the help and support they need, and holding them to account for the groups under their care.
As has already been said, one of the key aims of Cell Church is to support the development of every member. This goal promotes the spiritual growth of every believer, helps members discover and use their gifts, and helps to prepare new leaders. As such, it is too important to be left to chance, so an intentional strategy is needed.
All successful Cell Churches have some kind of intentional equipping system. Such a system is often called an Equipping Track because, like a train track, it defines the pathway of a journey. The aim of an Equipping Track is to provide a system that will take new believers on a journey towards spiritual maturity. It should help new believers to get established in the faith and become members of the church, teach values for practical Christian living, provide a foundation for getting involved in service and in fulfilling the 5 purposes of the church; and ultimately it should lead to as many as possible being trained to lead a cell group or even to coach cell leaders.
Implementing an equipping system can be hard work. It is easy to get sidetracked or lose momentum, so it is necessary to put significant work into this area if you want to see the benefits. Senior leaders must constantly remind believers of the benefits of persevering through the equipping track; re-cast the vision regularly.
Another way to make equipping more effective is to use mentors. A mentor in this context is a more experienced Christian helping a less experienced Christian progress through the church's equipping material. Mentoring has the added benefit of giving the mentor the chance of a significant spiritual ministry, which is great for their development too.
Using special events, such as training days or retreats, to launch key sections of your Equipping Track, can also create a much greater momentum, making the whole process more likely to succeed. Finally, always recognise progress so people feel they are really achieving something, particularly something their leaders value as really important.
Even when you've got all your systems running well you can't just sit back and relax. Successful churches constantly monitor and evaluate how well everything is going and continually look for ways to improve. In particular, leaders need to frequently refresh the vision in people's hearts and minds; otherwise they may become discouraged, the work may seem too much, and they may begin to give up.
I hope you can now appreciate something of the benefits and challenges of Cell Church. Obviously, it is not an easy thing to do; it's no soft option! But I believe it's worth the effort, in order to bring the true excellence of God's kingdom to the great mass of unsaved people around us. Their eternal destiny is at stake!
For those who are willing to take up the challenge, the follow on article to this introduction is entitled, "Implementing A Cell Church Vision – A Guide For Church Leaders".
Cell Church pioneer, Ralph Neighbour, in his classic book, Where Do We Go From Here? puts the challenge like this:
"How will you start your cell group church? With a vision so deeply rooted in your heart and soul by the Holy Spirit that it will not wane when the going is rough and you feel like quitting!"
Books:
By William Beckham, Touch Publications USA, 1997, ISBN: 1-880828-90-1. Kindle version available.
By Ralph Neighbour, Touch Publications USA, 2000, ISBN: 1-880828-17-0. Kindle version available.
By Joel Comiskey, Touch Publications USA, 1999, ISBN: 1-880828-15-4. Kindle version available.
By Rick Warren, Zondervan, 1995, ISBN: 0-310-20813-0. Kindle version available.
By Joel Comiskey, Touch Publications USA, 1999, ISBN: 1-880828-13-8. Kindle version available.
Websites:
Cell Church Intro - for Leaders - Version 3 – Feb 2025