Is Your Cell Too Small?
We are a cell church. Our hope is that circles of 10 (we say 7-12) spread out all over the region to extend the Kingdom of God in relational ways. In Matthew 13, Jesus says: “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Our cells are like mustard seeds… pervasively (even invasively) spreading. On Saturday, at our monthly cell leader training we asked the question, “Is Your Cell Too Small?” The only concrete answer we came up with was, “If your cell has less than 3 people in it, then yes.” Beyond that, there are a lot of factors that have to be discerned in order to answer the question.
At their hearts, cells are about connection and connecting. They are about connection to each other and about connection to Jesus. And…they are about connecting other people to Circle of Hope and connecting other people to Jesus. Each cell has connection going on (for example there are 45 relationships simultaneously occurring in a cell of 10!). Each cell also has the potential for connecting the next person. Every person in a cell can prospectively connect someone else (most of us know more than one other person!). When we ask, “Is your cell too small?” the real question might be, “How seriously does a cell take Jesus’ Kingdom expansion call?” A cell of 8 might be too small if they’re not interested in expanding the Kingdom, while a cell of 3 might be just fine (for a time being) if they have the passion and perspective of Kingdom expansion.
We’re always working it out, of course. One thing we want to do in 2014 is grow. We’re honestly evaluating our cells to see how to do that well. Pray for us and with us! -Nate Hulfish
Find a recording of the talk here.
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