It’s been 8 days since my trial-run cell group, which consisted of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and discussing it. I want to revisit some of the lessons I learned from the evening (none of which are about vampires).
-Church cell groups must be overtly spiritual. They must be open about the fact that they are run by a church for the purpose of having spiritual discussions. Any misdirection on this point, for example, acting like we’re just doing it for fun on our personal initiative, is just plain deceptive and wrong.
-Though these groups will be led by unpaid (”lay,” though I don’t like the term) church members, they must have the same legitimacy as if they were run by a paid minister. We need to view each church member, each Christian, as a minister, and not relegate that role to only a few paid people.
-While some people will not be comfortable attending a church-sponsored event, this is probably due to a negative experience with previous church-sponsored events. We need to show people that Christians can hang out with non-Christians without being legalistic, self-righteous, or judgmental - in short, we need to show people that we can be friends with them.
-While we need to be open about the fact that the group is church-initiated, it doesn’t need to feel churchy. We don’t need to follow Robert’s Rules of Order in someone’s family room, and we don’t need to open and close every meeting with a prayer. If “doing things decently and in order” is the extent of Christ’s transformation of our corporate life, we have a long way to go. And we need to make sure people who aren’t committed Christians feel comfortable. (I should note that I’m using the term “cell group” to refer to open, community-building gatherings designed to foster relationship-building between and among Christians and non-Christians. This is different from a housechurch or bible study).
-The topic (or at least some element of the discussion) should touch on spiritual topics, or there will be little reason to have the group. While there is plenty of room for gatherings that are just “incarnational hanging out,” like having people over for dinner, these aren’t really church cell groups. I’m planning to revise the Metro Model (see sidebar) to incorporate this idea, though it may be nothing more than a categorization of what will emerge naturally.